BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Georgetown @ DePaul

January 31, 2006

Wouldn't you love to go back to the 80's and see these teams go at it when they were among the best in the nation? Tonight they meet for the first time as Big East conference members. Georgetown looks to be on their way to becoming one of the nation's best again. DePaul, in their first year with Jerry Wainwright, are trying to find some consistency to their season and most importantly, some wins in the Big East.

Here are some of the pregame stories and previews from around the internet:


Surging Hoyas Right On Schedule (Washington Times)
Hoyas Wallace Poised at Point (Washington Post)
DePaul Feels Sense of Urgency Against Hoyas (Chicago Sun-Times)

To read our preview and see our game prediction, click read more below and don't forget to leave your prediction in the comments section!

READ OUR PREVIEW...CLICK "Read More" BELOW


There is no denying that DePaul is a team struggling with everything that is new to them. They have a new coach and are playing in a new conference and it has all seemed to catch up with them of late as they enter tonight's game with Georgetown at 1-6 in the conference and 9-10 overall. Of late, injuries and discipline issues have left a starting line-up that has been juggled almost every night during their current 5-game losing streak. It has been almost a week since they have played, so if there was a time to see a team re-group, this is probably it.

On the other side of the ledger, Georgetown is a team that seems to have everything coming together just the way they hoped. They lost a couple tough road games in the conference at West Virginia and Connecticut, but have since bounced back impressively with four straight wins, including the stirring upset of Duke at the MCI Center. Tonight they head back out to the midwest to meet DePaul, one week ago, the Hoyas survived a 2 OT battle with Notre Dame.

There is no doubt a sense of urgency for DePaul and it begins now. After the Georgetown game they travel to South Florida and host Providence as they try to get back into the mix for a Big East Tournament bid. In their last game, Sammy Mejia injured his ankle and his status is unclear, but not playing over the weekend will hopefully give the ankle time to heal. Wesley Green has been hampered by injuries once again this season and Wilson Chandler left the team briefly, hopefully some practices at full strength will get the Blue Demons all back on the same page.

Georgetown is not going very deep, usually playing six players for the majority of the minutes with freshmen Jesse Sapp seeing some additional time in the backcourt, but their methodical Princeton-based offense keeps the ball spread out and drives the opponent crazy trying to defend all the positions on the floor. They have one of the better forward combinations in the nation with Brandon Bowman and Jeff Green, even though their stats are down this year, expect these two to come up big when needed. The improved Roy Hibbert and senior scorers in Ashanti Cook and Darrel Owens round out a talented group that are directed by Johnathan Wallace at the PG. This is an all-around solid team that gets it done on both ends of the floor.

I do expect DePaul to come out with some renewed energy and play a very tough game with the Hoyas. Georgetown is a 5-pt home favorite and will need to avoid peeking ahead to a date with top-10 Pittsburgh this weekend. When Duke was around the corner, Georgetown very nearly slipped up and let South Florida steal one on their home court.

NBE Blogger Prediction:

Georgetown 69 DePaul 66