HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel does love his college basketball, but watching 3 different games from 3 different locations in a 10-hour span is utterly unprecedented. On Saturday March 4 he pulled off this terrific tripleheader in DC: Villanova-Georgetown at the Verizon Center, Arizona-Arizona State at a bar, and Dayton-GW at the Smith Center. Here is his report, filed in triplicate:
It was Senior Day at Georgetown, which allowed grad transfer Rodney Pryor to take a well-deserved bow in the company of his family, complete with custom-made attire:
However, it was Villanova senior guards Josh Hart (Silver Spring, MD)/Kris Jenkins (Upper Marlboro, MD) who looked the most comfortable during the Wildcats’ 81-55 grinding of Georgetown on Saturday afternoon. Then again, if my head coach dressed like this, I would like my chances as well (nice seats right under the basket, eh?):
Hart scored 21 PTS and looked as relaxed as a national POY candidate should while wrapping up his regular season:
Jenkins scored 19 PTS and seemed ready to make another championship-winning buzzer-beater if necessary:
I think Georgetown coach John Thompson III is a good coach who had to deal with 2 key players transferring out of the program during the past 12 months (Isaac Copeland to Nebraska/Paul White to Oregon), but there were some “Fire Thompson” chants so I would not be surprised if someone else is manning the sideline this fall. It was a busy day at the Verizon Center so I even got a peek inside the visiting locker room before the Flyers filed in to face the Caps that evening:
I did not get a chance to ask any questions at the postgame press conference because there were so many other media folks in attendance to see the defending champs in the nation’s capital but pick against them this month at your own peril…and work that vest!:
Then it was off to a nearby bar to watch Arizona travel to Tempe for the big in-state battle with ASU. No photos from this 1 (what happens at the bar stays at the bar!), but it does not get much better than beating your archrival on its homecourt to clinch a share of the conference title. The most exciting aspect was the possible defensive late-blooming of freshman Lauri Markkanen, who had 3 BLK after only blocking 3 shots combined during the first 17 games of Pac-12 play: Bear Down!
I expected the final game of the night to be the 2nd of back-to-back wins by the Miller brothers (Sean/Archie) but it surprisingly turned into the Tyler Cavanaugh Show. GW did not make the NCAA tourney but they ended the regular season in super style with an 87-81 win over Dayton, a performance that George himself felt deserving of 2 thumbs up:
I thought that Cavanaugh had peaked last March after being named NIT MVP, but apparently he had a little something extra saved up for his own Senior Night:
Sitting in the 2nd-level corner gave me a great view of each of his career-high-tying 6 threes, and after scoring his 30th and final point of the night he was subbed out to a thunderous ovation from the entire Colonial crowd. It had appeared to be over early as GW built up a 16-1 lead before you could even blink, but the Flyers refused to give up and whittled the lead down to only 5 PTS in the final 30 seconds thanks to 24 PTS/8-10 FG from Kendall Pollard. I got to ask Cavanaugh after the game if this was the best week of his life between making a trio of FTs with 0.9 seconds left to beat Fordham on Wednesday and then upsetting Dayton on Saturday. He replied that it was great to play so well with about 30 of his family/friends in attendance that evening:
I also was unsure if this was going to be interim coach Maurice Joseph’s final game on the sideline, but GW offered him the full-time job on March 14 and it appears that he may accept it any day now:
To recap: 3 games, 3 locations, 3 NCAA tourney teams (Villanova/Arizona/Dayton), 3’s Company, 3’s a Crowd…sorry, have not gotten much sleep during the past week, enjoy the postseason everyone!