Hoyas need a win to avoid going 0 for the Big East
Game 30: Georgetown Hoyas (6-23, 0-18) at Xavier Musketeers (17-12, 7-11)
When: Saturday 7PM
Where: Cintas Center
Game Notes: Georgetown, Xavier
Series: Xavier leads 16-6, including 8-1 at home
Last meeting: Georgetown beat Xavier 72-66 last season on Senior Day for Jamorko Pickett, Jahvon Blair and Chudier Bile
TV: FS1 (Lane Grindle & Dickey Simpkins)
Radio: The Team 980 (Rich Chvotkin, 48th season), SiriusXM 391, Radio.com
NET Ranking: Xavier 37, Georgetown 193
KenPom Ranking: Xavier 52, Georgetown 177
KenPom Projection: Xavier 82, Georgetown 69 (88 %)
Line: Xavier – 12.5
Mutombo Coffee:
WHAT’S AT STAKE
Georgetown: The Hoyas need a win to avoid the worst season in Big East history. Despite the historically bad season, AD Lee Reed offered up a statement endorsing coach Patrick Ewing before the Seton Hall loss on Wednesday. After the game Ewing didn’t want to talk about his future for the 2022-23 season but then broke with that- well, kind of – with a tweet on Friday.
Any announcement about my future will come from me or Georgetown University. First and foremost, I am not a quitter. My plan is to be back next year coaching at my alma mater and bringing this program back to prominence.
— Patrick Ewing (@CoachEwing33) March 4, 2022
This came after author/columnist John Feinstein – never to be confused as a friend of the program – went on The Sports Junkies and said he heard rumors that Ewing would retire either before or after the Big East tournament. Got it? Good.
Xavier: Losers of five straight and seven out of their last eight, the Musketeers may already be on the outside looking in as far as the NCAA Tournament is concerned. Most mock brackets just hanging on. While a win over Georgetown’s isn’t all that impressive numbers wise, a loss would be devastating and likely put Xavier into a spot where they need to get to the Big East Final to make the NCAA Tournament. Also, Travis Steele’s job seems to be in a bit of jeopardy at the moment
THAT ONE TIME
No matter how much one might love Skyline Chili, Georgetown’s annual trip to Cincinnati has been anything but a delight. Since Xavier joined the league the Hoyas have come away with exactly one W in the Cintas Center. It was the Tre Campbell Game.
First things first, here’s your Georgetown starters from that 81-72 victory on Jan. 19, 2016 – DSR-Campbell-Cameron-Copeland-Hayes. Just think that the guys coming off the bench that night were Derrickson, Govan and Peak. Six years is a long time ago in college basketball.
So back to the game. The Tre Campbell game.
Campbell hit five 3s and he combined with DSR to go 9 for 16 from deep. The Hoyas had 21 assists on 26 baskets and improved to 12-7, 5-2. It was a masterpiece and it ended up being Xavier’s only home loss in a season where they earned a 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. It really felt like the season had turned around for the Hoyas after some not-so-great non-conference losses – Radford in 2OT anybody? – but after a 6-2 league start, it just all fell apart.
Even with a disappointing 15-18 record, those Hoyas looked pretty normal on KenPom. They finished 62 overall with an offense of 65 and a defense of 81. Those are NIT numbers – flip a few results and you are dancing – but you weren’t all that far away compared to the current metric wilderness where the Hoyas currently reside. Ok that’s enough on that.
Still, there will always be that one time at Xavier.
(I clearly won’t talk about that one time in 2014 when Georgetown was up 17 with 15 minutes left at Xavier and found a way to somehow lose by 13. I would never do that to you guys.)
Bobby’s Prediction
Georgetown 82, Xavier 77
I don’t know. It just seems like going 0-19 would be really hard to do.
Leave your witty (and non-witty) in-game comments here!
HOYA SAXA!