{"id":913123,"date":"2026-10-02T06:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T06:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/913123\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T06:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T06:04:13","slug":"womens-basketball-hoyas-feel-underappreciated-by-big-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/913123\/","title":{"rendered":"WOMEN\u2019S BASKETBALL | Hoyas Feel Underappreciated by Big East"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a subpar season, the Georgetown University women\u2019s basketball team ranked<\/a> No. 8 in the Big East preseason poll \u2014 but Head Coach Darnell Haney believes the team will change the narrative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s ranking matched the Hoyas\u2019 final place in the 2025-26 season, which ended<\/a> in a Big East tournament quarterfinal loss to the University of Connecticut that capped an under-500 record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Haney said he will not allow the ranking to define how the team sees itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you go into this, and you look at what other people or what other people judge as your success in the future, I think that\u2019s a bad and slippery slope to be on,\u201d Haney said in a Big East Media Day press conference. \u201cI think we need to judge our performance on how we see ourselves every single day in practice, how we see ourselves every single day in those games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hoyas finished last year\u2019s season with a 14-17 record (6-14 Big East).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Haney said eighth is not where the Georgetown program belongs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI envision this program to be one of the prominent programs in the Big East, and one of the prominent programs in the country,\u201d Haney said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re doing everything we have to do to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior forward Brianna Byars said she understands why Georgetown was ranked where it was, given last season\u2019s results, but anticipates that number to rise throughout the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsidering how the year went, I would say it\u2019s pretty accurate,\u201d Byars told The Hoya. \u201cI think once games start rolling, I think that will change. I think our rank will go up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving up in the rankings will be a challenge for a roster with little continuity<\/a>. Georgetown brought in eight newcomers this season, while returning just four players: Byars, senior guard Khia Miller, junior guard Destiny Agubata and junior guard Amanda Ajobiewe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Hoyas\u2019 offense will be critical. Byars said she plans to take on more of a scoring role to fill gaps left by departing players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll have to step up on the scoring end more, whether it\u2019s just a little bit or a lot,\u201d Byars said. \u201cYou know, some games probably need it more than most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haney said first-year guard Bo Frost, who has represented Great Britain in international play, demonstrates how far the Georgetown name travels.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorgetown is a brand,\u201d Haney said. \u201cGeorgetown women\u2019s basketball is a brand. Starbucks is a brand. Chick-fil-A is a brand. High academic, high-level athletics is the brand that you\u2019re going to get, and that brand reaches leaps and bounds outside of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe can shoot the cover off the ball, she\u2019s got a very high IQ and she\u2019s playing amongst pro players where she was playing before,\u201d Haney added.<\/p>\n

With so many new faces, the players made clear that chemistry matters.<\/p>\n

Agubata said the team\u2019s success is dependent on their close bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning is built on the power of friendship,\u201d Agubata said. \u201cSo, making sure that we\u2019re bonded and locked in is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byars said she agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFriendship is very important,\u201d Byars said. \u201cIt\u2019ll take you a long way, so I think just having that and then building a culture around the friendship that we do create is going to be a big piece of the tightest moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byars said the team\u2019s personality will translate into entertaining basketball and urged fans to come to games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor this year I would say our team has much more personality, whether it\u2019s off the floor, on the floor,\u201d Byars said. \u201cWe have a really great group of young ladies, and I think that it\u2019s gonna show. I think it\u2019s gonna show in ways that people aren\u2019t expecting women to show it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019ll be a great experience, and just as a student, why not?\u201d Byars added.<\/p>\n

Haney said that he aims to recruit players whose personalities mesh with his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I go into the portal, I\u2019m going to get a player that I know we need at that position or that type of player, but I\u2019m also going to get a player with the personality that I think can fit me,\u201d Haney said. \u201cAnd I know we\u2019re kind of speed dating when we\u2019re going into the portal, but the personality has to fit right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a subpar season, the Georgetown University women\u2019s basketball team ranked No. 8 in the Big East preseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-913123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}