Syracuse basketball at Georgetown: 5 Key Things to Know
SYRACUSE, N.Y. » There’s something different about the Syracuse-Georgetown rivalry, the latest installment of which will take place on Saturday at the Capital One Arena in Washington.
For the first time in nearly 50 years, Jim Boeheim will not lead Syracuse onto the court against the hated Hoyas. The man who fought and feuded with his Georgetown counterpart, John Thompson, for years during the days of the Big East Conference retired last March after his 47th year as the Orange’s head coach.
Adrian Autry, the former Syracuse standout and long-time assistant to Boeheim, now leads the Orange program.
And speaking of Thompson, for the first time since 1972 when Thompson took over the Georgetown program, the Hoyas’ headman has no ties to Big John. Last year, Georgetown fired Patrick Ewing, the Hall of Fame center who led the Hoyas to three Final Fours and one NCAA championship.
Georgetown plucked Ed Cooley away from Big East rival Providence in hopes that he will be able to resuscitate a program that has been to the NCAA Tournament just once in the last eight years.
Syracuse (6-3, 0-1 ACC) is looking for its first win at Georgetown since the 2017-18 season. It sounds like a long time, but it’s just a two-game losing streak for the Orange at the Capital One Arena.
Georgetown brings a 5-3 record into Saturday’s game. The Hoyas are coming off a crazy 84-83 loss to TCU, which won on a last-second 3-pointer even though TCU’s Emanuel Miller stepped out of bounds before taking his buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
Cooley has retooled Georgetown’s roster. He brought in six transfers from other Division I schools, including Jayden Epps (Illinois), Dontrez Styles (North Carolina), Ismael Massoud (Kansas State), Supreme Cook
(Fairfield), Rowan Brumbaugh (Texas), and Cam Bacote (Western Carolina).
The game has an early tip-off of 11:30 a.m. and will be televised on Fox. Here are 5 Key Things to Know about the matchup:
This isn’t to suggest that Judah Mintz is a key to the game. That part is rather obvious.
The 6-foot-4 sophomore is merely averaging 19.4 points per game. He’s handing out 3.5 assists per game. He has raised his 3-point shooting to 46.7%.
So, yeah, he’s important. But the reason he’s mentioned here is this is a special game for him.
Mintz grew up just outside Washington in Fort Washington, Maryland. He attended Gonzaga High School in D.C. There is a chance that this might be Mintz’s only game against Georgetown in his hometown.
Mintz played well in SU’s 83-64 win over Georgetown last year at the JMA Wireless Dome. He scored 16 points and dished out a career-high 10 assists and also picked off a career-best five steals.
Syracuse is 4-0 this season when it outrebounds its opponent and 1-3 when it has lost the battle of the boards. The Orange is 1-0 when the rebounding numbers are equal.
But that’s a pretty general statistical overview, and, honestly, it’s typical for most teams.
The real indicator for Syracuse this season in terms of rebounding has been on the offensive boards. Syracuse is 5-0 when it collects 11 or more offensive rebounds. That includes Tuesday’s win over Cornell when the Orange finished with 13 offensive rebounds.
Conversely, SU’s only 1-3 when it has gotten to 10 or fewer offensive rebounds. The lone exception is the comeback win over Colgate, which will probably be the statistical outlier for a lot of categories for the rest of the season.
So who is hitting the offensive glass for Syracuse? Naheem McLeod has 24 offensive rebounds in nine games, while Maliq Brown, who had seven offensive boards against Cornell, is up to 23. Third on the list is a surprise: Quadir Copeland.
Jayden Epps transferred to Georgetown last spring after spending his freshman year at Illinois. Epps’ decision is paying big dividends for both him and the Hoyas so far this season.
Epps, a 6-foot-2 guard, averaged 9.5 points per game at Illinois last season. He started 11 games. He also shot 30% from 3-point range.
This year, Epps leads Georgetown with 19.1 points per game, putting him second in the Big East Conference. He ranks fourth in the Big East in 3-point shooting with a .469 percentage. He has 36 assists in eight games after handing out 46 assists in 31 games at Illinois.
In all, it’s been a fruitful homecoming for the Norfolk, Virginia native.
Georgetown’s lineup includes three high-volume 3-point shooters who will test Syracuse’s ability to defend the perimeter.
As a team, the Hoyas are making 39% of their 3-pointers. That ranks 29th in the country.
But Georgetown’s 3-point attack boils down to three players: Jayden Epps, Jay Heath, and Dontrez Styles.
Epps, a 6-2 guard, is 24for-52 (46.2%) from the 3-point line. Heath, a 6-3 guard, has gone 15-for-35 (42.9%). And Styles, a 6-6 wing, is 15-for-38 (39.5%). Another player to watch, though, is Ismael Massoud, who has played in just two games this year but went 4-for-10 on 3-pointers last Saturday against TCU.
Judah Mintz and JJ Starling will naturally defend Georgetown’s guards. Expect Chris Bell to draw the assignment of guarding Styles, who is averaging 16.4 points per game.
Syracuse is averaging 76.9 points per game. That ranks seventh in the ACC.
Get this though: In its six wins, Syracuse has averaged 86.5 points. In the three losses, the Orange has averaged 58.3 points and hasn’t scored more than 62.
Syracuse is going up against a Georgetown team that is allowing 72.8 points per game. The Hoyas defend the 3-point line well, allowing their opponents to shoot just 28.9% from the arc.
However, teams have taken advantage of Georgetown’s relative lack of size to make 51.9% of their 2-point attempts against the Hoyas. This might bode well for a Syracuse team that relies heavily on the penetrating ability of guards Judah Mintz and JJ Starling.