.png)
Game 16 - Georgetown (5-10) vs. Villanova (7-7)
Nuts & Bolts
Date: January 4, 2023
Time: 6:30 p.m. ET
Venue: Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.
How to Watch: Fox Sports 1
Matchup History: Villanova leads all-time series 46-45
Last Meeting: Villanova def. Georgetown 74-66 on 2/19/22
Betting Lines: Via DraftKings
Spread: Georgetown +9.5
Over/Under: 142.5
Prediction: Georgetown 62, Villanova 81
Official Game Notes: HERE
Follow Along on Twitter
Road to the Garden: https://twitter.com/Road2TheGarden
Zach Penrice - DMV Sports: https://twitter.com/Zach_DMVSports
Head Coach: Patrick Ewing (6th season, 73-94 record at Georgetown)
Record: 5-10 (0-4 in Big East)
Last Time Out: Lost vs. Butler 80-51 on 1/1
Highlights HERE
Player to Watch: Akok Akok
The Georgetown Hoyas extended its Big East losing streak to 24 games in an emphatic loss to Butler on Sunday evening.
Coming into the game, it was widely considered that Butler was the second worst team in the conference, only in front of the Hoyas. Well, that gap between last and next-to-last appears to be quite wide at the moment.
“Not the way we wanted to start the new year,” head coach Patrick Ewing said. “We didn’t have it both offensively and defensively. Nothing that we did went right. Now we have to come back against a good Villanova team.”
It’s Georgetown’s fifth straight loss and seventh in its last eight games played. The Hoyas have already faced two of the other Big East ‘bottom feeders’ and have lost both games by a combined 36 points.
Coming up, it’s Villanova tonight, followed by Marquette on the road. Losses 25 and 26 are starting the Hoyas in the face.
“We’re going to watch film on the mistakes we made today. We might even just throw it away,” Ewing said after the 29 point loss Sunday night. “When you get your butts beat by that many points…we gotta regroup and come back.”
As mentioned, Georgetown has lost seven of its last eight games and only two of those losses were by single-digits.
At this point, a little more competitiveness would be considered a step in the right direction. I’m beginning to wonder if winning is a realistic expectation.
Head Coach: Kyle Neptune (1st season at Villanova)
Record: 7-7 (1-2 in Big East)
Last Time Out: Lost vs. Marquette 68-66 on 12/31
Highlights HERE
Player to Watch: Caleb Daniels
What a weird season it’s been for Villanova in its first year without legendary head coach Jay Wright.
The Wildcats were 2-6 to start the year and had really turned things around before dropping the last two games in Big East play.
Georgetown is catching ‘Nova at perhaps the worst possible time.
The Wildcats have lost back-to-back matchups to UConn and Marquette, scoring exactly 66 points in both defeats and losing by a combined 10 points.
Villanova is young and inconsistent and has a first year head coach tasked with the impossible job of trying to replace a legend.
Still, I think this is the scariest 7-7 team in the country. Don’t expect this to be your usual Villanova side, but don’t expect them to roll over simply because Jay Wright isn’t around anymore.
They’ve struggled in the early part of the season, but this could easily be the ‘get right’ game (pun intended) they need in order to turn things around.
Villanova could only be in trouble of potentially looking ahead to Saturday’s pivotal matchup against #18 Xavier, but don’t expect it to have a huge impact on the game against Georgetown.
I like ‘Nova big tonight.
Comments