Report from Kenner League Friday, July 9 submitted casually by loveshack99 and Jonathon Wallace, JD:

Some casual observations from our first night at Kenner…First game, we saw the DC Legends with Chris Wright and Henry Sims take on Beyond Belief.   The first thing we noticed when we strolled into the gym while warm-ups were still going on was that the rumors were true…Chris Wright is jacked.  He looked great, confident and fast and took control when he needed to….including a 3 with about 20 seconds left to secure the 96-95 win for DC Legends even though he was visibly hurting after running into the goal post during the play before.  He just looked much more controlled and accurate…not the normal Wrecking Ball we love. Henry looked, well, not bad.  He definitely looked fitter but still not consistent.  He definitely played better in second half than first and there seemed to be a good connection between him and Chris. He had a couple nice 10-14 footers, good offensive rebounding, and lots of tip-ins.
 

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Monica McNutt scored 14 points and Latia McGee added 11 as the 5th seeded Georgetown Lady Hoyas defeated the 12th seeded Marist Red Foxes (great name) in Georgetown's 1st appearance in the Women's NCAA Tournament in 17 years.  The Lady Hoyas turned a narrow 2 point lead at halftime into a comfortable 15 point margin by scoring the first 13 points of the 2nd half.  The win improves the Lady Hoyas to 1-0 in the NCAA Tournament.  The men finished 0-1.

I'm not going to pretend I know the first thing about the Lady Hoyas, but I am finding that writing about the Lady Hoyas is helping me get over the national embarrassment that occurred a few days ago.  The Lady Hoyas will next face 4th seeded Baylor on Monday.  I may name my daughter Sugar Rodgers Casualhoya if we win the National Championship.

Box Score here.

Three half-naked men in a swimming pool here.

Hoya Saxa!

Not really sure what to say here.  The last hour or so has felt completely surreal.  We knew Georgetown could be erratic, with losses to South Florida, Old Dominion and Rutgers, but this was different.  This was the first game of the NCAA Tournament against a team that went 7-9 in the MAC.  And we got annihilated.  In all of those previous losses, we had a puncher's chance.  At 7:43 left in the first half, Greg Monroe cut Ohio's lead to 5, and it never got closer.  To lose as a #3 seed is one thing, but at least let it be a buzzer beater or something.  We lost by 14 and gave up 97 points to Ohio.  This was their second win in the tournament in the last 45 years.

For all the griping and bitching we all did about seeding and brackets and regions, to come out like this is truly embarrassing.  Chris Wright deserves to hold his head high, he was the only guy who showed up today, scoring 28 points on 9-17 shooting.  Greg Monroe put up good stats, with 19 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists, but killed us with 7 turnovers.  Austin Freeman looked to be ill, which doctors said could happen in the first month of his diagnosis, unfortunately it happened at the wrong time.  He gets a free pass because he was phenomenal this year, and hell, he's dealing with a lot more than any of us can imagine right now.  Jason Clark, on the other hand, was atrocious.  Armon Bassett, whoever that is, dropped 32 on Clark, and it could have been more.  I don't care if they were unconscious from three point range, we should have closed out and made them beat us inside.

Now for the elephant in the room.  John Thompson III needs to be reevaluated.  Doing well in the Big East Tournament is one thing, but to lay an egg this badly on national TV in the first round of the NCAA Tournament is another.  Our last three seasons have finished 2nd round exit, NIT, 1st round exit.  It pains me to say, because he has done so much for the program in terms of bringing it back to prominence, bringing in good talent, etc, but at the end of the day, he is judged on his tournament results. 

I'm still in shock that this season ended this way, especially knowing how good this team could be when on.  Unfortunately, we also knew this team could be very, very bad when off.  At the end of the day, it's upsetting because it's embarrassing, because we got outclassed, and most of all, because the season is over.  I'm past the point of anger, any fan could tell you that this team could lose to anyone on any given day, I'm just sad that it ended this way.  I'm sad for Thompson because he is going to take so much heat, I'm sad for Monroe because he will end his Georgetown career without ever having won an NCAA Tournament game, I'm sad for Wright because he will take an undue amount of blame for not hitting the 3 pointer that could have cut the lead to 4, and I'm sad for this program because it will be another year of answering the same redundant  questions.  We waited a year since the meltdown last year to prove to the country that Georgetown was back to national prominence.  Unfortunately, after tonight, we've never been further away.

Everyone be safe tonight.  This blog has been incredibly fun and rewarding this season, and we appreciate all the contributions and comments.  Sorry to see the season end on such a sour note.  We will have plenty of content and discussion for the next week when we really dig into this loss and its implications.  But tonight, it's just a sad time to be a Georgetown fan.

Box Score

In a tough loss reminiscent of the Ray Allen off-balance heave in the 1996 Big East Final against UConn, Georgetown lost by 2 to West Virginia tonight by a score of 60-58.

We'll have plenty to say about this tomorrow, but this was a solid game that was determined by the best players on the floor. The Hoyas had some phenomenal teamwork, highlighted by three plays that deserve immediate recognition: Greg Monroe leading the break to find Chris Wright for the dunk, Wright's heroic full court sprint to save the ball and feed Austin Freeman for a layup, and Wright feeding Freeman for a 3 with under a minute left - even getting the normally stoic Freeman to show some emotion.

In the end, Georgetown was unable to overcome two things: West Virginia's power on the boards (outrebounded 34-19 and the Mountaineers had 17 offensive boards) and Da'Sean Butler, the tournament's MVP who came through with two last second game winning shots in this tournament.

Georgetown's run through the Big East cemented the fact that they can play with anyone in the country and set the stage for at least a 4 seed and possibly a 3. There are definitely lessons to be learned from this game but here's hoping that it provides a solid sendoff as the Hoyas enter the NCAA Tournament.

Now the real fun begins.

Box Score

Led by Greg Monroe's 23 points, 13 rebounds, and 7 assists, the Georgetown Hoyas rolled the Marquette Golden Eagles 80-57 in the Semifinals of the Big East Tournament.

The Hoyas shot 54% from the field while holding Marquette to a woeful 37%, and outscored the Golden Eagles by 20 in the 2nd half. 

The Georgetown Hoyas have now defeated USF, Cuse, and Marquette (all teams that it lost to in the regular season), and look to complete The Revenge Tour 2K10 in the Big East Championship tomorrow night against West Virginia.  The Hoyas have probably earned at least a 4 seed with this run at MSG, and a win tomorrow night will likely result in a 3 seed.  For West Virginia, however, the stakes are even higher, as a 1-seed is arguably on the line.

More on this to follow tomorrow, but for now we're going to grab a cocktail (or a dozen) and enjoy the moment.

We are Georgetown.

Box Score

Kim Kardashian

Corey Haim

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

Exacting revenge on Dominique Jones and his cronies, the Georgetown Hoyas beat South Florida 69-49 in the 2nd round of the Big East Tournament.  The Hoyas got absolutely no help from the referees, who apparently were very interested in South Florida's tournament aspirations.  Julian Vaughn played about 10 minutes and fouled out, Greg Monroe was saddled with 4 fouls, 3 of which were complete nonsense.  Hollis Thompson and Chris Wright joined the party with 4 fouls as well.

Yet, all that said, and Georgetown won.  And they won pretty easily.  Chris Wright had 15 points, 5 assists, 6 rebounds, and 0  turnovers, in his best performance of the year.  We've been hard on Wright, but when someone needed to step up, it was Wright.  Monroe, even with his foul trouble, scored 16 points, and put the game out of hand in the last 4 minutes with back-to-back three point plays.  Jason Clark added 16 points, including some monster 3 pointers.  Austin Freeman played smartly, with 8 points and 4 assists, yet had his worst shooting performance of the year, going 3-12 from the field. 

Any time you can beat the 9th best team in the conference by 20 points, getting about 25 combined minutes from your big men and a 3-12 shooting day from your best player, you are impressed.  Georgetown's defense, except for the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half, was phenomenal.  More than anything, our defense will be the key to sustained runs in the Big East Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.  Keep it up fellas.

Good news is Monroe and Vaughn will be plenty rested as the Hoyas square off with Syracuse for the THIRD time this season.  I'd write more but my hands are shaking and my vision is blurry.  Man, isn't tournament time the best?

Plenty more to follow today and tomorrow.  Enjoy the NIT Dominique, I'm sure people from far and wide will want to come watch you play.  Syracuse, we're coming for you.

Box Score

Since the Casual Extravaganza is currently being kicked into high gear and we're not around to tell you who won or lost, we present you with today's postgame in a Choose Your Own Adventure format! 

What happened?  YOU decide.  via cache.gawker.com

Question 1: Did Georgetown win?  Did Cincinnati win? 

Title Option #1: Hoyas Maul Bearcats on Senior Day
Title Option #2: Hoyas Mauled by Bearcats on Senior Day

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