FanPost

Positive PostGame Prognosis: Utah State


3pters? 3pters? We don't need no stinking 3pters!
In a simillar effort to the Wofford game the Hoyas put away a quality conference champion with out the use of their most potent weapon. People have forgotten that we've already proven that we can win with out the 3pt shot earlier this season. We only took 8 3pters against Wofford very simillar to this game where we shot 9. The one difference is that we made many more of the few 3 pters we took against Wofford goign 5-8 vs. the 2-9 we made agianst Utah St. At the time against Wofford it looked more like it was intentional whereas against Utah St it was more because Utah state was actively trying to take away the 3pter. It didn't matter. Georgetown realized that they weren't going to be effective shooting from 3. We quickly adapted and used utah state's defensive stratdgy repeatedly blowing by the Aggies as the came out aggressively to prevent the 3. Teams will have to pick their poison against georgetown. Attempting to cover the 3 leaves a team vulnerable to back doors and driving.

The second big regulation was the press. Sure we'd seen the press several times before, but never as effectively as it was against Utah state. I think a lot of this had to do with the opponent, but we were in position to take advantage of it. First of all kudos to Chris for recognizing this weakness in the aggies and telling coach to punish it. And punish it we did. The hoyas got 13pts off of turnovers and the press sparked several runs that helped Georgetown pull away from the Aggies. We forced 15 turnovers and had 7 steals. We would've forced another 2 if the refs had called Utah st. for the two 10 second violations we forced. The press was the best it has looked this year and will be a great weapon for us. Earlier it seemed just a way to get the team to focus on defense and control tempo( it can be used to slow down or speed up a team). Now it looks like we can actually expect to force the occasional turnover as well.

We beat a good team very soundly. After an run to start the second half the Aggies never got closer than 13 the rest of the way. The Hoyas cruised to a 17pt victory against a senior laden team so much so that we got our second glimpse of walk ons ryan dougherty and John Caprio. Another encouraging sign was our ability to get to the line and convert once we got there. We hadn't been getting to the line before this, but there was a sort of parade to the line in this game. I actually think the referee's were pretty consistent even if they did call a couple fouls that didn't actually exist. For the most part they consistently called tickey tackey crap on both ends. The difference is the hoyas were aggressive and drove to the hoop (25 lay up attempts vs. 12 for Utah st) while the aggies settled for jumpers (36 2+3pt jumpers vs. 19 for the hoyas)

Player Evaluations:

Chris Wright: The lone double digit scorer in the entire game. He was able to get to the basket at will against the athletically challenged Aggies. He had a couple of shake and bake moves that shattered the poor defenders ankels yielding a clear path to the basket. He did a lot of damage in the press coming up with 4 steals. Another impressive performance from our point guard who was apparently battling a sore throat not that anyone would've known it from the box score. And how about that acrobtic flip over his shoulder for the lay up.

Austin Freeman: His first game in single didgts this year. He had 9pts all on layups getting an and 1 on one of them. Like chris he was pretty much able to get to the basket whenever he wanted to. Watching Freeman play is jsut a joy. He makes everything look so easy. He's incredibly graceful and his reverse layups are a thing of beauty. Will probably be the only game of the year

Jason Clark: Had several really nice drives and finishes in the lane. It's really grea tot see jason's game evolve beyond just being a spot up shooter. I'm always impressed by Jason's rebounding. for a a 6'2" guard he's averaging almost 5 rebounds a game.

Hollis Thompson: Like Jason watching Hollis' game evolve is a lot of fun to watch. Like jason Hollis is showing his athleticism and driving to the hole. Hollis continued his great rebounding and defense.

Julian Vaughn: 3-3 from the field 5 rebounds 2 blks 8pts. What's not to like. This was all done in 15 minutes too. Don't read into his lack of playing time. When needed he'll play more, but there was no need to run him a lot with the game in hand. It's great for JTIII to get our young bigs a lot of run. We'll need Julian a lot on thursday against a very big Temple team.

Henry Sims: In case you hadn't noticed I love Hank! Today all he did was lead the team in rebounding (6) and assists(3). Those assits were all really nice. 3 of hank's rebounds were on the offensive end. Henry chipped in 4pts including 2-2 from the FT line.

Nate Lubick: Another solid game from the freshman PF. He scored 6pts and grabbed 3 rebounds and played very solid defense. He no longer falls for every pump fake. The best part of his game was him tkaing it to Tai Wesley the best palyer on the other team and drawing the 5th and final foul on him.

Jerrelle Benimon: Jerrelle was the benefitiary of 2 of Henry's 3 assists. To his credit jerrelle finished well with some nifty work around the rim. Benimon also played solid defense and gave us good minutes.

Vee Sanford: quiet game but still had 2-2 from the FT line and came up with a steal. He comes in and we don't miss a beat.

Markel Starks: didn't score today, but as a freshman he's still learning. He comes in runs the offense and isn't a detriment. He doesn't turn the ball over and plays defense. Keep doing that and he'll keep getting minutes.

Stay Casual, my friends.