Capital Classic Recap: Egerson and Sapp

[GUHoya07]

Just got back from the Capital Classic at George Mason. I took in the game with hoyabinx, who will probably provide his own recap at some point.

Marc Egerson: Game high 21 pts, nothing too spectacular but he did put up a lot of points. He hit one three and otherwise scored on layups, put backs and dunks. He didn't jump out of the gym on his dunks like I had expected. I thought he was a real high flyer, and he may be, but his dunks tonight were just solid, nothing too acrobatic.

He seems to always be in the right spot on offense and hes always looking to grab an offensive board or find the open spot on the floor. Jumpshot needs some work, but the form looks pretty good so Im confident the percentage will improve after some time on campus.

Jessie Sapp: 14 pts, including several assists. First thing I think of when describing Jessie is quick. He is extremely quick and is very skilled at driving to the basket and scoring or dishing to one of his teammates. He really drives strong to the basket and finishes well, and he looks under control while doing it. Not to bash on Ray Reed, but Jessie seems to have the control when driving to the basket that Ray lacks.

On several occasions Jessie drove really strong to the hoop, utilizing the incredibly fast first step and just found a way to get the ball off the glass, float it over a taller defender or finish acrobatically under pressure, and finished every time except for once.

He also had two beautiful no look passes that wowed the crowd. As my buddy binx said, he's got "no look passing ability". ;D

He only made one jumper, it was a sweet fadeaway three with the defender in his face. He's got a little Ray Reed leg kick going on his jumpshot and it will probably need a little bit of work to improve accuracy, but the potential is definitely there for him to be a solid shooter. Im thinking a Karl Krauser type who is a nasty penetrator, can really draw the defense and finish and also can hit the clutch jumper.

You could hear the ooohs and aaahs on several occasions as Jessie drove and finished some beautiful layups as well as on his no looks assists. I think he'll be a huge addition next year because we really need someone at the guard position who can penetrate and score some easy buckets when we need them as well as draw the defense and dish to a Green or Bowman for the dunk or pass it out to Wallace, Cook or Thornton for the three.

Very good perfomance by both tonight and their future on the Hilltop is looking very bright! Get excited Hoya Fans!!!

[MCIGuy]

Good to hear. Thanks for the report. Who else stood out to you?

[GUHoya07]

GOOD

Jamont Gordon and Uche Uchefu got MVP honors, but no one single guy stood out to me.

Dante Cunningham-headed to Nova, is an incredible athlete. He can finish very well around the basket and he is very long. If he develops any kind of jumper he could be really good.

Tyrell Biggs-headed to Pitt, is very wide bodied but much more athletic than I expected for his size. He played fairly well, finishing around the basket and even making a three.

Lewis Clinch-headed to Georgia Tech, looked really good due to his quickness and overall athleticism.


BAD

Paul Johnson-looked absolutely horrendous. He could barely dribble or shoot the ball and just looked like a trainwreck. The kid should have gone to Penn rather than LaSalle, because that education would have been much more valuable.

David Neal- Its good we passed on him, deinitely not a high major level contributor in my opinion. Maryland is really grasping at straws.


These are just the guys that popped into my head right now, I'll add other guys if I think of them.

[RBHoya]

Great to hear! Thanks for the update 007.

Egerson just continues to impress. Every time I hear something about him hes doing something else outstanding. A game high in points in a game with this level of players is nothing to take too lightly. Very impressive. Even though he may not have had any highlite reel dunks tonight, supposedly theres video on the web somewhere of him getting some crazy air, so I'm confident those will appear soon enough. Maybe he just wants to make us wait 'til Midnight Madness for the real show . It's amazing how little pub Marc's got, and how little respect hes received from the recruiting sites. NOBODY is talking about this guy (other than us of course), depsite being 2 time state player of the year and having numerous strong showings in big/highly publicized games. All the better for us!

As for Sapp... sounds like a pretty solid outing, about what I'd expect in terms of his "first step". I really like the slashing element of his game, because other than Brandon and maybe Jeff sometimes, nobody on our team drives hard to the basket--definitly none of our current guards. Sapp will definitly be the cure for that. Glad to hear he looked good passing too... Any indication of his ball handling work? Since its an All Star game I'm guessing there wasn't a lot of pressure or intense defense, but I'm still trying to get a read on whether or not he will be able to play "point" for us next year. I've been wondering whether a Sapp/Cook backcourt will work, or whether they'd need RayRay, Jon, or someone else to play the point with them... I know you can argue that we dont really need a true PG in the Princeton, but we do need somebody who can bring the ball up and handle some pressure. Jessie's passing seems to be at the level of a Big East PG, but I don't know anything about his handle.

All in All, sounds like a very encouraging performance. JTIII seems to have a pretty good eye thus far.

[GUHoya07]

Jessie's handle is much more than adequate to play the point. His handle looked very good to me and I have no doubt that he could run the point in the Big East right now. You can't be that effective of a penetrator without a strong handle, because otherwise you'll just lose the ball going to the basket.

The funny thing is, the United States team (Marc's Team) actually pressed the Capital Team (Jessie's team) a bit, IN AN ALL-STAR GAME!

RayRay to play the point? No offense to Ray, but I doubt that. I think Jessie would already be a far superior point to Ray. I think he's a better point than Wallace as well. The thing Wallace brings is that he can really settle things down at times and when he's making the three he brings that threat to the court. But I think Sapp is already better than any other option at the point, assuming that Ashanti plays the 2.

[NY Hoya]

here's the box score. I know it isn't lining up, sorry


Official Basketball Box Score




Official Basketball Box Score
United States All-Stars vs Capital All-Stars
04/22/05 8:00 p.m. at Patriot Center (Fairfax, Va.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VISITORS: United States All-Stars
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
10 McAlarney, Kyle..... * 3-7 2-6 0-0 1 3 4 0 8 3 4 0 0 19
30 Biggs, Tyrell....... * 8-11 1-1 3-4 1 2 3 2 20 2 3 1 1 19
32 Gordon, Jamont...... * 7-11 2-4 1-2 1 2 3 1 17 6 1 0 2 20
33 Payton, Kevin....... * 3-5 1-1 0-0 2 2 4 1 7 4 2 1 0 20
35 Mikalauskas,Laurynas * 5-6 0-0 0-0 0 3 3 3 10 0 1 1 0 16
20 Krabbenhoft, Joe.... 5-8 0-1 1-4 2 5 7 3 11 4 1 1 0 19
21 Hernandez, Sammy.... 1-4 0-0 0-0 1 5 6 2 2 1 3 0 1 13
22 Clinch, Lewis....... 6-15 1-6 0-0 1 0 1 3 13 2 7 0 1 21
23 McCauley, Ben....... 4-7 2-3 0-0 1 6 7 1 10 3 1 2 3 17
31 McDermott, Geoff.... 1-6 0-0 2-4 1 9 10 0 4 5 2 1 2 19
34 Egerson, Marc....... 9-12 1-2 2-2 2 1 3 1 21 0 0 0 0 17
TEAM................ 2 3 5
Totals.............. 52-92 10-24 9-16 15 41 56 17 123 30 25 7 10 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 25-41 61.0% 2nd Half: 27-51 52.9% Game: 56.5% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 8-16 50.0% 2nd Half: 2-8 25.0% Game: 41.7% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 4-4 100 % 2nd Half: 5-12 41.7% Game: 56.3% 4,1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOME TEAM: Capital All-Stars
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
20 Matsui, KJ.......... * 0-6 0-3 0-0 2 1 3 0 0 2 1 0 0 13
25 Diane, Mamadi....... * 0-5 0-2 2-2 0 3 3 0 2 1 2 0 1 11
32 Echefu, Uche........ * 8-11 0-2 2-2 3 4 7 2 18 0 0 1 0 22
35 Cunningham, Dante... * 6-8 0-0 2-3 1 2 3 1 14 0 2 0 4 17
40 Sapp, Jessie........ * 5-10 1-2 3-3 0 3 3 0 14 2 2 0 1 17
21 Johnson, Paul....... 0-3 0-1 2-4 0 1 1 0 2 2 2 0 2 12
22 Ginyard, Marcus..... 5-14 1-4 2-2 1 3 4 1 13 4 0 0 4 24
23 Fleming, Chris...... 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 8
24 Brewer, Raymond..... 2-9 2-7 0-0 0 0 0 0 6 3 3 0 1 21
30 Neal, David......... 3-11 0-2 2-3 2 5 7 2 8 4 1 0 3 19
31 Hewson, Matt........ 2-4 0-1 0-0 1 1 2 3 4 0 2 0 0 8
33 Adedji, Desmond..... 1-3 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 10
34 Diggs, Robert....... 7-10 0-2 0-0 1 2 3 2 14 0 4 2 0 18
TEAM................ 3 3
Totals.............. 39-96 4-26 15-19 16 27 43 13 97 18 20 3 16 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 18-47 38.3% 2nd Half: 21-49 42.9% Game: 40.6% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-12 16.7% 2nd Half: 2-14 14.3% Game: 15.4% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 3-5 60.0% 2nd Half: 12-14 85.7% Game: 78.9% 3,1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Officials: Gary Stein, Richard Ogletree, Jim Cagley
Technical fouls: United States All-Stars-None. Capital All-Stars-None.
Attendance:
Score by Periods 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total
United States All-Stars....... 32 30 33 28 - 123
Capital All-Stars............. 24 17 28 28 - 97
32nd Annual Capital Classic
US MVP: Gordon (Oak Hill Academy - Mississippi State)
Capital MVP: Echefu (Montrose Christian Academy - Undecided)
Points in the paint-US 74,CAPITAL 66. Points off turnovers-US 34,CAPITAL 24.
2nd chance points-US 15,CAPITAL 15. Fast break points-US 29,CAPITAL 29.
Bench points-US 61,CAPITAL 49. Score tied-1 time. Lead changed-6 times.
Last FG-US 4th-00:13, CAPITAL 4th-00:27.

[RBHoya]

GUHoya2007 said:

Jessie's handle is much more than adequate to play the point. His handle looked very good to me and I have no doubt that he could run the point in the Big East right now. You can't be that effective of a penetrator without a strong handle, because otherwise you'll just lose the ball going to the basket.

The funny thing is, the United States team (Marc's Team) actually pressed the Capital Team (Jessie's team) a bit, IN AN ALL-STAR GAME!

RayRay to play the point? No offense to Ray, but I doubt that. I think Jessie would already be a far superior point to Ray. I think he's a better point than Wallace as well. The thing Wallace brings is that he can really settle things down at times and when he's making the three he brings that threat to the court. But I think Sapp is already better than any other option at the point, assuming that Ashanti plays the 2.

Good stuff good stuff. I dont particularly like RayRay running things, but I do like his tenacity in guarding opposing points. I don't think Ashanti is really a point either. I like Jon the best out of the current roster, the problem is his forte is shooting, which is also Ashantis strength. Sapp will give us some more variety which is good, and Jon and probably Thornton will be able to come off the bench and hit from outside. Hopefully Jesse can match Reed's defensive agressiveness and toughness yet not be an offensive liability like Ray is at times (I dont think we need to worry about that with Sapp though ;D).

[SFHoya99]

RBHoya said:

Great to hear! Thanks for the update 007.

EEven though he may not have had any highlite reel dunks tonight, supposedly theres video on the web somewhere of him getting some crazy air, so I'm confident those will appear soon enough.

There's some video on the web from last year's Blue & Gold Game (Delaware's Capital Classic) and he threw down some nasty dunks in the dunk contest.

Egerson with 21 points! I'm excited about that. That's gotta be a recent history high for Hoyas in the Cap Classic. Looks like Marc as sleeper is more than wishful thinking.

[prhoya]

Thanks for the recap...sounds promising...we're on our way...

Any word on where Echefu is going next year? I checked the recruiting thread and he has lots of schools listed.

Who would you prefer as a Hoya: Echefu or Thomas? I trust JTIII, but would like your opinion?

[ShimmyJr]

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10884-2005Apr23.html

here is a quote from the article that just gets me so fired up!!!

"Sapp said: 'This shows that Georgetown recruited a lot of good players, a lot of good talent coming in next year. Everyone needs to watch out next year. Me and Marc have become close.'"

[jerseyhoya34]

It would be great if our incoming frosh bonded as well as our current frosh did. Hopefully they'll all live together over the summer and next season.

[GUHoya07]

I think they are bonding very well. After the game Marc went over to Jessie and they hugged and looked very comfortable together and were laughing and smiling. We really need to get that Georgetown family feeling going again. Having a Thompson and Ewing can't hurt either!

[SirSaxa]

GUHoya2007 said:

We really need to get that Georgetown family feeling going again.

That has already happened, thanks to JT3.

[HoyaDestroya]

www.dunktv.com/realmedia/delaware_blue_and_gold_high_schooll_all_star_slam_dunk_contest_2004/blue-n-gold_slam_dunk_contets.htm

Here are some pics of the Blue n' Gold Dunk Contest - it says there is video - does anyone have it or can you find it on this page?

[bmartin]

Examiner also has Hoya Lovefest in its recap:
www.dcexaminer.com/articles/2005/04/23/sports/maryland_sports/01classic24usallstars.txt

Comcast Sports highlights included a Sapp drive and score.

[lichoya68]

YES YES YES GO HOYAS GREAT NEWS CANT WAIT ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[DanMcQ]

Nice job guys with the links and on site reports. All of us who live far away appreciate it.

[Gtown4Life]

yeah thanks a lot for the recaps guys. Its great to hear this news. Made my day ;D

[snowdog]

I took in this game with a couple other Nova fans and agree with GU2007's comments. I think Egerson will have a bigger immediate impact than Sapp, just because of his size and strength. Based on this game and Charm City Challenge, I think Sapp will be a good player but it may take him a while longer. Egerson though, I think he will be very good from the get go.

Lots of Hoya support in the crowd last night. A good showing for you guys.

I think the best player on the floor was Gordon. Pitt got a great pickup in Biggs as well.

[AustinHoya03]

GREAT to hear this news. That Sapp and Egerson are getting to be good friends will benefit them and the team going into next season.

Personally, I'm more excitied about Sapp's post-game comments than the box score (though I'm pumped about that too). Shows DC AREA kids are excited about what JTIII is doing at Georgetown. Sounds like these two will not only be able to contribute next season but will be good ambassadors for the program.

What a great off-season so far for Hoya Hoops. Pat Jr. transferring, Sapp and Egerson playing at a high level, Jeff Green reportedly still growing, etc. So far the only bad news has been Bowman declaring for the draft, which is something that can be easily corrected. How many days until Kenner League starts?