Hoyas Take Over Big East Lead

In the Big East's most significant game of the year, Georgetown outslugged Pittsburgh 61-53 in what is probably the program's biggest regular season win since the Allen Iverson era. The victory wasn't the prettiest, with an abundance of turnovers and bodies banging in the air and on the ground, but impressive nonetheless.

Everyone knows about the contributions of the team's big two, Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert and to a lesser degree, on-the-money point guard Jonathan Wallace. But I came away very impressed with the way Patrick Ewing Jr. affected the game. He's not a scorer, but he showed today that he can impose his will on the game on the defensive end and in the energy and emotion he brings. There was a sequence during the game when a Pitt player got by the 7'2" Hibbert and understandably, looked to ease up as he went in for the layup. But out of nowhere came Ewing, blocking the shot from the back and taking away what should have been an uncontested 2 points for Pitt. If you can make the rim that difficult to penetrate, you will usually win, and that's what happened here.

Today's win also affirmed for me that the Hoyas are never out of a game, even when they fall behind. Defense doesn't usually take an off day, so their defensive presence is going to be a constant, keeping games close. And their offensive philosophy dictates that they milk the shot clock for everything it's worth, which cuts down on possessions and making it unlikely for games to get away from them. Today, when they fell behind by 8 in the 2nd half, they were able to stem the Pitt momentum and got back to basics offensively, pounding the ball into Hibbert for a 3 point play immediately following a timeout. And watching the Pitt players chest-bumping on their home court when Georgetown called the momentum-breaking timeout had to stir the team's sense of pride. They responded to the adversity, just as they have throughout their now 11 game winning streak, when they came back from deficits against St. John's, Villanova, and Cincinnati.

Now the Hoyas have the leg up on the Big East regular season title and are showing the country that their preseason top 10 ranking wasn't in fact too high, as many had protested. Georgetown and Pitt are the clear class of the conference this year, and I'm hoping for a third round in this heavyweight fight.


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Georgetown Runs Winning Streak to 7

On a day celebrating the 100th anniversary of Georgetown basketball, the Hoyas made a capacity crowd filled with Georgetown greats of old, including Patrick Ewing, proud with a convincing 76-58 victory over #11 Marquette. As usual when Georgetown wins, their two stars, Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert both played superbly with Green putting up a career high 24 points and Hibbert going for 23 and 11 rebounds.

It seems like the Hoyas have turned a corner ever since an embarrassing loss at home to Villanova last month. In their 7 game winning streak, they've beaten up on the teams they should beat, and now have proven that they can beat a top-15 caliber team by defeating the Golden Eagles, who were riding an 8 game streak of their own.

I'm not exactly unbiased here, but it's looking more and more like the Hoyas could make a deep run into March. They have size that most teams can only dream about, an offensive philosophy that places a premium on quality possessions, and experience from a Sweet 16 appearance last year. That being said, there are also a few things could doom them. First is their free throw shooting. Jonathan Wallace, Green, and DaJuan Summers hold their weight, but it gets ugly after that - starters Jessie Sapp and Hibbert are in the 60% range, and none of the first 4 players off the bench shoot better than 50% at the line.

Also, despite playing in an offense where any given starter could lead the team in scoring on any night, Green needs to get opportunities to score against quality opponents. Except for a close loss against a good Pittsburgh team, Green has been a non-factor scoring-wise in all of the Hoyas' defeats. He's picked it up big time in the last four games, probably the team's most impressive four game stretch of the season.

Next, Georgetown gets West Virginia at home on Monday night. The Mountaineers blew #2 UCLA out of the building at home today, and have played surprisingly well this year even after the graduation of their two stars Doug Gansey and Kevin Pittsnoggle. I'll be interested to see if the 'Eers build on the momentum from today's upset or suffer an emotional letdown after their biggest win of the year.

If the Hoyas win their next 3 games, in which they'll be favored in all of them, that'll set up an enormous game against current Big East front-runner Pittsburgh at the Verizon Center in what could be a game that ends up deciding the regular season Big East title. Now that'll be a charged atmosphere.

Sports Illustrated Jinx Strikes Again

Well, at least it wasn't a devestating, season-ending injury. Just a week ago, when I saw that Roy Hibbert and Jonathan Wallace of the Georgetown Hoyas were on the cover of Sports Illustrated's college basketball preview issue for the Mid-Atlantic region (the cover featuring the pair of Hoyas was one of five versions of SI's preview issue), my first reaction was excitement. Finally, after too many years of blending in with the crowd, my Hoyas were back in the national spotlight on the cover of the country's premier sports magazine.

After crowing about our glorious return to prominence for a bit, a co-worker reminded me to be cautious - if they're on the cover of SI, there's always the possibility of being struck with the infamous SI jinx. Kansas, one of the other teams featured on the cover in other parts of the country, had already been struck, being upset by Oral Roberts.

Last night, Georgetown, playing at McDonough Arena, the rarely-used on-campus arena where they hadn't lost in 24 years, was upset rather handily by little Old Dominion 75-62. Hopefully, any powers of the jinx stop here and we're not in for an extending losing streak or injury to a key player like Hibbert or Jeff Green. More importantly, this game may serve as a wake-up call early in the season for the Hoyas, who have looked surprisingly sluggish in their first three games.