georgetown/penn st preview...

[IE]

from HoyaSaxa...

--The two teams have not met since 1976 in a rivalry that dates to 1909.
--This is Georgetown's first non-tournament regular season game against a Big Ten opponent since a 1991 game against Ohio State in Las Vegas. It's only the the Hoyas' second game ever on a Big Ten campus, with a previous road game on December 11, 1979 at Indiana . (Georgetown's previous games with Penn State were pre-Big Ten, of course.)
--Georgetown is 2-4 in its first road game of the season since 1998.
--Penn State will look forward to playing at home to open the season. The Nittany Lions were 0-12 on road and neutral courts in 2002-03.


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Preview
Pennsylvania State basketball begins a new chapter as the Ed DeChellis era kicks off Sunday against Georgetown. DeChellis, a 1982 PSU graduate, previously coached at East Tennessee and hopes to reconstruct a program which has been uncharacteristically absent from the national stage--since 1955, Penn State has been ranked in only one season since.

The Lions enter the game with a lot of question marks. The team lost both its exhibitions, to EA Sports and Team Nike. Injuries and inexperience figure to be key issues all year for the Nittany Lions, having lost its two leading scorers from a 21-loss team.

One player to watch will be freshman Marlon Smith. Smith averaged 20 ppg at Archbishop Malloy in New York and led the Stanners to the semifinals of the New York City championships last spring. As Smith adjusts to the college game, Coach DeChellis will look to sophomore DeForest Riley-Smith (40% from three point range) and 6-11 junior Jan Jagla to frustrate the Hoyas' perimeter defense, while opening up things for center Kevin Fellows or freshman center John Kelly. Jagla, at 9.2 ppg, is the leading returning scorer for the Lions.

Penn State has six players 6-9 of taller, Georgetown only one. It's the first of many tests for the Hoyas' down-sized offense, but it could serve to expose the Hoyas' weakness early if Freeman gets into foul trouble. Sophomore Amadou Kilkenny Diaw, freshman Sead Dizdarevic, or freshman Ken Izzo could all see minutes inside if PSU pushes the ball at Freeman.

This is a game between two raw teams in every sense of the word. The number of turnovers could rival the number of field goals. Look for the Hoyas to employ an up-tempo game, discover an outside shooter, and win the game late via the free throw line. Otherwise, Ed DeChellis can make some history of his own.

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[IE]

Lions coach debuts vs. Georgetown

Ed DeChellis' first season opens today


Sunday, November 23, 2003

BY DAVID JONES
Of The Patriot-News


The question probably took Ed DeChellis a little off-guard. Which supports the suspicion that his response was dead honest.

Two days before his debut as Penn State men's basketball coach, he was asked this as the first question of his first bi-weekly teleconference:

"Nervous?"

(Pause) "No. I'm doing fine. Why would I be nervous?"

And, well, exactly. Why would he be?

Demanding, yes. Exacting, yes. Eager to race his new machine instead of just test-drive it, yes.

But DeChellis is all about his work. And, when you're as ever-prepared as this man, no, there is no reason to be nervous.

His Nittany Lions, coming off consecutive 7-21 seasons under Jerry Dunn, tip off their season at 3 p.m. today in the Jordan Center against the Georgetown Hoyas.

"Obviously, before the game, I'm anxious to play," DeChellis said. "I want to see how far we've come, see where we're at. We need another game to see that."

Penn State lost both its exhibitions in competitive fashion to quality autumn nomad squads sponsored by EA Sports and Nike.

"But once the ball goes up, even before that, my concentration will be on the next play, the next adjustment, the next substitution. Thinking ahead, talking to the staff about who's doing what needs to be done on the floor."

The Lions will be without two of their largest players, one an important starter, another a role player who may or may not have ended up seeing significant minutes during the season.

Sophomore center Aaron Johnson, the Big Ten's second-most prolific rebounder last season as a walk-on, is recuperating from a detached retina diagnosed and repaired only last month. It's hoped he'll be back by the third week of December.

And junior power forward Jason McDougald is out with a recently suffered back injury, the cause of which is still not fully understood. His season status is off the board.

None of this is encouraging today for PSU, a pansy on the glass in recent seasons. Except that the Hoyas will field a relatively small lineup for them, conspicuously missing rebounding moose Mike Sweetney, now with the New York Knicks.

Two other Lions may not be at full strength. Council Rock-bred freshman point guard Ben Luber has missed a considerable piece of practice time recovering from a concussion suffered in workouts two weeks ago.

DeChellis said Luber is fine now. But a better bet for the start at lead guard is sophomore Brandon Cameron, who looked efficient enough in the final exhibition.

And junior forward Jan Jagla is suffering swelling in the left knee he hyperextended in the EA Sports game three weeks ago.

Though DeChellis wasn't saying Friday, the starting lineup likely will look like this: Cameron at point, true-freshman Marlon Smith at off guard; sophomore DeForrest Riley-Smith at the 3, Jagla at the 4 and fifth-year senior Ndu Egekeze at center.

Junior center Kevin Fellows, who surprised many with his overall competence and decisiveness in the exhibitions, will get extensive minutes, as will Luber and junior forward Rob Summers.

That's eight guys trying to execute an uptempo style that might slow considerably by the final minutes. Georgetown coach Craig Esherick has been trying to install the same push-it-up system in Sweetney's absence, likely employing 6-6 Gerald Riley (two-guard) and Darrel Owens (winger) to apply pressure in a three-quarters-court zone.

Whether Cameron, Luber and Smith can negotiate it will tell a lot about Penn State's chance at an opening-day win and a presentable non-conference season. The Nits started 1-4 two years ago and 0-6 last year, losing both openers.

Esherick is not on stable ground in D.C. The Hoyas staggered to a 6-10 Big East finish last year even with the massive Sweetney. They managed to squeeze into the NIT and finish 19-15. But another year like last and Esherick almost certainly will be looking for work. Riley (14.1 ppg last season) is clearly his best player. Though, 6-8 Courtland Freeman may be the toughest matchup for the Nits. NOTES: Johnson is seeing a Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center ophthamologist Wednesday, hopeful he'll get the go-ahead to jog and shoot on the move. For the last month, he's been allowed only to ride a stationary bike and shoot free throws. DeChellis said Johnson will wear goggles once he re-enters action. The aim is to have him ready for a holiday trip to New Mexico's Lobo Invitational....

 

[The Mover]

Thanks IE.... Looking at the Hoyas -6' a lot to give on the road for them. Does that GA. tech side seem low -13?

 

[IE]

a few to many question marks on both those games for me today, going to pass.....

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Tech has to focus on Cornell

By JOHN HOLLIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution


Ithaca, N.Y. - Top-ranked Connecticut awaits, but Georgia Tech has other business to take care of first before setting sights on the Huskies.

Namely a game Cornell team which opens up its season today at Newman Arena, a game sandwiched in between the Yellow Jackets' involvement in the Preseason NIT.

Tech, which resumes its NIT slate when it faces UConn in Wednesday night's game at Madison Square Garden, can't afford to be caught looking ahead and taking the Ivy League's Big Red lightly, coach Paul Hewitt said.

"We have a veteran team," he said. "They understand that this is a good team."

The game is the final of a three-game series between the two schools in which Cornell visited Atlanta each of the past two years. The Yellow Jackets won both games, 81-55 on Jan. 8 of last season, and 86-68 on Jan. 2, 2002.

Tech will return home following game to keep academic commitments before turning around and leaving for the Big Apple on Tuesday.

Today's could be a dangerous game, but Hewitt feels his team will be ready.

"They're an experienced basketball team," he said. "[Head coach] Steve Donahue runs that Princeton-style offense, and they know the offense inside and out. They've run it for a couple of years, and they've got an experienced point guard in Ka'Ron Barnes. We need to go out and play."

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