College Basketball Preview: Georgetown (17-11) vs. Seton Hall (16-11)
With three Big East games left on the schedule, the Hoyas find themselves just a half game back from third place in the conference and a third seed in the Big East Tournament. There are seven teams within two games of Xavier for third place. The Hoyas’ roller coaster conference play has continued over the past week with a shocking win over Villanova, a loss to Creighton followed by a convincing win against Depaul on Wednesday Night. “Our problem is we’ll have a great game today and then exhale and take a step back for the next one, and we can’t do that. Especially going down the stretch” said Coach Patrick Ewing after their latest victory.
On Saturday evening at 6:30 P.M. take on Seton Hall, who, at 7-8 in the conference are currently tied with the Hoyas for fifth in the Big East, making this a big game for both teams. Patrick Ewing and the kids from Georgetown still feel that they can make the NCAA tournament. “We’ve definitely been talking about it,” Ewing said in, “We’ve been talking about our [Big East tournament] seeding and what our goals are, and our goal is to try to make the NCAAs. So we have to finish the season strong.”
When the teams last met on February 19, the Pirates jumped out to a twenty point lead and never looked back en route to a 90-75 beat down of the Hoyas. In that game, Seton Hall went 11 of 25 from beyond the three point arch and out-rebounded the much bigger Hoyas 38-20. Georgetown couldn’t stop Myles Powell who scored thirty. Regardless of this, ESPN’s match-up predictor gives the Hoyas a 58% chance of winning.
Keys to the game for the Hoyas:
- Contain Powell. Another thirty point game from him will spell trouble for the Hoyas.
- Win the rebound battle. The Hoyas are the bigger team and cannot get handled on the boards like they did in the last game.
- Stop the three and shoot the three. On the season, Georgetown is the better three point team. That did not show in their first game. It needs to on Saturday.
- Output from the starters. In their loss to Creighton, the offensive stars seemed to take the night off. They will need to be back for this game.
