Colorado’s McKinley Wright on Georgetown: “They’ll know me soon”

It didn’t take long for Colorado Buffaloes point guard McKinley Wright IV to respond to Georgetown’s “who’s that” comment.

The All-Pac-12 star passed on calling out Hoyas’ Jamorko Pickett via social media, but rather gave a warning to Patrick Ewing’s team. Although, the former NBA star walked back his Pickett’s comment by telling Mike Greenberg on ESPN radio that Wright was the “heart and soul” of the Buffs.

“They’ll know me soon,” Wright said on Wednesday.

Colorado (22-8) enters the NCAA tournament as a fifth seed with 12th seeded Georgetown (13-12) looking to pull of an upset to keep themselves alive in the Big Dance on Saturday (10:15 AM MT/ TV: CBS).

CU and Georgetown are two teams with different records and backgrounds, but both needing a postseason win to boost their respective programs. Neither team has a tournament appearance over the past five years. In 2015, Georgetown advanced to the second round but were bounced by the 15-seed Florida Gulf Coast “Dunk City” squad. Colorado was a one-and-done the following year, losing in the final minutes to Connecticut.

This will be the first-ever meeting between both schools. Colorado has a 12-7 record all-time vs. Big East opponents since 1938. It will be the 15th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history for CU. Their 5-seed is also the highest in program history, although there weren’t seed numbers when the Buffs went into the 1969 tournament as title contenders.

Georgetown makes their first tourney appearance under Ewing since he took over in 2017. Their Big East championship run, their first conference title in 14 years, took everyone by storm. Before the tournament, they had a mediocre 9-12 record and there were strong rumors Ewing was running out of time. They now enter March Madness as one of the hottest teams and a popular upset pick.

“This is a team we’ve never played before, but I think our guys are up to the task,” Ewing said earlier this week.

He once again put some respect on Wright’s name. “They’re a good team. McKinley Wright is a dynamic young man, he can score at all levels. We’ll have our work cut out for us, but we faced some good guards in our own conference.”

The winner of CU-Georgetown will face a second round match-up with the winner of No. 4 Florida State/No. 13 UNC Greensboro on Monday, March 22.