Georgetown vs. Texas: 2019-20 college basketball game preview, TV schedule

Two well-known basketball brands on Thursday will ascend upon Madison Square Garden, as top-25 team Texas goes toe to toe with Georgetown.

TV schedule: Thursday, November 21, 7:00 pm ET. ESPN2.
Arena: Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The Texas and Georgetown basketball squads will collide with each other at the world’s most famous arena on Thursday night as part of the 25th-annual 2K Empire Classic. The No. 22 Longhorns (4-0), perfect so far in the 2019-20 campaign, will bring their stingy defense to Madison Square Garden in the Big Apple, where Texas will encounter a high-scoring Hoyas crew that currently sits at 3-1.

This bout between the Longhorns and Georgetown is one of two semi-finals in the 2K Empire Classic, an event that benefits the Wounded Warrior Project. Following that affair, No. 1 Duke will duel with undefeated California. The winners will then compete for the grand prize on Nov. 22, beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Texas is back in the national rankings for the inaugural instance in close to a year, buoyed by a 70-66 upset of then-No. 23 Purdue on the road nearly two weeks ago. The Longhorns, at this juncture, are quite impressive on defense, yielding just 55.3 points per contest while limiting their foes to 36.3 percent shooting from the field as a whole, and 28.8 percent from beyond the arc.

Slotted at No. 4 in the Big 12 Conference preseason poll, Texas is displaying solid balance on offense. Six guys notch at least eight points a game, led by junior point guard Matt Coleman III at 14.5 points and redshirt sophomore guard Andrew Jones at 13.3 points. Jones is a truly wonderful young man who has battled leukemia over the last two stanzas, and I’m absolutely rooting for him to succeed on and off the court.

The Hoyas, meanwhile, are scoring in droves, averaging 81.8 points every 40 minutes, although Georgetown must shore up its defense, which is allowing a sub-par 77.5 points. On Nov. 14, the Hoyas suffered their sole setback of 2019-20, as Penn State took out Georgetown, 81-66, in Washington, D.C.

The Big East Conference preseason ballot places the Hoyas at No. 6 in that league. Sophomore guard James Akinjo, the conference’s Freshman of the Year a term ago, is on the All-Big East preseason second unit, and he’s presently tallying 12.3 points per meeting.

Senior center Omer Yurtseven, a double-double machine to date in 2019-20, paces Georgetown with 17.0 points and 12.5 boards per match. The Hoyas have held their own on the glass, which will prove imperative if they hope to best the Longhorns.

Texas and Georgetown possess a small collective history together, with the overall series tied at 1-1. The Longhorns are projected to have a 62.3 percent chance to prevail, according to ESPN’s Basketball Power Index. Since the Hoyas are turnover-prone and don’t shoot great from the field, I’ll take Texas in a tight outcome.

Prediction: Texas 74 – Georgetown 69