GAME THREAD: Georgetown Hosts Dartmouth to Open 2021-22 Season

Your Georgetown Hoyas are back and begin their 2021-22 campaign against the Dartmouth Big Green at home on Saturday afternoon!

Game 1: Dartmouth Big Green (0-1) at Georgetown Hoyas (0-0)

When: Saturday 2:00 PM

Where: Capital One Arena

Series: Tied 1-1

Last meeting: The Hoyas dropped a 57-56 heartbreaker to the Big Green on December 28, 1974 in the Kodak Classic in Rochester. This was just the seventh game for a young radio broadcaster named Rich Chvotkin.

TV: FS2 (George Wallace & John Giannini)

Radio: 99.1 FM locally(Rich Chvotkin, 48th season), SiriusXM 985

KenPom Ranking: Georgetown 72, Dartmouth 288

KenPom Projection: Georgetown 78, Dartmouth 59 (95 percent)

Line: Hoyas -15.5

Mutombo Coffee:

PREVIEW

It truly has ‘been so long since last we met’ as it’s the first Hoyas home game at Capital One Arena since March 7, 2020 when we said our goodbyes to Jagan Mosely, Terrell Allen and George Muresan.

The defending BIG EAST Champs will have quite a few new faces after playing last season at an empty McDonough. Tournament MOP Dante Harris is back as well as graduate transfer Don Carey. Tim Ighoefe will be given the first shot at starting down low.

The rest of the buzz is about Patrick Ewing’s best recruiting class. Aminu Mohammed hopes to bring home the second Freshman of the Year award under Ewing after being tabbed the preseason pick by the league’s coaches. Ryan Mutombo, Jordan Riley, Jalin Billingsley, and Tyler Beard all look to get meaningful minutes on a team that will likely look very different at the end of the season than the one that starts out against Dartmouth.

Ewing asked for patience for his group on a media call on Thursday morning and that seems fair with regards to the players. But you know what, let’s get into all that stuff some other time. For at least one game, let’s enjoy the return of a much more normal season.

DARTMOUTH REPORT

Like the rest of the Ivy, Dartmouth didn’t play last season. The Big Green who were picked 6th out of 8 in the Ivy, returned to the world of college basketball with a 73-57 loss at Boston College on Tuesday. Brendan Barry - grandson of Georgetown great Jim Barry - is closing in on 1,000 career points. Barry shot 45 % from 3 while averaging 7 points for Temple last season. He’s back after playing his first three years under Dave McLaughlin.

Dartmouth’s last NCAA Tournament appearance came in 1959. You have to go back to the 1998-99 in order to find a season where the Big Green finished with a winning record. That was the season John Thompson stepped down after 13 games and made way for Craig Esherick. So, yeah, it’s been awhile.

FOR STARTERS

Everybody wants to know about the starters for the opener and I’ll gladly provide my best guess. Harris, Mohammed and Ighoefe seem to name themselves. Don Carey and Kaiden Rice make a lot of sense BUT with the injuries to Colin Holloway (foot surgery) and Kobe Clark (hamstring) including both of the graduate students would leave a bench with mainly freshmen.

I’ll go ahead and say Carey starts and Jalin Billingsliney rounds out the group.

UNFAMILIAR VENUE

Exactly two players on Georgetown’s current roster have scored points at Capital One Arena heading into Saturday’s season opener.

Ighoefe scored 18 points at home as a freshman two seasons ago.

The other?

Don Carey had 14 points against the Hoyas in Ewing’s second game in charge of the back on November 15, 2017.

Casual Prop Bets

Don Carey and Kaiden Rice three-pointers made - 6.5

Ighoefe points - 8.5

Mohammed Points - 16.5

Number of times Casual Hoya Tweets: “Sports is pain” - 1.5

Bobby’s Prediction

Georgetown 77, Dartmouth 64

This one might be closer than some like but the Hoyas will prevail and take the all-time series lead against the Big Green!

Leave your witty (and non-witty) in-game comments here!

HOYA SAXA!