Teams

Georgetown:
As they have done time and again season, the Hoyas pulled out another close victory. The win makes Georgetown back-to-back regular season Big East Champions for the first time in school history, and what better way to do it than on the defensive end. The nation’s leader in defensive field goal percentage held Louisville to 36.4% from the field in the first half, and a frigid 22% from beyond the arc in the game. And after Jeremiah Rivers added to the drama by missing the front end of a one-and-one, the Hoyas came up with one more big stop on defense, forcing Louisville to take and miss two contested three pointers.

Louisville:
The Cardinals are a three-point shooting team, and when the shots aren’t falling from downtown, they will struggle. That was the case in this game, as the Hoyas never let the Cardinals get into a groove from three point land. The result was a low-scoring affair, and though Louisville’s defensive pressure kept them in the game, it was not enough to push them to over the top.

Players

Georgetown:
On Senior Day, it was the underclassmen who carried the day. Freshman Austin Freeman showed his stuff. He scored eight points in a row early in the second half to give the Hoyas an 11 point lead. Then, after a comeback by Louisville, it was sophomore DaJuan Summers who buried the game-winning three pointer. It was his only basket of the second half, but it could not have come at a better time for the Hoyas.

Louisville:
Terrence Williams led the Cardinals with 14 points and was instrumental in Louisville’s comeback. His three-pointer with under four minutes left gave Louisville their first and only lead of the second half. He also got an offensive rebound in the dying seconds to give the Cardinals one last chance to tie the game, but Edgar Sosa’s double clutch three was off at the final buzzer.

Coaches

Coach Thompson has stressed poise throughout the season, and once again his teaching has proved beneficial. Even with the team down in the last moments of the game, there was a steady calm about the team, a quiet assurance, and he can be given some of the credit for the great execution at the end of games.

Referees

The referees did not call many fouls in this game, in sharp contrast to the Hoyas’ last contest. As a result, the Hoyas shot only five free throws the entire game. The refereeing, while consistent, probably hurt Georgetown more than Louisville, since the Cardinals pressured the ballhandlers all game, and a few times Louisville got steals that in other games might have been whistled as fouls.

Fans

A sell-out crowd at the Verizon Center was on hand to send off the seniors in their last home game. There was a large contingent of Louisville fans in attendance as well, and at a few timeouts they could be heard cheering on the Cardinals. But, at the end of the game it was the Georgetown fans making all the noise. The students were out in full force, which is a testament to them, as their Spring Break was not yet over. They were rewarded after the game, as Roy Hibbert came over to start a “We are…Georgetown” chant after the final horn.

Number of the Game

8: Free throws missed by Louisville, almost twice the number attempted by the Hoyas. No miss was more important than Earl Clark’s, as he went 1-2 from the line with 1:12 remaining to only tie the game instead of retake the lead. The miss set up the end-of-game heroics for Summers.

Perfection

For the first time since moving out of USAirways Arena, the Hoyas were undefeated at home. The Verizon Center celebrated its ten year anniversary this year, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate it than with a perfect home record.

Teams

Georgetown:
The Hoyas played uninspired basketball for nearly three-fourths of the game, but still managed a relatively easy victory. Turnovers and missed lay-ups hurt Georgetown and let St. John’s stay in the game. But, the Hoyas committed only one turnover over 10 minutes during a critical second half stretch to turn a tie game into a 13 point lead.

St. John’s:
The Red Storm kept it close for more than a half, thanks to a great shooting percentage, 45.8% on the night. However, it always seemed as if it was just a matter of time until the Hoyas pulled away, as was eventually the case. St. John’s had no way to stop Roy Hibbert on the inside and did not do a good enough job closing out on Georgetown’s shooters, giving up uncontested three pointers.

Players

Georgetown:
DaJuan Summers started the game by hitting a three-pointer from the baseline. That seemed to be the story of the game. Summers finished with 21 points and was 5-8 from beyond the arc. On a night where the team seemed to do little offensively, he was able to make shots to give the Hoyas a boost. Unfortunately, he was only 2-7 inside the arc, missing two dunks and three layups. But, in a game where no one looked particularly sharp, I think we can let him slide. Just don’t make it a habit, DaJuan.

St. John’s:
Anthony Mason Jr. did all he could to keep the Red Storm in the game out of the break. He started the second half with a huge one-handed alley-oop slam. He later stole a pass and took it the length of the court for a two-handed finish, and a few possessions later hit a three to cut the Georgetown lead to one. It looked as though Mason was ready to have a big night. That never came to fruition though, and the Red Storm fell into a hole that they would be unable to dig out of.

Coaches

After Mason’s three pointer cut the lead to one, Wallace answered with a three-ball of his own, and Coach Thompson immediately called timeout. He brought in defensive stopper Jeremiah Rivers in an effort to stop a scorer who was getting hot. Rivers more than answered the task, as Mason did not score again. Credit Coach with a good personnel move. He also waited until after Wallace hit the three to call timeout, which is deserving of props as well.

Referees

The referees called few fouls in this game, which was much different from the last time these two teams met. Georgetown made the most of their free throw opportunities, going 87.5% from the stripe.

Fans

A 9:00 start time against an inferior opponent makes it a little hard to sell tickets. Just over 9,000 came out to see this one, and much like the Hoyas, they were a little lackluster. However, when St. John’s tied it early in the half, the crowd tried to rally the Hoyas, and were rewarded with a number of big threes, and a pretty fast break that ended in a throw-down for Ewing.

Number of the Game

87.5: Percentage of free throws made for Georgetown. The Hoyas went 14-16 from the line to shoot their best free throw percentage all year. A big turnaround from the 40.9% they shot earlier in the year.

Purple Champions

On Monday, the Gonzaga Eagles defeated Archbishop O’Connell to win the WCAC championship. This team has deep allegiances to the WCAC, as Gonzaga is Coach Thompson’s alma mater, and freshmen Austin Freeman and Chris Wright played for DeMatha and St. John’s, respectively. We asked Coach if he let the freshmen hear about the victory. He said, “They knew. They knew. They were waiting for me to say something the whole time, but they knew.”

Teams

Georgetown:
A rather unimpressive win for Georgetown. With the bottom team in the conference coming to Verizon Center, perhaps the Hoyas failed to take their opponent seriously. They started sloppily, and only after halftime did the Hoyas finally start to put South Florida away. Also, for the second straight game, Georgetown took a sizeable lead midway through the second half, only to falter and let their opponents back into the game, this time going four minutes without a field goal. The Hoyas need to play hard for the full forty minutes if they hope to be successful against Louisville this Saturday.

South Florida:
The Bulls fought hard and came out hot, hitting 10 of their first 13 shots, which translates to an incredible 77% from the field. But, they didn’t have the fire power to sustain such shooting, and the Bulls eventually dropped their ninth straight. With a 1-9 conference record, South Florida seems almost assured of missing out on another Big East Tournament.

Players

Georgetown:
DaJuan Summers started the game with a missed three pointer. He then scored on his next four attempts to help the Hoyas battle back from an early 10 point deficit. He ended the game with a career-high 24 points, but more impressive than his scoring was his poise. The Hoyas had come out flat, and he lifted the team with his shooting. It’s easy to pass instead of shoot when the team is struggling, but Summers put the Hoyas on his shoulders and carried them until his teammates found their range.

South Florida:
Senior center Kentrell Gransberry proved himself to be a formidible opponent to Roy Hibbert, starting the game with a block on his 7-2 counterpart. Gransberry would end with 13 points, nine rebounds, and five blocks, showing his strength inside. However, with limited outside help, he was unable to lead his team to victory, which must be a familiar feeling.

Coaches

The only time when coaching came into question was in the dying moments of the game. Roy Hibbert had just made a basket to put the Hoyas up nine with a little over 1:30 to play. South Florida Coach Stan Heath failed to have an effective play worked out, and as a result, the Bulls ran almost 30 seconds off the clock before settling for a tough jumper from Gransberry, which is not his strong suit. I am not convinced that this play would have changed the outcome, but if the Bulls had somehow managed to get a quick two or three on that possession, it would have made the last minute much more interesting, especially given the Hoyas shot only 52% on the night from the stripe.

Referees

The refs let them play in this one, which is one the reasons there were 11 blocks between the starting centers. I am sure in the Seton Hall game a few of those would have been called fouls. On the whole though, the referees were fine, as no glaring mistakes stick out.

Fans

A relatively modest crowd for this game, perhaps in part to Fat Tuesday, Super Tuesday, or the later start time. The student section in particular seemed much smaller and tamer. And while the lackluster performance by the Boys in Gray didn’t give the fans much to cheer about, I thought the people in attendence did try to lift the team after their sluggish start.

Number of the Game

11: Consecutive Georgetown points scored by DaJuan Summers to start the game, until a jumper by Jeremiah Rivers dropped to get a second Hoya on the scoreboard. Summers kept the team in the game at the start, as over the first five and a half minutes, all the other Hoyas were a combined 0-10 from the field.

Turn Back The Clock

As has become a pattern at Verizon Center this year, the clock once again failed to stop moving after a whistle. In this game, there was about a 20 second runoff after a stoppage. The referees eventually noticed the mistake when the shot clock was at 28 seconds, and reset it along with the game clock. However, they failed to realize the shot clock didn’t restart until 11 seconds after the game clock, so adding eight seconds back was not enough. As a result, the teams were gypped out of 11 seconds of basketball. I don’t think anyone’s gonna complain about it for this game.

Teams

Georgetown:
Last year, the Hoyas defeated the Fighting Irish by starting the game with sharp shooting, as they went 7 for 12 from behind the arc in the first half. They started the game with an 18-2 run and never looked back. On Saturday, it was Big Roy who took apart the Irish, as he scored 13 points in the opening 12 minutes. After the break, Georgetown seemed to regain its three-point touch, and there was no chance for Notre Dame at that point.

Notre Dame:
Notre Dame’s center Luke Harangody was completely overmatched in this game, and he had no chance of stopping Hibbert or of scoring on him. Add in the Fighting Irish missing a lot of jumpers that they would usually make, and you get a recipe for disaster as they finished the game shooting 32.8% from the field.

Players

Georgetown:
Obviously, Roy had a big game, and he was fairly aggressive even with the t-shirt on. But another big contributor on Saturday was DaJuan Summers. He had 17 points and 11 rebounds to earn himself his first double-double of the season. After the game, Coach Thompson said of DaJuan’s performance, “He was extremely aggressive in terms of, not just aggressive in terms of attacking the basket or anything like that, but his energy level - he worked, he brought his lunch pail today, and he worked. And it was great to see that.”

Notre Dame:
The only player on Notre Dame that shot over 40% from the field was Jonathan Peoples. And he had very little impact on this game. McAlarney failed to perform, and Harangody was stifled, so somebody had to step up, and that didn’t seem to happen for the Irish.

Coaches

Coach Brey got a technical, more out of frustration than anything else. Besides that, there was not much to talk about in regards to the guys in the suits.

Referees

The refs were average on Saturday, and it led to a little fracas when Harangody thought he was fouled, retaliated, and then got inadvertently elbowed in the head as he was shoving Big Roy. Things settled down in the second half, and the game was so far out of reach that the refereeing didn’t have too much of an impact on the outcome.

Fans

I’ll let Coach handle this one. “The fans are terrific. We not only appreciate but we need that energy. That’s why you like playing at home and don’t like playing on the road. . . Our fans have been terrific, and its something that we feed off of. Our fans do a great job of understanding that when we’re not playing well, when we hit those lows, thats when we need them. When everything’s going great, everyone’s fine and happy and jubilant, but our guys do a good job of when we need some help, they do a good job of picking us up, and we are extremely appreciative of that.”

Number of the Game

36: Points in the paint scored by the Hoyas. With the three not falling in the early going, the Hoyas relied on Big Roy’s post scoring and cuts for layups. More than half of the field goals for the Boys in Gray were scored from inside the lane, showing that Georgetown got high percentage shots, and as a result they went 61% from 2-point land.

Pop Pop Donato

In the stand of Verizon Center were three young girls holding a sign that said something along the lines of, “We came to cheer our Pop Pop the ref. Yay Pop Pop Donato.” I guess it’s good that they came to a game where he wasn’t treated too badly from the fans. I wouldn’t want those girls watching a close game though.

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.

Teams

GU:
A poor showing for Georgetown by their own high standards. Perhaps it was a result of the win earlier in the week against Old Dominion, or perhaps in anticipation for the mid week game against Alabama in the Big East/SEC Invitational, but the Hoyas looked sloppy. The first half was particularly poor, but they gritted it out in the second half for the victory. I think the injury of Jessie Sapp, who played limited minutes thanks to a knee to the head on the first possession of the game, may have had an impact on the game. But, a win is a win, and hopefully Georgetown can turn it around by this Wednesday.

FU:
The Stags came out ready, and despite an early five point deficit, stayed focused and fought for the full 40. They shot the lights out from long range in the first half, going 7-11, but the second half basket was not as kind, as they made only one of eight, and that ended up to be their undoing.

Players

GU:
Without Sapp, one of the other Hoyas would have to step up. This game it was DaJuan Summers, who scored a season high 16 points. To go along with his offense, Summers played good defense, getting one block that was questionably ruled a foul and another clean block near the end of the game that lead to a hoop at the other end. Freshmen Chris Wright and Austin Freeman continue to get good minutes, and their familiarity with the team and this offense is growing.

FU:
Jonathan Han was their leading scorer coming into the game, and he showed why, putting up 11 first half points on 3-4 shooting from downtown. The Hoyas did a good job on him defensively in the second half, limiting Han to just one basket. Han had some help from his teammates, but he was clearly the main threat from Fairfield.

Coaches

Fairfield coach Ed Cooley did a good job of preparing his team, and he kept the game close for 36 minutes. On the other side of the court, Coach Thompson did fine considering he was without one of his veteran starters. The only criticism I can think of is that he never used a time out, which might have helped expand the lead, since on a few occasions the Hoyas had the ball, up four, with a chance to push the game out of reach, and they let those chances slip.

Referees

A pretty poorly officiated game. The refs called too many fouls, which disrupted the flow of the game, but at the same time they allowed Hibbert to get murdered under the basket without any relief. The worst call in my opinion came with under two minutes to go in the game. Fairfield had just called a timeout, and to start play, they gave the ball to Han. Rivers was guarding him, them cleanly stripped the ball and started going the other way, when John Cahill whistled Rivers for the foul. Jeremiah would have had a clear path to the basket to put the Hoyas up eight, but instead, Han got the chance to cut into the lead.

Fans

A large but rather subdued crowd for this game. There was one play in the second half where the Hoyas forced a 35 second violation on Fairfield, and Chris Wright turned to the student section and gestured them to make noise. They obliged, and the entire Verizon Center got very loud for the next Hoya possession, which ended in a three by Freeman going halfway down before popping out.

Number of the Game

16: Number of second half points for the Stags, less than half of their first half total of 33 points.

Out of Town Scores

For the first time this season, the out-of-town scoreboard worked. However, it was only giving NHL and NBA scores, and since most were night games, we didn’t get much information. Hopefuly once the Hoyas enter the Big East season we will be able to get other college scores from around the country. The one down side of the scores: we no longer have the rotating G that transforms into Jack the Bulldog to look at during official timeouts. Well, that’s progress.

GU:
For the first time in recent memory, the Hoyas ended the game with more 3 point attempts than 2 point attempts. This issue was addressed at half time, since Hibbert got more touches in the second period and scored 15 of his 23 in the vespers half. Also, the defense looked a little shaky at times, with the Hoyas running out at people and constantly shifting to get back in position, which resulted in some open looks for the Tribe. It will be interesting to see if Coach addresses this problem in practice this week, since John Beilein-coached teams are known for their ball movement.

WM:
This was a pretty good team. They had two good scorers, Kisielius and David Schneider, who scored more than half of the Tribe’s points. They played a solid game defensively, and I can see them causing problems for most teams in the CAA - I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up challenging for the title this season.

Players

GU:
Obviously all four returning starters had good nights offensively, but the player I was most impressed with was DaJuan Summers. I would have liked to see him play a little more, but he was unfortunately saddled with foul trouble, picking up #3 in the first half, and his fourth early in the second. But while on the floor, Summers showed he has the ability to be the all-around player people are hoping he can be. He made the first Georgetown basket of the night on a three pointer from the corner, later in the half he made a nice post move and hook shot, and he had some big rebounds. While he had no steals, Summers showed good hustle, tipping balls out of bounds, and forcing the Tribe to make difficult plays.

WM:
I was also impressed by William and Mary’s Laimis Kisielius, who scored seven of the first 10 points for the tribe, and 16 points in the first half. However, he also ended the game with 16 points, which to some degree can be attributed to the Hoyas’ defense wearing him out.

Coaches

Each of the coaches received a technical foul in the first half. One of the points of emphasis this season is keeping coaches in the Coach’s Box. At least today, the refs did emphasize it.

Referees

The refs for the game were Ed Corbett, William Bush, and Brian O’Connell. By my count, there were seven offensive fouls called on the Hoyas, and none on the Tribe. In one particular stretch to start the second half, O’Connell called two offensive fouls in a 25 second span, the second one an extraordinarily poor call, causing the home fans to boo the officials during the official timeout and beyond. I already talked about the strange technicals; there was a bizarre melee at center court that was called a jump ball 15 seconds too late that could have been a foul or a travel on either teams, and I thought maybe one of the calls that gave Hibbert a three point play opportunity could have been left uncalled. But, other than that, I thought the refs were nonfactors, as they should be. But, the officials are also working themselves into game form.

Fans

This was a fairly large crowd for a season opener, with a paid attendance of 11,364, beating last year’s season opener attendance mark by more than 1,500. The students were there early and were vocal, which always is good to see. Let’s hope we can keep the crowds like this for some of the upcoming games against weaker opponents.

Number of the Game

1.5: Time in seconds for Tyler Crawford. After Jonathan Wallace was called for an offensive foul in the last moment of the first half, Coach Thompson brought in Crawford, for what might be the Georgetown record for shortest appearance in a game (I have no way of verifying that, though). Hopefully, he will get to see a little bit more of the court as the season goes on.

New Jumbotron

The New High-Definition Jumbotron is really cool, but it had a little problem during the game. It seemed as though during the first half, the screen, which is equipped to handle NBA games as well as NHL games, was using its NBA mode instead of college mode. It would show the time remaining in the first quarter, instead of the first half, but that’s something fans can easily ignore. However, since in the NBA, the foul limit is five to get in the bonus, even after William and Mary committed their 6th and 7th fouls, the big screen only said they had five team fouls. At one point, fans were upset that the Tribe were shooting free throws when the big board said the Hoyas had only committed five fouls. In the second half, neither team committed more than five fouls, but since the bonus light stayed off, I think we can assume the problem was fixed.