Saturday Matinee
Drexel vs. Georgetown, Saturday, 1:00 pm
TV: None; GU Radio: WWRC-1260
In-Game Updates Available At HoyaChat

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Pre-Game Report

11/21/08

In its history, Georgetown has played 178 games against teams from the Philadelphia area; surprisingly, not one was against Drexel. Saturday's game, then, is a rare first meeting with a school that has been playing basketball since 1894.

Drexel, opened its season at home with Penn, a road trip that took all of four blocks between the schools. Drexel's 66-64 win over the Quakers was a peek into what the Hoyas face, and what gaps the Hoyas can exploit. Much like Monday's opponent in Jacksonville, the Dragons will use rebounding and tenacity to make up for size and poor shooting.

The Dragons run a three guard offense with its most productive player, 6-0 Tremayne Hawthorne, coming off the bench. 5-10 guard Jamie Harris bad the most consistent effort in the opener, scoring nine points, six rebounds, and four assists against an equally undersized team in Penn. Hawthorne's 13 points help build the lead Drexel needed, but perhaps more importantly, Drexel was able to play the kind of defense that kept Penn off course and off the ball. The Quaker guards shot just 6-28 and as a team, Penn managed only 37 percent, though over half the attempts were from three point range.

More on the Dragons follows at the Pre-Game Report page. Additional articles follow Saturday.

A major recruit from the high school class of 2009 has retracted his commitment to Georgetown, reports the Washington Times.

DaShonte Riley, a 6-11 center from Country Day School in Detroit, was the #5 center prospect in the nation as a junior, according to a June report. Riley made a verbal commitment to the Hoyas this summer but opted out after a fall visit to campus, according to the Times.

"[He] just said after he returned from his official visit that he didn't feel like it was the right fit for him," his high school coach told the paper.

Riley did not sign a letter of intent during the early singing period, leaving only one commitment to date for 2009-10, pending the results of the spring signing period.

There was no comment from Georgetown on the matter.

Former Georgetown All-American and NBA All-Star Alonzo Mourning (C'92) will be on campus Friday to sign copies of his new book "Resilience: Faith, Focus, Triumph", with a second signing at Verizon Center Saturday during this weekend's game with Drexel. Full details are available at this link to GUHoyas.com.

Some alert readers at the HoyaTalk board pointed out an item from Monday's recap in the Washington Post: a photo of the uniform of sophomore Nikita Mescheriakov, whose name is spelled "Meshcharakou" on the jersey. As noted in the discussion, "Mescheriakov is his name in Russian. Meshcharakou is his name in Belorussian."

It's not the first time a player's roster and uniform spellings differed. Fans of a certain age will remember Michael Tate (1989-90), who changed his last name to "Venson" on his jersey, but Georgetown always referred to him in official releases by his former name.

A cover story in Wednesday's USA Today examined the trend where scholarship athletes tend to cluster in certain majors, such as the 80% of men's basketball players that are communications arts majors at St. John's or the 83% of basketball players at UNLV in a program called "university studies".

Two Georgetown teams were cited in the study, but neither found these players in obscure programs. It turns out most Georgetown football players major in business and finance, while 4 of 6 men's basketball players surveyed were government majors.

As a newspaper columnist once observed about Georgetown, there wasn't a "parks and recreation" major to be found.

As always, prior stories over this past week or the last 8+ years of coverage can be found at the News Archive pages, including recaps of all prior games this season. It's a good way to keep up to date if you've visited the site less frequently.

This site would like to take this opportunity for our readers to strongly consider joining the Hoya Hoop Club, the official support organization of Georgetown men's basketball. Please take an opportunity to affirm your support for the team by becoming a donor to the Hoop Club and Hoyas Unlimited, the official support organization for Georgetown athletics.

Visit GUHoyas.com for more details, or link here to make an online gift.

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AMDG