HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming months covering several Georgetown basketball home games, with (hopefully) a very special reward coming in March. You can find Parts 1&2 at:
https://hoopshd.com/2022/11/12/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-1-2
https://hoopshd.com/2022/12/03/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-2-3
See below for his photo essay about the Hoyas’ conference opener yesterday against Xavier.
I finally got to attend an evening game for the 1st time this year after a couple of afternoon starts. Pregame meal was decent: Mexican food featuring make-your-own-burritos with chicken/steak/cheese/surprisingly-good guacamole. On a very sad note, there was a moment of silence for former Georgetown Special Assistant to the Head Coach (and former Xavier assistant coach) Louis Orr, who passed away on Thursday due to cancer at age 64 and was like a brother to head coach Patrick Ewing:
There was no moment of anything for PG Dante Harris, who went from Big East Tourney MVP in March of 2021 to entering the transfer portal just 21 months later. Let’s tip it off…despite the arena being quite empty for a Big East conference opener:
We have 2 former Big East players-turned-coaches on the sideline tonight who are heading in very different directions. Standing on the left is Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing, who is 1-4 since November 30th. Crouching on the right is Xavier coach Sean Miller, who is 5-0 since November 30th and is coaching a Big East game for the 1st time since he played in this conference for Pitt more than 30 years ago:
Georgetown came out of the gate strong on defense, picking up 5 STL in the 1st 7 minutes, and had some nice ball-handling as well with only 2 TO in the entire 1st half. Early on we had a battle of big men. 6’11” Qudus Wahab did all of his damage inside for the Hoyas with a REB/put-back, a baby hook, a layup, and a dunk to keep his team in it:
In contrast, 6’9” Xavier F Zach Freemantle (who possesses 1 of my favorite nicknames in the world of sports: “Big Frosty”!) mixed in a 3-PT shot along with a baseline hook and scoop to help give his team a 43-38 edge at halftime (not pictured: 7’ Jack Nunge, who finished with 18 PTS/12 REB):
Georgetown ended up with a huge advantage in both FTA (32-12) and TO (11-6) but neither seemed to affect the outcome. Hoya G Primo Spears tied his season low with 1 AST but remained unstoppable on offense with 8-16 FG including a pair of threes as he finished with 22 PTS…but could have used a little more help from his teammates on defense:
Xavier only scored 79 PTS in a home win over Southern last Tuesday and the most that a Georgetown opponent has scored in regulation all year was 84 PTS so I figured that the Musketeers would end up with around 80-85 PTS…but thanks to their SR backcourt I should have taken the over. SG Adam Kunkel only made 1 shot in the 1st 20 minutes but nailed 4 more from behind the arc in the 2nd half before fouling out late with 15 PTS/5-7 3PM:
The star of the show was PG Souley Boum, who entered the game with 21-41 3PM this year and was somehow able to take it up a notch. Midway through the 2nd stanza he took matters into his own hands with a STL/jumper, then a 3-PT shot, then a STL/layup, then another 3, then another jumper. Those 12 PTS in a row gave his team a 12-PT lead with just under 7 minutes to go, and his final 3 of the game with 65 seconds left gave him a season-high 28 PTS and put his team over the century mark as Xavier won it 102-89. Put your hands up if you are the 2nd-best player in the Big East behind Adama Sanogo!
In the postgame press conference I was curious how Coach Miller felt about winning his 1st Big East game as a coach more than 30 years after winning his last Big East game as a player. He said that he was grateful to be back at Xavier: for the guys who played back in the 1980s/1990s it remains a badge of honor even decades later. He thinks about all of the legendary coaches in the league back then: from Jim Calhoun to Rick Pitino to John Thompson it seems like all of them are in the Hall of Fame. He has so many memories including “1 of the craziest fights that I have ever seen” back in 1988:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m71Z_vH3JKY
Even so, he is thrilled to be part of this great conference again:
In light of the passing of Coach Orr, I asked Wahab how close they were and what his reaction was when learning of the news yesterday. He stated that they were very close and that Orr was actually the person who recruited him to Georgetown. He was really sad to hear of Orr’s passing and wanted to win for him today. Even though they could not emerge victorious, the team will continue to play for their former coach throughout this season:
That is a wrap for 2022 as the Hoyas will finish up the calendar year with 2 road games, but check back in January as Georgetown hosts Butler on New Year’s Day!