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 for the Hoyas’ game at Capital 1 Arena and prepared this photo essay about their matchup against UConn.
Today’s game is a tale of 2 coaches going in completely opposite directions. On the far sideline stands UConn coach Dan Hurley, who is 10-0 in his career vs. the Hoyas and whose team enters today 17-1 with just a 4-PT home loss to undefeated Arizona (yay!). On the near sideline is Georgetown coach Ed Cooley, whose team got off to a 5-0 start in November but has lost 5 straight conference games and is in serious danger of digging themselves a hole that they cannot possibly get out of in the months ahead:
The pregame meal was…late, for the 1st time ever. Since it did not arrive in the media room by tipoff and I was starving, I missed the 1st few minutes of the game while leaving the arena and running across the street to Dos Toros for a braised ancho chicken bowl: it was delicious! The game was certianly not a sell-out, but the student section was packed and there were even a LOT of fans sitting in the upper deck (a rare sight this decade). By the time I reached my seat during the under-16 timeout, I looked up at the scoreboard to see that UConn C Tarris Reed Jr. had already scored 11 PTS as his team opened up an early double-digit lead:
Most of his teammates did not shoot that well, but FR SG Braylon Mullins looked every bit the McDonald’s All-American with 5 quick PTS on an open 3 and a tough turnaround jumper as his team entered intermission with a 32-28 lead thanks to 10 turnovers by the home team:
The halftime highlight was seeing former Villanova star Ed Pinckney: maybe he just loves Big East basketball as much as the rest of us? He is extra-beloved by yours truly as he played for both my Suns AND my Celtics during his 12-year NBA career…although for the life of me I do not know why Georgetown has not issued him a lifetime ban after he broke their heart in the 1985 NCAA title game with 16 PTS/6 REB/5 AST:
The Hoyas came out scorching to start the 2nd half with a 7-0 run during the 1st 2 minutes to give them a 3-PT lead and give their fans a reason to stand up and shout. In contrast, Huskies F Alex Karaban was ice-cold all day (missing each of his 1st 6 FGA), but finally knocked down a jump shot to break the streak and give his team a 2-PT lead with 10 minutes left. Today is his 129th game in a UConn uniform, which ranks #2 in school history behind only Jake Voskuhl:
Georgetown C Vince Iwuchukwu got his 2nd straight start after coming off the bench for the 1st 2 months of the season, and it looked like a wise decision as he finished with his 1st double-double of the season (12 PTS and a career-high 14 REB):
The Huskies made 14 of their 1st 15 FTs…then missed 6 more in the final few minutes to give the Hoyas some life. Georgeton kept it close for the entire 40 minutes, but Reed finished with a double-double of his own and the Huskies hung on for dear life to win it 64-62 and improve to 18-1.
In the postgame press conference, I wondered if any of the UConn players had discussed the big sports story this week, which was the college basketball point-shaving scandal. Silas Demary Jr.’s polite 3-word answer: “No comment, sir”:
I asked Coach Cooley about a former Hoya who was 1 of the many players indicted the other day (Cooley was hired as Georgetown coach back on 3/20/23, and less than 2 months later Bradley Ezewiro transferred to St. Louis). He would not comment specifically on Ezewiro, but said that men/women must be mindful of the minefield in sports-betting. He cares for the student-athletes who put themselves in the crocodile water and think they will not lose a limb. The schools/coaches are put in an awkard position, and now that athletes can get paid they do not need to be greedy:
That is a wrap for the month, as Georgetown is on the road for 3 of its next 4 and has a late weeknight game on 1/28, so enjoy the NFL playoffs and check back in February!
