Representing Georgetown, Dawgtown look to replicate their 1984 performance and hang a banner
Making their TBT debut, Dawgtown compiled a team completely of Georgetown alumni. This is great to see, as most alumni teams in TBT feature several other colleges on their teams. Playing in West Virginia, they will be led by Austin Freeman, a former All-Big East First-Teamer, and feature several talented Hoyas.
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Current Roster:
- Aaron Bowen (Georgetown)
- Chris Wright (Georgetown)
- D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera (Georgetown)
- Greg Whittington (Georgetown)
- Henry Sims (Georgetown)
- Jagan Mosely (Georgetown)
- Jason Clark (Georgetown)
- Jerrelle Benimon (Georgetown)
- Julian Vaughn (Georgetown)
- Rodney Pryor (Georgetown)
Coaching Staff:
- Chris Wright (GM)
- Austin Freeman (Head Coach)
Region:
- West Virginia
Team MVP: Jason Clark
At 33, Clark can still hoop, averaging 16.3 PPG last season in the Italian 2 league. Georgetown fans remember when he put up similar stats in 2011-2012 when he averaged 13.7 PPG for the team. Clark is a leader on the court, and having played on 12(!) different overseas teams, he can handle any situation and has been put in every scenario possible. Major props to him for being resilient through all this.
He’s always been a solid shooter, shooting 49.4% from the field last year and 36.4% from three. He’s always held his own on defense as well, and at 6’2, he needs to not be a liability defensively on the floor for Dawgtown.
Make-or-break Player: Henry Sims
At 6’11, Sims will most likely be the tallest player on the court in whatever game they are playing. Dawgtown needs to use that to their advantage, feeding Sims in the paint and putting him in positions to extend possessions on offense and limit possessions on defense.
If they can do that, they can control the game early on and things will come easier to Dawgtown. If they try to keep the ball on the perimeter, that might make things trickier, and Sims will have to develop trust with the team in order for this to happen.
He doesn’t have to be the leader scorer, and he won’t but as long as he can grab rebounds and protect the paint, Dawgtown should be in a good position all game.
Team Outlook
DawgTown’s FULL TBT ROSTER🐶 pic.twitter.com/8SIyu2aDdH
— TBT (@thetournament) July 24, 2023
The TBT will welcome Dawgtown to the tournament by matching them up with Challenge ALS: Florida, who are one of the most successful teams in the TBT boasting an 8-3 record. The good news is that geographically, Challenge ALS won’t have too many fans traveling, which provides Georgetown fans to make the trip and provide some sort of homecourt advantage in West Virginia.
If they can win that game, they’ll most likely have to face Sideline Cancer, the runner-up two years ago and maybe the most talented roster in the TBT this year. The road to the million is almost as uphill as can be, but there’s definitely a chance.
There are some other Georgetown legends to watch on this team. Chris Wright is acting as a Player/GM, so it’ll be interesting to see how many minutes he gets. D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera is another player to watch. He could very well end up being the team MVP.
One final takeaway is the age of this team. Everyone except Jagan Mosely is 30 or older on the team. Will the experience help them, or will the wear and tear hurt them. Challenge ALS: Florida has six players under 30, so it may be difficult to match up with these guys.
As the late John Thompson said: “Without talent, all the character in the world won’t do it, but talent alone isn’t enough.”, and that describes this Dawgtown team perfectly.