Due to some fortuitous timing and geography, the Villanova-Georgetown regular season finale on Saturday afternoon was located just 6 subway stops away from the 1st round of the CAA Tournament. With the help of a phone, laptop, metro card, a pair of credentials, and several trips through the media food line, HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will recap a day to remember in DC, from Senior Day at Capital 1 Arena to a game-winning shot from Elon at the Entertainment and Sports Arena.
I started the day off right with a solid pregame meal of a bacon/egg/cheese bagel and potatoes. Gus Johnson was sitting at center court for Fox: he cannot walk more than a few steps through the arena without someone quoting 1 of his lines back at him:
I also saw friend-of-the-Teitel-extended-family Andy Katz on press row, who confirmed that he will be at the Elite 8 at MSG later this month:
I have not attended many Senior Days in the past but this 1 seemed very emotional, as battle-tested veterans like Jagan Mosely/George Muresan were reduced to tears:
Speaking of Muresan, his 7’7″ father “Big Gheorge” was in attendance, and when he stands near 7’2″ Georgeton alum Dikembe Mutombo the result is 1 of the tallest photos that I have ever taken:
Let’s tip things off:
Villanova came out and punched the injury-depleted Hoyas in the mouth while Mac McClung/Omer Yurtseven looked dapper on the bench in their nice suits:
Hoya coach Patrick Ewing called a timeout 100 seconds into the game after falling behind 7-0, and by the time Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree made a layup a couple of minutes later to make it 14-0 I assumed that the rout was on, but not so fast my friends. Georgetown made a run late in the 1st half to cut it to a 9-PT deficit at halftime. Jamorko Pickett was the main reason why: a trio of 3-PT shots combined with 2 layups and a put-back dunk gave him a team-high 15 PTS in the 1st half:
Ewing must have delivered a hell of a halftime speech because the entire team kicked it up a notch in the 2nd half. Mosely kept driving for layups and making threes while Qudus Wahab made some hook shots/dunks in the lane. Terrell Allen was clutch for most of the final 20 minutes: a 3 to tie it at 39 (which got Mutombo out of his seat), a layup to take a 55-54 lead, and an old-fashioned 3-PT play to tie it at 61:
Pickett finished with a game-high 20 PTS but fouled out with 5.6 seconds left on a layup attempt by Jermaine Samuels. As the ball was heading toward the hoop Wahab was whistled for goaltending, and after a video review confirmed the call Samuels made the FT to give his team a 70-69 lead. Allen had a decent look at the buzzer but it did not go in, causing Georgetown to finish its regular season with 6 straight losses.
In the postgame press conference I asked Villanova coach Jay Wright how he has been able to win 14 of his past 15 Big East tourney games. He replied that he did not want to sound like a smart ass but he had veteran players including Eric Paschall/Phil Booth/Jalen Brunson/Mikal Bridges: it helps to have guys who have been there before. He added that that the NCAA tourney is different than any regular season game but that the Big East tourney at Madison Square Garden is the same as the NCAA tourney. The youth of his current team is 1 of his challenges but they are ready to take it on:
I mentioned the Senior Day emotion that I saw from his players to Coach Ewing and wondered what it meant to him. He said that he was thinking about the game they were about to play, but admitted that his own Senior Night meant a lot to him. His senior class has given blood/sweat/tears to get here, especially all of the injuries that Mosely has had to endure:
After the press conference I headed out to the subway and then over to arena #2 for the CAA tourney:
Compared to the enormous Capital One Arena, the 4200-seat Entertainment and Sports Arena is downright cozy:
For those who need a numerical reminder of what is going on, you came to the right place:
Bad news is that there was no pregame meal because dinner does not start until 30 minutes AFTER tip-off(?), but good news is that the chicken/rice/noodles/veggies/egg roll/pastries were all delicious!
Game 1 featured UNC Wilmington vs. Drexel. Ty Gadsden missed 15 games this season for the Seahawks but showed no rust at all by making lots of 1st half shots including a corner 3. Drexel’s Camren Wynter was the CAA ROY in 2019 and is showing no signs of discontent as he got to the basket for layups time after time after time. Dragons’ big man James Butler kept banging the boards in the 2nd half, finishing with an amazing 14 REB, Wynter made a couple of threes, and Drexel held on for a 66-55 win. Who would have thought the guy who went to college at Penn would see a pair of Philly teams win games on the same day in DC?!
In the postgame press conference I asked Wynter and his coach Zach Spiker how they would prepare for their game on Sunday vs. Hofstra. Wynter said that the Pride played a unique way due to having 4 guards on the floor, while his coach understood that most people picked Hofstra to win this tourney because they led the conference wire-to-wire:
Game 2 featured Elon vs. James Madison. Taking a page out of the Villanova playbook, the Dukes jumped out to a 14-0 lead and I considered calling it a night, but the Phoenix rose from the ashes with 9 PTS in a row while demonstrating that they were not ready to quit by cutting the halftime deficit to 6. It was a bit of a slow game after that but the mascot dance-off helped lighten the mood:
Matt Lewis made a game-winning 3 vs. Towson in the CAA 1st round last year, and apparently it was not a fluke because he made a ton of 2nd half layups en route to a game-high 17 PTS. 1st year Elon coach Mike Schrage apparently has a simple recruiting philosophy but it is working out well. He recruits high school kids named Hunter: FR F Hunter Woods had 15 PTS/4 STL in 40 minutes while FR G Hunter McIntosh had 12 PTS/0 TO before fouling out. JMU was clinging to a 3-PT lead with 5 minutes left when Darius Banks was whistled for a technical foul after going for a loose ball and pushing Kris Wooten into the Dukes’ bench: here is what the aftermath looked like:
Wooten recovered nicely with back-to-back threes to cut the lead to 61-59, then his teammate Marcus Sheffield (a grad transfer from Stanford) made a wide-open dunk to tie it at 61 with 45 seconds left. After a JMU miss Elon had a chance to win the game, and thanks to a 15-footer by Sheffield with 3 seconds left that is exactly what they did. Don’t believe me? I have the proof!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTryRiGrFws&feature=youtu.be
I wonder who would be invited to the postgame press conference?
I asked Sheffield if he had ever made a game-winning shot and how he felt about tonight’s performance. He thought that he probably made 1 when he was much younger but admitted that he would definitely remember this 1 for a long time:
That’s all for now, check back in the days ahead for more CAA tourney coverage!