Hoops HD

Thanksgiving used to be about food/family/football, but thanks to college basketball we now have tons of tournaments on Turkey Day including 2 in the Bahamas (Battle 4 Atlantis and Baha Mar Bahamas Championship), 1 in Vegas (Las Vegas Invitational), 1 in Florida (ESPN Events Invitational), and the Wooden Legacy in Anaheim. This year’s edition of the 1 way out west includes 2 teams from California (San Diego State/USC) and 2 teams from the East Coast (Georgetown/St. Joe’s). HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel was 1 of the few people in Anaheim last week who was NOT at Disneyland so that he could bring you as much basketball as possible. He concludes his coverage with a review of Friday night’s doubleheader.

Let’s tip things off:



It was not easy to get excited about the consolation game between St. Joe’s and Georgetown but (of course!) it turned out to be the most exciting game of the tourney. I am still unsure how Ejike Obinna is allowed to have his 1st name on the back of his jersey…and I am still unsure how to stop him as he kept making layup after layup against the Hoyas:



If only the guy whose name is on the back of this jersey (Iverson) was still on the Hoyas’ roster:



Jordan Hall was also solid with a pair of threes and a layup while distributing the ball to all of his shooters (finishing with a game-high 8 AST):



The star of the night was Taylor Funk who made a pair of 1st half shots from behind the arc which gave him 17 straight games dating back to last season with multiple makes from 3-PT range. He shot a respectable 35.4 3P% last year but would SIGNIFICANTLY increase that after today’s game:



Dante Harris tried to keep Georgetown close with a layup and a pair of jump shots but could not do it all by himself:



The shot of the night was courtesy of 7’2” Ryan Mutombo, who made the 1st/only 3-PT shot of his college career, besting his father Dikembe (who never attempted a single 3 during his own time with the Hoyas):



For any of you who think coaching does not matter, I refer you to Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing. His team was falling behind fast but by simply employing a full-court press midway through the 1st half he gave the Hawks FITS and was able to close the deficit enough to only be trailing 36-26 at halftime:



The 2nd half featured a pair of Nigerian big men showcasing their skills. Obinna kept posting up and getting into the lane for hook shots/alley-oop dunks but it was Georgetown 7-footer Timothy Ighoefe who set a career-high with 14 REB:



There would not ordinarily be that many missed shots available to be rebounded…but FR Aminu Mohammed followed his career-high 20-PT game on Thursday with an inexplicable 0-10 shooting night on Friday (although he did make 6-8 FTs and had 9 REB):



The other dynamic duel was between a pair of senior sharpshooters. Georgetown’s Kaiden Rice had 1 of the worst shooting nights of his life vs. American just 10 days ago when he was 0-7 from behind the arc…but made 7 threes vs. Siena on 11/19 and made ANOTHER 7 threes vs. St. Joe’s, including 1 that he banked in!



However, Funk more than held his own by making a career-high 8 threes of his own to set a Wooden Legacy record and help his team eke out a 77-74 win. He is currently top-10 in the nation in both 3PM (27) as well as 3P% (54), which is pretty funking great!



In the postgame press conference I asked Coach Ewing what his strategy is when an opposing player cannot seem to miss. He said that he told his team before the game that Funk is his opponent’s Rice and that, “He is an elite shooter and when he got shots he was able to knock them down”:



I wondered what Coach Billy Lange was feeling when Ewing called for the full-court press in the 1st half, and he responded that it was “Hoya Paranoia!” He knows all about the mystique of the Georgetown program but thought that his team handled it well after seeing it for a few possessions because once they broke the press it led to open threes that his team wanted to take:



My simple question for Funk was whether his performance (29 PTS/8-10 3PM/7 REB/4 STL) was the best of his life. His answer is that it was the best SHOOTING game of his life and that it felt fun:



The championship game featured the biggest crowd of any of the 4 games (as you would expect), most of whom were cheering for the Aztecs:



Sadly, it was also 1 of the ugliest shooting games you will ever see by a pair of good teams. Exhibit A was a long-range shot from Boogie Ellis that ended up wedged between the rim/glass:



USC big man Isaiah Mobley got off to a hot start in the 1st half with a put-back at the rim, a jumper in the lane, and even a 3:



The only good news for San Diego State was that Matt Bradley FINALLY found his jersey after having to wear a teammate’s jersey the previous night:



Perhaps the cheerleaders dropped it off, as the Aztecs were the only school who had any in the arena:



The bad news: they were down 22-15 at halftime. I missed the 1st 4 minutes of the 2nd half to watch the end of the Duke-Gonzaga game, which I assure you was well worth it, but when I finally walked back to the court I was able to confirm that the trophy is in the house!

Lamont Butler made 6-6 FG on Thursday but started out 0-8 from the field on Friday before flipping the script with a pair of layups, a jumper, and a 3:



Through the 1st 35 minutes the 2 teams combined to miss 17 of 22 FTs and 22 of 26 threes: I cannot include a photo that would accurately portray the craptacular level of shooting because this is a family website. On the plus side, Mobley continued making shots from all over the court, recorded his 1st double-double since February, and propelled his team to a 58-43 win en route to being named Wooden Legacy MVP:

The Trojans took the court for their official trophy photo:

…followed shortly by their unofficial trophy photo:

Coach Dutcher stated that it was a defensive struggle but I challenged him by arguing that a combined 5-22 FTM translates to a pair of teams that are just exhausted by playing on back-to-back nights. He agreed that both teams have to make their FTs, especially the trio of 1-&-1 opportunities for Nathan Mensah in the final 5 minutes of the 1st half that resulted in 3 straight misses:



I noticed that undefeated USC’s next 2 games were against undefeated conference foes Utah/Washington State so my question for Coach Andy Enfield was whether his team is ready for Pac-12 play. He smirked and said that since his team is 53-17 in its past 70 games the short answer is “yes”:



I pointed out to Mobley that between his double-double and his brother Evan’s impending return to the NBA court after spraining his right elbow earlier this month his family has a lot to be thankful for during Thanksgiving weekend. He smiled and stated that he just hopes he can help his team keep winning…and that the Cavs can have some success as well:



That is a wrap from Anaheim, hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, check back next month for some action from back home in DC!

Thanksgiving used to be about food/family/football, but thanks to college basketball we now have tons of tournaments on Turkey Day including 2 in the Bahamas (Battle 4 Atlantis and Baha Mar Bahamas Championship), 1 in Vegas (Las Vegas Invitational), 1 in Florida (ESPN Events Invitational), and the Wooden Legacy in Anaheim. This year’s edition of the 1 way out west includes 2 teams from California (San Diego State/USC) and 2 teams from the East Coast (Georgetown/St. Joe’s). HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel is 1 of the few people in Anaheim this week who is NOT at Disneyland so that he can bring you as much basketball as possible. He commences his coverage with a review of Thursday night’s doubleheader.



1 of the 4 squads will be thankful to hoist this trophy on Friday night:



Thanks to my friend Sam who is staying at the Marriott I had an easy walk to the Convention Center for a night of Thanksgiving basketball. Thanks to COVID my Thanksgiving media meal was…a box lunch, but I learned long ago to not complain about free food. The crowd is pretty sparse for Game 1 because St. Joe’s is 2700 miles from Anaheim and USC…loves their football team. I knew that the Hawk was famous for waving his wings throughout the entire game, but I did not know that he waved 1 wing during the national anthem while placing the other over his heart:



Let’s serve it up and see who wants to eat!



The Hawks flew across the country for their 1st game all year away from Hagan Arena so I was not sure how much energy they would have, but they kept it competitive for the 1st 20 minutes. Their leading scorer is Taylor Funk and he brought both the noise and himself with a 3 and a pair of jumpers:



The surprise star was grad student Ejike Obinna who transferred in after playing at Vandy. I still cannot tell if he has an outside shot, but the good news is that it does not matter because he just kept making hook shots off the glass and layup after layup against a USC team whose average height of 6’7” is top-5 in the nation:



1 of those tall Trojans is 6’9” Chevez Goodwin, who matched Obinna dunk for dunk and hook for hook:



USC coach Andy Enfield brought Boogie Ellis in as a transfer after 2 years at Memphis and it seems to be working out well for everyone involved as both his old team and new team are currently undefeated. He got off to a hot start this year from behind the arc with 8-17 3PM but did most of his damage in the paint on Friday by driving in for leaners/layups/put-backs to help his team build a 38-26 halftime lead:



It was a different half/same result for Obinna in the 2nd stanza: hooks/layups/dunks as he recorded his 2nd double-double of the season with 18 PTS/9-13 FG/10 REB in only 28 minutes of action. Coach Billy Lange must have told his team to stop letting Ellis “boogie” his way into the lane…but instead of battling the big men the 6’3” guard just took what the defense gave him and made several jump shots to finish with a team-high 17 PTS. The man responsible for inside scoring was Joshua Morgan, who last stepped onto this court 2 years ago when he was a player at Long Beach State and I was at the media table watching my Penn Quakers score 95(!) PTS against the Beach. I may not have aged gracefully since then but Morgan certainly has with a dunk and some layups. He entered this game having made exactly 1 FT this season and 0 last season, but looked rather comfortable at the line by making 5-6 against St. Joe’s as his team won handily by a score of 70-55:



In the noticeably dark postgame press conference I asked Coach Lange about how he had unlocked Obinna’s potential. He politely said that Obinna deserves all the credit because he loves basketball and is 1 of the best “souls” that he has ever met:



Since Obinna faced several big SEC opponents during his time at Vandy I wondered if he changed his style of play when facing a supersized team like USC. He responded that he approaches every game the same way and just does whatever it takes to win because, “I am a winning guy”:



My question for Morgan was how it felt to be back in Anaheim on an undefeated team after playing here 2 years ago on a team that lost 21 games. He laughed in disbelief and said that it was a definitely a different experience because it is always fun to win:



His teammate Ellis knows a lot about winning, especially in neutral-site games (as he won each of his last 4 in March en route to an NIT title), so I inquired how he plays so well when there are few fans cheering/booing in the stands. His answer was that it is due to a lot of effort/communication and that he felt his team was in control of the pace of the game the entire time:



I missed the start of the nightcap because the 1st press conference ran long. Proving the adage that there is no rest for the weary, I saw Coach Enfield sitting courtside for the 1st half of Georgetown-San Diego State to do some quick scouting:



I knew the San Diego State student section (aka The Show) is legendary at Viejas Arena, but I was happily surprised to see that the alumni could keep it up 90 minutes away in Anaheim on a weeknight holiday. Even though USC is a considerably shorter distance away the Aztec fans were by far the best ones here: chanting/standing/stomping to help support their team. However, it was a young Hoya duo who did a decent job of silencing them early. Defending Big East tourney MOP Dante Harris made a ton of jump shots early to rack up 10 PTS in the 1st 8 minutes:



Preseason Big East Roy Aminu Mohammed kept getting to the rim for layup after layup and had 11 PTS in the 1st 10+ minutes:



The good news for Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing is that his 2 young stars outscored San Diego State all by themselves in the 1st 11 minutes (21-17)…but the bad news is that it is hard to beat a team that has won 9 of 11 neutral-site games during the past 24 months when nobody else in your lineup is scoring:

I saw plenty of Matt Bradley during his career at Cal when he went 0-4 vs. my Wildcats. 1 thing I had not see him do was wear Demarshay Johnson’s #11 jersey:



I asked several media folks why this was happening but nobody seemed to know. I tracked down Bradley’s SID and was told it was because he did not have his own jersey with him: oh well, I do not function at 100% after a day of turkey and stuffing either! As far as his on-court performance it was spectacular on both ends of the court. On offense he made a few jumpers as well as a 3, while on defense the 6’4” senior took a charge against Mohammed and then somehow blocked a dunk attempt by 7’2” Ryan Mutombo. 1 player who was unstoppable at dunking was Bradley’s teammate Tahirou Diabate, who scored 8 PTS in the 1st half on a 1 layup and 3 dunks:



The Aztecs’ ability to keep calm and watch even their secondary scorers knock down threes as the clock was winding down was awesome. Trey Pulliam (a 25% 3-PT shooter this season) made a 25-footer late in the half to beat the shot clock, and his teammate Adam Seiko (a 21% 3-PT shooter this season) nailed a 3 at the halftime buzzer to give his team 40-32 lead. Georgetown was unable to respond from long range in the 2nd half: they were top-15 in the nation this year at over 41 3P% but only made 4-20 on Friday night. They also were underwhelming at passing the ball. Pulliam did not score that well with just 7 total PTS but he had more AST (8) than the entire Georgetown team (6), proving once again that having a SR PG who you can trust to run the offense is a great luxury:



After doing very little in the 1st half, Pulliam’s teammate Lamont Butler exploded in the 2nd half with steals/layups/threes. The sophomore guard had only averaged 8 PPG during his 1st 4 games this year, but scored 11 straight PTS by himself in the 1st few minutes after halftime to help his team keep from cracking:



Mohammed is only 4-12 from behind the arc as a freshman but you can see him continuing to improve every single game. He kept getting into the lane over and over to finish with a career-high 20 PTS, including a layup that cut the deficit to 57-53 and brought some loud cheers from the few Hoya fans in the house. However, his teammates faded down the stretch and were outscored 16-5 in the final 10 minutes of a 73-56 loss as Coach Brian Dutcher picked up his 100th win as a D-1 head coach in only 132 games on the sideline:



There were no Georgetown players at the press conference so I just asked Coach Ewing how impressed he was with Mohammed’s improvement from day to day. His answer is that he expects Mohammed to be 1 of his team’s best players, but that while he was happy with his effort the team did not play the way he wanted them to as a group:



My question for Coach Dutcher was about Butler’s 2nd half stats. He said that Lamont is like any other player in that, “When you make the 3 you are always dangerous”:



I read that Bradley grew up 45 minutes away from Anaheim so I wondered if he had a lot of family/friends in the arena tonight. He responded that he had about 20-25 family members there and that it was just really nice to play in front of any fans after being unable to do so last year. I followed up by reminding him that he is winless in 4 career games against the Trojans. He agreed that it is a game that he really wants to win and that “we have had it marked on our calendar”:



That’s a wrap for Day 1, check back in the days ahead for continuing coverage from the happiest place on earth: a college basketball court!