Holy crap.  That was quite a game.  Georgetown defeated the #1 seed Syracuse Orange today in Madison Square Garden, 91-84.  Chris Wright led the Hoyas in the finest performance of any Georgetown player this entire year.  Wright had 27 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists while carrying the Hoyas for the entire game.  It wasn't just the statistics for Wright, it was his poise in shredding the zone, the timing when he hit huge shots, and the control he showed running the point position.

Syracuse shot 54% from the field and 55% from three point range and still lost.  And by now everyone recognizes just how good this Syracuse team is.  Yet, today at least, the Hoyas were better.  This game was phenomenal, back and forth, up and down, each team making runs, playing their guts out.  And Georgetown was better.  It was Wright's virtuoso performance, Austin Freeman icing free throws and attacking the basket, Greg Monroe guarding our rim like Georgetown heroes of yester-year and Jason Clark hitting dagger three after dagger three.  Georgetown was better.  If nothing else, that has to give us fans a lot of hope for the next month.  We just played one of the three best teams in the country, took every shot they had, and still won.  Syracuse did not overlook us, they were not flat, they just got beat by a better team today.

Monroe, Freeman and Clark chipped in 50 points, scoring 15, 18, and 17 respectively.  Hollis Thompson played 25 minutes, contributing 8 points, 4 rebounds and 3 steals and more than a few heart attacks with those free throws.  Vee Sanford scored 2 points with a beautiful floater, those measly points just happened to be the two points that gave us our first lead since early in the first half.  What's great about Thompson and Sanford is that they are contributing, they can be trusted, and they will continue to help Georgetown as this month wears on.  Hopefully Julian Vaughn is back to full strength soon, he seems to still be fighting the flu bug.  Also hoping Arinze Onuaku's injury isn't too bad, nothing worse than not going into the tournament at full strength.  If Syracuse is going to make a deep run they need to stop relying on threes and run their offense through Wesley Johnson.  Outside of Evan Turner, he is the best swingman in the country, and damn near unguardable for the Hoyas.

Georgetown's defense was erratic for the first 25 minutes of the game, there were too many open layups and open Rautins threes, but we really clamped down in the second half, getting steal after steal and protecting our glass.  The defense keyed transition baskets for the Hoyas as well.  I'll say it once, I'll say it again, as long as we come with defensive intensity, we will be in every single game.  The bad losses weren't from offensive execution, they were from lazy defense.

More than anything, this game put Chris Wright on a different level than he was before, and I'm very happy for him.  He takes a lot of crap from Georgetown fans, and all he's done is come out the last two days and been the MVP of the entire Big East Tournament.  Big East voters must be kicking themselves a bit for Wright not even getting an honorable mention on any post season tournament team.  Hopefully he is using that as fuel to continue his dominant effort in the tournament.

Georgetown will play the winner of Villanova and Marquette tomorrow night.  I'm fine seeing either team, although the Revenge Tour 2010 would continue if we played Marquette.

Plenty more tonight and tomorrow.  HELL YES WE BEAT CUSE.

Box Score