GAME THREAD: BET 1st Round (8) Georgetown vs (9) Marquette

Game 22: Georgetown Hoyas (9-12) vs Marquette Golden Eagles (13-13)

Where: Madison Square Garden

When: Wednesday 3 pm

Series: Marquette leads 17-13

BET History: Hoyas are 2-0 with wins in 2006 and 2010

Last meeting: Georgetown lost to Marquette 64-60 despite leading by 18 points moments into halftime. Jahvon Blair had 20 points while Qudus Wahab had 13 points and 10 rebounds. Georgetown was outscored 44-24 in the second half.

TV: FS1 (Tim Brando & Bill Raftery)

Radio: The Team 980, Radio.com (Rich Chvotkin, 47th season)

KenPom Ranking: Marquette 74, Georgetown 85

KenPom Projection: Marquette 72, Georgetown 71 (57 percent)

Line: Marquette -3, o/u 144

PREVIEW

It’s BIG EAST Tournament time and as is recent tradition, Georgetown will play in the opening game of this prestigious event in the World’s Most Famous Arena. The Hoyas will by playing in the 8/9 match-up for the fifth time in six years. Despite Georgetown staying in the same game you will notice a change in format. Instead of being the opening act of an evening doubleheader, the game now resides as the afternoon portion of a tripleheader.

You know just getting to this game is actually a sign of success. First of all, we all had know idea if the season would even happen or finish because of the current covid pandemic.

Secondly, your Hoyas were picked to finish 11th, which is of course dead last in the league. Believe it or not there was a path for Georgetown to finish fifth - if everything went their way - as recently as last weekend. So, in terms of exceeding expectations, Patrick Ewing and his Hoyas knocked this one out of the park.

So with all of that out of the way, Ewing have another chance to end the program’s worst run in BIG EAST Tournament play.

A victory today would snap the Hoyas 4-game losing streak in the annual March event. Until this current streak, Georgetown had never dropped consecutive openers in the conference tournament. NEVER.

This streak was on Ewing’s mind as he spoke with local media on esday afternoon.

Ewing is right about Blair and Pickett knowing all too well about the Hoyas struggles in the conference tournament. The seniors are hoping to avoid joining fan favorite Jagan Mosely as players to go Oh for in trips to the BIG EAST Tournament.

MARQUETTE

So what do we know about Marquette? Well this is probably not the match-up Georgetown wanted to see but on the other hand, the Hoyas will get a chance to avenge an earlier loss this season in what was a very winnable, come from ahead to lose type of game.

Dawson Garcia has had a great freshman campaign for Steve Wojciechowski leading the Golden Eagles in points (13.3) and rebounds (6.7) per game. Jamal Cain hurt the Hoyas in the first meeting with 25 points while Baltimore product Justin Lewis had 10 points and seven rebounds. Ohio State transfer DJ Carton and Koby McEwen also score in double-figures for Marquette which has won four of five heading into the tournament including the rare non-conference win at North Carolina.

The Golden Eagles have made the quarterfinals in every BIG EAST Tournament since joining the league for the 2005-06 season. It’s the longest current streak in the conference.

NOTES

Hoyas were 30-7 in opening round games from 1980 to 2016 before the current 0-4 slide...Ewing was 9-1 as player in the BET but 0-3 as head coach...Ewing is 1-6 against Marquette...Georgetown’s last player to make the all-tournament team was D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera in 2015...

Bobby’s Prediction

Hoyas 75, Marquette 72

Georgetown’s conference tournament losing streak is over and it’s on to the quarters! Celebrate responsibly.

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

HOYA SAXA!