“We’re going to win. Talk again, Jim,” Hayford said Wednesday at the end of an interview with CBS Sports Radio’s Jim Rome. Earlier, Hayford said: “If you’re still in a pool you can fill it in, you want to put the Eagles in."
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Eastern Washington is a No. 13 seed but is playing close to home in Portland, Ore. Georgetown has to travel across the country from D.C. to face the confident Eagles, who hold a win at Indiana.
The Eagles are averaging 80.8 points per game, third-most in the nation. Sophomore Tyler Harvey leads the team and the nation in scoring, averaging 22.9 points.
Georgetown head coach John Thompson III got wind of Hayford’s comments, and was noncommital with his response.
The Hoyas’ D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera clearly took notice.
CBS Sports’ Dan Bonner is working his 30th NCAA Tournament and will announce this game (9:57 p.m. ET Thursday). He said Tuesday that Eastern Washington would need to play a great game, and the Hoyas would need to play poorly, for an upset to occur.
“If Georgetown comes out and plays well, then Eastern Washington is not going to beat them,” Bonner said, according to The Washington Post. “But if they’re a Georgetown that stumbles around, Eastern Washington has a shot.”
“Georgetown is a funny team,” Bonner added. “For whatever reason, you don’t know when they go out on the court what team you’re going to see. In a one-loss-and-you’re-out format like the NCAA Tournament, that’s a very dangerous thing. Georgetown has to shoot the ball well. Joshua Smith has to be a factor. Eastern Washington doesn’t have that kind of size that Georgetown does, but their guy inside (Venky Jois) is a very clever scorer on the interior.”
