No Letdown: Georgetown Beats IUPUI 81-58, #12 Alabama Is Next

Georgetown defeated IUPUI 81-58 in Washington, DC on Monday night.  As troubling as it looked in the first half, the Hoyas would not have a letdown game after their stellar performance in Maui last week.  Hollis Thompson led the young Hoyas with 21 points and 10 rebounds.  Markel Starks and Nate Lubick were solid as well, scoring 13 points and 8 points respectively.  Lubick's 8 points may not seem like much, but he also grabbed 14 rebounds and seemed to regain his mojo after a strange trip in Maui.

Jason Clark had a quiet game, scoring only 9 points on 2-8 shooting.  Still, Clark became the 43rd Hoya to amass 1,000 points in a Georgetown uniform, which is exactly 1,000 more points than I scored in a Georgetown uniform.  Henry Sims continued his HankRenaissance, scoring 12 points and grabbing 4 rebounds.  Otto Porter did more Otto Porter things, coming up with steals, rebounds, putbacks, and generally being awesome.  Jabril Trawick drew an opponent's blood for the first time this year, while Greg Whittington chipped in 7 points.

More after Le Jump.

There are three main takeaways from today's game.  First, seeing Lubick grabbing big rebounds and throwing down massive dunks was really nice to see.  It is very, very important that Lubick is a big contributor this year.  Georgetown needs Sims and Lubick to provide an interior presence.  Those clamoring for Otto Porter at the four are misinformed, he's going to get his minutes, but not as an out of position power forward.  We've seen this movie with DaJuan Summers in 2009 and with Hollis Thompson last year, we don't need guys playing out of position.  The beauty of this year's team is the ability to have different lineups for different opponents, sometimes Nate will play 30 minutes, sometimes he'll play 20, but we're going to need him throughout the year as a 4 against bigger teams and as a 5 against smaller teams.

 

Second, it was good to see Alex Young held scoreless in the second half.  Between Stephen Curry, Armon Bassett, Dominique Jones, Marshon Brooks, among others that have lit us up over the past few years, I think most Hoya fans were thinking "Here we go again" when Young came out guns blazing with 16 points in the first half.  Yet, we buckled down on defense in the second half and shut him down.

Third, this Georgetown team has an edge, and it is refreshing.  Far too often, we seemed passive and lackadaisical in past years.  Not this year's team.  I liked Henry Sims' technical foul.  I liked Markel Starks staring at a fallen IUPUI player and screaming "And 1" in his face after a layup and a foul.  I liked Jabril Trawick fouling a guy hard when he went to the basket.  And I liked Aaron Bowen knocking down a half court three pointer with no time left in a blowout.  Each guy on the floor is competing and attacking on both sides of the court, clearly a carryover from more intense and competitive practices this year.  We've seen this young group in dogfights with Memphis, Kansas and China already, and we know they aren't going to back down from anyone.  That is fun to watch.

Next up for the Hoyas is a trip to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to face the #12 ranked Crimson Tide on Thursday night.  We'll definitely learn a lot more about the group when they go into the most hostile environment they've faced this side of the Pacific.