In Memoriam: 2021 Remembering those members of the extended Georgetown University basketball family that died in 2021:March 23: Brian T. Sheehan (C'61), Georgetown Hall of Fame awardee, aged 81.May 20: Rick Hall (B'93), former assistant director of Hoyas Unlimited, aged 49. May 15: Joseph P. Carroll (C'54), co-captain of the 1953-54 team, aged 88. December 19: Russ Potts, Virginia state senator and promoter of the 1982 Georgetown-Virginia and 1989 Georgetown-LSU games, aged 82. Rebooting The 2021-22 Schedule Twenty percent of Georgetown's 2021-22 conference schedule stands at risk of being cancelled. The Big East has a plan, however.A story in the Asbury Park Press outlines the methodology the Big East will use to reschedule as many games as possible. These include:
The current number of cancelled games per school:
Two More Games Cancelled New COVID-19 cases in the Georgetown men's basketball program have cancelled two more games on the 2021-22 schedule.The Jan. 1 game with St. John's at Capital One Arena is canceled due to COVID issues in both programs. However, a Jan. 4 game vs. Xavier at Capital One was cancelled over a week in advance, suggesting new cases in the program over and above those affecting the St. John's game.Two Georgetown women's games have also been cancelled. A release from GUHoyas.com offered no further specifics. While the release cites that "Per the Big East game cancellation policy, the Conference office will attempt to reschedule the games in accordance with the parameters of the policy," a four game reschedule appears all but infeasible. What Is The Cancellation Policy?Absent any stories by the credentialed media, the only news available about Georgetown's situation is coming from the basketball office, who does not share details as a matter of course, and refers readers to the Big East cancellation policy. So what is the policy?"Under the modified policy, a Conference game will be canceled in the event a school has fewer than seven scholarship players and one countable coach available for a game," reads a conference release.Georgetown has 12 countable scholarship players, of which at least three (Tim Ighoefe, Kobe Clark, Jordan Riley) are unavailable due to injury. Therefore, three active COVID-19 cases among the remainder trigger a cancellation, regardless if walk-ons Chuma Azinge and Victor Muresan are available. The "countable coach" clause would be in the case of three of four coaches (some combination of Patrick Ewing, Louis Or, Robert Kirby, and Akbar Waheed) being unavailable, but GU has made no advisory if there are coaching absences in play. Creighton Game Cancelled Continued problems with COVID-19 in the Georgetown men's basketball program have cancelled a second game on the schedule: this one the Dec. 28 game at Creighton.A release from GUHoyas.com confirmed the change but offered no specifics.Big East Reverses Forfeit Rule Big East presidents have reversed a rule requiring in-conference forfeits to teams that cannot field teams due to COVID-19. As such, the Dec. 22 game versus Providence does not count against Georgetown's Big East record.
DETAILS
"If a team doesn't have seven healthy players, the 'game will be rescheduled if possible,' a high-ranking league source told NJ Advance Media. "'If it can't be rescheduled, the game will be considered a 'no contest.'"As was learned last season, playing 20 conference games in nine weeks leaves little time for rescheduling games, much less travel. Georgetown's only remaining visit to New England is Jan. 25 to Connecticut, and adding a game that week would be four games within seven days. Here is an example of the combined schedules that week for the two teams:
Providence Game Cancelled Over COVID Georgetown will cancel its conference opener at Providence over multiple COVID-19 issues in the program.
ADDITIONAL COVERAGE
This is the second consecutive year Georgetown has not played in Providence. A January 2021 game was cancelled due to COVID-19 issues in the Georgetown program.After reports surfaced this morning of the forfeit, a statement from Georgetown 90 minutes later confirmed the following: "The Big East Conference has announced that the Georgetown at Providence game, which was scheduled for Wednesday, December 22, has been canceled due to COVID issues in the Georgetown program. Per current Big East policy, Georgetown has forfeited the game and a loss will be assigned in the conference standings. Providence will be assigned a win." (The forfeit rule was revised two days later.) The next scheduled game would be Dec. 28 at Creighton. There is no word if the current issues will affect that game as well. Earlier this year, the COVID-19 outbreak in the program cancelled four games from the 2020-21 schedule. Texas Christian 80, Georgetown 73 Fourteen second half points from Mike Miles rallied the TCU Horned Frogs to an 80-73 win over Georgetown before 5,053 at Capital One Arena.
POST-GAME COVERAGE
The first ever meeting between the two schools was a close and competitive one, one which was an early challenge for the Hoyas minus its starting point guard, Dante Harris, who reinjured an ankle from the Syracuse game in practice this week. While Harris watched the game from the bench in a walking boot, freshman Tyler Beard got the start instead, scoring three points and five assists in 31 minutes of action.TCU took an early lead before the Georgetown defense tightened, holding the Frogs to 1 for 7 shooting and regaining the lead at 20-18 before TCU, not a proficient shooting team, responded with back to back three pointers at the 7:24 mark. Forward Chuck O'Bannon Jr. had 15 points in the first half as the Frogs hit three three points over a 1:21 period late in the half to end the half with a 39-36 lead. The Horned Frogs entered the game shooting just 27 percent from three point rant and ended the half shooting 8 for 19 from beyond the arc, tying its season high. Georgetown opened the half on defense, forcing TCU to miss its first eight shots and taking the lead on a three point play by Aminu Mohammed at the 16:42 mark, 42-41. As Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing had successfully reset the momentum with two first half timeouts, TCU coach Jamie Dixon did likewise, and the game tightened for the remainder of the game. Sixteen lead changes in this game made this a competititive game throughout, with neither team leading by more than three points in the second half until a Mike Miles three at the 5:36 mark extended the TCU lead to 69-64. A missed three by Kaiden Rice with 4:45 remaining and a Mohammed turnover at the 4:01 mark were converted into TCU baskets, 73-64, entering the final four minutes. The momentum shift was not lost on Ewing in post-game remarks. "It's a minute difference between winning and losing," he said. Offensive rebounding came up big for the Horned Frogs late. Following a Jalin Billingsley three to close to 73-67, reserve forward Xavier Cork scooped up a missed layup by guard Damion Baugh to push the lead back to nine, 75-67, and on the next series blocked a Tyler Beard layup attempt. "[Cork] was huge for us," said TCU's Jamie Dixon in post-game remarks. "We had a discussion and we thought he was the right guy to have in there." The Hoyas closed to three in the final 21 seconds on a Donald Carey three, 76-73, but TCU guard Micah Peavy, shooting just 38 percent from the free throw line this season, sank five of six down the stretch to secure the win. "We got rebounds and a couple of layups in transition that were huge," said Dixon, "We limited their threes downs the stretch. I thought we did a good job late of not fouling and not giving up threes in the last minutes." The Hoyas went 1 of 5 from three point range in the final three minutes of the game. Both teams shot 28 for 66 from the field, but TCU's 11 threes overall was a season high and largely unexpected given its prior shooting to date. Miles finished the game with three threes for the Frogs to go along with 20 points, six rebounds, five assists, and three steals. Aminu Mohammed led the Hoyas with 20 points and 11 rebounds, as Georgetown shot 42 percent from three point range and 42 percent overall. The TCU defense was the story of the game, outrebounding Georgetown 23-17 after halftime and 44-35 overall, with 16 assists and seven steals. "Coming here to D.C. and playing in their gym with their fans, we knew it wasn't going to be easy," Miles told the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. At 9-1, "we want to get ranked and we want to be taken seriously. This gives us great momentum. We are playing good right now." The game was the final contest in the third year of the four year Big East-Big 12 challenge series, which ended in a 5-5 split. Georgetown ends a rocky non-conference schedule at 6-5, entering Big East play next week at Providence (10-1), who upset #20 Connecticut, 57-53, before 15,564 at the XL Center in Hartford. Here's the Georgetown half of the box score:
MIN 2FG 3FG FT REB A PF PTS
Starters:
Beard 31 1-2 0-1 1-2 2 5 3 3
Carey 37 3-7 2-5 0-0 5 5 1 12
Mohammed 34 7-17 1-3 4-4 11 1 2 21
Rice 32 1-2 4-11 0-0 1 1 1 14
Wilson 24 3-4 0-0 0-0 7 0 2 6
Reserves:
Billingsley 12 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 2
Azinge 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Mutombo 12 3-6 0-0 2-4 6 0 2 8
Holloway 21 1-3 1-3 2-2 2 1 2 7
DNP: Harris, Ighoefe, Riley, Clark, Muresan
Team Rebounds 1
TOTALS 200 20-43 8-23 9-12 35 13 14 73
40 Years Of DC's "Cold War" Excerpted from HoyaSaxa.com, June 9, 2021:"A total of 6,800 feet separate the borders of Georgetown University and George Washington University, but it may as well be a thousand miles."That's a quote from the Georgetown Basketball History Project in 2018 on the state of relations between these two local universities, which last met on the court December 16, 1981, forty years ago today. Academically and athletically, it's as if the two schools barely acknowledge one another. In the 93rd game of the series, Georgetown defeated GW 61-48, before 8,695 at Capital Centre during Patrick Ewing's freshman season. The series was not renewed in 1982-83 and neither school has proffered the cause for the decision. In 2006, the GW Hatchet newspaper stated that "GW's athletic staff, which formulates the schedule, decided to end the series for unknown reasons." Other sentiment has blamed Georgetown for the end of the rivalry. When Ewing held his introductory press conference as head coach on April 6, 2017, the second question he faced was from the late Mark Plotkin, asking Ewing if he would support a proposed "Ward Two Classic" between the schools. "That is something I'm not at liberty to discuss right now," Ewing said. "That's something that Lee [Reed] and I would sit down and discuss when the time is appropriate." It's the last time Georgetown has publicly discussed it. There are many suspects in these battles (old feuds, scheduling disputes, gate revenues, the demise of the BB&T Classic, etc.) but no single culprit; regardless, in the last 10 seasons Georgetown has scheduled home games with Howard, American, and Maryland, but none with George Washington, who is 4-8 this season with a 71-64 loss to Maryland as its only local opponent on its non-conference schedule. Georgetown 85, Howard 73 Down three players to illness and/or injury, the Georgetown Hoyas needed all hands on deck to prevail over Howard, 85-73 at Capital One Arena. The win marked the 100th Georgetown win over HBCU schools all-time.
POST-GAME COVERAGE
Prior to the game, basketball officials announced that freshman Jalin Billingsley and grad transfer Kaiden Rice were unavailable due to a non-COVID illness, but they did not elaborate further. Sophomore Jordan Riley was out of action as well, owing to a shoulder injury (see below). But a career best 23 from freshman Tyler Beard and 13 from Malcolm Wilson was the best medicine for a team which was on the brink of a historic loss if they fell to the Bison.Wilson's height and inside game paced the Hoyas early, but even as Fox's Gus Johnson (on a phone call into the game) admitted Howard wasn't very good at sports, the Bison answered with five of its next six shots to take the lead midway in the first half, a lead that would grow to nine, 31-22 with 9:05 to halftime. The Hoyas returned the volley with thee consecutive baskets inside from Wilson, who had not scored more than four points in a game all season. Georgetown's 16-2 first half run recaptured the lead en route to a 46-39 advantage at halftime, behind 10 from Bears, eight from Wilson, and eight from sophomore Collin Holloway. Georgetown went to the break with a 30-15 advantage on points in the paint and 20-15 off turnovers. Howard trailed by as many as 11 early in the4 second half before slicing the margin to four, 56-52 five minutes into the period. Free throws from Holloway extended the lead to six at 58-52 before the GU defense held Howard to the second of thee shot clock violations on the evening. Beard answered with six straight points to put the Hoya sup 12 with 12:02 to play, and the lead never closed to fewer than nine points on the evening. Georgetown needed a multitude of patchwork lineups in the second half, as Aminu Mohammed and Collin Holloway were in foul trouble much of the game and both fouled out. GU was down to five scholarship players in the final 3:45, with walk-on Chuma Azinge seeing time in the second half and Victor Muresan coming in at game's end. For its part, the Bison struggled down the field, going 0 for 9 in a key stretch, 6 for 11 from the foul line, and shooting just 36 percent after halftime. Howard was led by a season high 26 points from guard Kyle Foster, accounting for seven three pointers Beard, who had scored all of 14 points this season prior to tonight's game, turned in a great effort: 7-9 from the field, four rebounds, and two assists. Holloway finished with 15 points, Donald Carey 14, and Wilson with 13, a perfect 6-6 from extremely close range, i.e. dunks. As a team, Georgetown shot 52 percent from the field after halftime and 55 percent overall. The two teams combined for 44 turnovers over 40 minutes, with Howard holding a 31-29 advantage in points off turnovers. Here's the Georgetown half of the box score:
MIN 2FG 3FG FT REB A PF PTS
Starters:
D. Harris 36 5-13 0-4 0-1 2 7 0 10
Carey 34 0-0 4-7 2-3 8 3 3 14
Mohammed 22 2-6 0-0 0-0 7 3 5 4
Holloway 31 5-6 0-1 5-6 5 1 5 15
Wilson 24 6-6 0-0 1-2 8 0 2 13
Reserves:
Beard 30 4-5 3-4 6-10 4 2 2 23
Azinge 9 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
Mutombo 12 3-5 0-0 0-1 3 0 1 6
Muresan 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
DNP: Billingsley, Ighoefe, Rice, Riley, Clark
Team Rebounds 3
TOTALS 200 25-43 7-16 14-23 40 16 19 85
Riley Injured, Surgery Pending Freshman Jordan Riley is out indefinitely with an injured shoulder, Georgetown officials announced prior to the Howard game.With an 8-12 week recovery, Riley may be out through the end of the season. Riley is averaging 3.2 points per game over the first nine games of the 2021-22 season.Georgetown 79, Syracuse 75 Twenty second half points from freshman Aminu Mohammed led the Georgetown Hoyas to a 79-75 win over Syracuse Saturday before 13,598 at Capital One Arena.
POST-GAME COVERAGE
Georgetown opened an early lead from the hot hand of Kaiden Rice, who followed up on his effort versus UMBC with three consecutive threes over a 1:12 run, 11-7. Led by strong early rebounding by Aminu Mohammed, the Hoyas were battling on every play but Syracuse went inside to reserve center Frank Anselem, with five points over a six minute stretch that gave the Orangemen a five point lead, but missed its next six and a three from Dante Harris tied the score midway through the first half, 21-21. The Orangemen returned to the lead from an unlikely source--its bench. While Georgetown stayed close via the three, it had nothing inside the arc (3 for 14) and Syracuse responded with good play inside from its reserves, outscoring GU 9-2 from the bench, 16-6 in the paint, and building a 35-28 lead with 3:31 in the first half and a ten point lead at the break, 44-34. Patrick Ewing sat the centers and went with a smaller lineup to open the second half, with immediate effect. The Hoyas answered with a 17-7 run to open the second period, with Mohammed scoring 12 of the Hoyas's first 17 points of the period. By contrast, the Orangemen backed out of a significant advantage in the paint and floundered as a result, shooting 36 percent in the second half with no offensive rhythm, relying on three pointers to stem the blue and gray tide. A three point shot and foul by Donald Carey gave Georgetown its first lead of the second half, 55-53, with 11:32 to play, and the game see-sawed thereafter. Five Georgetown turnovers over the next four minutes offered the Orangemen opportunities to take over, but they stumbled as well. Mohammed scored the next six points over a two minute stretch to keep Georgetown ahead, 72-71 with 2:01 left, answered with a Jimmy Boeheim offensive rebound and put back 21 seconds later, 73-72. With the shot clock running down, the Hoyas went to a player that had all but disappeared in this game, forward Kaiden Rice. Rice, who hit three threes to open the game but was a maddening 1 for his last 11 thereafter, hit a three with 1:11 to go to up two, 75-73. Syracuse, still lacking the will inside, launched up an errant Cole Swider three and GU took into the final minute, up two. Georgetown caught a significant break when a kicked ball with 26 seconds remaining reset the shot clock in their favor, one of three plays in the second half where the whistles went against the Orangemen. Free throws from Donald Carey put the game away in the final ten seconds. Mohammed's game high 23 led a team effort, with special mention paid to Donald Carey (18 points, 4 assists) and 6-6 Collin Holloway, who manned the pivot in the second half to considerable success, finishing with 10 points, eight after halftime. The Hoyas shot 56 percent after the break and owned a 38-31 advantage on rebounds after being outrebounded 19-16 in the first half. Syracuse fans could not be pleased with the complete breakdown in momentum of the Orangemen after halftime. The Syracuse offense devolved into unprepared, haphazard outside shooting, and no impact from a bench that had contributed nine points down the stretch to end the first half. Only one bench player saw action in the second half, with no attempts in three minutes of play. The starting five combined to shoot 13 for 36 after halftime, 3 for 14 from outside, did not make a three in the final 7:17, and were outrebounded 22-12. Another key: fouls, or the lack thereof. GU committed only six fouls after halftime and Syracuse had only two points from free throws after halftime. Since 2000, Georgetown is 9-2 versus Syracuse when it scores 75 or more points in a regulation game. Here's the Georgetown half of the box score:
MIN 2FG 3FG FT REB A PF PTS
Starters:
D. Harris 33 1-4 1-2 2-4 7 6 2 7
Carey 35 0-0 4-7 6-6 4 4 0 18
Mohammed 37 6-13 1-1 8-9 13 5 3 23
Rice 35 0-0 5-15 0-0 1 0 0 15
Wilson 13 1-1 0-0 0-0 3 0 0 2
Reserves:
Beard 11 0-1 0-1 0-0 2 4 2 0
Billingsley 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Riley 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Mutombo 10 1-2 0-0 2-2 1 0 1 4
Holloway 21 5-7 0-0 0-0 1 1 3 10
DNP: Ighoefe, Azinge, Clark, Muresan
Team Rebounds 6
TOTALS 200 14-29 11-26 18-21 38 20 11 79
Attendance for Saturday's game was 13,598: the smallest turnout since 1994 but the largest to date this season, and the fans were loud throughout the game. Georgetown 100, UMBC 71 One game removed from a 0-10 effort versus South Carolina, Kaiden Rice set a school record with ten threes in a 100-71 win over UMBC at Capital One Arena Wednesday.
POST-GAME COVERAGE
This game had all the strategy of a track meet. After missing its first two attempts, the Hoyas hit eight straight, including three consecutive threes, to go up 22-8 in the first six minutes of the first half and threatening to blow the game wide open. A move to the second string proved less successful, however, and allowed the Retrievers, shooting 3 for 11 to start the game, an opportunity to work its way back into the game. From a a 22-8 deficit, UMBC went to work outside, connecting on five threes in a 25-9 run of its own, keyed by 14 points from guard L.J. owens, to take the lead at 33-31 at the 5:33 mark. UMBC would finish the half with eight threes, and shot better from three (47 percent) than from two (33 percent). The Georgetown starters returned for the final seven minutes and the momentum returned a swell. Two threes from Kaiden Rice put the Hoyas back up five, 38-33, and a three from Aminu Mohammed extended the lead to eight at the half, 48-40. A 54 percent effort from the field and a season high seven threes, four from Rice, that was the story of this half. UMBC started the second half with a thud, missing its first five attempts and seven of nine, allowing the Hoyas to quickly extend the lead to 15, 61-46. With no UMBC player taller than 6-7, GU was more eager to get the ball inside, with a run of close-in shots and only taking only four three point attempts in the first eight minutes of the second half, connecting on two. Defensively, the Retrievers had a difficult time penetrating the paint, as the taller Georgetown lineup collected a season high 10 blocks. Georgetown's lead escalated to 24 at the midway point of the half, 81-57, with UMBC shooting just 33 percent and offering no resistance inside. But it was outside where the Retrievers had no answer for Rice, who sank four straight threes over a four minute period, accounting for 12 of Georgetown's 14 points in a 14-2 run with the game already out of reach. The Retrievers were flat lined, shooting just 31 percent from the floor after halftime and 35 percent for the game. Deondre Kennedy, UMBC's leading scorer entering Wednesday's game, finished 3 for 12 from the field. Rice's game-high 34 points was the most points by a Georgetown player since Mac McClung's 38 versus Little Rock in 2018. Georgetown got scoring from 10 different players, including 15 points and 11 rebounds from freshman Ryan Mutombo, unchallenged in the paint. As a team, GU shot 50 percent from the field, 56 percent from three, and held a 61-30 advantage on the boards against a much smaller opponent. A win's a win, but it needs to be quickly forgotten. This won't happen Saturday versus Syracuse, although head coach Patrick Ewing was not thinking about the Orangemen just yet. "I'm not even worried about Saturday right now, I am just happy with this win. The wins, they are hard to come by." Here's the Georgetown half of the box score:
MIN 2FG 3FG FT REB A PF PTS
Starters:
D. Harris 23 4-8 1-2 2-4 6 7 1 13
Carey 27 0-2 1-4 0-0 5 1 1 3
Mohammed 24 4-8 1-2 2-2 10 3 1 13
Rice 30 1-2 10-12 2-2 3 3 1 34
Wilson 17 2-2 0-0 0-0 3 0 1 4
Reserves:
Beard 15 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 6 2 0
Billingsley 8 2-4 0-0 0-0 7 0 4 4
Azinge 1 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2
Riley 18 3-6 0-3 1-2 5 0 3 7
Mutombo 18 7-15 0-0 1-3 11 1 1 15
Holloway 20 2-3 0-0 1-1 5 1 1 5
Muresan 1 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
DNP: Ighoefe, Clark
Team Rebounds 6
TOTALS 200 26-55 13-23 9-14 61 22 16 100
Attendance: 3,021 For a second consecutive game, attendance at Capital One Arena was closer to a number more suitable for McDonough Gymnasium.An announced crowd of 3,021 was cited for this game. Cumulative announced attendance in the last two games was just 5,753, and there's no rent abatement for crowds such as this.Here are the 10 smallest off-campus home crowds since 1981:
Greg Monroe: Back In Town A decade removed from his playing days at Georgetown, 31 year old Greg Monroe is bask in the Washington area at the Wizards: G-League affiliate in Southeast."I've always felt like I could still play in the NBA and that I belong in the NBA," Monroe told NBC Sports Washington. "I just decided that this is the best route to try to get back." Monroe played for six NBA teams over nine seasons but was waived by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2019. After two years in Europe, he's back in Washington, and recalls his two years at Georgetown."When I got here, that's when I fell in love with the city, I fell in love with Georgetown, the campus. After just taking everything in, definitely it was a choice I will never regret in my life," he said. Social Media Trending DownA sign of the times, perhaps.A study of social media interactions among university athletic web sites places Georgetown 91st nationally for the month of November, per SkullSparks, a digital consulting company.
NCAA Net Rankings
The first NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings are out for the 2021-22 season, and Georgetown's 3-4 record places it at the bottom of the conference.As opposed to the Ratings Performance Index (RPI), the NET is more opaque, with the NCAA defining NET as a metric that "rewards teams for beating quality opponents, particularly away from home, as well as an adjusted net efficiency rating. The adjusted efficiency is a team's net efficiency, adjusted for strength of opponent and location (home/away/neutral) across all games played."The Big East NET rankings are as follows:
South Carolina 80, Georgetown 67
Poor shooting doomed the Georgetown Hoyas in its road opener, trailing the entire game in an 80-67 loss at South Carolina before a matinee crowd of 9,207 at Colonial Life Arena.
POST-GAME COVERAGE
The tone of this game was set early: poor shooting abounded. Georgetown missed its first seven shots of the game and 12 of its first 13, allowing the Gamecocks, who were routed by Coastal Carolina last week, 80-56, the opportunity to build an early lead and keep it safe.
The Hoyas earned its first field goal four minutes into the first half from a drive and foul from Aminu Mohammed, but the Hoyas could not maintain offensive consistency and turned over the ball six times in the first seven minutes. South Carolina then missed its next seven but GU could only close to just 13-9, part of a run of futility that saw the teams combined to shoot 9 for 45 from the field, 2 of 15 from three point range. The Gamecocks expanded the lead with an 8-0 run to jump to a 21-9 lead before a Georgetown timeout brought the Hoyas back on track. Baskets by Aminu Mohammed, Donald Carey and Malcolm Wilson closed to 27-25 with 3:20 to halftime, but the Gamecocks connected on second chance points down the stretch to carry a 36-27 lead into the break. The Hoyas finished a season low 9 for 41 from the field at halftime. Dante Harris, Donald Carey, and Aminu Mohammed accounted for 29 of GU's 40 points after halftime in a period where GU's three point shooting was already on the team bus. The Hoyas managed just two threes after halftime while South Carolina went inside with little opposition. Georgetown was twice within six but the Gamecocks responded each time, with the last run being the clincher. A free throw from Collin Holloway brought the Hoyas to 57-51 with 9:06 remaining. USC answered with an 8-2 run that featured six straight by center Wildens Leveque: two dunks and a layup that could have been a dunk had he chosen to.
The Hoyas never got closer than ten thereafter. South Carolina is not a good shooting team but shot 55 percent after halftime, thanks to 22 points in the paint after halftime and 21 points in the game off 17 Georgetown turnovers. The Gamecocks finished with nine dunks in the game over centers Malcolm Wilson and Ryan Mutombo, and finished the second half with 11 assists on 16 field goals. Donald Carey led all Georgetown scorers with 20 points, 12 after halftime. Grad transfer Kaiden Rice turned in a season low 0-10 from the field, 0-8 from three. Outside of Carey, the Hoyas finished a combined 1 of 16 from the three point line. Collin Holloway, the hero of the game with Longwood, played just three monutes in today's game. "I do believe at the end of the year that we're going to have a very good team, but I always tell people, in life, you're going to have bumps in the road," said head coach Patrick Ewing in post-game remarks. "Tonight was one of those bumps. It's going to be all how we come out of this." Ewing took questions but did not bring any players to the post-game press conference. Here's the Georgetown half of the box score:
MIN 2FG 3FG FT REB A PF PTS
Starters:
D. Harris 32 4-11 0-2 5-5 6 6 2 13
Carey 32 2-4 4-8 4-5 7 2 2 20
Mohammed 32 4-8 1-3 4-7 8 1 4 17
Rice 21 0-2 0-8 0-0 3 0 0 0
Wilson 18 2-4 0-0 0-1 5 0 3 4
Reserves:
Beard 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Billingsley 11 0-2 0-1 0-0 2 1 1 0
Riley 11 0-3 0-0 2-2 2 0 2 2
Mutombo 16 4-9 0-0 0-0 6 0 2 8
Holloway 3 1-3 0-2 1-2 5 0 1 3
DNP: Ighoefe, Azinge, Clark, Muresan
Team Rebounds 3
TOTALS 200 17-46 5-24 16-22 47 10 17 67
Ighoefe Out 4-6 Weeks
Head coach Patrick Ewing confirmed an injury to junior center Timothy Ighoefe which will keep him out of action entering Big East play.Ighoefe, averaging 7.4 rebounds per game to date this season, injured his hand late in the first half against Longwood and did not return after halftime.Available options in the interim include junior Malcolm Wilson (1.8 ppg, 2.2 rpg) or freshman Ryan Mutombo (2.8 ppg, 2.3 rpg). Georgetown GSR: 98%
Georgetown University announced a 98 percent graduation success rate (GSR) for its student athletes in the latest NCAA study."Graduation success rate is just one more example of our student-athletes' commitment to excellence," said athletic director Lee Reed in a statement. "I know this would not be possible without support from our faculty and administration, coaches and staff. The work these groups do behind the scenes to allow our student-athletes to flourish is commendable."The GSR and its companion, the federal graduation rate (FGR) are opaque statistics because it does not easily identify how many playes are in the calculation. According to the release, "the GSR is based on student-athletes who entered college as freshmen between 2011-2014 and allows for the removal of those individuals from who left Georgetown in good academic standing" from its totals. By contrast, the FGR counts all transfers and other departures against the total. We'll review men's basketball below, but first, here's the totals by sport:
As to basketball, the GSR reports a 91 percent rate in this cohort (10 of 11 in good standing), removing four transfers from the denominator. With the transfers and early departures included, Georgetown's FGR is 53 percent, or eight graduates among 15 freshmen over four seasons. The FGR is a number that is likely to decrease significantly over the next six years, given the number of transfers and departures in the past four seasons. The class of 2017-18, or what would have been the current senior class, had all four freshmen transfer out. Here's the men's basketball GSR and FGR across Big East schools:
Finally, the historic GSR trends since 2008:
Tre King To Iowa State
Tre King, whose Georgetown career ended before it began, has announced a transfer to Iowa State, per reports.King, a transfer from Eastern Kentucky who was a candidate to start at center for the Hoyas, was dismissed from the University on October 16 for what King referred to as an "an inadvertent mistake that did not involve another person." After initially expressing hope he could return soon, he announced he was entering the transfer portal six days later."I feel like from a development perspective, [Iowa State has] the best plan for me," King told Jon Rothstein at College Hoops Today. King, who averaged 14.9 points and 6.2 rebounds at Eastern Kentucky, will have two years eligibility remaining, and could be seeing action as early as next semester. |