LINKS: 2-0 Hoyas Host Hungry Xavier on Friday Night

Georgetown looks to its defense to muscle a home win

Your Georgetown Hoyas will host the Xavier Musketeers (9-5, 1-2) on Friday night at Capital One Arena. Tipoff is at 8:00 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network (no Roy commentating, shame). The local radio broadcast will be Bloomberg 99.1 with Rich Chvotkin on the call in his 51st season (SiriusXM Ch. 384 or 974).

The Hoyas are 11-2 overall and 2-0 in league play following an 83-53 win over Coppin State last Saturday. Much of the Coppin State game looked like a holiday tune up after two conference games and a Christmas break. Hoyas can’t afford to have any rust on Friday night.

Xavier, coming off a 94-72 win over Seton Hall on Tuesday, is looking for a second BIG EAST win, while Georgetown is looking for their fifth-straight win, with two over conference foes. With a very tough starting schedule, XU lost at UConn in OT 94-89 and was beaten by Marquette 72-70 at home. They don’t have Zach Freemantle back from injury, but they are still more than formidable.

Earlier this week, Hoyas fans had a chance to celebrate a nice start to conference play with some Casual Awards, and then took a looked at a path to a 10-win BIG EAST season. Knock on wood.

We all promised ourselves that we wouldn’t get our hopes up, but this team certainly feels different. This humble lunch blog contributor has been excited about the tectonic shift in the Hoyas defense since the Notre Dame loss. They will need every bit to slow the 39th ranked offense in Xavier (6th best 3PT% with 40.6%).

Ed Cooley has matched up well against Sean Miller in the past and the two have been “close friends” since at least before they led the U18 American basketball team to a championship at the 2014 FIBA Americas tournament with Billy Donovan.

Xavier’s offense is OK with a quick shot in transition and the Hoyas defense has recently been pretty good at guiding that first chance into a tough one. Rebounding the miss and staying out of foul trouble will be a key for Georgetown on defense.

Keeping pace with the scoring—and having all their bucket-getters on the floor with Jayden Epps day-to-day—will also be a key. There’s no reason to expect much difference from the Hoyas feeding Thomas Sorber low and reacting to if/when the double team comes.

Overall, with two teams who love to leverage transition offense, this one might come down to the turnover battle.

Here are the links:

Georgetown shoots for 3-0 Big East start as Xavier visits | Field Level Media – Professional sports content solutions | FLM

“We have 17 conference games in front of us, and there’s a lot of teams that play their best basketball in the months of January and February and, look, we have to be one of them,” Miller said.

“The next task is to go on the road at Georgetown and play a good game.”

Georgetown (11-2, 2-0) has already eclipsed its win total of each of the past three seasons and is seeking a 3-0 conference start for the first time since the 2011-12 season.

“The staff has done an incredible job of bringing in talent,” coach Ed Cooley said on Dec. 28 after the Hoyas’ 83-53 win over Coppin State.

Georgetown Men’s Basketball Takes On Xavier This Friday – Georgetown University Athletics | Georgetown University Athletics

Mack paces the offense dishing out 4.9 apg with Peavy right behind him with 4.2 apg.

Peavy ranks ninth in the country and leads the BIG EAST in steals per game, picking 2.69 pockets per game.

Sorber has four double-doubles to his name, tied for third in the league. Against Coppin State, the freshman tallied his fourth game with 20+ points moving him into a tie for ninth for GU freshmen with multiple 20+ games since the 1972-73 season.

Defensively, the team ranks second in the league in steals per game (9.2). The Hoyas are forcing opponents to commit 14.69 turnovers per game, which ranks fourth in the conference.

Men’s Basketball Hits The Road To Battle Georgetown On Friday Night In D.C. | Xavier University Athletics

Xavier leads the BIG EAST in fastbreak points (sixth in the nation in at 18.3 ppg.) and 3-point percentage (seventh in the nation at .406). Xavier is third in the BIG EAST in free-throw percentage (22nd in the nation at .781), assists per game (25th in the nation at 17.6 apg.) and assist-to-turnover ratio (40th in the nation at 1.52).

• Xavier junior newcomer Ryan Conwell, a preseason Third Team All-BIG EAST selection who is coming off a game-high 22-point effort in the Seton Hall win, is second on the team and sixth in the BIG EAST in scoring at 16.6 ppg.

• Xavier’s Ryan Conwell has hit at least two 3-pointers in 13 of the first 14 games. Conwell ranks second in the BIG EAST and 25th in the nation at 3.3 3-point field goals made per game.

• Xavier graduate student Marcus Foster is second on the team and tied for 11th in the BIG EAST in scoring for league games only at 15.0 ppg.

• Xavier graduate student Jerome Hunter has started all three of XU’s BIG EAST games and contributed 11.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.3 blocks and 1.3 steals per game.

• Xavier graduate student Dayvion McKnight, preseason Second Team All-BIG EAST, leads XU in assists at 4.8 apg. (tied for eighth in the BIG EAST) and is second in the BIG EAST and 31st in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.05.

Xavier v. Georgetown: preview, matchups, keys to the game | Banners on the Parkway (SB Nation)

Despite being 11-2 and having established a modest amount of momentum, Georgetown isn’t really in much better a place than X right now. If the tournament started today, they’d be maybe a coin toss to be included thanks to their -.1 WAB. Their home loss to Notre Dame is solidly in Q3 and any good will built up by rolling Creighton was blunted by just sneaking by Seton Hall despite giving up a 10-0 run to end the game.

Both of these teams come into this game nursing unimpressive resumes and seasons on the brink of evaporation. Someone can keep things ticking over with a win, but the loser is going to face a long and arduous road ahead if they want to be part of the conversation…

It all starts on the defensive end for the Hoyas. They were good in the non-conference and have been excellent in the admittedly small sample of Big East play. Their defense inside the arc is incredibly stingy, ranking fifth in the nation in two-point percentage against and blocking a ton of shots. They manage to do both that and force a lot of turnovers (21.2%, 47th) without sending their opponents to the line very much at all. They’re only an average defensive rebounding team and they’ve been fairly permissive around the arc. It all adds up to a top-50 defense that has been top-1 in conference games.

Wolfpack Can’t Put Together 40 minutes at Virginia | MTC with Mook – From the Capitol Dome and beyond

Jayden Epps didn’t practice as he works to get healthy enough to play against the Musketeers…

Georgetown’s transition defense starts with their shot selection. Yes, you read that correctly.

It’s all about taking the “right” perimeter shot, especially during transition and early in the shot clock. In today’s game, there will be times when that will be the best shot in the possession. It’s knowing when those situations are present and when they aren’t.

The Hoyas used various drills to practice getting back on defense, hoping it will choke off threes, especially the ones via transition ball reversal.

Georgetown vs. Xavier | House Enterprise

Friday night, Georgetown welcomes in yet another formidable opponent, Xavier.

The Musketeers just beat Seton Hall by 22 on New Year’s Eve, a team Georgetown beat by one on December 22. It’ll take another tremendous effort from the Hoyas to move to 3-0 in conference play.

The player to watch on Friday night in D.C. is once again Thomas Sorber. The 6’10” freshman is the team’s second-leading scorer at 15.7 PPG, has recorded four double-doubles this year, and has scored in double figures in all but two games this season.

In his last two games, he’s averaging over 20 PPG along with 10 RPG and has blocked 4 shots in both contests.

Scouting report: Can Xavier Musketeers get Big East road win over Georgetown Hoyas? | The Enquirer

Epps was a thorn in Xavier’s side last season, pouring in 32 points with 11 assists at Cintas Center. He had 20 points and 7 assists in Xavier’s road win over the Hoyas.

With Epps sidelined, Georgetown had little trouble cruising past a 1-win Coppin State club as Thomas Sorber and Drew Fielder combined for 42 points.

Guard Malik Mack, one of Georgetown’s top transfer portal pickups from Harvard, is averaging 12.5 points per game and shooting over 40% from 3-point range. Mack missed the first two games of Big East play before returning against Coppin State and recording a 15-point, 11-assist double-double.

2026 5-star SG Jordan Smith Jr. hearing from 5 schools the most | On3

Jordan Smith Jr., a five-star shooting guard in the 2026 class, says he is hearing from five schools the most frequently (in no particular order): Georgetown, Duke, Arkansas, Louisville, and Kansas. Each program has offered him a scholarship.

The 6-foot-3 junior out of Paul VI Catholic (VA) took an official visit to Duke in November. Louisville, Syracuse, and Georgetown have hosted him on unofficial visits…

“They’re trying to bring Georgetown back, and I really like that. They’re playing fast and my relationship with Coach (Ed) Cooley is really, really good.

“I’m seeing a big leap with them. In Coach’s first year, it wasn’t that good. But this year, I’m enjoying watching them play, they’re really opening my eyes.