Hoyas hope to hold serve

February 21, 2015 - Cold weather and forecasted snow doesn't stop BIG EAST Conference action. As such the Georgetown Hoyas face DePaul at DC's Verizon Center tonight. The contest, a rare Saturday night, home tip-off, starts at 8p.

Tickets are available here, while we also have a real time, in-game chat thread. Radio listeners can enjoy Rich Chvotkin's radio call and TV viewers should tune into CBS Sports Network.

Georgetown, 17-8, 9-5 in conference, standing fourth in the league's standings and having won two straight seems to have locked down a top six final placement, thereby receiving a BIG EAST Championship Tournament bye. Nevertheless a maximum of two games separates the league's third, fourth, fifth and sixth placed teams, setting up a scrum for not only BIG EAST tourney seeding, but also that involving the Big Dance, or NCAA Tournament. Including today, the Hoyas have four games remaining.

Junior guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera yesterday acknowledged the conference's logjam, sharing "we're trying to maintain our status and separate ourselves from the pack right now".

DePaul (12-15, 6-8/7th) are a study in contrasts: They started the BIG EAST season with three consecutive wins, yet have fallen in six of the their last seven games. The Hoyas see little difference now versus then.

"You can't really tell, because they play so hard. They're a full court team that likes to run a lot. You couldn't really tell by watching film" said Smith-Rivera, when asked what is going wrong with the Blue Demons.

Head coach John Thompson III agreed, saying "They've just come up short" in recent losses, eschewing any assumption the league caught up to DePaul. "But they're still a dangeous team. I don't think that it's any specific rhyme or reason, I don't think that it's any formula that the conference has figured out".

As it stands now, Oliver Purnell's team is fifth in scoring offense, yet last in scoring defense amongst league teams at 71.5 and 74.4 points per game, respectively. The Hoyas best DePaul in both - 71.9 ppg for third in scoring offense and a similar slotting in scoring defense (64.8 ppg).

Also compare Georgetown's more advantageous +7.2 scoring margin, good for fourth league-wide, to DePaul's -2.9 and last placed standing, as well as the Hoyas being first in field goal percentage defense (39.6%) relative to a last placed (46.3%) Blue Devil crew. G'Town also bests DePaul in rebounding, blocked shots, assists and steals.

One aspect of the game DePaul excels in is three point shooting, where the Blue Demons own the conference's second highest shooting mark from beyond the arc (36.2%), while Georgetown gives of 34.6% shooting on threes, eight best in the league. By comparison the Hoyas only sink 34.8% of their three balls, the Blue Demons allow a 30.8% mark.

Thompson respects the Blue Demon's offensive attack, noting "Their bigs are as good a shooters as any bigs in the league, among the tops. They can put pressure on you; they can put five people on the court that can not just score, but they all can (be) a threat to make a shot, a threat to take you off the dribble. They are an unselfish team".

Another possible advantage exists for the Blue Demons, one that stems from a particular defensive scheme. For more on that, visit Premium Court, where Thompson, Smith-Rivera and freshman forward Isaac Copeland all discuss various aspects of it. The deployment is formidable, and could sway the game.

Be sure to enjoy our post game coverage.