For Georgetown University’s men’s basketball team, 11 departures and 8 arrivals mean Head Coach Ed Cooley will rely almost entirely on a new cast of characters in the 2026-27 season — the most important of whom could still be to come. 

While Georgetown’s guard room is set after the arrivals of senior Jaland Lowe, juniors Vyctorius Miller and Elmarko Jackson, and first-year AJ Olivier, along with the return of juniors Kayvaun Mulready, Mason Moses, Michael Van Raaphorst, and redshirt first-year Gabriel Landeira, the frontcourt remains thin. Cooley hopes to recruit multiple big men to the fold, but said his ability to add players would depend on NCAA eligibility rulings.

The NCAA Division I recently departed from its old eligibility model — which granted athletes four years of eligibility in a five-year window, but allowed players to redshirt and apply for waivers to be granted extra years — and shifted to an age-based model which grants all players five years of eligibility within a five-year period and eliminates many extension loopholes. The new rules preclude members of the high school class of 2022 who have already exhausted their four eligible seasons from gaining a fifth year of eligibility. 

Cooley said he was waiting to finalize his 2026-27 roster until after disputes with the NCAA over players’ eligibility are resolved.  

“Still waiting on a few pieces, hopefully to add, given what the NCAA is doing,” Cooley said during a press conference July 29. “We’re actively still looking for players who could help Georgetown.”

Cooley said one of these pieces could be graduate center Vince Iwuchukwu, who starred for Georgetown last year as a senior, but missed 10 games after undergoing a medical procedure in the middle of the season. Under the previous NCAA eligibility system, Iwuchukwu applied for a medical waiver in hopes of gaining an extra year of play.

“Obviously working with the waiver with Vince — that was something that was already in the mix — so we’ll see how that goes,” Cooley said. 

Two days after Cooley’s comments, a federal district court issued a July 31 injunction that granted an additional year of eligibility to all members of the high school class of 2022 who were 19 years old or younger during their first-year season — allowing Iwuchukwu to play another year with the Hoyas and forcing the transfer portal back open for players seeking a fifth season. 

The legal battle over eligibility is not over, however, making the waiver still important. The NCAA plans to appeal the district court’s decision, and the U.S. Circuit Court could rule the class of 2022 ineligible again. In this scenario, Iwuchukwu could still gain eligibility through the waiver, which the NCAA has still not ruled on.

In addition to Iwuchukwu, Cooley said he is waiting on the NCAA to approve the eligibility of a foreign player who has agreed to come to Georgetown. 

“We’re waiting on another eligibility one from another young man that we recruited, who’s a foreign big, so we’re waiting on that eligibility issue, and hopefully, hopefully, we can get both of them to come to Georgetown,” Cooley said. “One being the waiver, one being certified by the NCAA.”

The NCAA also sent guidance in May barring international student-athletes who had received more than “actual and necessary expenses” while playing overseas. This new formality complicates the international players market for coaches such as Cooley looking to recruit foreign stars. In the 2025-26 season, the Georgetown men’s basketball team hosted five international athletes, most of whom never played professionally overseas. 

The NCAA prioritizes approving international athletes for fall sports, such as soccer and tennis, according to The Athletic, which could potentially delay any decisions about basketball.

In this eligibility chaos, both the foreign star and Iwuchukwu may play in blue and grey this fall; either one of them could also be declared ineligible, or both could be barred from competition. With the portal reopened, Georgetown could also add someone different in place of either player or recruit a third athlete on top of the pair.

While it is unusual to have unanswered roster questions with tip-off only months away, the Hoyas stand to improve massively in the coming weeks — whether both Iwuchukwu and the foreign player join the team or other additions from the new portal arrive, Georgetown could field its most competitive roster of the Ed Cooley era.