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 1-3 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
https://hoopshd.com/2022/12/17/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-3-3
See below for his photo essay about the Hoyas’ game last night against Butler.
I am starting off the new year with the pregame meal of the year: make-your-own steak sandwiches for dinner with chocolate chip cookies and mini-churros in caramel sauce for dessert! Let’s tip it off:
Our coaching matchup features 2 guys with very different resumes. Standing on the left is Coach Patrick Ewing, who has lost 23 conference games in a row entering tonight; sitting on the right is Coach Thad Matta, who has the 4th-best winning percentage among active D-1 coaches (minimum 10 seasons): 
Tonight marks Matta’s 1st game vs. the Hoyas since he beat them 67-60 in the 2007 Final 4 in Atlanta as coach at Ohio State. His current director of basketball operations (Greg Oden) scored 13 PTS that night and along with Ewing gives us 2 former NBA 1st overall picks (1985 and 2007) in the arena:
Just when you think Georgetown’s problems could not get any worse, it turns out that JR G Jay Heath is out for the foreseeable future due to a left hand injury:
Butler G Eric Hunter finished his 4-year career at Purdue last spring by going out on top with a 29-win season and a trip to the Sweet 16 before losing to St. Peter’s. It must be weird for him to see his former team sitting on top of the college basketball world this season with a 13-0 record so far, but it did not seem to bother him as he made a bunch of layups and a corner 3 in the 1st half:
Another transfer who looked great in the 1st 20 minutes was Manny Bates, who only played 1 minute for NC State last season after suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in the very 1st minute of his season-opener vs. Bucknell, but was unstoppable in the paint with fadeaway jumper after dunk after turnaround baby hook:
SO G Jayden Taylor only had 3-17 3PM during the month of December and lost his spot in the starting lineup, but made a trio of threes off the bench in the 1st half: more on him later. Georgetown G Brandon Murray was coming off a career-high 29-PT performance at DePaul last Thursday and continued his hot streak with a 3 from the top of key and several successful drives to the hoop to keep his team in it for a while:
Butler led 38-30 at halftime, which is a bigger deal than you might think because the Bulldogs are 8-0 this year when leading at halftime. Taylor duplicated his hot start with 3 more shots from behind the arc in the 2nd half, finishing with a career-high 24 PTS and not a single turnover in just 21 minutes of action:
Georgetown was ice-cold from the field and finished with just 28.8 FG% as Butler pulled away to win 80-51, giving the Hoyas their 24th loss in a row to tie DePaul for the longest conference losing streak in Big East history. In the postgame press conference I asked Taylor how he was able to have the game of his life. He said that his success was due to the energy of the team becoming contagious, as their goal entering the game was just to win:
I knew that other media members would ask Ewing about the losing streak so I decided to inquire about whether Primo Spears might be hitting the proverbial wall due to playing almost 38 minutes/game (3rd-most in the nation). He confirmed that while Primo is banged up a bit his motor is just fine. His PG tries hard to be a facilitator (he only attempted 5 shots tonight), but Ewing feels he needs to give Primo some more scoring opportunities: 
That is a wrap for now but check back later this week as Georgetown hosts Villanova on Wednesday.
Hoops HD Staff Bracket – Monday, January 2nd
After our holiday break, we resume our Staff Bracket projections this week. This is not to be confused with the brackets that our committee-guessing expert Jon Teitel posts; he is simply guessing what the Selection Committee would likely pick at this stage. With John Stalica’s turn this week, this is how he sees fit at this checkpoint of the season.
COMMENTS FROM JOHN:
– With UConn losing this weekend, we now have a clear-cut #1 overall seed with Purdue taking control. Kansas and Arizona continue to impress and UConn still has the edge over Houston for the final #1 spot for now.
– Both New Mexico and Xavier tied for #22 in the AP Poll last week and both teams have been rising fast in the seed list. The Musketeers have an opportunity to rise up a little faster given the level of competition in the Big East versus what the Mountain West offers for the Lobos.
– If not for their win at home against Yale, Kentucky would be 0-4 against the top two tiers in the NET. Notice they are not in the bracket right now.
– I think that Charleston and Florida Atlantic deserve to be above the First Four right now, but teams like North Texas and UAB also have a chance to crash the party as at-larges if things break right for them in C-USA. Southern Miss is not above the First Four but I do have them as a #12 seed at this point.
– Creighton is a team that will likely get healthy and get in the field later on in the season, but right now the resume isn’t there. Villanova may not get to that point and will really be behind the 8-ball should they not kick into gear soon.
First Four Out: Creighton, Utah State, Northwestern, NC State
COMMENTS FROM DAVID: Stalica mentioned this in his write-up, but to the question of “Where’s Kentucky?” the answer should be “Right next to Oklahoma State.” I do think Kentucky will be there in the end, but right now despite multiple chances, they just don’t have enough wins against the top 100, much less tournament caliber wins, to be selected. I applaud John for the omission!!
-Sam Houston is in his field, but on the #12 line. I’m starting to think that I’m the only person that I’m the only person that respects the hell out of their resume. The wins at Oklahoma and Utah have got to be worth something. Granted Stalica only has both of those teams in the First Four, so…