HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming months covering several Georgetown basketball games, with (hopefully) a very special reward coming in March. When the Hoyas have an off-day, Capital 1 Arena has become a hotbed for big-time non-conference games: last February we had a sold-out building for Duke-Michigan, and Sunday we had another great crowd for Arkansas-Virginia. Jon was in attendance for both of them and prepared this photo essay about today’s “Capital Showcase”:
No pregame meal, sadly, but when I went across the street to Chopt to get a salad I bumped into Shawn Andrews. Back in the day he was a 2-time All-American offensive lineman on the Arkansas football team, then became a 2-time Pro Bowler for the Philadelphia Eagles (play the song, Chad!), but is now turning into “the father of JJ Andrews”, a 2026 McDonald’s All-American who now plays basketball for his father’s alma mater:
No baseline seating either, so this will be heavy on essay and light on photos. I figured it was okay to miss the 1st 4 minutes of the game while conducting a phone interview with the father of Maryland super-frosh Baba Oladotun: I will try to get it posted later this week. The crowd appears to be about 2/3 Virginia and 1/3 Arkansas, which makes sense based on each school’s distance from DC. Since Charlottesville is just 120 miles from the nation’s capital, the Hoos were able to bring their band/spirit team:
For those of you who were wondering if adult Arkansas fans actually wear those plastic Razorback helmets on their head…I regret to inform you that the rumors are true:
As you might expect from a John Calipari-coached team, the Razorbacks are very inexperienced due to a roster that is full of freshmen, but 2 of them are 6’2″ guards who played years beyond their ages. Davion Thompson made 3 jump shots in the 1st half, while Jordan Smith Jr. had a big STL/dunk and 2 other baskets in the lane. However, Virginia’s sophomore class seemed even more spectacular regardless of size/nationality. 5’10” Charlottesville native Chance Mallory made a pair of threes and a turnaround jumper in the lane, while European big men Thijs De Ridder/Johann Grunloh dominated the paint to give their team a 46-27 halftime lead. It also helped the Hoos that Arkansas made exactly ONE shot from behind the arc before intermission.
Neither of the 2 most exciting plays of the 2nd stanza involved Virginia. The 1st play did not even involve a human being, but rather a trio of birds trapped inside the arena who flew around while trying to find the exit…probably because this game has turned into a blowout. When they could not find an exit midway through the 2nd half, 2 of them decided to make their way down to the court!
The 2nd play involved Smith: the DC native tried to chase down Mallory on a drive to the hoop and ended up jumping OVER him while trying to block his shot before the under-16 timeout.
It was a tale of 2 halves for the Razorbacks’ 3-PT shooting: after shooting 1-8 in the 1st half, they made 6-11 behind the arc in the 2nd half including 3 from Jeremiah Wilkinson (who went scoreless during the 1st 20 minutes) and 2 from 7-footer Miikka Muurinen. However, Virginia simply had too much scoring balance as all 5 starters finished with 13-16 PTS. Nolan Adekunle made a pair of corner threes, Sam Lewis knocked down a 3 from the top of the key and another 1 from the corner, and the Cavaliers cruised to a 91-72 victory with a Tier 1 win that will look very impressive from now all the way through Selection Sunday.
In the postgame press conference I asked Arkansas F Cooper Bowser about his teammate Smith Jr. having so much success so early in his college career (19+ PTS/3+ STL in each of his 1st 2 games). He said he sees it every day in practice because Jordan has a relentless motor and is a great kid/elite competitor. He just wishes they could have got Smith Jr. a win during his return to his hometown of DC:
Today was Coach Calipari’s largest non-conference loss since he was coach at Kentucky and had a 118-84 loss to Duke in Zion Williamson’s college debut at the Champions Classic in Indianapolis in November 2018 (www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkj-RC1lX5s). The good news is that such a loss does not always ruin your entire season, as the Wildcats won 30 games that year and made the Elite 8 before losing to Auburn in OT…but I did not get to ask him about it because there were a LOT of other media members ahead of me:
I asked Grunloh about the biggest advantage he has a sophomore when facing a team that played 7 freshmen, be it physical/mental/emotional/other. He said that it is a little of everything, but that a big key is the mental aspect of staying focused and not getting distracted by minor things:
Since nobody else had mentioned the birds yet, I had to see if UVA coach Ryan Odom had ever seen anything crazier at a game during his 3 decades in the business. He said it was incredible because “DC pigeons are tough”…but also recalled the 2024 A-10 tourney title game when he was head coach at VCU facing Duquesne. That game was proceeding as normal early in the 2nd half when confetti started raining down from the rafters (www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXCo6fJZ14I):
That is a wrap for now, but check back later this month when Georgetown returns to its home arena.
