Teams

Georgetown:
The Hoyas are in big trouble right now. No question about it. Four straight losses, three straight conference losses, undefeated Marquette on the road up next. They have not been executing down the stretch lately, which had been a characteristic of all Thompson coached teams dating back to his days at Princeton.

Cincinnati:
Cincinnati, on the other hand, could execute down the stretch. And unlike Seton Hall, who left the door open for Georgetown in crunch time, the Bearcats were ready to crush Georgetown’s hopes in the waning minutes with bigtime shots and made free throws.

Players

Georgetown:
Nikita Mescheriakov surprised me yesterday. He played a lot of minutes due to DaJuan’s injury, but he looked comfortable out there. He had been known to have the deer-in-the-headlights look when he was out on the court before, but yesterday, he seemed to belong out there. Obviously, he’s not as talented as Summers and was not even close to a perfect replacement, but when the Hoyas needed a body, they had one, which was unlikely when the season started. In fact, Nikita could have been the hero if he had made that three pointer in the closing minutes. Down two, he missed the trey but got his own rebound. Then Freeman missed a layup to tie the game, and it never got closer after that.

Cincinnati:
For the Bearcats, Deonta Vaughn had 20 points to lead all scorers, but to me the game changer was Dion Dixon. He made three shots, all from behind the arc, and had three rebounds to finish with ten points. Everything from Dixon came in the second half, though, and he was a big force in killing the Hoyas’ hopes of a victory.

Coaches

After the game, Coach Thompson said, “We’re in a bad place, but we’ll figure this out.” Well all I can say is, please hurry.

Referees

Refs did a fine job last night. Except for the play where DaJuan hurt his ankle on the alley-oop attempt, I can’t think of any time where I even noticed the refs, so that’s good. And it’s not like a call would have prevented the injury.

Number of the Game

60: The Hoyas have not scored more than 60 points in the past three games. That’s not good. Especially since they haven’t held an opponent to less than 60 since the FIU game back before Christmas.

ESPN0

Last night’s game was on ESPN360. ESPN360 is only available on the internet and only if you get your internet from certain providers. Basically, that means it’s confusing to find and hard to watch. The rest of Georgetown’s games this season will be on regular cable channels like ESPN and MASN for those living in the DC area. Seeing the way the Hoyas have performed the past month, I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing being able to watch them play. The only game that’s not on a standard cable channel is the DePaul game which can be viewed on ESPNU. But that is a home game, and it’s Senior Day, so hopefully all the Hoya fans in the DC area will go to give Jessie Sapp a nice farewell.