Eagles hope to reinforce double-digit seed upset history vs. Georgetown
PORTLAND – So who has the chip on their shoulder now?
Certainly not Eastern Washington. Within seconds of being paired with Georgetown in the NCAA tournament, the Eagles became the favorite 13th seed in almost everyone’s March Madness pool.
Meanwhile, Georgetown – the Eagles’ opponent in tonight’s second-round South Regional game at the Moda Center – became everyone’s fall guy, the team most likely to underachieve this year simply because they’ve done it before. In each of their last five NCAA openers, the Hoyas have been bounced by double-digit seeds, most of whom played the same up-tempo style as Eastern.
Could it happen again? Certainly. Will it?
“That’s why they play the game,” said Eastern coach Jim Hayford, who had plenty of other things to say on Wednesday as both teams prepared for tonight’s matchup. Such as saying on national radio, “We’re gonna win.”
It was a calculated move, Hayford said, and meant less for the ears of millions of Jim Rome’s listeners and more for his players.
To a man, they’re listening.
“We’re an upset pick for a reason,” Eastern forward Venky Jois said in Wednesday’s press conference in front of the national media. “I don’t think anyone’s looking at this game like, ‘Oh, no.’ ”
Not even Georgetown, which appears to be taking everything in stride, including the poking questions about its previous pratfalls.
Said senior guard Jabril Trawick, “We don’t feed into (the naysaying) that much. We’re just happy that we’re here. We’re just ready to play tomorrow.”
The subplots are many, considering the programs have never met on the court:
• Can Georgetown adjust if national scoring leader Tyler Harvey and the Eagles (ninth in the nation in 3-point shooting at 40.3 percent) get hot from outside?
• Can Eastern push the pace, while staying efficent on offense (the Eagles rank 34th in avoiding turnover) and getting good looks from beyond the arc?
• And the most sobering question of all for Eastern fans: how will a team that ranks 269th in field-goal percentage defense – while playing in a lowly-regarded conference – expect to handle 340-pound center Joshua Smith and one of the best guards in the game in D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera?
That alone should give the Eagles pause and the Hoyas the self-confidence befitting a No. 4 seed – no matter what’s happened in the past.
“Everybody’s playing with a chip on their shoulder at this point,” Smith-Rivera said. “We just want to come out and try to impose our will on them, you know, try to dominate the game.”
The 22nd-ranked Hoyas (20-11) expect to do that by forcing the the ball into Smith; if the Eagles play a tightly packed zone and deny Smith the ball, the Hoyas will be able to get some open looks of their own.
I think watching the film, he’s not just a big body, he’s actually really skilled,” Jois said. “He knows how to use his body really well. I think we’re always going to try and keep, you know, at least one person in front, hopefully steal a pass if they try and lob it.
“It’s going to be a team effort. That’s the only way we can do it.” Jois said.
Another key battle will be under the boards. The Hoyas outrebound opponents by an average of almost three per game, so the the 6-foot-8 Jois and 6-7 Ognjen Miljkovic will have their hands full.
“The key stat at the end of the night (tonight) we’re going to talk about is rebounding,” Hayford said.
At the other end of the court, Eastern (26-8) likes to push the ball in transition after misses, then control the pace and space in half-court. They’ve done that well in the Big Sky, but struggled in early-season losses at defensive-minded teams such as SMU, Cal and Sam Houston State.
That’s another worry, considering that Georgetown led the Big East in field-goal percentage defense at 40.3 percent.
“From our perspective, defensively our communication is going to have to be good, our effort is going to have to be good because it’s not just him (Harvey), it’s the other four guys on the court with him also,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said.