HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming months covering several Georgetown basketball home games, with (hopefully) a very special reward coming in March. Part 2 was published last weekend:
https://hoopshd.com/2021/12/12/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-2-2
He continues his series with Part 3 featuring the Hoyas’ matchup yesterday against TCU:
The key to covering a 2PM local tipoff is a filling lunch, and the home team came through big-time: ziti/meat sauce, bread, chicken wings, and egg rolls! When there is a game on the Saturday before Christmas you can count on 2 things: I will get to sit on the baseline because there are few other media folks around, and it will be a quiet game because most of the student body has already headed home for the holidays:
Fun fact about today’s 2 coaches: Patrick Ewing just started his 5th season as Georgetown coach last month, but despite not having coached Pitt in a Big East conference game since 2013 Jamie Dixon actually has the best conference winning percentage of any Big East coach ever (.658):
The good news for the Hoyas was that Kaiden Rice was back in the starting lineup after missing Wednesday’s win over Howard. The bad news is that Dante Harris (left) was not even in uniform because he had a boot on his right ankle, which meant that FR Tyler Beard (right) got to make his 1st-ever college start:
Let’s tip things off for the final home game of 2021!
TCU PG Mike Miles got things going early with a layup to give his team a 10-4 lead:
Coach Ewing called a timeout in disgust and begged his team to get back on defense and stop allowing so many fast break PTS:
1 of the sights I have rarely seen at Capital 1 Arena is a battle of former McDonald’s All-Americans. Aminu Mohammed (2021 McDonald’s All-American) kept Georgetown in it early with a lot of easy baskets inside as well as a 3. However, he had his hands full while trying to guard Chuck O’Bannon (2017 McDonald’s All-American), who converted a pair of alley-oop dunks and a trio of shots from behind the arc to finish with an impressive 15 PTS in the 1st half:
TCU entered halftime with a 39-36 lead. During the break I noticed Stu Jackson (former NBA head coach/GM/executive VP) sitting courtside and walked over to thank him for doing an interview with me a few years ago:
https://hoopshd.com/2020/01/02/memories-of-david-stern-hoopshd-interviews-former-nba-executive-vp-of-basketball-operations-stu-jackson
Mohammed continued to dominate in the paint in the 2nd half, including a pair of old-fashioned 3-PT plays, and ended up with 21 PTS/11 REB for his conference-best 5th double-double of the year:
Rice made several threes in the 2nd half, and his last 1 gave the Hoyas a 61-59 lead:
The biggest surprise of the final 20 minutes was TCU big man Xavier Cork: after going scoreless in the 1st stanza he made 3 sensational shots in the lane and had 2 big blocks on the defensive end to help keep his team in it. The hero of the day was Miles, who kept making layups and threes en route to a team-high 20 PTS/3 STL and an 80-73 victory that gave his team a 9-1 record:
Coach Dixon went 12-14 last year but certainly seems to have turned things around. Fun fact: both teams shot 28-66 from the field! That is a wrap for 2021, check back in 2022 as we enter conference play.