LOGIC: Pat Ewing Joins Ralph Sampson For a Photo, UVA Blows Out ‘Blue’ Team in Scrimmage

Georgetown Hoyas legend and head coach Patrick Ewing appeared in a photo, posted by the University of Virginia basketball, with legendary UVA center Ralph Sampson. It seems pretty clear that Ewing was in Charlottesville.

Ewing and Sampson had quite the battle back in the day: December 11, 1982. The reports were that “the 7-foot-4-inch Sampson, who had 23 points, 16 rebounds and seven blocked shots,” while “the 7‚0 Ewing had 16 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots, and that “Sampson, a senior, won the battle because he had the moves to beat Ewing, a sophomore, more often than Ewing was able to use his strength.”

The problem in the modern day is, however, that a leaked scoreboard photo seems to indicate that UVA scrimmaged a “blue” team and won pretty handily, 83-47, while shooting 12 for 22 from beyond the arc. The assumption is that Georgetown scrimmaged UVA before/after/while Patrick Ewing was taking photographs.

Virginia currently has a Kenpom ranking of 45, but seems to be in mid-season form against whomever they played—assuming they were in the white jerseys.

No one can say definitively if Georgetown was the “Blue” victim in this scrimmage, but Hoyas fans are desperate for any information about the men’s basketball program and inferring there was a super-secret scrimmage smack down is an easy step to take. Perhaps these types of leaps in logic on Twitter and by this lunch-blog contributor are a primary reason why Ewing and Georgetown are so tight-lipped? Nah.

There are some discrepancies revealed in the investigation. For instance, the scoreboard photo indicates that a player wearing number 33 for the “white” team scored 13 points. @NationWideNolan doesn’t think sophomore guard Carson McCorkle likely put up that many points, but Georgetown doesn’t currently have anyone wearing 33 and it’s not likely to go to a new, secret walk-on for the Hoyas, right?

There was likely a scrimmage somewhere in Virginia on Friday night. Coach Crouch posted a story on Friday indicating that the score was “#HoyasbyAHundred.” Aminu Mohammed and Dante Harris were wearing blue jerseys on Friday. Some internet sleuthing connected the dots to Virginia Union’s basketball court, so hopefully it was a good scrimmage.

Last week, the rumors were that Georgetown lost to Temple by double-digits in a scrimmage in DC.

But maybe, by allegedly scrimmaging Virginia on Saturday, the Hoyas weren’t ready for back-to-back games? Perhaps a few guys like Aminu Mohammed got some rest (why not rest them against Virginia Union?)? Maybe there was some timing structure for reserves to get heavy minutes and the bench was missing some leadership? Maybe.

Hopefully we’ll get some answers soon, but until then fans have to trust that the team will be ready for Dartmouth in two weeks. Then take it game by game.