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Game 27 - Georgetown (8-18) @ DePaul (3-23)
Nuts & Bolts
Date: February 24, 2024
Time: 6:30 p.m. ET
Venue: Wintrust Arena - Chicago, IL
How to Watch: CBS Sports Network
Matchup History: Georgetown leads all-time series 34-13
Last Meeting: Georgetown def. DePaul 68-65 on 1/6/24
Prediction: Georgetown 67, DePaul 61
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Head Coach: Ed Cooley (1st season, 8-18 record at Georgetown)
Record: 8-18 (1-14, 10th in Big East)
Last Time Out: Lost vs. St. John’s 90-85 on 2/21/24
Player to Watch: Jayden Epps
The Georgetown Hoyas continue to find creative ways to lose games.
On Wednesday night, Ed Cooley’s team dropped its 11th straight game in a 90-85 loss to St. John’s. It’s just the second time in a Big East game that Georgetown has scored 85 points or more this season. Unfortunately, they’ve given up at least 90 in both of those games.
Georgetown was led by Jayden Epps and Rowan Brumbaugh, who combined for 46 points and 14 assists in the game, with Epps scoring 31 and each dishing out 7 dimes.
It was the fifth time that Epps had scored 30+ this year, and the first time in the last eight games. Yet, it still wasn’t enough to get the Hoyas back in the win column for the first time in over six weeks.
“I thought it was a really good Big East game. I thought we played with a lot of energy but this was a game where little things beat us,” Head Coach Ed Cooley said after the loss. “We have another road game coming up…I look forward to our preparation as we get ready to play DePaul.”
Ah, yes, DePaul. The only team that is lower than Georgetown in the Big East standings.
The Blue Demons have mustered just three wins this year and are now led by an interim head coach.
Before the game on January 6 against DePaul in D.C, I wrote that the Hoyas had much more to lose than to gain against the Blue Demons and the same sentiment remains for Saturday’s tilt in Chicago.
Georgetown’s main measure of success this year is how much it can close the gap between the bottom of the league and the upper nine teams. Well, Georgetown is 1-0 against DePaul and 0-14 against everyone else in the conference.
Clearly, Georgetown is closer to DePaul status than it is to the upper nine teams in the conference. However, a season sweep of the Blue Demons is widely viewed as the bare minimum in Georgetown circles, and is the view of this writer that anything less would be disaster.
Not much to gain, but a heck of a lot to lose on Saturday night in Chicago for Ed Cooley’s Hoyas.
Head Coach: Matt Brady (Interim Head Coach, 0-8 record at DePaul)
Record: 3-23 (0-15, 11th in Big East)
Last Time Out: Lost @ #7 Marquette 105-71 on 2/21/24
Player to Watch: Chico Carter Jr.
DePaul has lost 23 games this year, including 14 straight entering Saturday’s game against Georgetown.
All but one of those 14 consecutive losses was by double digits. I bet you can guess which one wasn’t…yep, it was the January 6 game in D.C, which Georgetown won by three, 68-65.
Of the twelve Blue Demons losses since the Georgetown game, ten have been by 20+. In the past three games, they’ve given up 100+ twice, ranking 346th out of 351 teams in scoring defense this year (81.5 PPG).
On January 22, following a 74-60 loss to Butler to move to 3-15 and 0-7 in the Big East, Head Coach Tony Stubblefield was fired, leaving Matt Brady as the interim head coach of the team.
Since Brady took over, DePaul is 0-8, losing every game by double digits, with an average margin of defeat of 25.4 PPG in that span.
It’s been a rough 20 years since DePaul’s last NCAA Tournament appearance in 2004, with perhaps no tougher campaign than the one its on now.
However, a win Saturday vs. Georgetown would prove to be a small victory, if nothing else to prove that at least it's not at the bottom of the Big East by itself.