Teams

Georgetown:
For the second Saturday in a row, the Hoyas used a first half offensive explosion to easily handle their opponents. The team shot 56% from the field on the day, thanks in part to getting good open three point looks early, as they were 61% from beyond the arc at half time. When the three’s start to fall, it makes it hard for teams to guard Georgetown, since extending the defense opens up the inside for Greg Monroe.

And despite a few too many turnovers with Chris Wright in foul trouble, Georgetown was able to hold a relatively comfortable lead for the whole game. Free throw shooting helped maintain the lead, and the Hoyas were much improved from line, rebounding from their 50% performance on Wednesday to shoot 78% from the stripe. All in all, it was a good performance for the Hoyas.

However, there are still two key problems the Hoyas need to address if they want to make a deep run in March. First is offensive execution when playing with the lead; the Hoyas either get stagnant, waste too much time – and as a result don’t get good looks – or they succumb to the defensive pressure of the other team and take rushed shots or turn the ball over. The latter was the case today as the Hoyas committed 10 second half turnovers and were consequently outscored 17-0 in the Points Off of Turnovers category after the break.

Secondly, the Hoyas need to do a better job of rebounding and boxing out defensively. Even when the team gets important stops, they often times end up allowing their opponent easy second chance opportunities. It happened against South Florida, and again against Villanova. Georgetown has certainly improved their rebounding since last year, but I think there is still room for improvement in this department. If the Hoyas can address those issues, then when they hit their open looks, they are poised to do some damage next month.

Villanova:
The Wildcats started the game carelessly, and I remember thinking at the first official timeout that the Hoyas should have been winning instead of trailing 8-7. Villanova was sloppy with the basketball, but often times Georgetown was unable to come up with the loose ball and it would bounce back to the Wildcats for a lay-up. The Hoyas would eventually take advantage of the turnovers, as the Wildcats committed 16 in the first half and found themselves down 19 at the break. It proved to be too deep of a hole, for even though they had only two turnovers after the break, they were not able to claw back into the game.

Villanova also struggled from beyond the arc, which is rare for their perimeter-oriented offense. They were only 32% from downtown, and they had some open looks that would have made the game much more interesting if they had gone in. Thankfully for the Hoyas, the shots did not fall.

Players

Georgetown:
Jason Clark was on fire in the first half, scoring 17 points and connecting on all six of his shots, including four from downtown. He ended the game with a career-high 24 points, and was 6-7 on the day for threes. The Hoyas’ Big Three had been providing a bulk of the scoring recently, and it’s good to see Clark step up, especially with Wright limited by foul trouble.

Villanova:
Scottie Reynolds had a very quiet first half, going just 1-5 with five points. He came out of the locker room determined not to have a quiet game, as he scored 10 of Villanova’s first 13 points of the half. He ended the game with 24 points and six assists, but he shot only 6-17 from the field and also had six turnovers. It was not his finest game, but it goes to show how talented a player Reynolds is, if 24 points and six assists is not one of his better games.

Referees

The refereeing for this game was interesting. I think they were very consistent with respect to the block-charge calls, as almost everything was deemed a charge. However, they seemed to be inconsistent on all other plays, seemingly randomly calling touch fouls outside or fouls underneath the basket, sometimes deeming contact a foul, other times allowing the play to continue. I don’t think the officials had an impact on the outcome, except for making the game end 15 minutes later than it could have with fewer calls.

Coaches

It’s hard to criticize the coach when the team wins so convincingly, but I have noticed that in the past few games Julian Vaughn’s minutes have been dwindling. Now, there are times when this is called for, like when he suffered from foul trouble the last time these two teams met, or when he presents match-up problems defensively, like against jump shot-oriented Duke. But today, Vaughn was not in foul trouble, and his inside presence could have helped secure some rebounds and prevented the second-chance points for the Wildcats. Even still, Julian had a pretty good game, with 13 points, including 7-7 from the free throw line, and a few thunderous dunks thrown in there. Since the Hoyas aren’t very deep this year, it helps when he’s on the floor, and hopefully we will see some more of him in the upcoming games.

Fans

Despite the blanket of snow that covered the entire DC Metro area, there were a fair number of fans at the game. The student sections at both sides were full, and the announced attendance was over 10,000. Now, whether that was really how many people showed up is not clear, but the Hoya fans did a good job of braving the elements to support their team.

Number of the Game

103: Points scored by Georgetown. The Hoyas put up over 100 points in conference play for the first time under Coach Thompson III, and it was the most points scored by a Georgetown team in a regulation Big East game since 1996, when Allen Iverson and Othella Harrington led the Hoyas to a 106-68 victory over, coincidentally, Villanova.

ESP-uNaccepatable

If there is one thing that Georgetown fans have learned this year, it is that no lead is safe in the Big East. The Hoyas have experienced that from both sides this season. So, when Villanova had cut the 21 point Georgetown lead down to 12 in the span of two minutes, Georgetown fans were rightfully concerned.

However, for some reason ESPN chose to change away from the game to show the final seconds of the Marquette-Providence game. I still do not know why they chose to do this, since ESPN rarely breaks away from action to show another game, especially one as inconsequential as the Marquette-Providence game. Georgetown fans watching at home missed a pair of free throws and three possessions due to the “Live Look In,” which ended anticlimactically, and continued for almost 30 seconds of handshaking before returning to the game between two Top 10 teams. In my whole life of watching ESPN, I can’t think of another time when they have done something like that, and I hope it never happens again.