Hoyas are in MSG tonight

This is a press release.

No. 15/23 Georgetown Travels to Play Texas in Jimmy V Classic

WASHINGTON - The Georgetown University men's basketball team hit the road on Monday afternoon, bound for New York City, where the Hoyas will face Texas in the Jimmy V Classic. Tip-off at Madison Square Garden is slated for 7 p.m.

The game will be shown live on ESPN, with Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas calling all of the action. Rich Chvotkin's radio call can be heard locally on ESPN 980 AM.

The Hoyas improved to 5-1 overall with a win over Tennessee on Friday night in the SEC/BIG EAST Challenge at Verizon Center. It was the second-straight win for the Blue & Gray, who are now ranked No. 15 in the country in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll and No. in the USA Today Coaches' poll.

This will be Georgetown's second appearance in the Jimmy V Classic in the last four years. In GU's last appearance, the team posted a 72-65 win over Butler with former All-American Greg Monroe scoring 24 points and grabbing 15 rebounds and former All-American guard Austin Freeman adding 18 points.

Georgetown, one of the youngest teams in the country, is one of only four teams at the Division I level with no seniors on the roster. The Hoyas are led by junior forward Nate Lubick (Southborough, Mass./St. Marks) and guard Markel Starks (Accokeek, Md./Georgetown Prep) along with a quartet of sophomores, center Mikael Hopkins (Hyattsville, Md./DeMatha), forward Otto Porter Jr. (Morley, Mo./Scott County Central), guard Jabril Trawick (Philadelphia, Pa./Abington Friends) and forward Greg Whittington (Columbia, Md./Oakland Mills).

Whittington is one of four players averaging double figures in scoring and he leads the team in points per game (12.7) and in rebounds (8.7). Whittington is second in the BIG EAST in rebounds and ranks 26th in the league in scoring.

Starks, who scored a career-high 23 points in Georgetown's overtime loss to No. 1 Indiana at the Legends Classic in Brooklyn two weeks ago, is second on the team in scoring with 12.3 points per game. He has connected on 49.2 percent of his field goals and leads the team with eight three-point field goals.

Porter Jr., who missed most of the first two games this season, is third on the team in scoring with 11.6 points, second on the team with 7.4 rebounds and leads the team with 3.2 assists per game. A preseason First Team All-BIG EAST selection and honorable mention All-American, Porter Jr. has two double-doubles this season, including 18 points and 11 rebounds in a 78-70 win over then-No. 11 UCLA. .

Hopkins, who has started all six games at center for the Hoyas, is fourth on the team in scoring with 10.7 points per game and is averaging 4.0 rebounds per game. Lubick, meanwhile, is fifth on the team in scoring with 7.2 points per game, third in rebounds with 5.0 per game and second in assists with 3.0 per game.

Georgetown ranks third in the BIG EAST Conference in field goal percentage, connecting on 48.4 percent of its field goals. The Hoyas are sixth in the league in scoring defense (58.7 points per game) and sixth in field goal percentage defense, limiting opponents to 32.8 percent shooting from the floor.

The meeting with Texas will be only the second all-time between the programs. The Hoyas lost the only meeting, a 78-70 decision during the 1971-72 season. Georgetown is 5-3 all-time against teams from the Big 12 Conference.

Georgetown is back in New York City for the second time in the last two weeks, this time visiting more familiar ground with the game being played at Madison Square Garden, the World's Most Famous Arena. Georgetown has an all-time record of 58-47 in games played in New York City, including a 17-10 mark at MSG under Head Coach John Thompson III.