GAME THREAD: Creighton at Georgetown

Feb 1, 2023 - 6:47 PM

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Game 23: Creighton Bluejays (13-8, 7-3) at Georgetown Hoyas (6-16, 1-10)

When: Wednesday, 6:30 PM

Where: Capital One Arena

TV: CBS Sports Network (Tom McCarthy & Chris Walker)

Radio: 99.1 FM, Sirius XM 381 (Rich Chvotkin - 49th season)

Series: Bluejays lead 12-9

Last Meeting: Creighton swept the Hoyas last season, winning twice in a 48-hour span from Feb 12 - 14. The Bluejays won both by double figures.

Georgetown Quick Look:
KenPom: 221 - Offense (150), Defense (264)
Best Two Wins: DePaul (138), Siena (145)
Net: 243
Last 5: LWLLL
KenPom Projected Record: 7-24 (2-18)

Creighton Quick Look:
KenPom: 11 - Offense (16), Defense (21)
Best Two Wins: Arkansas (20), Xavier (23)
Net: 17
Last 5: WWWWL
KenPom Projected Record: 20-11 (14-6)

KenPom Game Prediction: Creighton 82, Georgetown 67 (90%)

Line: Georgetown +13, 0/U 148.5

It’s Gameday as the Hoyas are back at home after coming oh-so close to putting together back-to-back wins. Instead the Hoyas took another L after letting a late lead slip away in a 75-73 loss to St. John’s at Madison Square Garden this past Sunday.

Quick.

Name the two Big East men’s basketball teams with the longest losing streaks this season?

Ok. Georgetown. Yup. That’s easy as the Hoyas just ended a 10-game slide.

The other one is Creighton. You know, the preseason favorites.

The Bluejays had a six-game losing streak thanks to a difficult schedule, some injures, and just some close losses. Lost by 2 to Arizona in the Maui Championship game. Then by 5 at Texas. Also dropped games by 2 and 3 to BYU and Arizona State while in Vegas. So it’s easy to explain but still impressive they have seemingly recovered. Good news for Greg McDermott is that this is the best time for a team to be rounding into form.

You know the names. Ryan Kalkbrenner, Trey Alexander, Arthur Kaluma, Ryan Nembhard. They all returned. McDermott added Baylor Scheierman from South Dakota State and now after winning four straight and seven out of their last nine the Bluejays look like they can contend for the Big East Championship.

SCORING RACE

In trying to find anything notable to track as Georgetown basically just plays out the string, I’ve come up with something.

Ladies and gentlemen, look no further than Primo Spears and his recent scoring hot streak.

Spears, who just made his second Big East Honor Roll of the season, is firmly in the mix for the league’s scoring title thanks to his recent hot run. The Duquesne transfer has averaged 25.5 points over the last four games for the Hoyas and is now up to 17.1 points per game in Big East play, which has him in fifth place.

DeMatha alum and current UConn guard Jordan Hawkins sits in first at 18.2 ppg through 12 games. Hawkins scored 26 last night in the Huskies win at DePaul. Spears could equal Hawkins by dropping a 30 spot tonight. What really hurts Spears is his two point outing against Butler on New Year’s Day.

It should be noted that the Big East recognizes the scoring champ by what the players accomplish in league games only. It’s been over 25 years since the last time Georgetown featured the league’s leading scorer.

Here are the past Hoyas to lead the Big East in scoring:

Victor Page (23.3 ppg, 1996-97)
Allen Iverson (25.4, 1995-96)
Mark Tillmon (21.6, 1989-90)
Reggie Williams (23.0, 1986-87)

It should also be noted that the lowest ever league scoring champ came in at 18.2 ppg. This happened most recently when Marquette’s Justin Lewis did it just last season. Villanova’s Josh Hart - there’s that name again - also did it in 2016-17.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

The Hoyas hold a narrow 5-4 record at home against Creighton but the Bluejays have won the last two meetings at Capital One Arena. This brings me back to the last time Georgetown won the home game in this series.

Georgetown won 83-80 back on Jan. 15, 2020 when Patrick Ewing sent out a starting line-up of Terrell Allen, Jagan Mosely, Mac McClung, Jamorko Pickett and Omer Yurtseven.

Yurtseven earned the KenPom MVP that day with 20 & 13. McClung added 19 points and five assists. In all, five Hoyas were in double-figures including Jahvon Blair with 12 off the bench. Qudus Wahab is the last remaining Hoya that played in that game, picking up three fouls in five minutes

This was the last win that McClung played in while at Georgetown. McClung only played in four more games that season due to an injury and then left DC for Lubbock, TX.

One last thing: Did you vote in my poll? I mean, who doesn’t love a Twitter poll?

Go ahead and leave your witty and not-so witty comments below!