LINKS: Visiting Butler, Hoyas Hope for Hinkle Magic

Georgetown needs this road win to start the last leg strong

Your Georgetown Hoyas (15-9, 6-7 Big East) will play the Butler Bulldogs (11-13, 4-9 Big East) at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Saturday, February 15, at 2 p.m. ET, with the game airing on FS1 with Cooper Boardman and former Bulldog point guard, Shelvin Mack. Rich Chvotkin will be on on Team 980 and on SiriusXM (Ch. 384), in his 51st season. Georgetown won their previous meeting this season 73-70 on January 31. The Hoyas are looking to start a winning streak after holding Seton Hall to 46 points last weekend. With 7 games left, GU needs four wins to get to 10-10. The Bulldogs are coming off a 82-81 win after hosting Providence and allowing the Friars to shoot 16-32 from beyond the arc. Each team has had a week off to prepare.

Freshman Thomas Sorber has consistently performed well and earned his seventh Big East Freshman of the Week award, averaging 15 points and 7 rebounds over his last two games and leading all freshmen nationally with eight double-doubles.

Graduate student Micah Peavy, recently named to the Big East Weekly Honor Roll after a 22-point, 7-rebound, and 4-assist performance against Seton Hall, leads the Hoyas in scoring with 15.2 points per game and averages 5.4 rebounds, while his 2.33 steals per game rank among the top 20 nationally.

Malik Mack needs to continue his playmaking ways, averaging 4.7 assists per game, which ranks seventh in the Big East. Jayden Epps (11.8 ppg) may return from a lower body injury. Caleb Williams and Curtis Williams Jr. need to be prepared to step up again.

Georgetown boasts the Big East’s best scoring defense, allowing only 64.9 points per game, and ranks third in the conference and 31st nationally in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 40.3% shooting. They are also third in the league in steals per game (8.2) and force 14.21 turnovers per game.

Butler’s Jahmyl Telfort scored 24 points in their recent win over Providence. Finley Bizjack has been shooting well from three-point range, hitting 56 percent of his attempts over the last six games, and Patrick McCaffery has made at least one three-pointer in 30 consecutive games. Butler struggled to defend the three-pointer against Providence, allowing them to shoot 16-for-32 from beyond the arc, which could be an area Georgetown can exploit.

This game is important for Georgetown as they need to win at least four of their remaining seven games to reach 10 Big East wins and improve their postseason chances. A strong offensive start and continued defensive prowess will be crucial for a Georgetown victory.

Here are the links:

Georgetown Men’s Basketball Travels to Indianapolis to Face Butler | Georgetown University Athletics

Sorber leads the squad on the glass pulling down 8.7 rpg, which leads the league, followed by Peavy (5.4 rpg) and Drew Fielder (5.3 rpg).

Mack paces the offense dishing out 4.7 apg, a mark that ranks seventh in the BE.

Peavy ranks 15th in the country and is second in the BIG EAST in steals per game, picking 2.3 pockets per game.

Sorber has eight double-doubles to his name, which leads the league. His eight double-doubles leads the nation among freshmen, just ahead of Ace Bailey (Rutgers) and Derik Queen (Maryland) who each have seven to their credit.

Defensively, the team is first in the league in scoring defense, allowing an average of 64.9 ppg. GU ranks third in the BIG EAST and 31st in the nation in field goal percentage defense (40.3%). The Hoyas are third in the league in steals per game (8.2) and are forcing opponents to commit 14.21 turnovers per game, which ranks third in the conference.

Sorber Tabbed BIG EAST Freshman of the Week, Peavy Named to Honor Roll | Georgetown University Athletics

Over a pair of games, Sorber averaged 15.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 2.5 apg and 1.5 bpg.

The freshman recorded his eighth double-double on the year with 13 points and a game-best 11 rebounds in a win against Seton Hall. He is the lone leader nationally among freshmen with eight double-doubles to his name.

At Xavier, the freshman tallied 17 points to go along with three rebounds and a pair each of blocks and assists.

For the week, the New Jersey native shot 58.3% (14-24) from the field…

In a midweek matchup at Xavier, Peavy matched his career high with 27 points, while dishing out four assists and recording a pair of steals.

In a win against Seton Hall, the graduate student tallied a game-best 22 points while grabbing seven rebounds and managing three steals.

Bulldogs Return to Action Saturday, Host Georgetown in Annual Project 44 Game | Butler University Athletics

• Butler enters the game off an 82-81 win over Providence.

• Butler is a combined 22-for-43 (51 percent) from three-point range over the team’s last two games; those are two of the Bulldogs’ six games this season making 10 or more three-pointers. On the season, Butler is 31st nationally, shooting 37.5 percent from behind the arc.

• Jahmyl Telfort led Butler with 24 points and a career-high four steals in Saturday’s win over Providence; he has scored at least 24 points in three of the team’s last six games.

• Butler has scored 80 or more points in all four of its BIG EAST wins this season and is 7-0 overall when hitting 80 points.

• Butler has led at the half in nine of the team’s 13 BIG EAST games (and was tied in one of the other four games).

• The Bulldogs out-rebounded Providence, 34-24, in the team’s last outing. Over the last seven games, Butler has out-rebounded its opponent five times (and the teams were even on the boards in the other two games.)

• Butler withstood 16 made three-pointers by Providence in Saturday’s win, the most made three-pointers by a Butler opponent since Marquette also hit 16 on Jan. 24, 2020. Since 2003, there have only been seven games when Butler’s opponent made 14 or more three-pointers; Butler is 5-2 in those games.

Behind the Scenes: Micah Peavy’s Path to Emerging as NBA-Level Talent | NBA Draft On SI

“When you’re a good defender, you have to be able to gamble a little and your coach has to have the ultimate trust in you — which is why I chose Coach Cooley. He checked every box and he’s done all he’s promised plus more. I feel like I made a great decision,” Peavy told Draft Digest.

The Texas native feels like Georgetown has also helped put him in positions to succeed on the court in multiple ways, not just defensively.

“They’re putting me in different positions I haven’t played since high school or at all. Cooley is a coach who can draw up so many different plays and put you in a multitude of roles in those plays. Sometimes that’s getting into the mid-post – I’ve had that in my bag but hadn’t been able to unleash that since I’d been in college. They’re letting me go on defense and letting me show that I’m the best defender in college,” Peavy said.

Rematch: Georgetown at Butler | Houseenterprise

Boden Kapke is a fine player, I don’t want this to be an attack on him, because it isn’t. This is a matchup angle. Kapke’s strength is his ability to pull the defense out to the perimeter, and make your center have to guard him on the perimeter. He’s the better matchup against a team like Creighton as a result.

His weakness is rim protection. And Georgetown went at him relentlessly. Whenever he was in, the Hoyas fed their star freshman Thomas Sorber. Boden Kapke played nine minutes, and had a game-worst, +/- of -9. Georgetown’s star freshman Thomas Sorber finished with 19 points in 35 minutes of game action. When Boden Kapke was on the floor, Sorber had 12 points.

Straight up, Butler has to do everything in their power to prevent this from being a one-on-one matchup. Either you have to double off non-shooters when Kapke is in, or you have to stagger his minutes so Sorber only goes against Screen. Some of those buckets were a coincidence (Sorber had one transition bucket that would’ve happened regardless), but still, Butler has to adjust here.

Freshman Caleb Williams gives Georgetown a shot in the arm | Washington Post

“Early on due to some injuries, I got my chance to show what I can do and sort of step up, and I feel like I took advantage of that,” he said. “Ever since then, I’ve just been trying to keep stacking good days and just keep going at it.”

Williams made two free throws with 4:19 to go, then effectively ended the game with a three-pointer late in the shot clock to make it 55-45. He added a bucket in the final seconds to surpass his career high of 10 points set against Maryland Baltimore County and DePaul.

“Through the opportunities I’ve had, my teammates start to build more trust in me, knowing what I can do. And [being] versatile, I feel it’s definitely an addition that can help us and will help us,” said Williams, who played 35 minutes Saturday.

Georgetown closed on a 12-1 run and did not permit a field goal in the final 5:21. The Hoyas have won four conference games when scoring fewer than 70 points — as many as in their previous eight regular seasons combined.