Georgetown - Howard 12/15/21 Discussion

[DanMcQ]

Defend the District.

[calhoya]

Another challenge for the coaching staff to get these kids ready to avoid what will clearly be a potential trap game with a much different atmosphere than last Saturday. Certainly cannot take this opponent for granted.

[HoyaAtHeart]

They just beat American worse than we did. Definitely not a game to take lightly. They've got a freshman point guard from DeMatha that's really shifty and can pass. No real bigs however...Aminu should feast inside.

[daveg023]

A real sign of progress isn’t just winning vs Syracuse, but showing up and beating an opponent we should handle. That is the mark of an improving, solid team. No more one step forward, one step backwards.

[smokeyjack]

Dec 14, 2021 9:06:03 GMT -5 daveg023 said:

A real sign of progress isn’t just winning vs Syracuse, but showing up and beating an opponent we should handle. That is the mark of an improving, solid team. No more one step forward, one step backwards.

Agree but also totally expect a struggle against Bison. You knock out lower tier teams with defense/rebounding and offensive efficiency. Rarely the hallmarks of young teams, but serious shortcomings for a team with zero experience in frontcourt and inordinate reliance on 3-point shot. Would love to see more grinding,physical buckets from Aminu and Holloway in paint and fewer quick triples from Rice trw.

[RockawayHoya]

Press early and often (not just when we are down double digits). Would love an early knockout blow, but more importantly use pace to tire their legs out and get deep into their bench. Even if we can delay them getting into the halfcourt, that may give them less time to get in their sets and get into an offensive rhythm. Howard likely isn't expecting it, so would like us to employ the element of surprise for once and give future opponents one extra thing to think about.

Agree that this needs to be a win and a comfortable one at that.

[calhoya]

Dec 14, 2021 10:42:57 GMT -5 RockawayHoya said:

Press early and often (not just when we are down double digits). Would love an early knockout blow, but more importantly use pace to tire their legs out and get deep into their bench. Even if we can delay them getting into the halfcourt, that may give them less time to get in their sets and get into an offensive rhythm. Howard likely isn't expecting it, so would like us to employ the element of surprise for once and give future opponents one extra thing to think about.

Agree that this needs to be a win and a comfortable one at that.

Agree. The athleticism of this year's team allows for Ewing to use the press more often and the early signs have been promising.

[prhoya]

Good shooting stats from 3 and from FT:

www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/team/stats/_/id/47/table/game/sort/threePointFieldGoalPct/dir/des

It’s a good game to set our 3-pt defense before BE. Their big shoots 50% (9 of 18) from 3. Watch out for Foster, a 53%, high usage 3-pt shooter. On offense, we need to kill them with size. Force them to foul.

www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/howard/2022.html

Lastly, Howard lost high-scoring Cole to the BE. I think Pat should be looking for talent looking to transfer from Howard.

[HoyaAtHeart]

[hoyasaxa2003]

This is actually the best Howard team we have played in a long while. On KenPom, they are ranked 247, which is the best ranking Howard has had in the last 20+ years. Still, this should be a winnable game. Howard's defense is really, really, bad, so our guys should get plenty of good looks.

What is Howard good at? They are 19th nationally in forcing turnovers on defense, and they are ranked 30th in offensive rebounding. They are also a very good shooting team, ranked 20th nationally in shooting threes (shooting 39%) and ranked 51st form two (shooting 54.5%). They defend the three better than the inside game, so Aminu might have some good opportunities to get to the rim.

[rhw485]

This feels like an important game to carry forward the positive momentum from Cuse.  It will be a different environment but this team needs to be self-motivated.

• For me this game will be all about our defense.  Howard is actually one of the better offensive teams we've played.  Even the strong teams we've played (SD St and South Carolina) are way more defensive focused.  Now part of that is they somehow scored 1.21 ppp against Nova.  I haven't watched the video posted yet but not sure we've ever done that to Nova regardless of the situation.
• Howard is a good shooting team but have a massive turnover problem.  We've really struggled forcing turnovers of late, if we can't force turnovers against this team I'll officially be concerned
• I'm not sure what we can learn on offense playing the 327th ranked defense, just take care of business.  Share the ball, crash the boards, continue to experiment with the small ball lineup.  Hopefully we can find Billingsley and Riley some run when the game gets comfortable

Hoya Saxa

[calhoya]

Tonight has to be about consistency and growth. A real challenge for the coaches after the big win and incredible atmosphere from last Saturday. Right now building credibility with the fans is as important as building up the confidence of the players. A win and a good performance accomplishes both. Even if Howard has a horrible defensive track record, a return to forced shots and one-on-one play would be very disappointing. Howard is a good perimeter shooting team which is a necessary test for a Hoya team that has consistently failed to defend the perimeter well over the past several years. As other posters have stated--Saturday was great but the Hoyas have to show more than a win against a poor Longwood team and a struggling Orange to generate a buzz that the latest rebuild is headed in the right direction prior to conference.

[SSHoya]

The Hoyas are 10.5-point favorites in the latest Howard vs. Georgetown odds from Caesars Sportsbook, while the over-under for total points scored is set at 156.5.

Maybe Howard alumna Veep and Second Gentleman will attend! 😁

That'd generate some buzz.

[HometownHoya]

GAMEDAY!!

Gotta win the games against DC/local opponents. Hope we play like we did against UMBC and the freshman can get tons of run.

Go Hoyas! Beat the Bison!

[hoyainla]

Interested to see how coach starts the game. I assume it will be the same starting lineup so Wilson goes on Settle. I doubt that lasts too long as you have to defend Settle out to the 3 point line. This is a game where we can certainly go small and get away with it if we choose to. I doubt we stop their 3 it's just a matter if they go in. On O we can pound the middle all day but that will depend it their 3s are going in. We can get all the 3s we want it's just a matter if we take them.

No matter what happens coach should find Settle after the game and start recruiting him. I can't see him staying at Howard another year.

[thedragon]

Sounds like no Kaiden. No Riley. No Billingsley toight.

Rice and Billingsley non covid illness. Riley not in uniform.

Sorry to not link the tweets.

[guru]

Dec 15, 2021 18:16:40 GMT -5 thedragon said:

Sounds like no Kaiden. No Riley. No Billingsley toight.

Rice and Billingsley non covid illness. Riley not in uniform.

Sorry to not link the tweets.

Oh, boy.

[hoyas315]

Dec 15, 2021 18:16:40 GMT -5 thedragon said:

Sounds like no Kaiden. No Riley. No Billingsley toight.

Rice and Billingsley non covid illness. Riley not in uniform.

Sorry to not link the tweets.

[hoyaboy1]

Yep, I see Riley (not in uniform), but don't see Kaiden or Jalin.

[centercourt400s]

Holloway starting, per scoreboard