I’m sorry this is so late, but I have been pretty upset and tired from my road trip to Raleigh. I’ll fill you in on some of the details of that trip later on, but in the meantime, here are my postgame thoughts.

Teams

Georgetown:
Georgetown played as good of a game as they’ve put together this season, and unfortunately, they ended up on the losing end. There were probably too many unforced turnovers, too many offensive fouls, and too little rebounding at the beginning of the second half, but other than that, there was not too much to complain about on the Hoyas’ end.

Davidson:
Davidson played a fine game, probably not a better game than Georgetown, which is strange since the Wildcats ended up on top. They didn’t shoot as well, they didn’t rebound as well, and they didn’t have an unbelievable performance from Stephen Curry like they did against Gonzaga. I think that makes it a harder pill to swallow for the Hoyas, but in a way, Davidson did what Georgetown does best: methodically pull away from their opponent.

Players

Georgetown:
Vernon Macklin played his heart out on Sunday. It probably doesn’t show up so well on the box score, but this was one of his best performances and definitely one of his best efforts. He was diving for loose balls, making nice passes, and concentrating on his free throws. With all of the sadness coming out of the final game for Roy Hibbert, Jonathan Wallace, Patrick Ewing, Jr., and Tyler Crawford, Vernon provided a bright spot and a hopeful look towards next season.

Davidson:
I can’t think of who to point out. Enough has already been said about Stephen Curry, who had an okay game against the Hoyas. It’s hard to say that when the kid has five three pointers and 30 points, but in all seriousness, it wasn’t his game. It was a team effort by the Wildcats who worked hard to get him good shots but also fought for second chances and points off of turnovers. I think Jason Richards did a good job getting points when the team needed them, and Andrew Lovedale had a huge putback layup in the final minutes that almost sealed the deal.

Coaches

Coach Thompson was pretty upset with the officiating after Roy picked up his fourth foul. He walked on the court to complain to the officials and got a warning out of it. Maybe a technical could have spurred his team on, but we’ll never know. Coach McKillop on the other hand was a calming influence on his team even when they were down by double digits in the first half. Seeing how he was screaming at his players to motivate them against Gonzaga, I was a little concerned by his “We’re doing great. This is where we want to be” that I heard at a timeout nearing halftime.

Referees

I think enough has been said about the officiating. It wasn’t biased, it was just very poor and it hurt the Hoyas more than it hurt Davidson. In the postgame press conference, Coach was asked about it, and he restrained himself enough to say, “I’m not going to comment on the officiating. I was upset about more than one of them.”

Fans

It didn’t help the Hoyas that the game was being played in North Carolina, close to Davidson and participant in the second game, UNC. Both of those sides were cheering pretty loudly for the Wildcats and pretty loudly against the Hoyas. I don’t know if it made any difference – maybe it helped spur on Davidson – but I do know that when the Davidson pep band started playing “Sweet Caroline” again, things didn’t get any better for the Hoyas.

Number of the Game

1:29: Time remaining when Davidson scored their last field goal. Usually Georgetown plays unstoppable defense in the final minutes, and it is often the case that the opposing team doesn’t hit a field goal in the last four or five minutes of the game. Richards’ layup was a sign that this game wasn’t going the way Georgetown would have liked.

The “Lucky” Seat

I sat in seat T-2 14 for all three games that I stayed for. That was right behind the bench on the left side as I was facing the court. That meant in the Davidson-Gonzaga game, I was behind the Davidson players, and in the Georgetown-UMBC game, I was behind Coach Thompson and company. When Davidson sat in front of me before the Second Round matchup, I was a little worried that I would be sitting behind the winning team again. After seeing the Davidson players rush the court after the final buzzer, I didn’t care to see where UNC was sitting.