HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming months covering several Georgetown basketball home games, with a very special reward coming in March. Part 1 was published earlier this month:
https://hoopshd.com/2019/11/09/still-hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-1/
He continues his series with Part 2 featuring the Hoyas’ matchup earlier this week against Georgia State as part of the 2K Empire Classic:
The best way to warm up on a cold night is a pregame meal featuring a hot pasta buffet: 2 kinds of noodles/3 kinds of meat/3 kinds of sauce! A quick pregame huddle in the rarely-popular teal alternate uniforms and away we go:
The Hoya faithful had been concerned the past 2 game while watching Mac McClung shoot 2-17 from the field but he restored their fair early with a lefty layup/3/pull-up J in the 1st 3 minutes. Omer Yurtseven has been a double-double machine all month and kept up the pace with a REB/putback and a REB/follow dunk. Coach Patrick Ewing did not appear to love his fellow 7-footer taking/missing his 1st 3-PT shot of the year but I suppose he has to give him a little leeway after he made 22-44 from behind the arc as a sophomore at NC State prior to his DC-area transfer:
Usually when your big man gets into early foul trouble it is a bad thing, but when Georgia State big man Joe Jones III had to come out after picking up 2 fouls in the 1st 4 minutes it turned out to be a good thing for Coach Rob Lanier. The player who subbed in for him was Josh Linder, who proceeded to have a huge 1st half with 12 PTS/8 REB courtesy of hard work in the paint that led to plenty of tip-ins/layups:
His teammate Corey Allen had 20 PTS in their previous game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, and kept it going with a pair of threes to match Linder with 12 PTS in the 1st half and give the Panthers a 39-33 halftime lead:
The Hoyas have now been outscored in 5 of the 7 halves they have played this season so unless they can turn things around they seem destined for trouble. During the break I got to say hello to Georgia State Associate AD Mike Holmes, who has hooked me up with several interview subjects over the past few years. I could not pursue my passion without the kindness of athletic staffers like Mike so kudos to those who help out HoopsHD!
Linder and Allen continued to shine in the 2nd half: the former caused Yurtseven to pick up his 4th foul with 5:44 left in the game and had a double-double of his own with 17 PTS/11 REB, while the latter finished with a team-high 21 PTS by making a variety of scoops/jumpers/leaners. They also received some help from 3 teammates who finished in double-figures.
Very different team/eerily same story for Georgetown: the 2 leaders from the 1st half kept playing well and they had 3 teammates who finished in double-figures. McClung had only scored 24 PTS all season long but exploded for 25 PTS in under 25 minutes (including 11-11 FT):
Yurtseven kept kicking butt inside with hook shot after hook shot for his 4th straight double-double (15 PTS/13 REB), including an almost-incomprehensible 11 offensive REB (which matched the total of the entire Georgia State team and helped him leap into 1st place in the entire country with 25 offensive REB in his 1st 4 games!). It was as if he was telling the Panthers defense, “Talk to the hand!”
The key stat that allowed Georgetown to win the game by a score of 91-83 was their fantastic FT shooting. Usually I only show photos of players shooting FTs because that is the best angle I have while sitting on the baseline press row but in this case it tells the story of the game, as the Hoyas’ starting 5 made 34 of its 1st 36 FT attempts and their team doubled up the Panthers by a count of 40 FTM vs. 20 FTM:
I did not get the chance to ask Coach Ewing or his 2 postgame press conference players any questions but I asked Coach Lanier about Linder. Through the team’s 1st 4 games this month his JR PF has had 2 double-doubles and 2 other games where he did not make a single FG so I inquired whether he has figured out who the real Linder is. He stated that tonight was a great opportunity for Linder to grow as a player and that the explanation for his 2 sub-par games was the use of a smaller lineup (vs. Duke) and the fact that he was hurt in the season opener (vs. Brewton-Parker). He felt that the double-doubles are more indicative of Linder’s productivity:
That’s all for now, check back in the weeks ahead for Part 3.