Eastern Washington Falls to Georgetown

Eastern Washington came out strong, but Georgetown was just too much in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Eagles led 24-17 at one point in the first half, and it looked like it could be their night. Tyler Harvey started the game off hot, and he was getting help. Venky Jois got Georgetown center Joshua Smith into early foul trouble, and guys like Parker Kelly, Felix Van Hofe, and Bogdan Bliznyuk were all hitting threes.

Then, Georgetown scored 41 of the next 54 points, as EWU just had no answers on either end. It's oversimplifying to say this, but things seemed to go south for the Eagles after the no-call on this play -

Yeah, umm this is a cheap shot , Jabril. https://t.co/4evuOUfR6F
— Troy Machir (@TroyMachir) March 20, 2015

Even after review, the refs somehow decided this was not worthy of any type of technical foul (a flagrant foul could not have been called because technically it was a dead ball foul). In a sense, EWU literally took a punch, but figuratively couldn't throw one back.

For a stretch at the end of the first half and beginning of the second half, Georgetown seemed like they couldn't miss. The Hoyas drained 11 threes, effectively doing to EWU what the Eagles what they hoped to do to Georgetown. When the Hoyas did miss, they were all over the offensive glass.

The Eagles could have easily given up after the big GTown run, as the score was 65-42 at one point. However, EWU kept battling the rest of the way, making the final score 84-74. A spark was Sir Washington, who surprisingly entered the game and did some good things. More than the box score, he looked like he brought some energy back to the Eagles.

The guy that impressed me the most was Venky Jois, who was all over the floor on both ends. He finished with 19 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks, but even more than that, he gave a full effort at all times. If you only watched him, you wouldn't know the score of the game, and that's a true complement.

Tyler Harvey finished with 27 points, but it was a tough night. He was guarded often by Jabril Trawick (who, by the way, is a very easy guy to not like), and with Trawick's size, Harvey had trouble getting separation for his shot.

In the end, the Eagles finish the season 26-9, and they should have a great chance of playing NCAA Tournament basketball again next year. They lose two seniors (one of them being Drew Brandon, an important guy), but they arguably bring back their three most talented guys (Harvey, Jois, and Bogdan Bliznyuk). It was a great season for the Eagles, and it ended with a night in the Big Dance where they didn't have their best day, but they never stopped fighting.

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How Eastern Washington Can Beat Georgetown

As I wrote on Monday, beating Georgetown is not going to be easy. While a lot of pundits are picking the Eagles for the upset, there is a reason that the Hoyas are favored by something like 8.5 points. There are some real concerns - namely, how is Eastern Washington going to stop the Hoyas?

However, it's definitely still possible for the Eagles to make good on this Jim Hayford promise:

This is so awesome. EWU coach goes on @jimrome show and guarantees a W over G’town. Audio: http://t.co/kf3PvkgidL
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 18, 2015

Let's look at some of the keys for the Eagles if they want to win this game and move on to the Round of 32.

- Hit threes - This one may seem obvious, but it doesn't make it any less true - the Eagles have to be hitting from the outside. Defensively, Georgetown is very difficult to score against in the paint. Their defense is anchored by Mikael Hopkins, and he erases shots down low. Opponents shoot just 42.7% on two-pointers against the Hoyas, the 21st lowest mark in the country.

On the other hand, they are susceptible to getting beat from deep. 35.1% of opponents shots come from three-point range, which makes GTown below average in stopping those attempts. For what it's worth (some question whether defenses really have control over this stat), teams have shot 35.9% on threes against the Hoyas, a bottom 100 mark in the NCAA.

That should suit EWU just fine... 37.7% of their shots are from three (16th highest rate in the NCAA), and they are in the top 15 nationally percentage-wise. So the Eagles certainly have the personnel to get this done, but the shots still need to fall.

- Avoid foul trouble for the big men - Georgetown center Joshua Smith is very tough to handle, because he's bigger than just about anyone in college basketball, but he's nimble, and has great touch around the basket. This is him on defense, but watch his ability to move with some quickness in a short area:

Venky Jois and Ognen Miljkovic (and Bogdan Bliznyuk) all struggled with foul trouble in the Big Sky championship game, but they need to do better in this one. It won't be easy - Smith draws as many fouls as just about anyone in all of college basketball.

- A secondary player needs to have a big game - It's going to take a lot of points to win this game, possibly as many as 80. Tyler Harvey should get his, and Venky Jois usually does too, but the Eagles could use a big game from someone else. Felix Van Hofe was that guy in the Big Sky semis, when he was 7/8 from downtown. In this game, the two most likely guys are Bogdan Bliznyuk and Drew Brandon. Bliznyuk showed in the Big Sky tournament that he is not intimidated by the big stage, even as a freshman, and he has the most diverse offensive skillset outside of Harvey. Brandon, meanwhile, seems to get a lot of good shots, because teams don't respect his range as much as some of the other guys. The Eagles could use one of those guys to go for 20+ in this one.

- Find a way to slow D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera - DSR averaged more than 16 PPG, and has a diverse offensive skill set. He is a very good shooter from the outside, and also has the handles to get inside and either finish or dish. If the Eagles play man defense, Drew Brandon will likely get the assignment, and that will be huge for the Eagles. They need to do what they can to limit him, because he can really make the Hoyas offense go.

- Push the pace - Georgetown is not necessarily a slow team, but the Eagles played at a much faster pace throughout the season. It's hard to say if it will matter, but the game is starting at about 7:47 pm mountain time (and likely a little bit later than that), which would be about 10pm in local Georgetown time, as the game will be played on the west coast. If there is any type of tiredness on the Hoyas part, it could be an advantage EWU can exploit by pushing the pace and speeding the game up.

Eastern Washington will have a chance in this game, especially if these things happen. I think the Eagles will be able to score even on a good Georgetown defense, because they'll push the pace and get some looks from downtown. The key will be how EWU handles the Hoyas on the other end of the court, because Georgetown is absolutely capable of putting up a big number of points themselves.

What are your thoughts on the Eagles chances?

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Interview With Casual Hoya About Georgetown

With Eastern Washington taking on Georgetown on Thursday, I thought it'd be a good idea to get to know a little bit about the enemy, from someone who knows a lot about them. So I sent Andrew from the blog Casual Hoya some questions (some about the game, some about other stuff), and he was gracious enough to answer them (and I answered some EWU questions for him, which you should be able to find up on that site by the time you read this - and here it is).

1. Obviously the media has been all over the Georgetown upset train, in large part it seems because of past first round Georgetown losses. First question related to that - Do you think there is a particular reason why the Hoyas have been the victim of upsets in the past? Second, do you think the current players pay even a speck of attention to that talk, with the standard college basketball roster turnover?

Upset train, nice one! Yes, there is a particular reason why the Hoyas have been the victim of upsets in the past and I think the coaching staff has done a great job in addressing those issues; mainly, recruiting athletes with size that can play both the Georgetown offense as we all push the tempo if need be. Moreover, there's more balance in this squad, as half a dozen different kids have led the team in scoring in various games this season. Georgetown teams in the past were more dependent on a lone individual to carry the team (i.e Otto Porter), and once the team fell behind and the wheels started to come off it was a tough hole to climb out from. This team more resembles in 2007 Final Four squad than later varietals that were upset victims in that there are more weapons on the floor.

As far as whether the team is paying attention to the upset talk, absolutely. Over at Casual Hoya we've had a number of compilation containing the national media's jumping on the Eastern Washington bandwagon, and I've noticed a few of the players posting similar things on social media. The seniors on this team were part of the disappointing NCAA efforts in 2009-10, 2010-11, and 2012-13, so there's definitely that motivation factor as well.

At least I hope there is.

2. D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera is obviously the Hoyas best player... Can you tell us a little about his game? Also, please tell me that I can just call him DSR so I don't have to continually type D'Vauntes...

Hey, DSR works for us so feel free!

DSR was the Big East Preseason Player of the Year and with good reason, he can score from the perimeter, get into the lane, and has been Georgetown's best and most consistent player all season. You might as well get used to tweeting the following throughout the game: "Hey, is anyone going to guard this DSR guy? He's killing us!"

3. Teams have had tough sledding going into the paint against Georgetown... Obviously that's likely due to many factors, but is it more defensive philosophy or more having shot blockers like Mikael Hopkins on the back line?

It's a bit of both, but the presence of Hopkins, Josh Smith and Isaac Copeland in the paint is certainly disruptive. Hopkins is an excellent help defender and shot blocker, and though he and Smith are a bit foul prone, I don't expect the Eagles to much success inside. If you're going to beat us, it's going to be from behind the arc.

4. I think a lot of the EWU fans are optimistic in part due to the fact that they can't see Joshua Smith out on the perimeter chasing some of EWU's shooters. Does that worry you at all or is that something JTIII can easily scheme around?

EWU fans might want to find another reason to be optimistic, because in no way shape or form will Josh Smith be chasing anyone around the perimeter. In fact, there is a better chance Smith chases you down after these questions than there is of him running after some Eagles gunner running around the three point line. Smith will stay where he needs to be, and Georgetown will probably deploy some sort of zone against your beloved Tyler Harvey to stifle whatever dreams you have of reaching the Round of 32.

5. At their best, GTown obviously has shown they can beat anyone. However, when they are at their worst, what do they struggle with the most?

Georgetown has lost all three games to Xavier this season, and that's the type of team that causes us problems - size down low to avoid having to double Smith and good perimeter shooters that can take advantage of perimeter rotations. Size up front generally has been a prerequisite to success against the Hoyas this season - do y'all have that?

6. What makes this Georgetown team fun to watch and root for?

I'm biased of course, but each student athlete on this team is genuinely a good kid. That, plus the classy way the school and program carries itself under John Thompson III makes Georgetown very difficult to actually hate, unless you are a Syracuse fan that is fat, pasty and also BANNED from the postseason.

7. How did you become a Georgetown fan? And how does one become a writer on the biggest Georgetown blog on the internet?

I've been a Georgetown fan since growing up in the heyday of the Big East, and attending Georgetown in the Iverson-era didn't exactly do anything to detract from that. The next time you're in the Georgetown area, shoot me a tweet or something, we'll meet up, I'll show you campus, will drink beers and toast the end of your season.

As far as being the head of the biggest Georgetown blog on the internet, well, that's probably more a product of the lack of other competition than anything impressive that I've done, but thanks, I'll take it. If you want to submit your resume for review, I'm more than happy to check it out since we're always looking for new talent!

8. Be honest - could you have named the Eastern Washington mascot before it was announced they would be Georgetown's opponent? Did you know anything about the team?'

Absolutely. We here at Casual Hoya have been compiling a list of possible Hoyas opponents for weeks, and EWU was on that list of teams that we didn't really want to face because of the whole, "these guys can get hot from 3 and kill us" issue. The thing is, we feared the same when we played Belmont in the first round of the Dance in 2012 and the Hoyas won that game by 15.

9. During my formative years, my favorite player was Allen Iverson... he converted me to become a Philadelphia 76ers fan all by himself. For your money, has there ever been a more exciting Hoya than him?

No, and it's not even close. I was a freshman at Georgetown when Iverson was a sophomore, so he holds a special place in my cold, dark heart. You can make an argument that Iverson was one of the single-most "era" defining players of all-time, as he ushered what I guess some people might refer to as the "hip-hop era" into the NBA which has shaped how the game has been played and who it has been marketed to ever since. When Iverson came back to Georgetown's campus a few months ago for the groundbreaking of Georgetown's new athletics facility called, appropriately, The Thompson Center, it was really really really awesome and quite casual.

10. Gun to your head (held by someone else - I promise to never do that to you), if the over/under for Georgetown tourney wins is set at 1.5, what side do you take? What if it's set at 2.5?

OVER. After we dispense of you guys I think we can take it to either Utah or Stephen F. Austin, and then it's on to Houston for a likely date with Duke. Georgetown has had pretty good success against Duke in the past, so I'll go once again with OVER 2.5! This is great! We're Indianapolis bound! I need a drink.

11. Last, what is your official game prediction?

I'd love to pump a bunch more air into your already-inflated balloons of joy, but I really think this Hoyas team is different and that the Eagles are going to feel the wrath of one of the best team's in the Big East coming out with a chip on its shoulder. The Eagles have a terrible defense (I'm not trying to insult you, it's simply true), and the only team that Georgetown played this season with a remotely comparable defense was Towson. The Hoyas won that game by 32 points. Call it Hoyas 78 - Eagles 62, friendo.

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Georgetown Scouting Report

Georgetown finished the year 21-10, and went 12-6 in the Big East, losing to Xavier in the Big East Tournament. They are the four seed in the South region, and thus they are Eastern Washington's first round opponent. Early lines seem to have Georgetown favored by 8 points.

For the season, they scored 1.103 PPP (41st in the nation), and allowed 0.94 PPP (25th in the country). For comparison, EWU scored 1.10 PPP (46th), and allowed 1.08 PPP (279th). Georgetown played at a much slower pace than EWU, but their offensive is every bit as good as the Eagles, with their defense being quite a bit better than EWU's outfit.
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Offensively, the Hoyas excel at drawing fouls and getting easy buckets in the paint. They show 50.4% on twos this year, a top 75 rate in the country. They are also a great offensive rebounding team, finishing with a rate in the top 75 in the country there as well.

In the post, a lot of those efforts are centered on Joshua Smith, who many may remember from the start of his career at UCLA. He is a behemoth of a man with great touch around the basket, and great rebounding instincts, especially on the offensive glass. Smith shot 63% this year, and had an offensive rebounding rate of 15.4%, which was 14th in the nation (he is no slouch on the defensive glass, but especially excels offensively). Safe to say that EWU hasn't faced anyone quite like him, if only because there aren't many guys like him.

As good as Smith is, the Hoyas best player is junior guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera, who can hurt you in different ways. He excels at getting to the foul line, as he took almost five FTs per game, making 88% of his attempts. He can also hurt you from long range, where he shot 40%. In terms of ball distribution, he is their best shot creator for other, with a 20.0 Assist Rate compared to a 11.6 TO Rate. Simply out, there isn't a lot he can't do.

There are other weapons too. Jabril Trawick can score inside or out, and shot 55% on two-point attempts this year. Freshman Isaac Copeland is a future pro. Aaron Bowen shoots 60% on twos and comes off the bench. They are going to be tough to cover. Everyone knows about the Princeton offense, and EWU will need to be very disciplined defensively.

For as good as Georgetown can be offensively, they are even better on the defensive end of the court. They simply don't give you anything inside - teams shoot 42.7% inside the arc, the 21st best defensive mark in the nation. They force turnovers, and they block a lot of shots. They have been susceptible at times to three-point shooting teams, as opponents have shot 35.9% from downtown against them. This could play into EWU's hands, but we'll get into that later in the week. The Hoyas have also had a tendency to put their opponents on the foul line, though that is something that EWU will have a harder time to naturally take advantage of in their offense.

The anchor for Georgetown's defense is 6'9'' senior Michael Hopkins. He is 60th in the NCAA in block rate, and can get some steals as well. He is solid on the defensive glass as well. He is a big part of the reason why the lane can be a tough place to do much against Georgetown.

That's a quick look at the Hoyas... later in the week we'll come back with some ways that Eastern Washington might attack them, and what might be needed for an upset to occur.

After the brackets were unveiled, a lot of people pointed to the Hoyas being overseeded, and this being one of the most picked upsets. But make no mistake - This is a really good Georgetown team, and upset will still be an uphill battle.

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Eastern Washington a 13 Seed, Will Face Georgetown

After much speculation throughout the year that the Big Sky winner may be relegated to the play-in game, the conference got a little break from a seeding standpoint when Eastern Washington, who had the best non-conference resume of anyone in the conference, won the tournament and got the auto bid.

The projections I saw had them around a 15 seed, but they wind up getting a 13 seed, and they will take on the #4 seed Georgetown in the first round of the Big Dance.

Already, many people are calling them a potential upset, and it wouldn't be a surprise if they are one of the most picked upset teams in the tournament. For one, they have shown they can win big games, like when they beat Indiana and San Francisco on the road earlier this season. Two, a lot of people feel that Georgetown got over-seeded, as they finished the year 21-10, losing in the Big East tournament to Xavier. To that end, it's probably the best possible draw that EWU could have hoped for.

However, it's still going to be an uphill battle, as Georgetown is still a very good team and will be heavily favored. On KenPom's ratings, they are the 22nd best team in the country, and his system projects a 80-69 Georgetown win. We will talk a lot more about them as the week goes on, but it will be a battle.

The good news is that the Eagles have shown a lot of resiliency this year, and they'll have the ability to score a lot of points on the Hoyas. It will be a fun one.

The game is the last one on Thursday night, with a scheduled tip of 7:57 mountain time on TruTV, which is good news for those of us with day jobs! Check back here throughout the week for plenty more thoughts on the game.

Happy March Madness everybody!

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