The Morning After: Post-Game Articles, Quotes and Honest Perspective?!?

A young team with an inexperienced and short bench loses its most consistent and best shooter before facing a highly ranked and experienced foe in a hostile and emotional environment.  Sounds like an awesome script for the Mighty Ducks IV.  To make matters worse, this young team did not even partake in its usual pre-game warmups because many players on the team were ill.  That sums up last night's game folks, no need to read what the press had to say, unless you enjoy being abused.

Is the above an excuse for Georgetown's play last night?  No - Georgetown played horribly in the first half and dug themselves a hole they could not climb out of, despite a valiant second half attempt to do so.  Is the above all the more reason why losses to Rutgers and South Florida are inexcusable?  Yes.  Sh-t Happens.  Players get injured, get ill, miss games, etc.  If it weren't for those two losses to sub-par teams, Georgetown would be in contention for a double-bye in the Big East Tournament instead of fighting not to play in the dreaded Tuesday games.  I know JT3 likes to take things one game at a time but maybe he should also stress how mid-season letdowns have drastic effects on post-season glory.

Now the fun stuff:

(Post-game articles after The Jump)

With Austin Freeman out with illness, late-season slump continues for Georgetown in loss to West Virginia - washingtonpost.com
It wasn't simply that Georgetown missed Freeman's offensive proficiency against West Virginia. (Before falling ill, he accounted for 28 percent of Georgetown's points in Big East play). In losing their shooting star, the Hoyas seemed to lose their identity, as well, with uncertainty permeating nearly every facet of their game -- particularly in the first half, in which they turned the ball over 11 times to West Virginia's two.

Reeling Hoyas Continue Late-Season Stumble to Finish Line | The Hoya
"This team has been put together with Austin [Freeman], making him one of the focal points of what we do," Head Coach John Thompson III said. "We went to bed last night thinking he's doing better, and we anticipated the game plan with him out there, then he took a turn for the worse last night. We just went into the game without time to prepare, because we fully anticipated him being out there."

Around the Top 25: Georgetown, redux | College Hoops Journal
Everybody cooling off on Georgetown now. Do they become a good contrarian pick? I admit I haven’t been high on them for the majority of the season. There’s a little bit of satisfaction seeing them have some issues when Greg Monroe can’t get it going, because I thought that was a big part of this team this year. I have no problem producing contrary evidence, and that’s Freeman and Chris Wright’s play, which has been better than I anticipated.

Butler does it a final time  - Sports - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports
The Hoyas (19-9, 9-8) have beaten No. 4 Duke and No. 9 Villanova since Jan. 30, but stand a chance now of not even getting a first-round bye in the league tournament.

Hoya Prospectus: Recap: West Virginia 81, Georgetown 68
Sometimes it's as simple as one statistic.  Tonight it was turnovers.  After 38 possessions had been played - at 16:54 in the 2nd half - the Hoyas had committed 16 turnovers [TO Rate = 42%] to the Mountaineers' two [TO Rate = 5%], and trailed 53-26.

Georgetown Hoyas vs. West Virginia Mountaineers - Recap - March 01, 2010 - ESPN
The free fall continues for Georgetown (19-9, 9-8), which was ranked No. 7 three weeks ago and has lost four of five.