WASHINGTON – With the excitement of last year's win over Georgetown still fresh in the minds of many players on the current American University men's basketball team, the Eagles prepare to face the Hoyas again at Capital One Arena on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 4:30 p.m. American is coming off back-to-back home wins and has proven to have a deep bench already this season.
Quick Info
- Date/Time: Sunday, November 19; 4:30 pm
- Site: Washington, D.C. (Capital One Arena)
- Series History: Georgetown leads, 45-11
- TV: FS2
- Talent: Eric Collins and Terrance Oglesby
Inside the Series
- Georgetown leads the all-time series 45-11, and had won 11 straight against AU until last season.
- The Eagles got their first win in 40 years on Nov. 23, 2022, beating the Hoyas 74-70 at Capital One Arena. Prior to that, the last win for the Eagles over the Hoyas was on Dec. 15, 1982.
- The last 14 straight meetings have taken place at Georgetown.
What to Know About American
- The Eagles established home-court advantage this week with wins over Siena and NJIT to improve to 2-2 for the season. The scoring output was high as they averaged 82.5 ppg in those two contests.
- Five players scored in double figures for AU against NJIT, led by Matt Rogers with 28 points on 12-of-18 shooting. He made it a double-double, the sixth of his career, with a game-high 11 rebounds. Rogers was the Eagles' leading scorer in 2022-23, and an All-PL Second Team selection.
- So far in the 2023-24 season, three out of four of American's leading scorers have come off the bench in all four games. Sophomore Jermaine Ballisager Webb scored a career-high 13 points at #22/20 Villanova and followed it up with 12 at William & Mary. He's currently tied for second on the team with 10.0 ppg. Sophomore Geoff Sprouse also has 10.0 ppg off the bench, and senior Colin Smalls ranks fourth with 9.3 ppg.
- In the second half against Siena, the Eagles shot nearly 64 percent from long range. Sprouse hit 4-of-8 three-pointers in the 78-58 win, finishing with 16 points.
- The Eagles hung with #22/20 Villanova early in their season opener, but the game got away in the second half. Smalls led all players with 16 points, while Ballisager Webb tied his career high with 13 points.
- Junior guard Elijah Stephens dished seven assists against Siena and tied his career-high with eight assists against NJIT. He's now tied for first in the Patriot League with 6.0 assists per game.
- First-year head coach Duane Simpkins now has two career victories and has brought a new energy to the program. Simpkins, hired at American in April, is familiar to fans in the DMV after playing at prep power DeMatha Catholic and for Gary Williams at Maryland, where he scored more than 1,100 points in the mid-1990s.
- American had the advantage extra practices and games for a foreign trip this past summer, as the Eagles embarked on a nine-day trip to Italy in August. AU flew to Naples and also spent time in Rome and Florence, playing three contests against international competition.
What to Know About Georgetown
- Georgetown comes into the weekend with a 1-2 record. The Hoyas defeated Le Moyne, 94-57, then were edged by Holy Cross, 68-67, and fell to Rutgers, 71-60. Georgetown plays Mount St. Mary's on Saturday before hosting the Eagles on Sunday.
- The Hoyas are early in their first season under head coach Ed Cooley. Cooley came to Georgetown after 12 seasons at Providence, where he made seven trips to the NCAA Tournament and won the 2022 Naismith Coach of the Year award.
- Only four Hoyas return from last year's team which went 7-25 and 2-18 in the Big East. Two freshmen and nine transfers round out Cooley's roster.
- Jayden Epps leads five Hoyas scoring in double figures through the first three games of the season. The sophomore guard is putting up 14.3 points a game and 5.0 assists a contest.
- Rowan Brumbaugh, a redshirt freshman guard who transferred to the Hoyas from Texas prior to this season, is contributing 12.7 points and 3.7 rebounds a game through the early going.
- Georgetown was picked to finish eighth in the Big East by the league's coaches.
Duane Simpkins' Winning History vs. Georgetown
- Duane Simpkins is remembered for many things in his standout career at the University of Maryland in the mid-1990s, but one of his biggest moments came in the 1993-94 season opener.
- The Hoyas were playing #15 Georgetown in a series that has never taken off, with only five meetings in the last 43 years.
- As a sophomore that season, the ball was in Simpkins' hands as the clock ticked down in overtime. He hit a running layup to give Maryland and fifth-year head coach Gary Williams an 84-83 victory.
- Although Simpkins spent eight years as an assistant coach at nearby George Mason, he has yet to face Georgetown in his coaching career and this will be his first.
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