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 and prepared this photo essay about the Hoyas’ matchup against Coppin State. If you would like to check out his prior coverage, please go to:
Part 1: https://hoopshd.com/2024/11/09/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-1-4
Part 2: https://hoopshd.com/2024/11/16/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-2-5
Part 3: https://hoopshd.com/2024/11/23/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-3-4
Part 4: https://hoopshd.com/2024/11/30/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-4-4
Part 5: https://hoopshd.com/2024/12/03/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-5-5
Part 6: https://hoopshd.com/2024/12/19/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-6-4
Another delicious hot pregame meal: burritos from a Mexican place across the street called Dos Toros Taqueria. The bad news for Georgetown was that their leading scorer Jayden Epps was out due to an ankle injury suffered in their win over Seton Hall last Sunday, but the good news was that Malik Mack was back in the starting lineup after missing the previous 2 games due to a lower body injury:
I got to sit in the “radio nest” next to the “Voice of the Hoyas” (Rich Chvotkin), who is in his 51st(!) year of covering Georgetown games on radio:
Let’s tip it off:
Coppin State hung around for the 1st 20 minutes due in large part to JR G Toby Nnadozie, who was a model of analytic efficiency with a trio of layups and a trio of threes. The most amazing part is that he converted just 5-31 3PM during his past 2 years at Maryland-Eastern Shore, but since transferring to his hometown of Baltimore he has found his long-range stroke with back-to-back games of 3 3PM:
In contrast to the 6’3” Eagle, Georgetown relied on their young Twin Towers. 6’10” FR Thomas Sorber did a little of everything inside (an old-fashioned 3-PT play, a dunk, a finger roll, a spin/baby hook, and even a rebound/reverse layup), while 6’11” SO Drew Fielder had a put-back, a spin/fadeaway jumper, and a layup to help their team build a 37-30 halftime lead:
The 2nd half was all Georgetown as they doubled up the Eagles by outscoring them 46-23. Sorber continued to dominate the paint, finishing with a great all-around effort of 22 PTS/12 REB/4 BLK…but needs to work on his ball-handling as he committed a ridiculous 8 TO. Fielder also continued to dominate the paint, finishing with a career-high 20 PTS/13 REB, and proved that you can indeed learn how to shoot FTs (he had only made 8-13 this season but knocked down 8-8 today). Mack’s return from injury was even better than expected (15 PTS/3-5 3PM/a career-high 11 AST) as the Hoyas cruised to an 83-53 victory.
In the postgame press conference I asked Coppin State coach Larry Stewart whether Nnadozie’s new-found 3-PT prowess was solely due to hard work or whether the coaching staff had to literally reconstruct his shot. He said that Nnadozie had a lot of “ball movement” in the past but now his hands/feet are ready. Since Nnadozie is a hard worker/coachable, the results are starting to show:
Georgetown coach Ed Cooley mentioned that he hoped there would be many more fans in attendance to provide a home-court advantage in 2025, so I followed up to see what other New Year’s resolutions he had (perhaps a playoff victory for his beloved Commanders?). He confirmed that he will be cheering like hell tomorrow night as they try to clinch a playoff berth, but also hopes that his team can stay healthy/get some confidence…and ultimately get lucky:
That is a wrap for 2024 but check back next weekend for a DC doubleheader to start the new year (Xavier-Georgetown on Friday night, followed by Dayton-GW on Saturday afternoon)!