Will the Packers win it all?

You know, Jordan, if you were a betting man, I know you’d jump on the Packers bandwagon.  They’re sitting pretty as the 9-5 favorite to win the Super Bowl.  But this team is not as good as advertised.  Here’s 4 good reasons why the Cheeseheads will not win it all:

1. The Packers have the worst defense in the NFL.  During their championship season last year, the Packers had the 5^th-best defense.  This year, they’re 32^nd.  They’re allowing over 400 yards per game, and have managed to squeak by good opponent thanks only to the brilliant play of Aaron Rodgers.  The superstar play of their quarterback and the arrogance that accompanies a 15-1 record have overshadowed the Achilles heel of this team.  Come playoff time, something’s got to give.  

2. That porous defense has not even been tested during the regular season.  Here’s an interesting fact: the Packers only played five teams with a winning record this year.  They have surrendered all of those points and yards to the likes of Christian Ponder, Kyle Orton and Josh Freeman.  How will this defense respond when they face Eli Manning or Drew Brees in the upcoming weeks?  The secondary has feasted off interceptions throughout the season, but these veteran quarterbacks know how to take care of the ball.  Yes, the Packers have already defeated both the Giants and Saints this year; but it’s always harder to win the second time around.  Ironically, Losing is incredibly valuable.  Look at how Alabama rebounded to pummel LSU.

3. The running game will be important.  The cold, icy weather at Lambeau favors teams that can run the ball effectively.  While Rodgers has been fantastic, his role may be diminished if the snow makes it difficult to throw.  A huge winter storm is set to hammer the Midwest, and I’d take Frank Gore or the Bradshaw/Jacobs tandem over Ryan Grant and James Starks.  Amidst the flurries, they’re going to run it right up the Packers throat.

4. Tragedies can deflate a team.  Just a few days ago, the body of Michael Philbin, the son of Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin, was found in a river.  Such a sudden, tragic event has undoubtedly shaken the locker room, and I cannot imagine how the coordinator of one of the league’s top offenses will be emotionally or mentally ready on game day.   Just a few months ago, we all saw what happened to Oklahoma State after a plane crash killed two basketball coaches beloved by the athletic program.  Bedlam and Lambeau are following parallel narratives.

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Well Nick, you know me, but clearly you know me a lot better than you know football. While I think the Packers have some glaring issues on defense, they finished 15-1 for a reason. They proved themselves to be the best team in the NFL’s regular season and I believe this will also be the case in the postseason. I consider only 5 of the remaining 7 teams to be true threats, and here is why the Packers will undoubtedly beat each one.

New York Giants – The Packers already beat the Giants this year at the Meadowlands. Now Green Bay is at home. If the effectiveness of the running games is a factor, the Giants statistically have the least effective running attack in the NFL, averaging 89 yards a game. Eli’s not on the same roll he was on in 2007, and I think his playoff heroics fall short.

San Francisco 49ers – The 49ers are a true wild card. They don’t seem to have any real offensive weapons other than Frank Gore and Vernon Davis and yet they managed 13 wins this year. While San Francisco’s run defense is the best in the league, their pass defense is middle of the pack, and I think Rodgers would bowl right over them.

New England Patriots – Brady can equal Rodgers throw for throw, but the Packers’ secondary has managed 8 more interceptions this season than the Patriots’ secondary. Considering Brady has thrown 12 interceptions to Rodgers’ 6, I think the Packers win this matchup because their defense will provide Rodgers with more possessions than Brady.

Baltimore Ravens – The Ravens would definitely be the best all around defense the Packers would face. They also have a much better running game than the Packers. If the Ravens don’t establish a dominant running attack, though, they will fall behind early and Flacco, who completes less than 60% of his passes, will be forced to throw. The Ravens will not win a shootout with the Green Bay Packers.

New Orleans Saints – I think this team poses the greatest threat to the Packers. Drew Brees has proven himself to be just as good as Rodgers, if not better. The Saints have a slightly better defense, but the x-factor will be location. The game between these two teams would be played in Green Bay, where the Packers have already beaten the Saints. I think Drew Brees falters in the cold and the Packers win yet another shootout with the Saints.

Back to school! We talk 2-game skids, NFL playoffs, and much more...

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On the docket...

State of the Hoya

Have we hit the annual Big East swoon?

What needs to change?

Why did this happen? Break down the losses

What are the expectations now for the rest of the season?

NCAA Bball

Who’s #1?

Biggest surprise of the Big East so far?

Biggest disappointment?

NCAA Fball

Favorite Bowl game?

National Championship Game…rankings right?

NFL

We know the Packers are #1…but which of the remaining teams have the best chance of making a Super Bowl run?

Break down each of the upcoming games

Saints/49ers, Broncos/Patriots, Texans/Ravens, Giants/Packers

The return of Tebow…WOW…discuss

PREDICTIONS

Saints @ 49ers

Broncos @ Pats

Texans @ Ravens

Giants @ Packers

Super Bowl matchup and winner 

Cincinnati (12-4, 2-1) at #11 Georgetown (13-2, 3-1)

Sigh. Well Hoya fans, it seems as if the annual Big East swoon is in full swing after last night's disappointment at home against the Bearcats. We can hang onto the hope that these losses have come simply as a result of the fact that Georgetown hasn't recently played Cincinnati or West Virginia well, but this team has glaring weaknesses that have been exposed in not just the last 2 losses, but the last 2 wins as well. Long story short, this game should have been a blowout. For the Bearcats, not the Hoyas. Georgetown shot out of their minds in this game and still managed to lose, but one thing remained consistent: turnovers. The Old Blue and Gray bested it's 15-turnover performance at West Virginia with a 17-turnover game last night. Needless to say, one thing is obvious. If this team hopes to stand a chance in the Big East and the Tournament, they absolutely MUST stop turning the ball over.

The Hoyas were unable to avenge last season's devastating injury to Chris Wright in a rematch against Cincinnati, who seems to be just as much of a bugaboo for the Hoyas as West Virginia. This game featured all around excellent shooting performances and generally better decision-making than was seen in the loss to the Mountaineers, despite the higher number of turnovers. Cincinnati threw an incredibly tough defensive scheme at the Hoyas and Georgetown was just not able to cope. Most of the Hoyas' turnovers were forced by the tenacious Bearcat defense rather than mindless passes and pure lack of focus. Despite the loss, we did witness the long-awaited return of Nate Lubick to the sport of basketball, as he finally played like the post presence we'd hoped he'd be all season. Georgetown will not likely keep up this high level of offensive play, but hopefully they will take the time before this weekend's game at St. John's to clean up their ball security issues and really take it to the relatively weak Red Storm.

Likes:

Nate Lubick Made Me Eat My Words - In just 2 days, Nate went from shooting 2-2 with 5 fouls, 3 rebounds, and no assists in just 15 minutes to shooting 4-5 with 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and just 2 fouls in 23 minutes of play last night. This was far and away Lubick's best game of the season. He was active on the boards and in the post with and without the ball. He made better decisions when passing the ball and held onto the ball a lot better than he had in previous games. After the last game, I said Lubick belonged on the bench and that fired a bunch of y'all up. Well now I get to eat it and hopefully this game was the return of the norm for Nate rather than just an aberration.

Neutralizing Yancy Gates - Despite the fact that Kilpatrick and Dixon are the Bearcats' top two scorers, there is no doubt that the Hoyas needed to create a special game plan for big man Yancy Gates, who is far larger than any of Georgetown's active big men (Tyler Adams would have been a great defensive cover for him). Gates, who averages 12 points and 9 rebounds, was held to just 8 points and 7 rebounds on 2-5 shooting. Gates was a relative non-factor in this one, despite the fact that he didn't really need to be a factor considering Kilpatrick and Dixon couldn't miss.

Keeping Cashmere Wright off the Floor - Wright is the key component of the Cincinnati offense; it flows through his direction. Wright accrued 2 fouls in the first 7 minutes of the game and had to sit for the majority of the first half. He remained in foul trouble for the entirety of the game and never really got to direct the offense. He got his 4 assists, but got just 2 points and didn't make a single field goal. Again, scoring wasn't important for the Bearcats in this one if your last name wasn't Kilpatrick or Dixon, but Wright could have posed an even greater issue for the Hoyas if he had gotten into his rhythm.

Crashing the Defensive Boards Early - Inability to control the defensive rebound has hurt the Hoyas recently. Georgetown was very aggressive around the rim on defense, picking up 11 defensive rebounds on 16 Cincinnati misses in the first half. Granted, Cincinnati spent a lot of the game putting smaller players on the floor (with the exception of Gates), so rebounding would be inherently easier for the Hoyas, but limiting the Bearcats to one shot each time down the floor was crucial for the Hoyas, especially when Kilpatrick and Dixon got hot.

Dislikes:

Inability to Defend Cincinnati's Hot Shooters/Get Shots for Our Hot Shooters - This is a compound complaint. Dion Dixon and Sean Kilpatrick took 19 shots and combined for 24 points in the first half. They combined for another 12 shots and 25 points in the second half. On the Georgetown side, Hollis and Clark combined for 8 shots and 21 points in the first half but only combined for 5 shots and 7 points in the second half, with Hollis scoring none of those points. It was obvious very early that Kilpatrick and Dixon would be the only sources of points for the Bearcats, and yet they continued to get open looks and were never double-teamed. Clark had a decent second half, but the fact that Hollis got just one shot is a huge issue, especially considering how hot he's been the past couple of games. The fault for this lies entirely on JTIII.

Not Getting to the Free Throw Line - Cincinnati committed 15 fouls. That's not a lot, but it's enough to get into the bonus at least once. Georgetown shot just 10 free throws to Cincinnati's 22. Cincinnati was not SUPPOSED to be a great free throw shooting team, but they shot 82% from the line. There is absolutely nothing the Hoyas could have done about that percentage, but they could have tried to make the shot disparity a little lower. There was not much in the way of attacking the basket, despite the clear presence of a post game for the majority of the second half. One can also attribute this difference to the Bearcats' excellent defense. They created turnovers without fouling, which is very difficult to do consistently, but Georgetown's inability to take advantage of an overly aggressive Cincinnati defense prevented them from getting to the line.

Failing to Finish the Game - Georgetown led the Bearcats 59-53 with six and a half minutes to go. Cincinnati outscored the Hoyas 15-5 after that point. Georgetown shot 1-4 (3-7 FT) with 5 turnovers in that time. Five? FIVE TURNOVERS? Five turnovers in 6 minutes is inexcusable. Georgetown sleepwalked through the last part of this game and Cincinnati took advantage. I'm not sure if this is just lack of mental toughness or if Georgetown just went cold, but you can't expect that a 6-point lead with 6 minutes to go over a team with TWO hot shooters is going to last if you don't play smart basketball and don't make the shots you are suppose to make.

Abandoning the Press - I didn't see the press once in this game. Not until Georgetown was in absolute need of a turnover with a minute left did JTIII call for a press. Why? Because Cincinnati is a faster team? Because they might just run through our press? Cincinnati committed 9 turnovers, just 9. If you remember the stat I gave above, that means Georgetown, in just the last 6 minutes of the game, committed more than half the number of turnovers the Bearcats committed the entire game. 9 forced turnovers is not nearly enough to beat a team, especially when you're coughing it up like crazy. The press worked against West Virginia, why did we get rid of it in this game?

Um, Where was Jabril? - This goes along with the last note because of Jabril's defensive prowess. Jabril Trawick played 3 minutes against Cincinnati. Not 13, not 23, THREE. One foul, one assist, no shots, no turnovers, no points. Tell me if this makes sense: A team whose best defensive player outside of the big men gets to sit on the bench while the other team's two best shooters are flying around the court and burning the Hoyas from everywhere EXCEPT the paint. It's as if JTIII forgot Jabril was on the bench! I can't help but think that Trawick would have been a huge aid in neutralizing the Kilpatrick/Dixon assault.

Three Key Plays You May Not Remember:

1) After Sean Kilpatrick failed to complete a 3-point play to cut the Georgetown lead to just 2 six and a half minutes into the second half, Georgetown struggled greatly with Cincinnati's defense on their resulting possession. With no time left on the shot clock, Otto Porter was forced to throw up a hook-shot prayer that almost certainly would not have gone in. Otto was bailed out, though, as Justin Jackson slapped him on the wrist as the shot clock expired, giving him two shots at the line, just Georgetown's second and third free throws. Otto made them both to push the Georgetown lead back up to 5 with just under 13 minutes to play. With Cincinnati on the verge of a huge defensive stop, Jackson's mental lapse gave the Hoyas some breathing room.

2) With four and a half minutes to play, Georgetown had an opportunity to inbound the ball from the baseline with a 3-point lead after a foul on Cashmere Wright. Nate Lubick intended to throw the ball to Jason Clark at the top of the key, but instead just let it float out of his hand. Dion Dixon easily grabbed the ball before it even got to Clark and streaked down the floor for a sure lay-up, which would cut the lead to just 1. Clark never gave up on the play, though, and was able to swat away Dixon's layup attempt at the other end of the court. Cincinnati would not score on the resulting possession, and Georgetown was able to keep their precarious lead for a little while longer.

3) Sean Kilpatrick stole the ball with just under a minute left in the first half and the Bearcats holding onto a 2-point lead. As he drove for the layup, though, he committed a charge and gave the ball right back to the Hoyas. Jason Clark made the most of this turnover and completed a three-point play on the Hoyas' next possession to give them the lead. Despite relinquishing this lead on Cincinnati's next offensive possession, the Kilpatrick charge turned into a 5-point swing in the Hoyas' favor going into halftime.

It Was Over When: Otto Porter stepped on the base line with Georgetown down 2 and 8 seconds to play. Cincinnati was not missing their free throws and eventually hit two to put the Hoyas away.

Georgetown gets 6 days to regroup before the matchup with St. John's, hopefully JTIII will make the proper adjustments.

#9 Georgetown (13-1, 3-0) at West Virginia (12-4, 2-1)

Well, we all knew that the streak couldn't last forever, and many people expected Georgetown to lose this game to the Mountaineers. Perhaps it was the hangover from the Marquette comeback, or perhaps it was simply that Georgetown has had serious problems with playing West Virginia over the past 5 years (they haven't won since the 2007-2008 season). Additionally, despite thrilling wins against Louisville and Marquette, the team has shown some rather lengthy poor stretches of play, and failing to rectify some of their issues were bound to prove costly against a quality team such as West Virginia on the road. The streak of 11 straight wins is over, but there is no reason to think this team couldn't start another one just as long with their home matchup against Cincinnati on Monday.

This game should provide a very concerning image for Hoya fans. Hollis Thompson (13) and Jason Clark (12) took the most and second most number of shots, respectively. Clark shot 4 three-pointers and Hollis shot 3. What is concerning about this is that this sort of stat line is what we expected to see from the Hoyas in EVERY GAME coming into this season. Everybody expected Thompson and Clark would be in control of every game and they would be this team's top scorers by a wide margin. Hoya fans can now see what this team does when that is the case. Just to be sure I'm making it perfectly clear, this means that this team LOSES when Hollis and Jason are the team's only shooting options. We should all take some time to be thankful that role players like Sims, Starks, and Porter have found ways to support this team over the first half of this season, because we would be looking at a much uglier standing if this were not the case. But, seeing as we can (hopefully) count on this new and improved Georgetown squad to bounce back from this defeat, we can be confident in assuming this won't happen too many more times in Big East play.

Likes:

Hollis Thompson Shooting Early and Often - Not that I want to advocate this sort of scoring proportion on a regular basis, but Hollis accounted for half of Georgetown's offense in the first half, scoring 13 points on 4-6 shooting with 4 of 6 free throws. Maybe JTIII and the players read my post about the Marquette game and realized how important feeding a hot shooter can be. I mentioned earlier that Hollis and Clark should not always be leading this team in shots taken, but make sure Hollis gets his looks, he does shoot just under 50% from 3-point land after all.

The Effectiveness of the Press - Georgetown spent about 27 of the game's 40 minutes using a full-court press during West Virginia possessions. 6 of the Mountaineers' 16 turnovers came as a direct result of the press. 6 turnovers were committed before West Virginia could even set up their offense. This is significant because the Mountaineers really never had a chance to find a shot on those 6 possessions. Had Georgetown been performing better in other aspects of the game, points earned off the press might have proven to be the winning margin for the Hoyas.

Henry Sims' Free Throw Shooting - Gotta be honest, this one was a stretch, but I felt I needed a third thing to like. Hank was a perfect 4-4 from the line, which isn't totally out of the norm for the big man, who shoots about 75% from the line. It would be nice seeing him get a few more free throw attempts from GOING UP STRONG in the paint, rather than falling away from defenders to take shots in the lane, though.

Dislikes:

Nate Lubick's Worthlessness - Get ready folks, there are going to be a lot of points in this section. First off is the complete ineptitude of Nate Lubick. Forget his 4 points on 2-2 shooting, what I'm focused on is the 15 minutes it took for him to accrue 5 fouls and disqualify himself. 15 minutes Nate? Really? It's not like these were well-used either. Listed are the instances of each one of his fouls: 1) Loose ball on the offensive end with 2 Mountaineers in front of him, no chance for the rebound. 2) Reaching over a Mountaineer ball-handler in the paint, attempting to knock away a pass. 3) Fouling Darryl Bryant as he shot a 3-pointer. 4) Running into a Mountaineer when trying to execute a trap. 5) Another over-the-back foul while attempting to get an offensive rebound. Come on Nate, our coaches told us when we were little that reaching and over-the-back were senseless fouls. If we actually NEEDED him out there, I'd be more pissed, but this is simply another exercise in futility for Lubick.

Three-Point Shooting - Not much that needs to be said here other than that the Hoyas went 2-14 shooting 3's. The Mavericks went 1-19 shooting from three-point land the other night and got curb-stomped by the Spurs. The only reason this game was closer was because West Virginia was equally bad...but for only one half. The Mountaineers ended up shooting a respectable 4-12 from three after finishing the first half 1-6. Also, someone needs to tell Otto and Whittington that they shouldn't be shooting 3-pointers, that is not where we need them. That line should be reserved for Hollis, Clark, Markel, and Lubick when he's decided he wants to spend more time getting splinters in his ass.

Getting Bowled Over by Darryl Bryant and Kevin Jones - Bryant and Jones came into this game averaging 18 and 19.6 points per game, respectively. Bryant finished with 25 and Jones finished with 22. Jones averages 11.6 rebounds per game. In this game, he got 16. Here's a clue, guys: The quickest way to lose to a team is to allow their two best players to have above-average days. The next highest scorer was Gary Browne, who put up 12, with 6 coming from the free throw line. Not a good job at focusing on this team's only two real threats.

Again, Allowing the Opponent Into the Bonus Waaaaaay Too Early - The Mountaineers came into this game averaging 64% from the charity stripe. Not too great, so we should be ok with letting them on the line a few times right? I don't think any of us would consider 31 free throw attempts "a few". Well boys and girls, that's how many free throw attempts the Mountaineers got. They hit 22 of them, 71% for the game. The team scored 74 points and 22 came from the foul line. For those of you SFSers out there, that's almost a third of their points from the line. Almost a third of their points came from uncontested foul shots. The Hoyas only SHOT 20 free throws! Oh, by the way, in case anybody is wondering how West Virginia managed so many free throw attempts, it's because they spent about half the game in the bonus. No, that wasn't a typo, I said half. West Virginia was into the bonus with 8:46 to go in the first half and 9:43 to go in the second. Again, for you SFSers, that's 18 minutes and 29 seconds of free throws. I don't care how bad they shoot from the line, you cannot put a team to the line that early in each half and expect to win.

Henry Sims' Shot Selection - Here is the list of the 10 shots that Henry Sims took today: Lay-up (missed), blocked hook shot, 17-foot jumper, 17-foot jumper, 5-foot hook, 5-foot hook, 7-foot hook, 15-foot jumper, 19-foot jumper, 6-foot jumper. How many of those were dunks? How many of those were put-backs off of misses? How many were layups made? None, absolutely none. I like Henry's desire to be like the great Kareem and bring back the sky hook, but for God's sake, can we please tell this guy to play tough around the rim and stop settling for dipsy-do hooks and deep jumpers? Give me a break Hank.

Inability to Obtain a Lead - Now I know you all might be saying "wait a second Jordan, didn't Georgetown start this game winning 4-0?" Well yes, you would be correct, but after the Mountaineers went on a 9-0 run, Georgetown never saw the lead again. Despite this, Georgetown had numerous opportunities. After West Virginia took a 5-4 lead with 15:38 to go in the 1st half, Georgetown had 7 possessions on which they could have taken the lead with just a 2-point shot. On those 7 possessions, Georgetown shot 0-5 and had 2 turnovers. The Hoyas were never any better than tied for the last 35 and a half minutes of the game.

Three Key Plays You May Not Remember:

1) With the game tied at 11 and 10:30 remaining in the first half, Hollis Thompson stole the ball from a cutting Darryl Bryant and was fouled about 10 seconds later by Aaron Brown. Right after the Hoyas inbounded the ball, Otto Porter was slapped with a foul for shoving Deniz Kilicli in the paint. Kevin Jones layed the ball in the hoop easily on the Mountaineers' next possession to retake the lead for West Virginia. Needless to say, this careless foul prevented Georgetown from taking advantage of an opportunity to regain the lead they took early in the game.

2) The game was again tied, this time at 27, with about a minute and a half remaining in the first half, West Virginia rebounded a Georgetown miss and set up their offense. Jabarie Hinds missed a driving layup and a Georgetown rebound would have allowed them a chance to run out just about the entire clock on the first half, but the ball was tipped outside to another Mountaineer, who passed to Kevin Jones who subsequently missed a three-pointer. Yet another offensive rebound for the Mountaineers ended up in the hands of Darryl Bryant, who did not miss and gave West Virginia the 29-27 advantage they held going into the half. Georgetown's inability to grab the defensive rebound prevented them from having a chance to take a lead of their own into the half.

3) After a Henry Sims 15-footer tied the game at 33 four minutes into the second half, Darryl Bryant bricked a three-pointer from the corner. Again, the Hoyas didn't clean up the glass, and Deniz Kilicli flew into the point and dunked the ball back to salvage the possession. After Hollis Thompson turned the ball over on the next Georgetown possession, yet another Darryl Bryant miss was dunked home, this time by Keaton Miles. The Hoyas could not box out in the paint and this allowed West Virginia two very important offensive rebounds as well as momentum.

It Was Over When: Jason Clark missed a forced layup with 2 minutes to go. Darryl Bryant made two free throws on the other end to give the Mountaineers an 8-point edge with less than 2 minutes to go.

It's a short turnaround for the Hoyas, who have Cincinnati at home on Monday night. Hopefully we will see a better all-around performance from the Old Blue and Gray.

#20 Marquette (12-2, 1-0) at #9 Georgetown (12-1, 2-0) Recap

How exactly did we win this game again? This was not the first game I've seen the Hoyas play as a Top 10 team. But it was certainly the first, in the short time I've been able to call myself a Hoya, that I've seen them play with the fortitude of a Top 10 team. Despite showing a porous first half defense, being unable to set up any sort of offensive rhythm for a stretch of about 20 minutes from the first half to the second, and the refs propensity to make terrible calls against the Hoyas for the majority of the game, the Old Blue and Gray mounted a 34-14 run after Todd Mayo's three-pointer with 13:12 left in the second half and upended the Golden Eagles of Marquette.

Last season, our beloved Hoyas were rewarded for their trouncing of #17 Memphis in Memphis with a Top 10 ranking (9th) for the first time all season. How did they respond? With an embarrassing loss at #15 Notre Dame. If you remember, though, the Hoyas rattled off a nice Big East win streak and again made it into the Top 10 (9th again) after a win at #13 Syracuse. Georgetown responded by losing at #12 Connecticut and BARELY making it out of South Florida with a win. This was the first game Georgetown has played as a Top 10 team since then, and for once, they ended up looking the part. My gripe with this team has always been their inability to run away with games, to kick a team while they're down. This is most often the case against teams that Georgetown SHOULD beat handily, and yet still seem to have some issues with. Georgetown can keep games close even when they should be running away with them, but they have never, before tonight, shown me they could dig themselves into a huge hole and proceed to pull themselves out and beat a REALLY GOOD TEAM. The Hoyas may not have looked like the 9th best team in the country for 30 minutes of the game tonight, but those last 10 minutes showed everyone why they deserve that spot.

Likes:

Early Offense - Unlike in the Providence game, Georgetown had no issues finding ways to score points early in the game. The Hoyas made 9 of 13 shots and scored 21 points in the first 8 minutes. Four of those baskets were layups, indicating the Hoyas' ability to get in the paint early. Hollis Thompson was also fed well during this stretch; he made two three-pointers and scored 8 in the early part of the game. This was something we absolutely needed to see from the Hoyas after their poor showing against Providence on New Years' Eve.

Hollis Thompson's Return - Speaking of Hollis, how about Hollywood? We were wondering where he's been for about the last month, and he finally reminded us why we love him so. 'Fro or no 'fro, Hollis came to play tonight. Shooting 6-7 (4-5 3-pt) for 16 points and just 1 turnover, Hollis Thompson's amazing effort book-ended a horrendous offensive performance for the majority of the game. Jason Clark may be the guy you want to lead the team at the end of the game, but that is now 2 game-winning three-pointers Hollis has hit. Can you ask for much more when it really counts?

Crunch Time Defense - Darius Johnson-Odom hit a three-pointer with 12:07 left in the game to put Marquette up 59-44. Do you know when Marquette's next basket was? Three minutes later, when Jae Crowder's basket put the Golden Eagles up 12. After that, Marquette did not make a single field goal until Davante Gardner's layup tied the game at 68 with 1:37 left. Seven and a half minutes without a field goal from a team that looked like they could score at will in the first 25 minutes?! It would be easy to say that the Golden Eagles just went cold, but I attribute this to tough defense on DJO, Crowder, and Todd Mayo, who only attempted a combined 2 shots and were credited with 3 turnovers. Huge crackdown by the defense there.

There's No Quit in These Boys - I'll be honest, folks, I didn't need to see the deficit pushed to 17 to be ready to throw in the towel on this one. Todd Mayo's three-pointer 5 minutes into the second half, which put Marquette up 16, made me about ready to quit. It seemed like there was nothing the Blue and Gray could do to stop these guys. We were playing high school defense and could get no sort of rhythm offensively. But, as the Hoyas have done all season, they surprised me yet again and pulled of one of the ballsiest, gutsiest, grittiest, toughest, and all out impressive comebacks I have ever seen. JTIII may not exactly be the greatest at lighting a fire under someone's ass, but these kids want to win, and they want to win badly.

Dislikes:

Transition Defense - One major reason Georgetown ended up giving up so many points in the first half was their inability to get back on defense. In fact, the transition defense was so bad that Marquette was getting fast break layups off our MADE baskets! In fact, 7 of Marquette's 17 first half field goals were scored within 10 seconds of Georgetown relinquishing possession of the ball. We knew coming into this one that Marquette liked to run and liked to drive the lane. You would have thought that JTIII would have prepared them a bit better for that sort of attack.

Again, Not Feeding the Hot Hand - Maybe this team is scared to give the ball to the guy who is shooting well, but I am not understanding why Hollis only had 6 shots in 30 minutes of play. He wasn't in foul trouble either. The guy was stroking it in the first 10 minutes of the game, why did he not get more shots?! Don't get me wrong, the guy got the ball in the hoop when it counted at the end, but why didn't anybody stop down and say "hey, this guy's been struggling for a while, and it seems like he's found his touch, let's milk him for all he's got tonight"? Hollis could have been a much bigger factor THROUGHOUT this game instead of being relegated to hitting the clutch shots at the end.

Henry Sims' Struggles (Kind Of) - This is the second game in a row that I've been absolutely baffled by Henry's play. Let me first say that his stat line is a significant improvement from 2-13 against Providence (5-6 with 3-4 FT tonight) and that is appreciated. The important thing to remember about this game AND the Providence game is that Henry was the biggest guy on the floor in both of those games. In the Providence game, he couldn't hit a shot to save his life. In this game, he seemed to be floating around the perimeter WAY too often! I don't know what was going on down there in the paint, maybe linebacker Davante Gardner said some mean things about his momma, but why would he be drifting so far away from the paint when he has the decided height advantage? In the end, it all worked out for Hank, as his sexy finger roll completed the Hoya comeback.

Letting Marquette into the Bonus - Marquette was into the Bonus with 13:49 left in the 2nd half. That means that it took the Hoyas barely 6 minutes to commit 7 fouls against Marquette. As if they weren't having enough problems already. Marquette is in the top 20 in free throws attempted per game and I'm pretty sure the ESPNU broadcasters threw up a stat saying Marquette has made more free throws than their opponents have even attempted. It is truly astounding that the Hoyas were able to come back after allowing Marquette to shoot free throws starting so early in the half. This is unacceptable regardless of the opposing team, though.

Three Key Plays You May Not Remember:

1) With just under four minutes left in the first half, Marquette had just scored, putting them up 8, which is still a manageable deficit. As Georgetown came down the floor to set up their offense, Jae Crowder ran into a screen from Jabril Trawick and fell to the ground. The referee called an offensive foul. Now, if you DO remember this play, you will remember how horrendous of a call it was, but this led to another Marquette basket and was sort of where the unraveling really started for the Hoyas. For the remaining 4 minutes of the half, Marquette outscored the Hoyas 10-4 and was 4 of 9 from the floor with 3 offensive rebounds.

2) Georgetown was up 1 with 9 minutes to go in the first half. With just 5 seconds left on the shot clock, Jae Crowder had to jack up a three-pointer which was well-contested by Greg Whittington. Crowder missed the three, and Georgetown had a chance to push. But wait, a foul was called on Whittington. It was a tough play to see, but it didn't look like Whittington really hit him at all and Crowder possibly just fell on Greg after the shot, but he was awarded the three shots anyway. Crowder made two of them, giving Marquette the lead, and Jason Clark's score on the next possession marked the last time Georgetown would hit a field goal until Clark scored again with just 2 minutes left in the half.

3) After Hank Sims nicely fed Otto Porter for a cutting layup to cut Marquette's lead to 5 (the smallest it had been in almost 20 minutes of game time) with 7 minutes to play, the gigantic Davante Gardner decided to attempt a shot from the top of the key, just inside the arc. Needless to say, that's not the big man's shot. Considering this, you would think that this was a perfect opportunity for the Hoyas to get a stop and further diminish the Golden Eagle lead. Well, you'd be wrong. Davante's laser shot displayed so little arc, that when it clanged off the back of the rim, it bounced right to Junior Cadougan. Darius Johnson-Odom was fouled on the resulting possession and his free throws brought the Marquette lead back up to 7. Obviously, an opportunity squandered by the Hoyas.

It Was Over When: Jae Crowder's attempt at a game-tying three-pointer from the left corner bounced off the back of the rim and out to Jason Clark, who was fouled with .7 seconds left. Clark's missed free throws wouldn't matter, as Marquette could not cleanly rebound his miss.

Now to travel to the backwaters of West Virginia to take on the Mountaineers, whose only bad loss is to Kent State.

Providence (11-3, 0-1) at #12 Georgetown (11-1, 1-0) Recap

Ok everybody, deep breath in...and out...this one is over and Georgetown escapes. We were all worried about the possible letdown after the big Louisville win or maybe the team being distracted while looking ahead to the game against Marquette this week, and we were almost right. Instead, Georgetown did just enough to slip past Providence on Saturday afternoon and now we can all spend our New Year's Eve drinking to the Top 10 ranking we will surely see the Hoyas possess come Monday as a result of losses by #11 Wisconsin and #10 Florida.

This one looked like it might be salted away early, as Georgetown worked up a 27-13 lead with under 2 minutes left in the first half against a Providence team who could not buy a bucket. Incredibly cold shooting from the Friars' 3 C's, Council, Cotton, and Coleman, contributed largely to this dismal start, and turning the ball over 8 times in the first half didn't help either. A poor finish to the half left the Hoyas with only an 8-point lead heading into break, though. The terrible play by Henry Sims and Hollis Thompson nearly lost this game for the Hoyas. Despite the fact that Sims had a considerable size advantage in this one, he somehow could not manage to find the bottom of the net and Sims and Thompson shot a combined 4-22. A huge effort from Otto Porter bailed the Old Blue and Gray out once again, as he snagged 12 rebounds (3 offensive, 2 of which came down the stretch and led to Georgetown baskets).

Likes:

Nate Lubick's First Half Effort - FINALLY I can say I was impressed with something Thundersnow did! Lubick had all 4 of his points and rebounds, his 1 steal, his 1 assist, and 1 of his 2 blocks in a 10-minutes span in the first half. Granted, he did next to nothing for the rest of the game, he missed both of the free throws he took, and he shot ANOTHER 3-pointer (which, of course, he missed), I am impressed with Lubick amping up the effort in this one, even if it was for just about 10 minutes.

Henry Sims' Defense - Despite Henry's inability to score, he showed up on the defensive end this afternoon. 4 blocks and 8 rebounds for a guy who averages 1.5 and 5.3 a game, respectively, was sort of expected in this game because of Sims' size advantage. Nonetheless, these are the type of stats we'd like to see from Henry going forward, on the defensive side at least.

Forcing Turnovers Instead of Making Them - Georgetown finally won the turnover battle, committing only 7 to Providence's 13. Georgetown's tenacious defense in the first half caused the frustrated Friars to start forcing things on the offensive side of the court, resulting in even more mistakes. The press didn't work so great for forcing turnovers today, but keeping Providence off the scoreboard early definitely helped.

Dislikes:

Inability to Finish the Half Strongly - As mentioned before, Georgetown had a 14-point lead with less than 2 minutes remaining in the first half and were completely in control of the game. Providence then went on a mini 6-0 run to end the half. In a game in which it was obvious nobody was going to be scoring very many points, causing a lead of that size to shrink by almost 50% in such a short period of time after scoring 13 points through 18 minutes surely gave the pesky Friars a significant amount of confidence going into the locker room. One thing an elite team cannot do is allow lesser teams to stay in games. Georgetown's inability to finish the first half strongly allowed Providence to stay in the game.

Allowing Providence into the Bonus Early - The Friars were into the bonus with 8:05 remaining in the first half. Providence was shooting poorly from the field and Georgetown provided them with a way to score points without even having to attempt a shot for the 40% of the first half. As a result, Providence finished the half making as many free throws as field goals (6). This contributed to Georgetown's inability to hold their lead moving into halftime, as noted above.

Not Feeding the Hot Hand - The most infuriating part of this game, aside from Hank's complete ineptitude on the offensive side of the court, was Markel Starks taking just 3 shots. While I realize that Starks was in foul trouble and finished the game with 4 fouls, he did play 25 minutes and he has been, by a WIDE margin, the hottest player on this team. This guy carried you past Memphis and through Louisville, why would you not rely on him to provide much-needed offense when the rest of the team was cold?

Three Key Plays You May Not Remember:

1) With Georgetown hanging onto a precarious 7-point lead a few minutes into the second half, LaDontae Henton stole the ball from Hank Sims and with a chance to narrow the lead to 5, Hank made up for his turnover by blocking Vincent Council's layup attempt. 4 seconds later, Jason Clark hit a layup that extended the Hoya lead to 9. This delayed the Friar onslaught for a small time, as it took Providence another 3 minutes to whittle the lead down to 5.

2) Georgetown was up 13 with just over 9 minutes left in the first half when Clark committed a foul. Before Providence could even inbound the ball, Lubick was slapped with a foul as well. Two fouls with no time run off the clock. Some senseless work while the ball wasn't in play gave Georgetown their 6th foul, giving the Friars free throws for the rest of the half.

3) Up 27-13 with 2 minutes to play in the first half, Henry Sims was given the ball deep in the paint but missed a layup that would have put Georgetown up 16 with time running down in the half. 5 seconds later, Bryce Cotton hit a 3-pointer and Georgetown's lead was just 11. Sims' missed opportunity caused a 5-point swing which provided Providence with momentum to finish the half.

It Was Over When: Markel Starks stole the ball from Vincent Council with 30 seconds remaining, dished to Jason Clark, who ran the floor and dumped the ball in the hoop with the foul to give Georgetown the 9-point lead they would finish the game with.

Now for a big home test against Marquette on Wednesday.

#12 Georgetown (10-1) at #4 Louisville (12-0) Recap

This is the first installment of a series of recaps I will write for each of the Hoyas' remaining basketball games. Expect to see my own personal take on the events of the game rather than a simple summary of the game.


First of all: wow, what a win. We all thought that Georgetown's stunning road win at Alabama would define their season. I think we can all agree now that the only way this could be topped would be with a win at Syracuse in February. With this win, Georgetown becomes the first team in college basketball to win 3 games against ranked opponents. When we look back, doesn't that Kansas game seem incredibly winnable, considering the Jayhawks' recent struggles? Imagine what we'd be saying if the Hoyas were 12-0, but I digress.

This game featured another gritty effort from Markel Starks, who missed only one shot and was perfect from 3-point land. We spent the first 10 games being impressed with the emergence of Henry Sims and now we can drool as we watch Markel turn into the leader he absolutely MUST be going forward for the Hoyas. This gives Hoya fans lots to be excited about for the next few weeks, and with Marquette now on the schnide, the Hoyas may not play another great team until their home matchup with UConn at the beginning of February. Georgetown must take advantage of their relatively easy schedule in early Big East play if they want to have momentum going into the Syracuse/UConn games later on.

Likes:
The Freshmen - Otto Porter can hit clutch free throws and this team can, once again, hang with a great team with only underclassmen on the floor. When your oldest player on the floor is Markel Starks and you are hanging with the #4 team in the country, you know you've got something special. Tip of the hat to Jabril Trawick and his attitude. We definitely need a thug on this team and Jabril doesn't take crap from anybody.
Defending the Perimeter - This team got beat bad in the tournament last year partly because VCU took advantage of the shots they were allowed to take along the perimeter. Louisville only shot 33% from behind the arc, and they sport two excellent distance shooters in Kyle Kuric and Russ Smith. An impressive effort for sure.

Dislikes:
Turnovers - Oh man, do I hate turnovers. If I have one gripe about this team, it would be its propensity for losing the ball. Georgetown coughed up the ball 9 times in the first half alone, 16 time in total. That is not how you win basketball games against good teams. Georgetown was able to build it's large lead in the 2nd half because it STOPPED turning the ball over. In fact, they gave it up only twice in the 2nd half before Louisville's run. I know Georgetown sports a young team and young teams will be prone to making mistakes, but these guys have to understand that turning the ball over can cost you the game. Heck, it damn near cost them this one.
Jason Clark is Cold Again - Jason was 2 of 8 from the field for just 7 points. No bueno. This team lived off of Clark's hot shooting at the beginning of the year. Despite the emergence of Porter/Starks, they cannot count on those two guys to always be there and Clark needs to find his stroke again. If he doesn't, we'll be talking about him the same way we were at the end of last year, describing him as a player who disappears in the part of the season that counts the most.
Nate Lubick - If you know me, then you know I've hated Lube since the first time I saw his snowy white face on the court last year. This guy is terrible. He takes deep shots that someone of his ability should not be taking (he never makes them either), he is a turnover machine (3 turnovers in just 12 minutes in this game) and he doesn't score (averaging 4 PPG this season).

Three Key Plays You May Not Remember:
1) Just after Hollis Thompson hit a 3-pointer with 8:46 to go in the 2nd half to put the Hoyas up 4, Louisville called a timeout. Louisville coach Rick Pitino was promptly hit with a technical foul, much to the dismay of the entire KFC Yum! Arena. When reviewed, it didn't look like Pitino did anything to warrant the tech, but Jason Clark made both free throws, which increased the Hoya lead to 6. In just 8 seconds, the game went from being a manageable 2-basket game to being a significant deficit with time running down.
2) Henry Sims missed a layup after Kyle Kuric's 3-pointer narrowed the Hoya lead to 7 with just under 6 minutes left. Peyton Siva rebounded the ball, ran the length of the floor in 4 seconds, and attempted a circus layup with 3 Hoyas surrounding him. Jason Clark blocked the shot, and 12 seconds later, Henry Sims hit an easy layup to put the Hoyas back up 9 with just over 5 minutes left. Siva's poor decision to shoot instead of pass or set up the offense resulted in a basket for the Hoyas instead of one for the Cards.
3) With 1 minute left and down just 4 points, Louisville had a chance to make it a one-possession game again. Instead of using the shot clock and finding a quality shot, the Cardinals used just 12 seconds before Kuric hoisted up a highly contested shot from 26 feet away. He missed and the Hoyas regained possession and increased their lead to 6 shortly after. Had Louisville had just a little more patience, they could have put a bit more pressure on the Hoyas.

It Was Over When: Otto Porter, with ice in his veins, nailed 4 straight free throws in the last 40 seconds of the game to put it out of reach for the Cardinals.