Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve made it. The dark times are over. Winter has (figuratively) passed. It all starts now.
The Hoyas begin their season tomorrow at 2:00 pm against Dartmouth (0-1) at Capital One Arena. While anticipation builds and the Hoyas get ready to open up their non-conference schedule, here are a few things to look out for.
Game info:
TV Network: FS2
Location: Capital One Arena, Washington DC
Time: 2:00 pm
All time record vs. Dartmouth: 1-1, last game was a 57-56 Dartmouth victory in December 1974
Who we’re playing:
I think we can confidently say that Dartmouth is not known for their prowess on the basketball court. With less than half of their roster having played collegiate basketball prior to this season, their team isn’t the strongest, but they will be a good litmus test to see where the Hoyas are heading into the rest of the season. In their first game against Boston College on Tuesday, Dartmouth lost handily while shooting 37.5% from the field and 20.7% from deep, while taking more threes than twos.
Opposing player to look out for: Brendan Barry
As a whole, Dartmouth’s offense runs through their graduate transfer point guard Brendan Barry. Barry, a former member of the Big Green who transferred to Temple during COVID and has since transferred back for his fifth year, is a high volume shooter who is usually rather efficient from the field, despite shooting 2-11 from deep against Boston College. He will be putting up a lot of three pointers, so he will be a good test for Georgetown’s notoriously bad three point defense.
How Georgetown matches up:
Obviously, we’d expect Georgetown to dominate this game. On offense, the Hoyas will be going up against an undersized Dartmouth lineup with no true big man. To make up for this, the Big Green may try to utilize a 2-3 zone to double any ball down low, similar to what they did against Boston College. This should be a good test for Georgetown’s ball movement, especially from the centers and around the perimeter to create open shots. On the other side of the ball, as previously mentioned, Dartmouth likes to take a lot of three pointers. We all know how much of a problem three point defense has been for the Hoyas in the past under Patrick Ewing, so dealing with the high number of attempts Dartmouth will likely be taking will serve as good practice for the Hoyas.
Predictions
Armen’s Prediction: Georgetown 79, Dartmouth 51
To be honest, Dartmouth is not good. They have no way of stopping Georgetown and have one real scorer who Dante should match up well against. Give me a Tim 20-10 double double and a Georgetown blowout.
Will’s Prediction (0-0 on the season): Georgetown 68, Dartmouth 59
The first half is going to be Heart Attack Hoyas. The second half is going to be glorious.
At least that’s my hope. Dartmouth isn’t a great team and they lack size (fun fact for college basketball fans: Larry Krystkowiak’s son plays for the Big Green and is their second-tallest player). This is a game Georgetown should win handily, but years of experience tells me otherwise. It’ll be close, but they’ll pull out the win, and at the end of the day, I’m just happy to be back in Cap One cheering on the Hoyas.
Jacob’s Prediction (0-0 on the season): Georgetown 81, Dartmouth 70
I think this game is going to be closer than some people expect. Sure, Dartmouth looked bad against BC. But for a young team like the Big Green, that outing should have helped to get out some of the early season jitters. Plus there’s no way they shoot as poorly as they did in their first game. That being said, I think the Hoyas put up a lot of points behind a big day from Don Carey and pull away in the final minutes. It feels good to be back.
