First, before Georgetown’s season ended prematurely to North Carolina State, we asked how many points Hollis Thompson would score. He ended up leading all scorers with 23 points, in what would end up being his final game in the blue and gray. That makes billy cox the closest with his guess of 24, doubling his point total for the season. Here’s a look at the final standings.

As you can see, after an entire season of Pregame Predictions, Bob from Columbia and bobby cox are tied for first. And, as John Thompson Jr has so frequently said, we don’t do no overtime, so they both win t-shirts. Nicely done by both Bobs.

We had another contest, the NCAA Pick 8, where you pick eight teams of different seeds and the person with the highest winning percentage is the champion. This year there was plenty of drama, as the entry with the best winning percentage was disqualified for having two #4 seeds. Then, there was a tie for first place, but only one of the two contestants submitted a tiebreaker. When all the dust settled, Emily was the champion, with a winning percentage of 77.8%. Congratulations, Emily.

Emily, bobby cox, and Bob from Columbia, you are each due a t-shirt. Please contact us at hoyahoops@hoyahoops.com so we can get your address and send it to you. To everyone else, including the Hoyas, better luck next year.

Via GUHoyas.com

Teams

Georgetown:
The Hoyas lost on Sunday as a result of one of the key problems that plagued the team all season – an unfortunately timed dry spell. In the first half, Georgetown was up by 10 points late in the first half, but went almost five minutes without a basket, letting NC State take control. Yes, there were other problems with Georgetown’s performance, but if the Hoyas could have scored during that stretch, the Wolfpack’s offensive rebounding wouldn’t have been that much of a gamechanger.

NC State:
NC State played extremely well, staying with their game plan, and not losing focus when the Hoyas started off strong. The impressive part was that in the 2nd half, they never let Georgetown back in it, until the final moments, when they came up with some critical stops and key free throws down the stretch.

Players

Georgetown:
Well, Super Hollis showed up in the tournament again. But unfortunately, as in the past two years, his performance was overshadowed by a disappointing defeat. We’ll be waiting to hear if Hollywood decides to stay at Georgetown for his senior year or put his name into the NBA Draft for good this time.

NC State:
Scott Wood is the best shooter for the Wolfpack and on Sunday, he did his part, hitting big time threes at critical points in the game. Entering the contest as a 92% free throw shooter, though, he did miss two free throws, one of which coming late in the game as the Hoyas were surging back. It ended up not mattering, but if Georgetown had won the game, I’m sure those two misses would haunt him for a long time.

Referees

The officiating for this game is something the Hoyas have seen before in the NCAA Tournament. Key big men getting into foul trouble due to questionable offensive fouls contributed to Georgetown’s demise during the Hibbert era, and Ted Valentine did not disappoint this year. While the early calls had a major impact on this game, it wasn’t the deciding factor, and despite Henry’s limited minutes, the Hoyas still had a shot to tie it at the end. It’s just frustrating to have the game affected so drastically by unnecessary whistles (that were not consistent throughout the game) and unfair to Henry Sims to have to watch his last game as a Hoya from the bench.

Number of the Game

1: Lead change. It was a game of two halves – Georgetown’s first 15 minutes and last five minutes of the game just couldn’t outdo NC State’s middle portion.

Beware the Eighteenth of March

For the fourth year in a row, the Hoyas finished the season with a tournament loss on March 18th. Hopefully next season. Georgetown will get to play on St. Patrick’s Day instead.

In the second half, the Wolfpack stayed in rhythm offensively, making timely three pointers throughout the half to keep the Hoyas at bay. Georgetown trailed by 7 with 1:11 to play but put together a frantic surge in the final moments, led by Thompson. N.C. State missed a series of free throws to keep the chance of a comeback alive. The Hoyas had the ball down by 2 with 30 seconds to play. Otto Porter missed a jumper from the wing that would have tied the game. Finally, with six seconds left, N.C. State led by three at the free throw line with a chance to ice the game. The free throw missed, and Hoya Senior Jason Clark raced down the court and put up a three-point attempt to force overtime, but the shot missed.

Two key Hoyas have played their final games on the hilltop. Jason Clark finished with 10 points on 3-11 FG, and Henry Sims, who dealt with foul trouble for most of the game, managed 4 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and one blocked shot in 21 minutes in his last game as a Hoya.

The Hoyas will now face NC State in the Third Round of the NCAA Tournament. The two teams met last year in the Championship game of the Charleston Classic, and the Hoyas were victorious thanks to a big game from Hollis Thompson. It’s similar to the last question, but since #1 did not have his best game against Belmont and he’s had a history of stepping up his game in the tournament, we’re going to ask it anyway.

How many points will Hollis Thompson score against NC State?

We’ll say he’ll get back into the swing of things and score right around his average – 13 points. What do you think?

Teams

Georgetown:
Georgetown entered the game as the rare higher-seeded underdog, but against the trendy Belmont Bruins, the Hoyas proved that they were in fact the better team. Georgetown controlled this game from beginning to end thanks to their efficient offense and stingy defense. There were stretches where the Hoyas had lapses that have proved dangerous all season, but for the most part, they played a solid game. And most importantly, they live to play again.

Belmont:
Belmont came into the game as the 4th highest scoring team in the country, averaging 81.5 points per game. Against the Hoyas’ defense, the Bruins only managed 59 points – their lowest point total of the season and over 20 points less than their average. Part of this can be attributed to their size and how much larger and longer the Hoyas are, but also, Georgetown just plays really good defense and they couldn’t compete.

Players

Georgetown:
Jason Clark showed up big on Friday, dominating the game on both sides of the court. After a disappointing showing offensively in the Big East Tournament – only scoring 15 points over the two games – it was great seeing the old Jason back scoring 21 points off of an incredible 9-12 shooting. As the Hoyas face new teams in the postseason, it’s critical that they are able to score in different ways to open up the game. When Jason can knock down the three and can take it to the whole, it does so much for the offense, making it easier for Henry and Otto to do the dirty work inside and making it easier for the other shooters to get open looks or backdoor cuts.

Belmont:
Blake Jenkins was the one player for Belmont who was successful against the Hoya defense as he scored 17 points off of 7-11 shooting. But one player’s not enough, and his teammates struggled against Georgetown’s D, he couldn’t do enough to stop the bleeding.

Referees

The officials were pretty fair and consistent in Columbus. My only complaint is I’m not sure if they understand what a travel is. There were a couple of pretty standard post moves – I remember one running hook and one jump stop – that got called for walks. It was weird.

Number of the Game

78.5: Georgetown’s shooting percentage for the entire game if you exclude Henry Sims and Hollis Thompson. The other seven players who scored for the Hoyas were an unbelievable 22 for 28 from the field. That’s crazy.

Hollis in the Tournament

Before this game, no player on this Georgetown team had won an NCAA Tournament game, and Jason Clark and Hollis Thompson were the only players who had played in more than one tournament game. Both of those are games that most Hoya fans would like to forget, but the one positive in those two losses were Hollis Thompson.

As a freshman, Hollis had averaged 4.4 points per game before facing Ohio in the NCAA Tournament. Then, he scored a career-high 16 points in his last game of the season. As a sophomore, Hollis was averaging 8.0 points per game, but then against VCU, he again scored a career-high, this time scoring 26 points.

He did not continue the trend against Belmont, but then again, the team didn’t continue the trend of losing, so I’ll take that trade. But hopefully, Super Hollis will show up again this tournament.