In the most abnormal of ways, your Georgetown Hoyas opened their 2020-2021 campaign with a 70-62 victory against the UMBC Retrievers in their first-ever game on the newly commemorated John Thompson Jr. Court inside McDonough Arena.
The Hoyas were led by senior guard Jahvon Blair and sophomore center Qudus Wahab, who had 23 and 12 points, respectively. While Wahab stepped into a dominant position in the paint with 12 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 1 steal, he was also surprisingly complemented by freshman wing Kobe Clark, who added to Georgetown’s 58-38 rebounding margin with 10 boards of his own. Siena transfer Don Carey stepped into a starting role for the Hoyas and showed that he has the potential to become a strong scoring option for this year’s Hoyas, finishing the game with 13 points on 5/12 shooting.
However, this Hoyas win was by no means ideal. While both teams rocked social justice-themed uniforms and Patrick Ewing honored the late John Thompson Jr. by wearing his signature shoulder towel, the quality of play did not remotely match the sentiment. The eeriness of an empty McDonough Arena filled with squeaking sneakers only added to the sloppy play that marked the beginning of this game. Fouls, turnovers, and a general inability to put the ball through the net were indicative of the haphazard basketball played by both teams.
While both teams entered the bonus just twelve minutes into the first half, shooting as a whole crushed the Hoyas’ chances of picking up offensive consistency. As a team, Georgetown shot an abysmal 37.3% from the field and an even worse 25.9% from three-point territory. While much of this poor shooting can be chalked up to rust and lack of true practice time due to the strict COVID-19 guidelines this season, Coach Ewing stressed the importance of being able to knock down opportunities given to the Hoyas by opposing defenses. Specifically, Ewing mentioned the importance of turning defense into offense, saying “We did a much better job in the second half defensively keeping the ball in front of us. Later on in that half we stopped making shots. We missed wide-open shots. I kept telling the guys that in future games we gotta make those wide-open shots.”
Senior Jamorko Pickett was particularly ineffective, making just three of 15 shot attempts, and turning the ball over five times, in an ugly performance. Pickett will need to be better if the Hoyas are going to compete with Big East caliber competition. While it certainly was not Pickett’s best game, Ewing was still complimentary of the senior’s effort, defense and rebounding.
One notable storyline that followed Georgetown’s season opener was the absence of Northwestern State graduate transfer Chudier Bile and four-star freshman forward Jamari Sibley. While many expected Bile to potentially step into a starting role, Ewing indicated in his postgame press conference that he did not play due to an injury. Sibley’s absence from the floor, on the other hand, was a coach’s decision. Ewing gave little justification for this move, saying, “Jamari just didn’t play.”
Down low, the Hoyas looked dominant with Qudus Wahab and Timothy Ighoefe leading the charge. Malcolm Wilson also received minutes tonight, and Ewing praised his strong play that was capped off by a putback dunk to end the first half, which put the Hoyas up 36-30 heading into the break. Wilson showed that he belongs with 4 rebounds and a basket in just three minutes of action.
While the Hoyas had no problem controlling the rebound margin, they did have trouble in the turnover department. Georgetown committed 20 (!) turnovers and allowed UMBC to score 24 points off those turnovers. When asked about the necessity to clean up the game as a whole in the post-game press conference, Ewing clearly rolled his eyes in disgust, knowing that in the future the Hoyas will face stiffer competition and will need to play a cleaner game in order to win.
Overall, like much of this year, this win was not pretty. There were bad passes, stupid fouls, bricks left and right, and only a cardboard cut-out of Jack the Bulldog. But hey, in 2020, the phrase “A win’s a win” has got to mean something, right?
Your undefeated Georgetown Hoyas will look to increase their winning streak of one back at McDonough Arena on December 1st when Navy comes to town. Happy Thanksgiving, Hoyas fans.
