Preview: Alabama A&M at Georgetown

Game 11: Alabama A&M (0-12) at Georgetown Hoyas (9-1)

Series: First meeting

Where/When: Capital One Arena, Saturday at noon

TV: FS1

KenPom: Georgetown 86-60, 99 percent

Line: Hoyas -26

One of the most discussed non-conference schedules in quite some time mercifully comes to a conclusion on Saturday afternoon when Georgetown hosts Alabama A&M. This will be the first of consecutive games where the Hoyas host Bulldogs as Butler comes to Capital One Arena next week.

Last season Alabama A&M finished 351 out of 351 teams in both the RPI and KenPom ratings. The Bulldogs haven’t improved much as they’ve started the season 0-12 and have now lost 15 straight games going back to last season. Alabama A&M has won just two of its past 41 games and hasn’t come away with a victory on the road in nearly 12 months.

Jessie Govan and Marcus Derrickson continue to lead the way for Georgetown by combining to score just over 40 percent of the team’s points. Fellow junior Kaleb Johnson joins his classmates as a double figure scorer with 11.7 points per game although he’s reached that mark just twice in the last five games.

This final tuneup before BIG EAST play starts has all the makings of a lopsided affair. Georgetown is 17-0 all-time against teams from the SWAC and is a strong favorite to increase that number to 18.

Where’s Walker? This is the big mystery right now. With Chris Sodom now off the team, Antwan Walker is the only scholarship frontcourt player on Ewing’s bench. Despite that fact the freshman didn’t play against North Texas on Wednesday, his second straight DNP-coach’s decision and third in four games. Walker started the season by playing over 10 minutes in the first three games but his time has been limited ever since.

After the North Texas game, Ewing said that Walker was available but that he needed to ‘trust’ the DC native before playing him again. With the level of competition about to significantly increase, Walker will be needed at some point. Despite the weak schedule so far, Ewing has been either unable or unwilling to develop frontcourt options off the bench which means both Govan and Derrickson must play heavy minutes ever game.

Scouting Alabama A&M: De’Edrick Petty leads three Bulldogs in double-figures by scoring 11.3 points per game. Julian Walters and Arthur Johnson join Petty with averages of 10.7 and 10.1. Johnson is the lone member of the trio that is taller than six foot.

Donnie Marsh is in his first year as the head coach of the Bulldogs and most recently served as an assistant at Texas Southern under Mike Davis.

Senior Marcus Merriweather scored 16 points against Michigan on Thursday but the Bulldogs allowed the Wolverines to shoot 60 percent while hitting just 34 percent in a 97-47 loss.

Prediction: Hoyas 91, Bulldogs 62