GAME THREAD: American at Georgetown

Nov 23, 2022 - 1:08 PM

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Game 6: American Eagles (2-2) at Georgetown Hoyas (3-2)

When: Today at 11:30 AM

Where: Capital One Arena

TV: FS2 (Josh Sims & Dickey Simpkins)

Radio: The Team 980 (Rich Chvotkin - 49th season)

Series: According to Georgetown: 47-8 Hoyas. According to American: 45-10 Hoyas.

Last Meeting: Georgetown won 79-57 on Nov. 16, 2021 for their first win of the season.

KenPom Ranking: Georgetown 126, American 301

KenPom Projection: Georgetown 77-64 (88%)

Line: Georgetown -14.5, o/u 138.5

It’s Thanksgiving Eve and the Hoyas are back home for their second morning game of this young season as the American Eagles make their way across the District.

Georgetown is coming off another lackluster 1-1 trip to Jamaica under Patrick Ewing. While both trips included double-digit losses to Loyola Marymount, this most recent trip will be best remembered for the stark differences between the Hoyas first and second half performances. Georgetown led both contests by double-digits at the break only to get blown out by the Lions and then eventually holding on for dear life against La Salle despite once leading by as many as 25.

Once agian after the win over La Salle, Ewing again made it very clear that the success of his team is up to the starters. Those expecting him to go deeper into his bench while the games are still in doubt need to start listening to what he says. The idea of Ewing regularly playing 8 to 9 players seems unlikely unless fouls are an issue. This will be something to monitor as the season goes forward as three players - Primo Spears, Brandon Murray and Akok Akok - are averaging 35 minutes per outing.

AMERICAN TIME

Our old friend Mike Brennan is in his 10th season in charge of the Eagles. He’s third all-time in wins at the school having just passed Ed Tapscott over the weekend. Tapscott was of course the last AU coach to beat the Hoyas when he led the Eagles to a 62-61 win over No. 5 Georgetown and player Patrick Ewing on Dec. 15, 1982.

This year’s Eagles are led by a pair of double-digit scorers from Maryland in Collin Smalls and Matt Rogers. Elijah Stephens earned Patriot League Honorable mention last week for his all-around play in the Eagles 2-0 week. Stephens leads the team with 4.5 assists per game.

American shoots 37% from 3-point range but doesn’t get up a ton of attempts per game. If they do get up those shots the players to watch out for are Smalls (62 %), Rogers (50 %), Jaxon Knotek (46 %), Geoff Sprouse (45 %). Freshman Johnny O’Neil gets up five attempts per game but has yet to make them with any real consistency - 25 %.

At the end of the day this is another 300+ opponent that the Hoyas should easily beat while Ewing gets the opportunity to try out difference lineups and increase the minutes for his bench guys.

Will it happen? Come grab lunch and find out!

ATTENDANCE

Between those still working and others scrambling to get ready for Turkey Day, this game doesn’t seem like it will hit for more than 5K fans. Still, I feel confident it will far surpass the crowd that showed up for American’s 58-53 win at NJIT last Saturday. Only 478 brave souls made it out to the Wellness and Events Center (capacity 3,500) in Newark as the Eagles won their first road game of the season.

Leave your witty comments below!

(No seriously. Let’s try and break the 36 comments from last game.)