GAME THREAD: Georgetown and St. Joe’s Playing for Leftovers Friday Night

Hoyas look for consolation prize in Wooden Legacy

Your Georgetown Hoyas get a chance to bounce right back in the Consolation Game against St. Joseph’s on Friday night in the Wooden Legacy!

Game 5: Georgetown Hoyas (2-2) vs St. Joseph’s Hawks (2-3)

When: Friday 9 pm

Where: Anaheim Convention Center (Anaheim, Ca.)

Series: Hoyas lead 17-16, first meeting on a neutral floor.

Last meeting: Georgetown won 62-53 at the Palestra in 1980. The two schools played 19 consecutive seasons from 1962 to 1980. This series was likely the victim of the newly formed BIG EAST.

TV: ESPNU (Roxy Bernstein & Corey Williams)

Radio: 106.7 The Fan (Rich Chvotkin, 48th season), SiriusXM, Radio.com

KenPom Ranking: Georgetown 94, St. Joe’s 237

KenPom Projection: Georgetown 77, St. Joe’s 68 (81 percent)

Line: Hoyas -7.5, 144.5

Mutombo Coffee:

PREVIEW

Georgetown gets another shot at winning away from home when they take on a not-so-great St. Joe’s team in the Consolation Game on Friday night.

There were a lot of issues last night as the Hoyas took on solid San Diego State team that knows how to defend. Georgetown often looked like the part of a team with lots of freshmen. That’s going to happen.

If you’ve listened to Kente Korner recently you know that I’m all for trying a different starting line-up and seeing more small-ball line-ups. I still stand by those suggestions.

I like a starting change mainly to give Patrick Ewing a proven scorer off the bench. Last night the Hoyas combined for five points. This is where I think there is value in bringing Kaiden Rice off the bench and starting Jordan Riley or Jalin Billingsley.

Last night starting center Timothy Ighoefe got in instant foul trouble and Ewing went with Malcolm Wilson as his first sub. Just a little more than 5 minutes into the game we also saw Ryan Mutombo get a shot. The reality is that all three of those options are projects. Unless we start seeing more zone, I think there is more upside in going smaller at times. The benefits of the bigger line-ups hasn’t been evident yet.

We also learned last night that it’s unwise to sit Dante Harris and Aminu Mohammed at the same time. That’s currently a big no-no.

Bottom line: Ewing’s teams have always had to get the game above 70 points to have a realistic shot at winning. Right now – and it’s really early – the Hoyas adjusted offense on KenPom is the worst it’s been since 2004. That was Craig Esherick’s last season. The most interesting thing to watch will be: Which way will Ewing go? Does he figure out a way to get the right lineups that can speed it up or does he need to try and win a different way this season – ie zone, slow it down, etc.

HAWKS REPORT

Coach Billy Lange is in his third season as coach with a record of 13-44. Lange had two winning seasons at Navy before stints with Villanova and the Philadelphia 76ers. He was 0-2 against Georgetown while at Navy.

Taylor Funk leads the team in scoring at 17 points per game while knocking down nearly half of his eight triple attempts per game. As a team they don’t shoot very well from 3 and aren’t good defensively in any area. That seems to favor Georgetown.

Vanderbilt transfer big Ejike Obinna has improved from his time with the Commodores and led the Hawks with 18 points (9 of 13) and six boards in their 77-55 loss to No. 24 USC yesterday.

Look, this is a game that Georgetown should win. The Hawks may be worse off right now than future opponents Longwood and UMBC. Perfect spot for a bounce back to make the flight home on Saturday much more enjoyable.

Of note: Former Hoya Reggie Cameron (2013-17) is the video coordinator for the Hawks.

Of note Pt 2: St. Joe’s last win against Georgetown was 37-36 in 1979.

Casual Props O/U

Hoya bench points – 10.5

Carey points – 12.5

Players used in first half – 8.5

Billingsley dunks – 1.5

Number of flaps from The Hawk – 3,500.5

Broadcast mentions of “leftovers” – 2.5

Bobby’s Prediction

Georgetown 66, St. Joe’s 61

Leave your witty (and non-witty) in-game comments here!

HOYA SAXA!