Special thanks to PagingVictorPage for providing this recap:
Either I read the schedule wrong or the schedule was wrong (I'm actually guessing that it was both), but I thought there was only going to be one game with Hoyas in it. Anyway, I showed up with one minute left in the first game and to my surprise Chris Wright (who has added some serious muscle) and Greg Monroe's team (does anyone REALLY know or care what the team names are?) was in tight one with a team chock full of people I didn't know. Even more shocking was that Kevin Durant was playing with Chris and Greg. KEVIN FREAKING DURANT. And the game was close! Anyway, Chris hit a monster three pointer to tie the game with less than a minute to go, but then forgot to play defense and the guy he was guarding blew by him to take the lead again. Greg got the ball with about a 10 foot jumpshot but short-armed it and bricked it. The team with (from the little that I saw) the best three players (one of them a STAR NBA PLAYER) lost. I know it's summer league, but Kevin Durant was playing for them. Durant played in the next one with Jason Clark and Henry Sims against another team of people I didn't know and then Austin's team played Hollis' in the last game.A few general thoughts before I give my reaction to the five Georgetown players I got to see at length.
- Kevin Durant is awesome. I mean, really awesome. He can do whatever he wants on a basketball court even with the skinny frame. He kept making this guy who I would swear was Mikki Moore look like even more of a fool than looking like Mikki Moore makes you look.
- Georgetown will have the longest arms in the Big East this year. Between Jason Clark, Henry Sims, Hollis Thompson and Greg Monroe alone we got some go-go gadget arms on this team.
- The Hoyas will also be one of the fastest teams in the Big East. They may not play up-tempo, but they'll be able to.
- Once again, guards will do most of the rebounding for this team. Unless Julian Vaughn can bang down low, we're not going to be physical down low again.
Now for my takes on the 5 Georgetown Hoyas I got to see play.
Jason Clark: One thing you can definitely say is that the dude never stops going. He was always moving, always making something happen and he was damned intense too. He and Durant played well together, both taking the game pretty seriously. He definitely has improved his handle, rebounded well and had two or three awesome blocks. Most of his points came in the lane from driving or offensive rebounds and I only remember him taking (and missing) one outside shot. Overall, Jason played really well. He'll be fine this year, probably more consistent than last year.
Henry Sims: Henry was kind of invisible most of the first half. Only touched the ball a couple times early and other than that didn't do much. Then he scored the first 4 or 6 points of the 2nd half and really started to look like he could perform. He didn't rebound well, but didn't play horribly on defense (thankfully he doesn't have to play Dejuan Blair anymore). He got some advice from Durant at halftime and really seemed to feed off of it for the 2nd half.
Austin Freeman: The last game was pretty sloppy, but Austin seemed to take control of his team. He didn't play really well, but still managed to be the best player on the floor. Did well to get in the lane a lot and didn't take a lot of outside shots. He has definitely lost some weight which is good and looked to have a better handle. All in all nothing too exciting, but we know what we'll get.
Hollis Thompson: Hollis looks really comfortable on the court, both on offense and defense. His team was terrible and failed to use him a lot on offense, but he can get it done. He can score from anywhere, the challenge is to see whether he can do it against tougher competition. Definitely a good addition.
Jerrelle Bennimon: I'm not sure if that is spelled right, but he is a decent player. He is nothing special but he'll give 3-5 minutes a game of hustle and fouls. When he grows into the college game and gets more comfortable, he'll be a solid bench player. Probably won't ever start, but probably won't have any major screw ups off the bench either.
Vee Sanford didn't play for some reason, but by all accounts he'll be much the same. Overall, it wasn't a pretty night of basketball, but there were some good things done by the Georgetown guys, especially Jason Clark and Kevin Durant is awesome. I mean really REALLY awesome.
