RPI, Strength of Schedule, Last 12 Games, blah, blah, blah. I heard a term this season for the first time when analyzing NCAA teams: the Eye Test. Basically that means, “Watch games.” Who was truly surprised by the West Virginia win? Not anybody who watched West Virginia and Duke play during the last five months. Duke played in a bad conference this season. North Carolina is very good, deserving of a #1 ranking. But Memphis is very good, deserving of a #1 ranking, too. The greatness of Memphis does not increase the value of Conference USA, and it should be the same for North Carolina in the ACC. Why does the press always assume that the teams from the ACC are superior? Why was Duke ranked in the Top 15 all season long? How many years in a row will Duke be eliminated in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament before the media starts realizing the truth?

The Top 25 rankings are a joke, they really are. Most of the time the voters just amend their selections from the previous week, meaning that if a team is in the first preseason poll, it could take them a couple of months to become unranked, even if they lose half of their games. It’s time for the knowledgeable basketball people in the country to take a stand. It’s time to say out loud, on television the following, “Duke did not deserve a #2 seed in this tournament. They’ve been an above average team in a below average conference, and they should have probably been a #5 or #6 seed.”

Duke is Duke, so they always get the benefit of the doubt - from the media, from the refs, from the criminal justice system. But now it’s getting to the point where the light bulbs should be going on for people around the country. Fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice shame on me. ‘Me’ is the selection committee, and the Associated Press, and the Coaches Poll voters. This season, Coach Bob Huggins did not get to vote in the Coaches Poll.

The Georgetown Hoyas re-established themselves in the national spotlight of college basketball in 2005-06. The team played very well throughout the year coming up with excellent victories both home and away. The crowds at the Verizon Center continued to swell, and the student body came out with greater numbers than any point in school history. Georgetown advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament before falling to the eventual champion Florida Gators. The season was even more special for the seniors who had gone through a great deal of adversity during their college careers.

The Good: People will always look back to January 21, 2006 as the day that put the Hoyas back on the map. Georgetown defeated #1 Duke 87-84, ending their 17-game unbeaten streak to start the year. The Princeton offense was on display in all its glory as the Hoyas were tearing up the Duke defense with backdoor cut after backdoor cut. Georgetown was energized by the capacity crowd, and the crowd was energized by the excellent first half performance, highlighted by Brandon Bowman’s reverse slam. In the second half Duke put the Hoyas under pressure cutting the lead to 2 with four minutes left, but the Hoyas showed patience and poise having an answer for everything that Duke threw at them. Duke had a final chance to tie the game, but they never got a shot off as the Hoyas forced a turnover. When the buzzer sounded the Verizon Center went into a frenzy as thousands of students and fans rushed the court to share in the excitement with the players.

The Bad: Georgetown had a nine-game winning streak at home when West Virginia visited the Verizon Center. The Hoyas began the game very well, matching every step of the Mountaineers, who had made it to the Final Four in the previous season. Late in the first half, Brandon Bowman made a steal and went coast to coast for a reverse dunk. On the very next play, Darrel Owens stole a pass and threw down another breakaway reverse dunk. But as the game wore on, the Hoyas wore down and West Virginia prevailed 69-56. That game marks Georgetown’s largest margin of defeat to West Virginia since joining the Big East in the 1995-96 season.

The Ugly: The Duke victory was improbable at the time, but for anyone who was in the Verizon Center for the Hoyas’ game immediately preceding the Duke game, beating Duke seemed impossible. Georgetown narrowly escaped a loss at the hands of the South Florida Bulls with a 50-47 win. In South Florida’s inaugural season in the Big East, they fought hard and did an excellent job of rebounding and keeping the score close. USF had a chance to tie, but the three-pointer at the buzzer was off target.


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