A Star is Born: Aminu Mohammed Carries Georgetown in Thriller Over Syracuse
In a coming-out party on national television, Mohammed showed why he's Georgetown's best player, scoring 23 points to go along with 13 rebounds and 5 assists.
Aminu Mohammed’s star has been on a steady rise since the beginning of the season. The freshman guard is second on the team in scoring (14.1) and tops in rebounding (8.1), but he had yet to really have a true signature moment or performance in his freshman season up to this point.
That changed on Saturday afternoon, against the archrival Syracuse Orange. And in doing so, Mohammed announced to the college basketball world that he has arrived, and will be a force to reckon with for opponents moving forward.
Mohammed was the best player on the floor on Saturday, and it wasn’t particularly close. He finished with an eye-popping stat line of 23 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals, and was the single biggest reason why the Hoyas came back from a ten-point halftime deficit to rally and defeat the Orange, 79-75.
“He’s a very good player,” said Georgetown head coach Patrick Ewing after the game. “He’s only hit the tip of the iceberg. They say cream rises to the top, well, he’s rising. He just continues to get better every day.”
Mohammed scored 20 of his 23 points in the second half, overcoming a quiet shooting performance in the first half to lead the Hoyas’ comeback in the second half.
“In the first half I had my chances, but I missed them, so I was mad at myself,” said Mohammed after the game. “But coming into the second half, my guys told me the middle is going to be open, you just have to make a play. So when I came in in the second half, I was looking to make sure I convert every possession, and they were able to find me and I was able to convert those possessions, which was great.”
Perhaps the best thing you can say about the Nigerian native is that he was just as impactful on the defensive end as he was on offense. Mohammed was the game’s leading scorer, but he was also instrumental in the defensive effort to stop Syracuse star Buddy Boeheim. As the primary defender on Boeheim for a majority of the game, Mohammed played a big factor in holding the scoring wing to 17 points on 7-of-18 shooting. Boeheim also had a team-worst plus/minus rating of -9.
Mohammed’s all-out effort against Syracuse should give the young Hoyas a confidence boost moving forward. With a player of his caliber beginning to come into his own and really establish himself as the go-to option on the team, Mohammed’s ascendance will give Georgetown a fighting chance against stiffer competition once Big East play begins, with his ability to impact a game in so many different ways.
While his talent was on full display in this one, one thing that has been consistent in Mohammed’s game from Day One has been the unusually high level of effort that he exhibits on every single play.
It’s not often you see a team’s best player flying around for rebounds, scrapping on defense, and making all the tiny hustle plays that Mohammed makes for this team. He may be the team’s best player, but his lunch pail-style approach to the game is refreshing to see. His refusal to take a play off serves as a good example for his teammates, too.
As Ewing said postgame, what we are seeing from Mohammed is just the tip of the iceberg for what he can become eventually. But his ability to take over a game on both ends of the floor already and be the best player on either team makes Georgetown a threat to pick off any of the Big East’s elite once conference play begins in a couple of weeks.
The Hoyas still have work to do, but Mohammed’s sublime performance on Saturday, in front of a loud Capital One Arena crowd and a national TV audience, is another reason to be optimistic about the long-term direction of the Hoyas.
