For Hoya fans, there was a lot to enjoy in the 88-74 victory over Syracuse: Monroe’s complete performance, Freeman’s hot shooting, the bench performance in general, Clark and Mescheriakov specifically, Syracuse’s futility – you name it. My favorite part, however, was DaJuan Summers. Not his game-high 21 points and not the second half three-pointers he made to keep the Orange at bay. My favorite play was his steal, dunk, plus the intentional foul, and his technical foul.

The fast break dunk was powerful; to do it while being intentionally fouled was colossal; to then get a technical for screaming in the face of the overpowered defender was intimidating. I actually don’t think the reaction should have been called a technical. Under normal circumstances, yelling at a player like Summers yelled at Ongenaet always earns a technical foul, and rightly so. But the situation in this case was not normal. Karl Hess is a good ref (relatively speaking) and he rightly saw the foul from Ongenaet as an overly excessive one, putting Summers at risk of injury. That’s why he ruled it an intentional foul – two shots and the ball.

As the lovely and talented Doris Burke put it, “That’s the kind of foul that starts a fight on the playground.” Exactly. Since, Mr. Hess recognized the dangerous situation and hard foul, he should have given a little bit of leeway to Summers. DaJuan didn’t do anything violent in retaliation to the foul, he just got in the face of his offender, as if to say, “Is that all you got?” I don’t agree with the technical, but I don’t mind it either. Sometimes it’s important to get a technical. DaJuan’s was a good one. It let people know that despite the media image, the Hoyas are not a soft team. If needed, they can shove back. Georgetown is certainly not afraid to mix it up, or deliver a serious shot to the chin, like the one just given to the #8 team in the country.