Nov. 27, 2006
Washington, D.C. - The Georgetown University men's basketball team returns to the Verizon Center for the first of two home games this week when the Hoyas host Ball State on Monday night at 7:30 p.m. Charlie Neal and Mark Tillmon will call the game for MASN television and the game can be hear on the radio at AM 570 with the Georgetown's play-by-play man Rich Chvotkin calling the action in his 1,000th career GU game.
It marks the first-ever meeting between the schools.
Georgetown bounced back from its first loss of the season last Wednesday, November 22, beating Fairfield, 73-60, on the road. The Hoyas are ranked No. 14 in the latest Associated Press rankings and No. 16 in the ESPN/USA Today Top 25 Coaches' poll.
Monday's game features several sub-plots ... The Hoyas will be seeking to improve to 4-1, but the matchup features a sibling rivalry with Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III against his brother, Ball State Head Coach Ronny Thompson. The Thompson's are one of only two active brothers coaching at the Division I level (joined by Joe Jones of Columbia and James Jones of Yale).
Tonight's game also carries some historical context as well, as Georgetown's radio play-by-play man Rich Chvotkin broadcasts his 1,000th career game. Chvotkin is in his 33rd year at the mic as the "Voice of Georgetown Basketball." Combined with Ball State play-by-play man, Morry Mannies, there will be 83 years of college broadcasting experience on the floor at Verizon Center tonight. Mannies, the longest active broadcaster, is in his 50th year of calling games for the Cardinals.
Freshman DaJuan Summers (Baltimore, Md./McDonogh) made his first collegiate start in Georgetown's 73-60 win at Fairfield last Wednesday. The 6-8 forward scored a game-high, and career-high, 17 points against the Stags. He connected on 6-of-10 shots from the field and 4- of-7 from the charity stripe before fouling out in 31 minutes.
Junior center Roy Hibbert (Adelphi, Md./Georgetown Prep) played only 21 minutes at Fairfield but made good use of his time. He scored nine points and grabbed four rebounds, but also tied a career-high with six blocked shots, four of them in 11 minutes in the second half. Hibbert also had six at Illinois last year (12/8/05). Hibbert has 15 blocks this season, a 3.8 per game average. For his career, he has 109 career rejections, a 1.6 per game average in 69 games ... He needs 11 more blocks to move past Ya Ya Dia (1993-97) for 10th all-time at Georgetown.
Georgetown opened the 2006-07 season scoring at least 69 points in consecutive games. Since John Thompson III took over at the helm of the Hoya program, when the team has scored at least 69 points, good things happen. In two-plus years, Georgetown is 22-1 when scoring at least 69 points (the lone loss a 78-73 decision at Syracuse in 2004-05). In his six-plus years of coaching, Thompson-led teams are 47-6 when scoring at least 69 points.
Monday's games completes a five-game-in-eight-day stretch for Ball State (2-3). Ball State spent the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the Las Vegas Invitational. BSU fell to No. 10/12 Kansas (64-46) before the Cardinals topped Western Kentucky, 76-66. Ball State opened the season with back-to-back wins over Northern Colorado (81-42) and Prairie View A&M (65-48) before losing at home to Tennessee-Chattanooga (70-55). The Cardinals are looking to snap a three-game slide.
Red-shirt sophomore Anthony Newell leads the Cardinals with 12.2 points and 8.4 rebounds. Senior Skip Mills ranks second on the team with 11.3 points while sophomore guard Jalon Perryman comes off the bench to average 11.0 points.
