DAWG-PARK: Georgetown and Maryland Alums Set for Saturday ABL Action

This Saturday, August 6th, at 8PM, at the XFINITY Center in College Park, MD, fan favorites from the former rosters of the Georgetown Hoyas will face past players from the Maryland Terrapins as part of the Alumni Basketball League (ABL). General Admission tickets are still available for $15, with a 3-pack (Promo: B2GO) at $30 and VIP COURTSIDE available for only $100. It also sounds like some group sales may be available.

Dawg Talk will by led by Chris Wright and Travis Garrison will lead the “College Park Boys.” The rosters are set:

The Dawg Talk roster will include Chris Wright (GM), Greg Monroe, Henry Sims, Jagan Mosely, Aaron Bowen, Rodney Pryor, Greg Whittington, Jason Clark, and a late addition of D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera.

The College Park Boys feature Travis Garrison (GM), Anthony Cowan Jr., Sean Mosley, Damonte Dodd, Ekene Ibekwe, Byron Mouton, Terrell Stoglin, James Gist, and Melo Trimble.

Some Hoyas Legends will be in the building as VIP guests, including Jerome Williams, Gene Smith, Lonnie Harrell, Mike Riley, Lonnie Duren, Irvin Church, Dwayne Bryant, Michael Graham, John “Ba Ba” Duren, and legendary Hoyas broadcaster Rich Chvotkin.

There has certainly been some local buzz developing with this new format and the renewal of a local rivalry.

The Washington Post wrote:

“It’s an easy pitch,” said Wright, who recently returned from playing in Italy. “We all had a great time playing together, so it’s basically reaching out and saying ‘Hey, let’s hoop.’ It gives us a chance to play together, to get some work in, to represent our schools and get paid while we’re doing it. It’s a win-win for everybody.”

Each player will receive $2,500 for participating, according to Kareem Rush, the league’s creator...

“When it comes to college, people stay fans of those teams forever,” said Monroe, a former Georgetown center who was the No. 7 pick in the 2010 NBA draft and played for four teams, including the Washington Wizards, this past season. “Anytime you have players coming to represent a program again, people will always gravitate to that because they have a certain school pride. And especially at programs like Georgetown and Maryland, you’ll always have plenty of players to pull from.”

Being a New Orleans native, Monroe said he didn’t truly understand the potential of a Maryland-Georgetown game until his team played the Terps in an early-season tournament in Florida in 2008. It was one of just four times the teams have played since 2000, leaving the rivalry to be fueled mostly by ‘what if’ scenarios.

Emmett Siegel of the Testudo Times (SB NATION) wrote about the ABL matchup:

On Aug. 6, though, the Terps and Hoyas will face off under a pair of fresh monikers. The “College Park Boys” from Maryland and “Dawg Talk” from Georgetown will bring together a collection of recent alumni from the storied programs for a showdown aimed at fostering a link between not only the players on the court, but the fans that fervently cheer on the two teams every season.

“We want to connect these players to the alumni and fan bases, and put on a game that connects different eras [and] connects different schools,” said Marc Stern, the Alumni Basketball League’s East Coast Division Director of Marketing. “Obviously, there’s a big geographic component in this in that Maryland and Georgetown are so close together, they recruit from the same area. Lots of players transfer from Georgetown to Maryland and vice versa, especially recently. And they’ve just always been the two dominant teams in the DMV. So to have them face off against each other with their fan bases in tow is just great representation for the DMV as a whole.”

Stern’s endorsement is one that holds weight, as he has been firmly entrenched in the DMV basketball scene for over a decade. He has been the owner and president of Capitol Hoops — a media outlet that gives exposure to local high school basketball players with a YouTube channel accumulating over 10,000 subscribers — since 2010 and co-founded DMV Live, one of the nation’s most well-attended NCAA-approved basketball recruiting events.

The Baltimore Sun recently wrote:

Rush wanted to organize a game as quickly as possible, so he relied on Conley’s connections in the Washington and Maryland area to orchestrate the ABL’s first game on the East Coast. With Maryland and Georgetown being the most well-known teams in the area, Conley, who is in charge of business development for the ABL, thought it would be best to start with them.

“I spearheaded this game because of the two teams,” said Conley, the 2002 NCAA scoring champion. “I know the history since I live here. I know they don’t play with each other [often] and thought it would be a good idea.”

Former Georgetown guard Chris Wright and former Maryland forward Travis Garrison are the general managers for each team, working with Conley and Ricky Goings, the ABL East Coast Director of Team Operations, to form the rosters...

“We are not losing,” said Garrison, a former McDonald’s All American who spent 11 years playing overseas. “The fans are going to be excited, and we’re going to put on a show” ...

Georgetown’s team, “DawgTalk,” will feature Wright, Henry Sims, Greg Monroe, Greg Whittington, Rodney Pryor, Jagan Mosely, Aaron Bowen and Jason Clark. Wright, Monroe, Whittington and Sims have NBA experience. Monroe, a 2010 first-round draft pick by the Detroit Pistons, played 10 seasons in the NBA, including 14 games last season with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Washington Wizards, Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz.

“For us to have the opportunity to step foot on the court again, and relive some of our memories in college, everyone jumped in,” said Wright, who currently plays for Derthona Basket in Italy. “It gives more incentive to go out there and play and have a good event.”

Maryland fans will have their own “legends” watching the game.

Support Dawg Talk and buy tickets.

BEAT MARYLAND! HOYA SAXA!