It’s still Syracuse-Georgetown, despite hiatus and Jim Boeheim’s suspension
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Version 0 of 1. Isaac Copeland was still a prized high school prospect when he attended the last regular season men’s basketball game between Georgetown and Syracuse. The date was March 9, 2013, and the Hoyas won, 61-39, to claim the Big East regular season championship in front of nearly 21,000 at Verizon Center. At the time, Coach John Thompson III was in the process of recruiting Copeland. The versatile forward had not yet announced his decision officially but recalled he was leaning heavily toward the Hoyas. After experiencing the atmosphere of one of the sport’s longest and most contentious rivalries, Copeland had no doubts. “I committed the next day, after that game,” Copeland said Thursday before practice at McDonough Gym. “I was like 90 percent there, and then once I saw everything, I was like, ‘It’s over with.’ ” Copeland is set to make his personal debut in the Georgetown-Syracuse series when the schools meet at Verizon Center on Saturday for the first time since the semifinals of the 2013 Big East tournament. The Orange won that game in overtime, 58-55, shortly before departing for the ACC. The Hoyas eventually would join the rebooted Big East comprising Catholic schools without major football programs. The only Hoyas left from the last time the schools played are seniors D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera and Bradley Hayes. Both have been educating their younger teammates about the history and tradition of the rivalry, which at its peak featured two Hall of Fame coaches in John Thompson Jr. and Jim Boeheim, as well as some of the most accomplished players in the sport’s history. [From the archives: Georgetown vs. Syracuse, the oral history] These days, John Thompson III is coaching Georgetown. Boeheim, meanwhile, will not be on the Syracuse bench to face the Hoyas for the first time since taking over the program in 1976-77. Boeheim, the second-winningest coach in Division I history, will begin serving a nine-game suspension Saturday after appealing an initial ruling that would have forced him to miss the first nine ACC games. The NCAA Committee on Infractions revealed the modified suspension Thursday morning in a public document on its Web site. Longtime assistant Mike Hopkins will lead the Orange in Boehiem’s absence. [Suspension robs rivalry’s resumption of a key component] “He’s not going to be screaming down there,” Smith-Rivera said of Boeheim, “so hopefully that can work in our favor.” Smith-Rivera scored 15 points with five rebounds and five assists in the last game against Syracuse at Verizon Center. One of the only two Syracuse players left from that game is graduate-student guard Trevor Cooney, who also happens to be friends with Smith-Rivera. The two have known one another since playing on the AAU circuit in middle school. Cooney is second on Syracuse in both points (14.9 per game) and assists (3.1), although he missed 7 of 10 shots in Wednesday’s 66-58 overtime loss to visiting Wisconsin on Wednesday. It was the first loss of the season for the No. 14 Orange, which the week before had vaulted into the rankings on the strength of winning the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas. The two players haven’t spoken recently, for obvious reasons. “I don’t talk to him consistently, no,” Smith-Rivera said, “and him being at Syracuse makes it even worse.” Smith-Rivera is coming off a season-high 30 points on 10-for-16 shooting, including 5 for 10 from three-point range, in Tuesday night’s 68-49 win against Maryland Eastern Shore. A first-team all-Big East selection last season, he had been averaging 11.7 points and shooting 31 percent in his previous three games, missing 8 of 9 from beyond the arc to finish with a season-low nine points in last Saturday’s 77-47 win against Bryant. Besides a possible Smith-Rivera reawakening, the returns of regulars Paul White and Tre Campbell are likewise encouraging for Georgetown. White, a sophomore, had missed the first four games of the season with a sore hip. The reserve forward joined Copeland on the Big East all-freshman team last season. Campbell, a backup sophomore guard who was a Washington Post All-Met at St. John’s and grew up watching Georgetown-Syracuse games, played Tuesday for the first time since an undisclosed illness forced him out during halftime of a 75-71 loss to second-ranked Maryland Nov. 17. “It’s Syracuse-Georgetown,” Thompson said when asked whether the animosity remains even though the majority of players haven’t played in the rivalry. “I think both sides of the equation respect your history, understand what your history is. If you grew up as a Hatfield, you know not to like the McCoy’s, don’t you?” |