For a while there, it looked like Patrick Ewing might have been a genius. That non-conference schedule just might have worked. We might have had one home team win on the first night of Big East play.
Georgetown led Butler 42-24 at the half, leading by as many as 20. They still led by 12 when Jagan Mosely made a layup with 7:44 left in the game, before Butler scored the next eight points to get back in the game.
The Hoyas still could have had this one, as they led by two in the final seconds. Then a missed box-out allowed Sean McDermott to tip home a Kamar Baldwin miss before the buzzer and send the game to overtime tied at 75. Then they led on several occasions in overtime, including by four at one point, and again with a minute to play in a second overtime.
But they couldn’t close the deal. Butler won 91-89 after Kelan Martin (27 points on 10-20 shooting) scored the final four points. And with that, the road team won all three Big East games on the night. Martin had good help from Baldwin, who had a 31 points on 12-21 shooting. Butler won despite going just 3-21 from three-point range, though they shot over 61 percent on two-point shots and turned the ball over nine times fewer than the Hoyas.
Georgetown’s non-conference schedule has been widely panned, and for good reason if you’re looking solely in a vacuum and at the level of competition. The Hoyas played the cupcake of all cupcake non-conference schedules, with only Texas State playing a softer one. It’s so bad that the Hoyas’ 10-1 record entering Wednesday night gave them an RPI in the 200s. Syracuse is the only non-conference opponent whose RPI is in the top 150 (they lost that game, naturally).
It’s not just that they played teams from low-major conferences; they played ones that aren’t likely to contend there. Other than Mount St. Mary’s, who could contend in the Northeast Conference, they didn’t play anyone remotely resembling a conference favorite or contender. It doesn’t help that Richmond is having an uncharacteristic down year, as the Hoyas beat the Spiders on the road in the only win they have that came by single digits. Put another way, it’s unlikely any of these wins will increase significantly in value as the season goes along.
And let’s not forget that Georgetown was originally slated to be in the loaded PK80 Invitational, but pulled out. That just drove down the schedule strength further.
The Hoyas undoubtedly gained confidence from the wins they got, and that was surely Ewing’s goal. He inherited a team with a pretty depleted roster aside from big men Jessie Govan and Marcus Derrickson. But now comes the hard part: winning tougher games, including road games, and enough of them to be a serious NCAA Tournament team. With their non-conference resume, they need a lot of good wins in Big East play if they are going to enter the discussion.
And for a while on Wednesday night, it looked like they might start off doing just that.
Side Dishes
In the Big East’s other openers on Wednesday night, Villanova cruised past DePaul 103-85 in Chicago, and Xavier held off Marquette 91-87.
Also opening up play was the Mountain West, and it started with a mild surprise: Wyoming beat San Diego State 82-69 behind 36 points and 15 rebounds from Hayden Dalton. Also, Boise State pulled away from Colorado State 93-71 in Boise, and Nevada went to Fresno State and beat the Bulldogs 80-65.
Nearly two weeks ago, NC State suspended starting point guard Markell Johnson for a violation of the student-athlete code of conduct. Now we know the apparent reason for the suspension, as the Herald-Sun obtained Ohio court documents showing that he and three others are facing assault charges stemming from an early October incident. All four were indicted earlier this month and will have a pretrial conference on Thursday morning in the Cuyahoga (Ohio) County Justice Center. Johnson’s loss has not been a small one, as he leads the ACC in steals, is second in assists and in the top ten in assist-to-turnover ratio.
We want to circle back to a story that developed a day earlier that flew under our radar. Fork Union Military Academy will name their court after long-time coach Fletcher Arritt, who spent 42 years as the head coach there before retiring in 2012. As understated and old school as they come, the 76-year-old taught the game and life to so many who went on to be Division I players, and also taught biology at the school. He’s already been inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2015, and this is a well-deserved honor in so many ways, even if he wasn’t so crazy about the idea at first.
Tonight’s Menu
We have more conference openers on tap, as well as a few final non-conference games.
- The start of Big East play continues as Creighton visits Seton Hall (6:30 p.m.) and Providence travels to St. John’s (7 p.m.), the latter strangely not a nationally televised game.
- American Athletic Conference play gets going as well, with Tulane at Temple (7 p.m.) highlighting the three games on the slate.
- The best game on a full night of Missouri Valley action is Southern Illinois visiting Northern Iowa (8 p.m.)
- The West Coast Conference gets going, and the best game there is a sleeper with San Francisco heading south to San Diego (9 p.m.)
- The most noteworthy non-conference game is LSU visiting Memphis (9 p.m.)
