The Georgetown Hoyas are on upset-alert as they travel across the country to Portland, OR, to face the No. 13 seed Eastern Washington Eagles. With two No. 14 seeds taking down Big 12 juggernauts Iowa State and Baylor, this upset has officially become a reality.
Georgetown (21-10) had a solid year after finishing third in the Big East with a 12-6 conference record. Junior guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera leads the team in scoring (16.2 ppg), assists (3.1 apg) and steals (1.6 spg) and senior big man Joshua Smith has been right behind him the whole way with 11.1 ppg, 5.9 rpg and 1.1 spg. However, the two upperclassmen couldn't get the job done against Xavier in the Big East Tournament semi-final game.
Nonetheless, Georgetown played a tough schedule that featured out-of-conference opponents such as Wisconsin, Kansas, Florida, Butler and Indiana (2-3 in those games). On top of that, the Big East had the second-highest RPI (.7520) in the NCAA only behind the Big 12 (.5817), so the Hoyas were challenged for much of the year. But the Georgetown defense, which averaged 4.9 blocks per game (33rd in NCAA) and 7.7 steals per game (34th), will face a big test against the high-powered Eastern Washington offense.
The Eagles (26-8) boast the nation's leading scorer, Tyler Harvey, who averages 22.9 points per game. You can check out the rest of their impressive offensive statistics in the table below.
Eastern Washington coach Jim Hayford guaranteed a win over the Hoyas on Wednesday and caused a big stir, considering they're a No. 13 seed and Georgetown has a decorated history competing in the NCAA Tournament. However, the Hoyas have been unsuccessful in recent years and haven't made it past the second round since 2007. They've suffered upset losses to Davidson (2008), Ohio ('10), VCU ('11), NC State ('12) and Florida Gulf Coast ('13).
The Eagles didn't have a strong schedule, but they did face SMU, Indiana, Washington and California, so they've had some experience against opponents in some of the nation's better conferences. Their recent five game win streak delivered them a Big Sky Conference Tournament championship on top of capturing the regular season title.
Here are some crucial stats to know before tonight's 9:57 p.m. ET tip-off.
Georgetown | Eastern Washington |
RPI - .5998 (25th overall) | RPI - .5505 (78th overall) |
SOS - 12 | SOS - 236 |
PPG - 70.7 (89th overall) | PPG - 80.8 (3rd overall) |
FG% - .455 (82nd overall) | FG% - .480 (19th overall) |
Points Allowed Per Game - 64.6 (130th overall) | Points Allowed Per Game - 73.6 (328th overall) |
Turnovers Per Game - 12.6 (186th overall) | Turnovers Per Game - 10.8 (35th overall) |
Season Rank - 22 | Season Rank - 74 |
Check out the live stream of the matchup here as well as the radio broadcast here. The event will be televised by truTV.
