After a rough start to Hoya fans’ holiday weeks with Sunday’s loss against St. John’s, Monday’s recruiting news reinvigorated the fan base’s optimism after Coach Ewing landed a commitment from five-star wing Aminu Mohammed. The future is looking bright. Before looking too far into the future, the Hoya’s sights are currently set on today’s showdown with Big East rival Seton Hall.
Georgetown (3-4, 1-2 in conference) is playing their second straight road game after starting the season with a six-game homestand. In an empty Prudential Center, Georgetown is going up against a battle tested Seton Hall squad (5-4. 2-1 in conference). Seton Hall recently saw its four-game win streak snapped on Sunday thanks to a game-winning three pointer by Providence’s A. J. Reeves. Their win streak featured impressive wins over both Penn State and Marquette, and Seton Hall has faced other quality opponents in losses to Louisville, Oregon, and Rhode Island. Following the departure of prolific scorer Myles Powell, Harvard graduate transfer Bryce Aiken was expected to shoulder some of the offensive load. However, an injury has kept him sidelined for most of the season. This has allowed another Seton Hall player to shine: Sandro Mamukelashvili (or “Mamu” for short).
This kid can flat out play, and he is the heart of this Seton Hall team. A 6’’11 player should not be able to move the way he does, yet Mamu will intercept lazy passes on defense and turn it into a break away dunk, knock down three pointers, or put the ball on the floor and hang in the air to finish an and-one. He is a matchup nightmare, and I am concerned about Qudus’s ability to defend him. Reducing Mamu’s impact on the game has to be central to Georgetown’s gameplan.
Against the Pirates, Ewing will likely not be able to utilize the small ball lineup. Seton Hall is long, with only one of their rotation players under 6’5”, so I expect to see a lot of Timothy Ighoefe today off the bench. Chudier Bile will have to continue to play big and be physical too for Georgetown to have a chance in this game. If any of Georgetown’s bigs get into foul trouble early, it will be tough for the Hoyas to battle back.
Outside of Mamu, Seton Hall presents a balanced attack and sees contributions from all members of its nucleus. One aspect of their game that struck me is the ball movement from inside the arc. Mamu is a great passer from the foul line or below, and he routinely finds open cutters for easy buckets. I imagine Coach Ewing harped on this in practice all week, but the Hoyas cannot get caught ball watching while getting burned on backdoor cuts. The Pirates’ size also worries me, as Dante Harris and Jahvon Blair are going to be forced to guard bigger players. Jared Rhoden, Shavar Reynolds, Takal Molson, and Myles Cale all have the guard skills to play on the perimeter and also the physicality to get in the paint.
As we saw in the last matchup at St. John’s, Georgetown continues to struggle defending the perimeter. Seton Hall is a slightly above average three-point shooting team, shooting 36.1% just like the Hoyas. However, the three-point shot only accounts for 28% of the Pirates’ points per game, while the three ball makes up 37% of the Hoyas offense (Kenpom). Seton Hall’s defense is solid, ranking 69th in the country, but a slightly weaker perimeter defense gives Georgetown a slight edge in three-point shooting(Haslametrics). Hopefully, Georgetown can exploit this by coming out red hot as they did against Villanova a couple of weeks back while preventing Seton Hall from catching fire from beyond the arc. Again, the turnover issue needs to be solved in order to win this game. Ranked 15th in the country in generating quick points off of turnovers, Seton Hall’s pressure could pose major issues for the Hoyas (Haslametrics). Ball security is a must.
Donald Carey has been an active contributor in the past two games with 19 points in each, and the Hoyas will definitely need his hot shooting to be competitive. Jahvon Blair seems to make this team go, and his production is vital to a win. Dante Harris will not have to score a ton of points, but he will need to be a facilitator and handle Seton Hall’s pressure. The major X-factor in this game is Jamorko Pickett. He’s been in a bit of slump recently, shooting only 5-19 in the past two games. If he can get going early and start playing with some confidence, we’ll be in for a fun one. At the end of the day, scoring inside the paint will be tough for Georgetown’s guards given Seton Hall’s height, so the Hoyas simply must make open shots to be competitive.
Keys to the game:
- Limit Mamu offensively
- Take care of the ball on offense
- Knockdown shots
Jake’s Prediction: Seton Hall 78, Georgetown 69
I’m predicting a high scoring affair, but I believe Seton Hall will be too tough of a matchup for Hoyas. On the defensive end, I see us struggling to defend while the offensive side is entirely predicated upon which team shows up today. Definitely not counting Georgetown out, but Seton Hall might get the best of us in this pre-holiday showdown.
Jacob’s Prediction (7-0 on the season): Seton Hall 82, Georgetown 67
Seton Hall can put up points in a hurry; they haven’t scored less than 70 in a game this season. The Hoyas just gave up 94 points to a mediocre St. John’s team, so I don’t expect them to be able to slow down a higher-powered Pirates attack. For that reason, Georgetown’s only chance in this one is to outgun Seton Hall in a shootout. For the Hoyas’ offense to be at its best (especially against a team where they likely won’t go small), Qudus Wahab must be on the floor. If Wahab is forced to guard Mamu like we expect, I see him getting in foul trouble very early. Wahab does a lot of things right defensively, but guarding out on the perimeter is not one of those things. Mamu is not only a capable shooter (which will force Qudus to respect his jumper), but he is also clearly a step or two quicker than Wahab. I don’t see this ending well for either Wahab or the Hoyas as a team. But hey, in a week where Patrick Ewing scored his first 5-star recruit, there may be one more rabbit left in his hat!
Will’s Prediction (6-1 on the season): Seton Hall 83, Georgetown 65
Georgetown could lose by 25 today and I wouldn’t even care. The air seems cleaner, the water is more pure, everything tastes just a little better. Is this what it’s like to get a top 15 recruit? As for the actual game at hand, I actually probably would mind if we lost by 25. Seton Hall has a high-powered offense, while the Hoyas made St. John’s look like a high-powered offense. Qudus Wahab will be key to winning this game, but I’m afraid to see how he’ll defend against Mamu. If the Hoyas have any hope of competing today, getting hot from behind the arc is a must, which means they’ll need Don Carey to continue his strong performance from Sunday, Pickett and Blair to heavily contribute, as well as Dante Harris and TJ Berger not being as quiet as they were on Sunday. There’s just too many moving factors for the Hoyas to the point where I’d be able to predict them to pull this one out, sadly.
