Nov. 24, 2008

HHC Blog Drexel Postgame

With all the talent assembled on this year's Georgetown team, it would be understandable for people to expect these early-season games to play out more like Saturday's rout of Drexel than Monday's encounter against Jacksonville. And after that performance, it's difficult to find any crippling faults in this team. Greg Monroe looks like a legitimate star in the making (if not already made), Chris Wright has taken over the point guard responsibilities from Jon Wallace quite well, and DaJuan Summers and Jessie Sapp are providing the upperclassman leadership that was in short supply following the departure of last year's seniors. Fortunately, watching Coach Thompson has taught me, and I'm sure many other fans, to temper our early-season excitement. This team still has a lethal schedule ahead of it with Duke and Memphis in non-conference competition, and a slate of games in the strongest conference in the country. The Hoyas' first major test comes over the Thanksgiving break. With all due respect to the Sun Bowl Classic, the Old Spice Classic is the first major tournament Georgetown will be playing in in the past four seasons, and the list of teams involved reads like a who's-who of likely Tournament teams. From a recently strong mid-major in Wichita State in the first round to two very strong teams in Tennessee and Siena in the second round, the Hoyas will be facing two high-caliber teams in two days. The other side of the bracket is just as strong, with two 2008 Tourney teams expected to be even better this year in Gonzaga and Michigan State, the Oklahoma State T. Boone Pickenses, and the Terrapins of the University of Maryland, College Park, a young upstart team trying to upstage their in-state rivals in Baltimore County for the title of the top team in the Old Line State.

If the Hoyas can clear their third-game jinx against the Shockers, I have high hopes for the rest of the games in Orlando. In 2005, the 2-0 Hoyas dropped their home opener to Vanderbilt over the Thanksgiving break (my first Georgetown basketball experience in the then-MCI Center). The 2-0 Hoyas of 2006 came off wins against Hartford and at Vandy with the unpleasantness at McDonough against ODU. 2007 at least produced a win to go to 3-0, but wasn't quite the statement game some were hoping for at Ball State.

Unfortunately I won't be in Orlando to watch the Hoyas take on the Shockers, staying instead in DC to eat turkey at my sister's Alexandria apartment and track down a TV showing the game. My fellow Hoop Club bloggers are planning to go all out with multiple writers providing coverage of the games and Hoop Club events from the OSC, so definitely make sure to look out for that. You might be spending Thanksgiving with your blood relatives, but your Georgetown basketball family will make sure you get a fresh serving of Hoya news.

Hoya Saxa,

Paul Campbell (B '09)

Generation Roy