#5 – Silent Night

The Hoyas’ win over Alabama was a quality one in a tough environment against a team from a top conference. That early victory helped the Hoyas extend their undefeated string to start the season and helped to silence the rowdy crowd in Birmingham.

#4 – God Rest You Merry Gentlemen

The Hoya gentlemen deserve a little rest. Hopefully, the players can enjoy a little bit of R & R for Christmas. A little time at home with family and friends should be the perfect way to unwind and re-charge for the intense three months that lie ahead.

#3 – O Come All Ye Faithful

The fans deserve a lot of credit for creating a great atmosphere at the Verizon Center, even during the less attractive part of the schedule. I’m sure the faithful will be even more involved when Big East play begins.

#2 – What Child Is This?

Austin Freeman has been an excellent addition to the Hoyas this season and over the past few games has arguably been Georgetown’s best player. He can score with his jumper, cuts, or athleticism. Besides his ability to fill it up, he also is a very cool customer, never letting a great play affect his poker face. Not bad for a freshman.

#1 – Joy To The World

During the Christmas Holidays, Hoya fans have a nice opportunity to reflect on the great success from 2007 and to anticipate the great things that lie ahead in 2008. The Hoyas look to repeat their Big East Championships from last season, and hope to have a nice reprise of this carol in March.

The Alabama game was a very closely contested game. Neither team led by more than five until the final two minutes. Georgetown was clearly a better team, but they kept allowing the Crimson Tide to hang around. The inability to deliver the knockout punch has made the last two games for the Hoyas a little closer than needed, and giving opponents multiple chances for survival is a very dangerous habit to get into.

There were several times in the second half when it looked like the Hoyas were getting a little separation, but Georgetown squandered all of those opportunities to pull away. Early in the half the Hoyas failed to convert on a two-on-one break with Jonathan Wallace and Vernon Macklin. Later, after a miss from Alabama the Hoyas were a little careless trying to secure a loose ball, allowing Richard Hendrix an easy second chance basket. Then with less than seven minutes to play, Roy Hibbert missed a chance from close range that would’ve given the Hoyas their largest lead.

Every time Alabama was given a “Get out of Jail Free” card, they made the most of it. The Hoyas need to start punishing teams when they have the chance, since that’s what sets teams apart in March.

Teams

GU:
The Hoyas started the game very sloppily, with some turnovers and ill-advised shots. As the game wore on though, the team gained focus. The Hoyas played very well in the last four minutes of the game, which is when it counts, so that was encouraging. It would be nice if the Hoyas could start out looking sharp, and perhaps jump on teams early, like they did against Michigan.

Ala:
They had a good game plan coming in, and it almost worked. They tried to push the pace of the game, knowing that they couldn’t beat us at our own game. Poor foul shooting hurt them - this was most noticeable after Ewing fouled Mykal Riley shooting a 3 to give Alabama the lead, but Riley only converted on one of the three, and the Hoyas kept the lead.

Players

GU:
Another good performance by DaJuan Summers; he again led the team in scoring, this time with 18 points. He also made two important three pointers down the stretch, one with the Hoyas down with under four minutes to play, and had nine rebounds.

Ala:
Richard Hendrix did well inside, but Mykal Riley was the biggest threat for the Crimson Tide. He made his first four three-pointers in the second half, the fourth one giving Alabama the lead with four minutes left in the game. Fortunately for the Hoyas, he did not get another look until the Hoyas were already up eight, and he missed it anyway.

Coaches

Thompson did well in this game, for one reason in particular. He used his timeouts instead of waiting for the official timeouts. He did this twice, once at a critical point in the game. Riley had just made a 3 to retake the lead for Alabama with 3:52 left. Thompson elected to use a timeout to quiet the crowd, settle his team, and draw up a play. On the ensuing possession, the Hoyas got a three from Summers and didn’t trail for the rest of the game. Good TO management from Coach.

Referees

You know the refs do a good job when you don’t remember who they are. There were a few missed calls, as always, and perhaps a few fouls that weren’t called, but in general I’d rather have it that way than the other way around.

Fans

The “neutral” crowd at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex became very pro-Alabama near the end of the game. Not unexpected, but it helps that the Hoyas were able to grit out a close one in such a hostile environment. It might serve them well come March.

Number of the Game

+16: Rebounding margin for the Hoyas in this game, their largest of the season. They also had 15 offensive rebounds, which was only 4 less than Alabama’s defensive total of 19.

Big East Sweep

In the second game of the double header at the BJCC, West Virginia routed Auburn 88-59. They started the game on a 28-6 run and never looked back. Despite having a new coach this year, it seems as though the Mountaineers will cause problems for the teams of the Big East.

After a strong finish to the previous season, the Hoyas began the 2000-01 season in excellent fashion. Almost all of the key contributing players had returned from one year earlier, and the Hoyas added talented freshmen Mike Sweetney and Gerald Riley. This was the first year that the Verizon Center was actually an imposing place to play, as the fans started to come out in full force and make things difficult for the opponents. The Hoyas made it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in four seasons and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.

The Good: The Hoyas were 12-0 to start the season when they hosted Seton Hall in their Big East home opener. The Pirates were ranked #11 in the country, and the Hoyas despite their undefeated record had just made it into the Top 25, ranked #19. Georgetown put on a dominating display for forty minutes, smothering Seton Hall’s talented freshman, Eddie Griffin. Five Hoyas scored in double figures as Georgetown pulled away down the stretch and improved to 13-0. It was one of the more raucous crowds during that era of the Verizon Center, and full credit goes to the students at that time who were out in full force despite the fact that classes had not yet resumed for the second semester.

The Bad: The Pittsburgh Panthers were the first team to beat the Hoyas, and it happened in the Verizon Center. Georgetown was 16-0 and trying to make it 17 when the Panthers pulled off a fantastic finish to defeat the Hoyas. Pittsburgh was on the rise in the conference, and made all the big plays down the stretch, including three second half three-pointers from Donatas Zavackas.

The Ugly: Once again, Villanova congers up bad memories at the Verizon Center. Georgetown battled back from being down by 14 points, to take the lead in the second half. Villanova went on a 7-2 run in the final 4 minutes and were ahead by 2 with five seconds left. Gary Buchanan was the best free throw shooter in the nation that year, and had a string of over fifty consecutive free throws made. Buchanan could have iced the game by making two shots, but he missed the first and left a slim chance for the Hoyas. Kevin Braswell tried a long three-pointer at the buzzer that missed. It was the second consecutive season with a home three-point loss to Villanova.

 
Ten Years in Ten Days:
1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-00 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07

The opening game of the Big East-SEC showdown was as closely contested as anticipated, with neither team leading by more than five points for the first 38 minutes. With less than two minutes to play, Roy Hibbert scored and was fouled to put the Hoyas up by six, and the game never got any closer. Alabama’s Mykal Riley made a three-pointer to give the Crimson Tide the lead 57-56 with 3:52 remaining, but Summers responded with a three-pointer of his own 20 seconds later to put the Hoyas in front for good. Georgetown ended the game on a 14-3 run.

Georgetown is now 6-0 to start the season; the Hoyas return to Verizon Center on Sunday, December 9th to take on the Jacksonville Dolphins. Tip-off is scheduled for 1pm.

Feel free to leave your in-game thoughts in the comments.

On to the Alabama game. In an earlier post, Johnny mentioned how the Hoyas shot the same number of free throws and three pointers in their game against Fairfield. That brings us to this game’s question:

Will the Hoyas shoot more threes or more free throws against Alabama, and how many more?

We think Georgetown will shoot more threes. Five more to be exact. What do you think?