The Morning After: Post-Game Articles, Quotes & Pictures

Sleep any last night?  

Despite the opening game mistakes against Temple, the final play of that game made me believe that the Hoyas had overcome the late game collapses, or lack of final second momentum and energy, that plagued the team last year.  Last night made me think otherwise.  Definitely too early to make that my final judgement, as we still have 15 more Big East games left, but something about that last minute of play last night screamed 2008-09 Hoyas and not 2006-07 Georgetown.  

But as Thompson says below, that's the way the ball bounces.

Hoyas Fall to 3-Point-Happy Golden Eagles | The Hoya
Marquette hit 4-of-5 free throws in the final minute, though a Maurice Acker miss on the front end of a one-and-one gave Freeman a chance to dash Marquette’s hopes like Butler and Reynolds. Freeman drove to his right from the top of the key and missed a fade-away jumper off the front of the rim with nine seconds remaining. "We got what we wanted, and it didn’t go in," Head Coach John Thompson III said of Freeman’s shot. "That’s the way the ball bounces."

Hoya Prospectus
It'd be tempting to chalk this up to an opponent that couldn't seem to miss from three.

And to a certain extent, that would actually be more or less right. It isn't often that a team takes 11 more dunks and layups than the opposing team, holds the opposing team to 32% from 2, and loses. Repeatedly, the Hoyas were able to get easy shots. And repeatedly, the Hoyas would limit the Golden Eagles to a jump shot. Which the Marquette player would make. Some of them were wide open; but many of them were contested. Looking deeper, though, the Hoyas still committed some cardinal sins, and they were the usual ones. The team shot decently (not well) but the offense was not particularly strong because of the usual amount of turnovers and poor offensive rebounding.

On the defensive end, the team rebounded well in the first half but couldn't grab the loose balls in the second half. The Hoyas don't lose this game, despite Marquette's outside shooting, if they keep Marquette off the boards in the second half. They didn't.

Wring out the Hoyas - JSOnline
"They have some guys that can make three-point shots, and obviously Cubillan was terrific today," said Georgetown coach John Thompson III. "Anyone who's watched them play knows they could easily be 3-0 right now. Their two losses weren't indicative of where they were, and we knew they would be that much more hungry."

Marquette hands Georgetown first Big East loss of season - washingtonpost.com
"Our game plan was to stop them from shooting the three [-pointer]," Freeman said. "They made really tough shots. We tried our best to contain that. They're just hitting a lot of tough shots."

Freeman's Jumper Falls Short as No. 12 Georgetown Falls to Marquette, 60-59 - GEORGETOWN OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE
No. 12 Georgetown fought back from an early deficit in the first half and had a chance to take the lead in the waning seconds, but a jumper from junior guard Austin Freeman (Mitchellville, Md./DeMatha) was off the mark and Marquette's Jimmy Butler hit two free throws with 7.5 seconds left in the game, giving the host Golden Eagles a 62-59 win over the Hoyas in front of 15,984 fans at Bradley Center.

Around the Top 25: Cornell almost did it | College Hoops Journal
Good for the Golden Eagles. They squeak out a close game at home against a good opponent. I think a loss here would’ve broken Buzz Williams’ team’s spirit. But they get into the W column in the Big East. I’m not sure where Marquette ends up on March 10, but they’re going to get one or two more upsets before the campaign is done.