In a game that was reminiscent of the good ole days of the Big East -- when John Thompson Jr., not his son, and Louie Carnesecca were stalking the sidelines and not sitting in the stands -- St. John's moved to 3-0 in Big East play with a 61-58 win over the Hoyas.
Its not hard to figure out why.
Georgetown's Big Three finished with just 20 points on 7-25 shooting, hitting just 2-13 from deep and getting to the line just four times.
The Hoyas rely so heavily on Austin Freeman, Chris Wright, and Jason Clark offensively that when they struggle -- like they did tonight as well as last Wednesday in a loss to Notre Dame -- it makes it very difficult for Georgetown to win games.
The bigger issue, however, is that the inconsistency that has plagued the Hoyas for the past two seasons seems to once again be rearing up. If you remember, in 2009 Georgetown improved to 10-1 on the season when they won their Big East opener at UConn before losing 15 of their last 21 games and finishing the year with a first round exit in the NIT. Last season may have been more frustrating for Hoya fans, as they knocked off seven ranked teams while also losing to South Florida, Rutgers, Old Dominion, and, to cap it off, to Ohio in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by 14.
This season, after starting out the year 8-0 against one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country, the Hoyas have gone 4-3 in their last seven games.
Georgetown fans are worried. Its not exactly the kind of paranoia the Hoyas are used to.
But when take a step back, things are not quite as bad as they seem. Two of those losses -- Notre Dame and Temple -- came on the road against teams that have been in or around the top 25 for much of the season. Winning on the road is not an easy thing to do, and those are far from what you would consider a bad loss.
What about Monday's loss to St. John's?
On paper, it looks bad. St. John's has already lost to Fordham and St. Bonaventure this season and was all but written off by many around the blogosphere.
But they surprised a lot of people last week by picking up wins at West Virginia and Providence -- remember what we were saying about winning on the road?
And now they can toss this win over Georgetown on their resume as well.
Georgetown's offense struggled tonight. I think we can all agree on that. A lot of those struggles, however, have to be credited to the Johnnie's defense. Wright, Freeman, and Clark didn't get many open looks or driving lanes tonight. St. John's mixed up their defenses and it looked like it confused the Hoyas. Casual Hoya put it best when they said Georgetown's offense "played like the Garden floor was layered in quicksand".
They weren't much better on the defensive end, especially down the stretch. Wright missed a box out on Paris Horne's key offensive rebound with 1:24 left in the game. There was no help side defense on Dwight Hardy's gorgeous reverse layup at the :42 second mark. And on the game winning bucket, Clark got left in the dust on an in-and-out move by Hardy. When two Hoya defenders came over to try and block his layup, it left Justin Brownlee wide open for a tip-in that gave St. John's the lead for good.
The Johnnies are now 3-0 in the Big East. They have done it in impressive fashion and they deserve every ounce of credit they are going to receive from this start. Brownlee and DJ Kennedy make up one of the more versatile and exciting forward tandems in the country. Hardy has been living up to the nickname "Buckets". And all this has happened with point guard Malik Boothe slowed with a hamstring injury.
But the next month will tell us more about this team than the last three games.
The matchup with Georgetown kicked off a brutal stretch of eight games for the Johnnies. Their next seven games?:Jan 8: at Notre Dame
The combined record of those teams? 77-7. If Louisville hadn't been dropped from the top 25 this week, all eight St. John's opponents would be ranked.
Jan. 12: vs. Syracuse
Jan. 16: vs. Notre Dane
Jan. 19: at Louisville
Jan. 22: vs. Cincinnati
Jan. 26: at Georgetown
Jan. 30: at Duke
Come February, we will know a lot more about this team and whether or not they are a serious contender for an NCAA Tournament berth.
Until then, St. John's fans should enjoy the ride.
Because quality college hoops in New York City is a good thing for college basketball.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Don't put too much emphasis on the outcome of the Georgetown-St. John's game |
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1 comment:
After having to sit through the bad years, I'm more than happy to enjoy this ride as long as it lasts. I liked Norm, but man, his teams couldn't do anything in the 2nd half.
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