Teams

GU:
An all-around good performance for the Hoyas. The team came out firing, and after jumping to an early 12 point lead, they never looked back. Even in the second half, with most of the starters on the bench, they were able to maintain the size of the lead.

MICH:
It’s tough to be a young team with a new coach, and I think this Michigan side will be better by the end of the season than they were in this game. It will take a while to learn the complex offense of John Beilein, but at the same time, they will need to make a few more shots if they want to compete in the Big Ten.

Players

GU:
With nine different Hoyas scoring, there were lots of performances worth praising. I thought Patrick Ewing Jr.’s energy to start the game, perhaps sparked by the sight of Beilien on the bench, was impressive. In the first five minutes, he had two baskets, two rebounds and an assist, plus some high energy defense.

There were other good performances: Jeremiah Rivers did well; his defense as always was superb, but he added some assists, made a three pointer, and just missed on what would have been a thuderous putback dunk. Also, Austin Freeman found his stroke, making his first two jumpers of the game - both threes - and finishing with 10 points. Good to see him meshing with his teammates so early in the season.

MICH:
I thought the biggest shot of the game for Michigan came right after the Hoyas extended the lead to 13 on a Jonathan Wallace three pointer. Less than 10 seconds later, Manny Harris answered with a three pointer of his own to quiet to the crowd momentarily. It was not nearly enough to save the struggling Wolverines, but at the time, it gave them a little hope.

Coaches

There were no incidents with Beilein and Ewing Jr., so that was good to see. The coaches were sort of a non-factor on Thursday. One thing I did like was that the large lead enabled Coach Thompson to let his young guys get lots of minutes in the second half, and that experience will come in handy later in the season.

Referees

The refs for the game were John Cahill, Mike Kitts, and Michael Stephens. I thought they did a pretty good job for most of the game. They let the players play in the first half, which was good because it let the Hoyas get adjusted to what the reffing might be like in the Big East season. There were a few plays in the half where Hibbert went up and got smacked a little, and it went uncalled. In a game like today, which was never in doubt, I like the no-call - it will help Hibbert get stronger for when the games start to matter. The only problem I had with the refs was that near the end of the game they must have noticed they hadn’t reached their foul quota, so eight fouls in a row were called against Georgetown. But, other than that, they did a fine job today. And, fortunately, they didn’t have to deal with any coach’s assaults on players.

Fans

Another good crowd, over 12,500, came out to see the Hoyas take on the Wolverines. There were a number of Michigan fans, but they were silent the whole game, which is always fun. Also, in the student section there was a Rejection Row, which I hadn’t seen since the days of Mourning and Mutumbo. And, in homage to the latter, instead of hands to signify blocks, a finger wave was stuck to the sign for every swat by a Hoya.

Number of the Game

9: The difference between Michigan’s final score (52) and Georgetown’s halftime score (43). Fortunately the Hoyas scored more than 9 points in the second half to secure the victory.

Book ‘em Danno

In one more step towards reestablishing the dominance of Georgetown Basketball akin to that enjoyed in the 1980’s, the Georgetown Pep Band played the theme to “Hawaii Five-O,” perhaps at the request of Coach Thompson, who had mentioned earlier that it was one of his favorite songs from the glory days.