Hanging with the Hoyas: Part 2

HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming months covering several Georgetown basketball home games, with (hopefully) a very special reward coming in March. He was in attendance Saturday afternoon at Capital 1 Arena for the Hoyas’ 1st real test of the year and prepared this photo essay about their matchup against Notre Dame. If you would like to check out Part 1 you can find it at: https://hoopshd.com/2024/11/09/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-1-4

Yet another cold-but-tasty pregame meal: chicken and salad wrap/chips/cookie. There was a decent amount of green in the crowd as this was a big day on national TV for the Irish. The basketball team was in DC for its 1st game on NBC since 1998(!), and the football team was hosting UVA in South Bend as it tried to stay alive for a playoff berth:

I was unsure what kind of crowd we would get for a matchup of unbeaten power-conference teams, but the mascot was not left standing alone as the section behind the basket looked quite full of students and was 1 of the best turnouts I have seen in several years:

However, 1 Georgetown alum who was kicked out of his front row seat when 3 female fans showed up was the Junkyard Dog himself: Jerome Williams!

Not pictured: he later was kind enough to sign a young fan’s Croc sandal…which she proceeded to place right back on her foot! Let’s tip it off:

Harvard transfer Malik Mack has had a rough start to his season by only making 2-9 3PM during his 1st 2 games but came out strong with a pair of threes in the opening stanza and finished with a team-high 16 PTS on 4-8 3PM. 1 newcomer who was surprisingly left out of the starting lineup was reigning Big East Freshman of the Week Thomas Sorber: he only played 23 total minutes but Georgetown coach Ed Cooley informed the media after the game that Sorber did not even practice on Friday due to some sort of bug afflicting the squad. Notre Dame JR F Tae Davis was perfectly respectable last year with 9 PPG in 26 minutes/game, but he has taken it up a notch this year. He exhibited the entire arsenal in the 1st half with a dunk, step-back J, finger-roll at the rim, and a corner 3 to cap off a 15-1 run thanks to the Hoyas missing 15 shots in a row. Davis is now averaging 16+ PPG this month despite paying fewer than 22 minutes/game: #efficient! His teammate Matt Allocco was 2-2 from long range this season and kept it going by nailing each of his 1st 4 shots from behind the arc to help the Irish build a 44-29 lead at halftime.

Hoya JR G Jayden Epps finally woke up in the 2nd half with 2 shots from long-range and 2 shots in the lane to finish with 13 PTS but it was not even close to enough. Defending ACC ROY Markus Burton had a similarly quiet 1st half but was unstoppable after intermission by making 3 jumpers from the free throw line and all 6 of his FTs from the same spot for 12 PTS to help his team pull away in a dominant 84-63 victory.

In the postgame press conference I asked Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry how his decision to have his team practice with a 24-second shot clock has translated to success during games. He said that they play with more pace and try to kick the ball ahead after gaining possession, but that it really helps in the half-court offense. He wants the pace of his team’s cuts to be great, followed by them attacking the paint:

I wondered if Coach Cooley felt any pressure to go 5-0 during the weeks ahead as he has 5 straight home games coming up against non-power-conference teams. He smiled and reminded me that while “pressure is a privilege” he feels no pressure at all. He will hold everyone accountable and do things the right way…but he never feels any pressure:

That is a wrap for now but check back next weekend when St. Francis comes to DC!