• Over the weekend, Connecticut beat Missouri and Villanova eked out Pittsburgh while Louisville lost to Michigan State to give the Big East two teams in the Final Four. The Huskies and the Wildcats are on opposite sides of the bracket, so if they both win on Saturday, they’ll be facing each other for the title game on Monday night.
• In the NIT, Notre Dame beat Kentucky to advance to the semifinals in New York. They face Penn State tonight at 9:00 on ESPN2.
• On the women’s side, Louisville upset Maryland to reach the Final Four, and the perennial powerhouses Connecticut play Arizona State at 7:00pm tonight against to see if they can return to the Women’s Final Four for the 2nd straight year. Also, South Florida advanced to the Women’s NIT Semifinals, where they will face the Hoyas’ slayer, Boston College.

• St. John’s lost in the opening round of the CBI tournament on Wednesday and they got to share the honor of first Big East team to lose in the postseason with the Hoyas who fell to Baylor in the NIT. West Virginia was the only Big East team to lose in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
• In the second round of the Big Dance, Marquette made a surprise announcement that Dominic James was able to play after missing almost a month with a broken foot. Sadly, his 17 minutes wound up as his last in a Golden Eagles uniform as they couldn’t hold on to a two-point lead with under a minute left and fell 83-79 to Missouri. Marquette had fought back from down 16 to make it a game, but a costly turnover with five seconds left allowed Missouri to stretch the lead to four. A missed call with 2 seconds left ended all hope for any last-second heroics.
• Still alive from the Big East are five teams: Pittsburgh, Louisville, Connecticut, Syracuse, and Villanova. It is the first time in history that five teams from the same conference have made it to the Sweet Sixteen. Meanwhile, Notre Dame has advanced to the quarter finals of the NIT where they will face the Wildcats of Kentucky.

• The 2008-09 season of Georgetown Men’s Basketball is officially over, as the Hoyas fell to the Baylor Bears in the opening round of the NIT on Wednesday.
• The Lady Hoyas, meanwhile, started their postseason with two wins in the WNIT. The women defeated Winthrop on Friday night at McDonough, and then traveled to Wake Forest on Sunday whom they beat 72-61. They will play their third round game at home on Thursday against the Richmond Spiders. The game starts at 7:30, so be sure to make it out to McDonough to continue supporting the Hoyas.
• The opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament has come to a close and all #1, #2, and #3 seeds have advanced to the Sweet 16. You can check out the updated bracket here, courtesy of ESPN.com: NCAA Bracket.

Teams

Georgetown:
This was both a typical and an unusual game for the Hoyas. The guys started off incredibly hot from the field and were actually 16 for 18 at one point! I don’t understand how they were only ahead by ten or so. The excellent shooting was unusual, but the typical part was the end. The team tightened up, got stagnant on offense, gave up easy shots on defense and missed critical shots, even when they got good looks at the basket. As my friend and colleague Rich Chvotkin would say, “This is a recording.”
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Georgetown: 72, Baylor: 74

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The 2008-09 season for the Georgetown Hoyas mercifully ended in the opening round of the NIT at the hands of the Baylor Bears. Baylor defeated Georgetown 74-72 in a game that was a microcosm of this torturous season for the Hoyas. The Hoyas started off in a near perfect fashion, hit a difficult stretch, responded briefly, and ultimately faded down the stretch, unable to come up with defensive stops or key baskets when needed most.
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Hey everybody, it’s NIT time. Or if you prefer, it’s NITT. The Hoyas are playing their first game of the National Invitation Tournament tonight in Waco, TX against the Baylor Bears.

Like the Hoyas, the Bears had a promising start to the season, only to finish off in less than stellar style. Unlike the Hoyas, however, Baylor had a good showing in their conference tournament and were only 13 points shy of the other college basketball tournament.

So I’ll be checking back in with commentary, info, and updates in half an hour. Feel free to do the same in the comments.

There is no way to salvage this season; it will forever be a disappointment. Even if the Hoyas win every game of the NIT 100-0, it won’t make up for the losses to Seton Hall, Cincinnati, or St. John’s. Nevertheless, as the old saying goes, “they turned the scoreboard on; might as well try to win.”
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Last time we did one of these, it wasn’t too good as everyone was way off in their guesses. But the Hoyas have made the NIT, and we all get a chance to play again as long as the team keeps winning.

So in anticipation of the first round game against the Baylor Bears, here’s our question:

Who will be the leading scorer for the Hoyas and how many will he score?

That’s a nice question that hopefully will provide us with a winner (unless someone unusual steps up). We’re gonna go with Greg Monroe leading the way with 16. He might be high on the Bears’ scouting report, but we feel that Greg will have a big game on the boards, which will hopefully translate to points.

What do you think? Remember winning Pregame Predictions in the offseason counts double, so it’s anyone’s game for that Hoya Hoops t-shirt.