• This is a time to reflect on the careers of DaJuan Summers, Jeremiah Rivers, and Vernon Macklin. Though none of them lasted four years, that doesn’t detract from the contributions they provided on the 2006 Big East Regular Season, Big East Tournament, and NCAA East Regional Championship team.
• It’s also a time to look back on the career of Greg Monroe. He’s heading to the NBA next season, and even if he comes back to earn his degree, this is his last week on campus as “normal” undergraduate – though his two years have been anything but ordinary.
• And while looking back on players gone is kind of a sad thing, there’s one big positive to look forward to this upcoming weekend. On Saturday, at the College Commencement, Hoya legend Dikembe Mutombo will be speaking. Besides addressing the 2010 senior class, Dikembe will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters from the University.

[Image via Life.com]

Teams

Georgetown:
Georgetown played as good of a game as they’ve put together this season, and unfortunately, they ended up on the losing end. There were probably too many unforced turnovers, too many offensive fouls, and too little rebounding at the beginning of the second half, but other than that, there was not too much to complain about on the Hoyas’ end.

Davidson:
Davidson played a fine game, probably not a better game than Georgetown, which is strange since the Wildcats ended up on top. They didn’t shoot as well, they didn’t rebound as well, and they didn’t have an unbelievable performance from Stephen Curry like they did against Gonzaga. I think that makes it a harder pill to swallow for the Hoyas, but in a way, Davidson did what Georgetown does best: methodically pull away from their opponent.

Players

Georgetown:
Vernon Macklin played his heart out on Sunday. It probably doesn’t show up so well on the box score, but this was one of his best performances and definitely one of his best efforts. He was diving for loose balls, making nice passes, and concentrating on his free throws. With all of the sadness coming out of the final game for Roy Hibbert, Jonathan Wallace, Patrick Ewing, Jr., and Tyler Crawford, Vernon provided a bright spot and a hopeful look towards next season.

Davidson:
I can’t think of who to point out. Enough has already been said about Stephen Curry, who had an okay game against the Hoyas. It’s hard to say that when the kid has five three pointers and 30 points, but in all seriousness, it wasn’t his game. It was a team effort by the Wildcats who worked hard to get him good shots but also fought for second chances and points off of turnovers. I think Jason Richards did a good job getting points when the team needed them, and Andrew Lovedale had a huge putback layup in the final minutes that almost sealed the deal.

Coaches

Coach Thompson was pretty upset with the officiating after Roy picked up his fourth foul. He walked on the court to complain to the officials and got a warning out of it. Maybe a technical could have spurred his team on, but we’ll never know. Coach McKillop on the other hand was a calming influence on his team even when they were down by double digits in the first half. Seeing how he was screaming at his players to motivate them against Gonzaga, I was a little concerned by his “We’re doing great. This is where we want to be” that I heard at a timeout nearing halftime.

Referees

I think enough has been said about the officiating. It wasn’t biased, it was just very poor and it hurt the Hoyas more than it hurt Davidson. In the postgame press conference, Coach was asked about it, and he restrained himself enough to say, “I’m not going to comment on the officiating. I was upset about more than one of them.”

Fans

It didn’t help the Hoyas that the game was being played in North Carolina, close to Davidson and participant in the second game, UNC. Both of those sides were cheering pretty loudly for the Wildcats and pretty loudly against the Hoyas. I don’t know if it made any difference – maybe it helped spur on Davidson – but I do know that when the Davidson pep band started playing “Sweet Caroline” again, things didn’t get any better for the Hoyas.

Number of the Game

1:29: Time remaining when Davidson scored their last field goal. Usually Georgetown plays unstoppable defense in the final minutes, and it is often the case that the opposing team doesn’t hit a field goal in the last four or five minutes of the game. Richards’ layup was a sign that this game wasn’t going the way Georgetown would have liked.

The “Lucky” Seat

I sat in seat T-2 14 for all three games that I stayed for. That was right behind the bench on the left side as I was facing the court. That meant in the Davidson-Gonzaga game, I was behind the Davidson players, and in the Georgetown-UMBC game, I was behind Coach Thompson and company. When Davidson sat in front of me before the Second Round matchup, I was a little worried that I would be sitting behind the winning team again. After seeing the Davidson players rush the court after the final buzzer, I didn’t care to see where UNC was sitting.

Teams

Georgetown:
The Hoyas utterly dominated the game in all aspects. The smothering defense kept St. John’s without a field goal for most of the first half, while the overpowering offense started the game on a 27-3 run. Even without perma-starter DaJuan Summers in the lineup, the Hoyas cruised to their easiest victory of the year.

St. John’s:
This team is not as bad as they looked tonight, but that’s not saying much. No shots were falling for the Red Storm, and if it weren’t for their free throw shooting, the score could have been much worse.

Players

Georgetown:
Vernon Macklin showed his offensive ability once again, scoring on a range of skills, from his patented hook, to a turnaround jumper, to an enormous dunk. Jeremiah Rivers, while not shooting too well, had a good night in other aspects, with two steals, a 2-0 assist-to-turnover ratio, and also contributed a career-high nine rebounds. Now, if only those two could get their foul shooting straightened out; they shot a combined 3-10 on the evening

St. John’s:
It’s hard to pick a player who stood out in a positive way for St. John’s in this game. Justin Burrell was the only red storm player to shoot better than 33% from the field. And, if it hadn’t been for his two hoops in the first half, St. John’s would not have scored a basket in the entire frame.

Coaches

Norm Roberts could not do much to stop the bleeding in this game, using two timeouts during the Hoyas’ opening run. By then, it was already 21-3, and far out of reach.

Referees

The referees were non-factors. They called the game very close, which resulted in a lot of fouls and free throws. Had it not been for that, the Red Storm would have struggled to get into double digits in the first half.

Fans

With a score line like this one, the fans could not have much of an impact. There was a loud cheer when the Red Storm made their first field goal, three-fourths of the way through the first half.

Number of the Game

21: Number of free throws made by St. John’s. Coincidentally, it is also the number of points scored from the field for the Red Storm.

Perfection

The Hoyas now have two players who are perfect from beyond the arc. Bryon Jansen’s three-pointer at the buzzer made him 1-1 on his career, joining sharpshooting teammate Roy Hibbert, who has made both of his attempts.

Even if the point total was a little higher than expected in the last game, the ways he was able to score will always be there. Opposing players who cover Roy Hibbert look for certain tendencies. Hibbert is very deliberate most of the time, and even if he occasionally uses quick moves, Big Roy doesn’t have speed. On Macklin’s first hoop against Pitt, he made a strong, fast cut down the lane. Macklin made a nice catch and finished quickly. It looked like it was going to be a dunk, but at the last second he just laid it in.

The defenders must’ve done a double take after the burst of speed that Macklin used to get to the basket. The same play happened when Hibbert was in the game too. Roy actually was wide open in the lane, made a nice catch on the move, but needed a moment or two to gather himself on the block and elevate to the rim, by then there were two defenders there and he missed a contested layup.

The Big East is full of good players and good coaches. The teams all know each other so well, sew each other so often, and scout each other so much that there really aren’t any surprises by the middle of the season. Coaches will set up defensive schemes and game plans to deal with stopping the Hoyas with Hibbert.

Players concentrate on the game plan and try to remember the things that they need to do follow it. It’s not easy to change the schemes with post defense in the middle of a game. Macklin has a very different skill set from Hibbert, and he should have a good chance to give quality minutes off the bench. Hibbert is a great post player, but Macklin shouldn’t try to be like him. The more different he is from Hibbert, the more difficult it will be for opposing defenses to adjust to his tools. And for the time being, the less the opponents adjust to Vernon, the more effective he will be.

Teams

Georgetown:
No one shot the ball well from distance, as the Hoyas finished the game 3-20 from beyond the arc. Georgetown was also sloppy on the defensive end, getting badly outrebounded and giving up a number of easy baskets and uncontested threes. They will have to work to clean that up before facing the Notre Dame tandem of big man Luke Harangody and shooter Kyle McAlarney.

Pittsburgh:
Pitt was more aggressive than the Hoyas, getting 17 offensive rebounds and using them to get second chance points. They outhustled Georgetown throughout the game and seemed stronger on a number of occasions despite the size advantage of the Hoyas. I personally would not be afraid to play this team again, though.

Players

Georgetown:
People have been hard on Vernon Macklin this season, perhaps justifiably so. But he showed tonight that he has the ability to be a big time player. He took – and made – his hook shots, but he also showed some post-up skills. His rebounding was a little weak, but he did fine on defense. If he can keep up this level of play, it will allow Hibbert to get some rest later in the Big East season when players are a little more fatigued.

Pittsburgh:
Ronald Ramon was a killer from beyond the arc, going 4-6, and making a number of key baskets as the shot clock was expiring. He ended with 18 points and four assists, as the difference maker in this game.

Coaches

Coaching had little impact on this game, no key plays that I can think of.

Referees

The refereeing was a little suspect today as the Hoyas were whistled for nine more fouls than their opponents. It was a little disappointing since when Pitt and Georgetown play, you hope the refs will let them play. But to start the game, they called a number of touch fouls inside, which set the tone for the game.

This is not entirely related, but the Hoyas again shot a reasonable good percentage from the line; hopefully the coaches have that particular issue under control now.

Fans

For the most part, the crowd was loud, but it didn’t feel as intimidating as it has in years past. But, as Pitt began to pull away, you could see why the Oakland Zoo is one of the toughest places to play in the country.

Number of the Game

17: Number of three pointers the Hoyas missed today. The Hoyas lost by nine, so you think if even just two more of those had fallen, the end result might have been different.

TC

Tyler Crawford got minutes in this game when the result was still in question, and made a pair of free throws that at the time stopped the bleeding for the Hoyas.