RV Marquette Golden Eagles (12-4, 4-1 Big East) vs Georgetown Hoyas (5-11, 0-5 Big East)

Date: Saturday, January 7, 2023
Time: 1pm Central
Location: Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Marquette Stats Leaders

Points: Kam Jones, 16.1 ppg
Rebounds: Oso Ighodaro, 6.6 rpg
Assists: Tyler Kolek, 7.6 apg

Georgetown Stats Leaders

Points: Primo Spears, 15.5 ppg
Rebounds: Qudus Wahab, 7.6 rpg
Assists: Primo Spears, 5.2 apg

KenPom.com Rankings

Marquette: #17
Georgetown: #220
Game Projection: Marquette has a 96% chance of victory with a predicted score of 88-68.

So Far This Season: Georgetown has been bad, as expected. Needing overtime to beat Coppin State in their opener was a bad sign, but the season didn’t officially get bad until they lost to Loyola Marymount on a neutral court. Then they lost to American, 74-70, after going up 29-13 in the first half. GU gave up 44 second half points to a team that projects right now to go 12-6 in the Patriot League.

Then it looked like they were going to get blown out by Texas Tech, they rallied, and then lost by 14 anyway, then they lost to South Carolina in overtime at home because they couldn’t remember to play defense for the final five seconds of regulation. Then they lost by 19 to Syracuse, who happens to be the last high major team to lose to Georgetown, back in December of 2021, back 30 high major opponents ago. And then they lost five straight Big East games to break DePaul’s record for consecutive Big East regular season losses.

Oh, and Jay Heath missed the Villanova game, because he had hand surgery recently, while Brandon Murray and Bryson Mozone left the VU game early due to injuries. So they’re bad AND now there’s a chance that they’re very short handed coming to Milwaukee.

Tempo Free Fun: I refuse to take this seriously as a necessary preview. Georgetown refused to take their program seriously by not dismissing head coach Patrick Ewing after ended the 2021-22 season with 20 straight losses to Big East opponents and 21 straight losses to high major foes, and so I don’t have to go through the ins and outs of what is or is not specifically good or bad or potentially troublesome about the Hoyas.

I am going to point out one thing though. Yes, Georgetown is 5-11. Yes, all five wins have come against teams ranked somewhere below #170 in KenPom at the moment. Yes, they have four sub-100 losses, including their 74-71 defeat at the hands of currently #200 South Carolina which, because of the exact chain of events, might be the most embarrassing loss in the entire Big East this season.

However, they’re not all bad.

Through 16 games, Georgetown is a combined and in total +5 in first half point differential, 584-579. They were tied at the half against Villanova. They played UConn to a standstill for 15 minutes. They were within three points of Xavier with three minutes left in the first half. They started off 17-6 against Syracuse. They played even with Texas Tech for 12 minutes.

You get the idea. Georgetown has a little bit of something for you to deal with.

But only a little bit.

Georgetown is -91 in second half point differential this season, 644-553.

Their second half and overtime differential in their losses this season: -126 points, or 11.5 per game, and that includes staying even with DePaul in the final 20 minutes.

Their second half differential in their five Big East losses: 49 points, or 9.8 per game, and again, that includes the 36-36 second half against the Blue Demons.

In their last two games alone, Butler and Villanova have outscored the Hoyas by 21 points and 16 points after intermission.

Do not be surprised if this game remains close well into the first half…. But don’t be worried about it either.

Stat Watch: Oso Ighodaro is seven blocks away from tying and eight away from passing Chris Otule for the 10th most rejections by a Marquette junior.

Marquette Last 10 Games: 8-2, with wins in six of the last seven.

Georgetown Last 10 Games: 2-8 with six consecutive losses.

All Time Series: Marquette leads, 19-14

Current Streak: Since the 2017-18 season, Marquette has won eight of the last 10 games between the two sides, and after sweeping the season series a year ago, they have won five of the last six meetings.

Follow Along On Twitter

@AnonymousEagle - Hey, that’s us!
@MarquetteMBB - Official MU account
@GeorgetownHoops - Official Georgetown account
@CasualHoya - our SB Nation friends who follow Georgetown
@BenSteeleMJS - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel MU beat writer