Feb. 27, 2009
One month, two Hoya Blue road trips, and a Syracuse garbage barrage ago, I wrote this before getting on the Hoya Blue trip to the Prudential Center to watch the Hoyas take on Seton Hall:
"It's safe to say that this year's Georgetown team is at a fairly critical juncture. With what is allegedly the most difficult stretch of the schedule over, the team is either about where you expected or wildly underperforming, depending on how much stock you put in the win over UConn. With a stretch of games coming up against less-heralded teams, the Hoyas have a chance to right the ship and correct some of the problems that have popped up in the first half of the season. If previous history holds, right about now is when we as fans learn something important about the identity and prospects of this year's team. I personally can't wait to wake up at 7:00 on a Sunday morning and know that I'm about to find out something very important."
Well, then.
At least I don't have to get up until 8 on Saturday.
Right now, though, I'm catching the MASN replay of DePaul's near upset of Villanova. Last night I caught the second half of Providence's shock upset over #1 Pitt. I suppose all those prognostications about the Big East being tougher than ever came true. With so many teams knocking each other off, there was bound to be a team or two that found itself much lower in the conference standings than their fans were hoping or expecting. Everyone who expected it to be their own team, raise your hands. No one? That's about what I expected. (Random tangent: How is Mike Brey's Coach of the Year Three-Peat campaign going? Interesting how the one year expectations are set high enough that it's difficult to exceed them, Notre Dame follows the Hoyas to what's increasingly looking like a Tuesday date at Madison Square Garden.)
Well, our MASN announcers have just played the Blind Resume game and found that we compare unfavorably to Boston College. That's...just great. Random tangent #2: Having just seen HoyaTalk favorite and current Phoenix benchwarmer Jared Dudley and his Suns take on the Clippers at the Staples Center, I can promise he's in no position to compare the relative merits or athleticism of the Western Conference vis a vis the Eastern Conference.
Last time the Hoyas traveled to the Wachovia Center was February 17, 2007, a year that would famously end in Atlanta. The Hoyas were led by Jeff Green's 19 points and Jessie Sapp's 16 points, including a 60-foot buzzer-beater as the first half ended, the same desperate shot that banked in from 30 feet Monday night, pulling the Hoyas within 10 of Louisville.
This year, the Hoyas are still one of Villanova's three select marquee opponents to play at the Wachovia Center in their annual quest to pretend it's not a home court for the purposes of the Tourney, which is always interesting considering their schedule also found them playing twice at the Wachovia Spectrum. Apparently being separated by an entire parking lot in the Philadelphia Sports Complex is enough to make for a neutral site. As for where the season will end, to be honest making it to Dayton is looking real nice at this point, isn't it?
It would be disingenuous to say that this season hasn't been the most frustrating of the John Thompson III tenure. If there is a silver lining, it's that the Hoyas' struggles are the product of a perfect storm conflating: a young squad, inconsistent but not necessarily poor play, and, as above, one of the toughest schedules in the country in the country's deepest conference.
Ah, yes, the conference. Is there anything more redemptive than the Big East Tournament? The Hoyas are, at this point, playing for an optimal matchup on Tuesday in the Tournament, and the momentum boost that closing the season out with three wins would bring. Certainly they have a tough matchup in Villanova, arguably one of the Hoyas' strongest non-Orange rivals, and a team that, like Marquette, has been a bizzaro Georgetown: strong at the guard position while the Hoyas started a DaJuan Summers-Jeff Green-Roy Hibbert frontline, now chock full of upperclassmen while the Hoyas start one.
Villanova is an interesting case in that they're good but not great at just about every statistical area that Ken Pomeroy measures, whereas the Hoyas can be outstanding at some aspects yet show significant gaps in others (namely giving up offensive rebounds and the all-important free-throw defense).
The Hoyas' keys to the game: force the Wildcats into turning the ball over, deny Villanova open shots, and push tempo where possible. Villanova plays at a slightly higher average tempo (68.6 possessions per game) than the NCAA average (66.7), but the Wildcats' four losses have all come in games where the pace has been even quicker. Villanova has historically given the Hoyas problems, especially in shutting down Roy Hibbert in the post, so establishing Greg Monroe and getting him moving around front-and-back double-teams and out of traps will be key. Hopefully Greg can solve the Puzzle of Jay Wright in a way that Roy seemingly never could.
The Hoyas certainly have their work fully cut out for them if they want to make a fourth straight NCAA trip. Once you approach must-win territory, it's simultaneously nerve-wracking and thrilling to watch the team fight for their postseason fortune. Getting the Hoya faithful out in force, both in person at Wachovia and in spirit watching the game around the world, will be important. It's an unfortunate position to be in--lose, and the NIT seems all but certain barring a miracle Big East Tourney run; win, and the only reward is that the team must keep winning--but if there's anything we can keep faith in, it's this, from the recap of that 2007 game at Wachovia:
Jessie Sapp always ends practice by shooting a bunch of half-court shots.
Hope that's not the only last-second miracle these Hoyas have up their sleeve.
Hoya Saxa,
Paul Campbell (MSB 09)
Generation Roy
Broadcast Info:
Georgetown (14-12, 5-10) at (12) Villanova (22-5, 10-4)
Feb. 28, 12:00 pm
TV: ESPN
Radio: WTEM 980 AM
