Tough loss but not much time to sulk, the vaunted Appalachian State Mountaineers are right around the corner. As usual we here at THE GLOBAL PHENOMENON are handing out hardware to those most deserving. Away we go...
The Chris Wright Heart of a Champion Award:
Ramone Moore, Temple. 30 points on 12-18 shooting with a nice mix of threes and dunks. Oh, and not to mention that steal from Vaughn while Moore was sitting on his bottom. Honorable mention: Julian Vaughn. Vastly improved free throw shooting and clutch inside play in the 2nd half kept the Hoyas in this game until the final possessions.
The Nice to Have it Out of the Way Award:
Loss #1. Whew. No, we are not about to mount a 35-game-winning-streak-run-of-destiny to the national championship and the deepest reaches of outer space. We are, just like every other year, a college basketball team. Win some. Lose some. Good nights. Bad nights. Lost. Bad night. No big whoop. Are we screwed as far as our tournament bye in the A-10 tournament? Yes. But that doesn't matter. BECAUSE WE ARE NOT A JUNIOR COLLEGE THAT FIELDS A BASKETBALL TEAM IN THE A-10. Well played, Temple. Take what you've learned and beat the living crap out of GW.
The Act Like You've Been There Award:
Temple. Really? REALLY? You barely beat a top ten team (BARELY: as in we are barely top ten and you barely won) and you rush the court? Some mitigation because ol Coach Moustache had just won his 400th game. But a court-storming? I'll be honest, we were flattered. And somewhat sad for what Temple students have to live for.
The FOR CHRIST SAKE HAND IT TO JULIAN VAUGHN Award:
Hollis Thompson. Game on the line. Driving the lane. Bit of a crowd under the basket. What's the plan?
(a) flailing about reverse underhand over rainbow ten foot layup jumper that misses or (b) handoff to Julian Vaughn for an earth shattering dunk that blows the fillings out of the fat Temple girls in the front row. Eh, went with (a).
We're now 8-1.
The Patrick Ewing, Jr. Memorial Award:
Our beloved Ghost of 6th Man's Past had the interesting tweet below re Hollis Thompson's final shot:
All I know is that that was kinda a selfish play because @MrJujuVaughn was open for a dunk under the basket.
'Growing Up' Award:
In honor of Sleepy's dominant post earlier this week, this award goes to Hollis Thompson. Somewhat inexplicably, he's tried to win the game against both Temple and Mizzou with fairly wild shots. There's a bright side in that he's apparently willing to take the shot and JT3 has sufficient confidence to both start him and keep him in at crunch time but let's not kid ourselves, this team belongs to the Hoya Trinity (eat it, JGD). We want Thompson to shoot during the game but when it's on the line, the damn ball needs to be in the hands of the team's best players.
Hollis Thompson's Drive Award for Harping on the Same Thing Over and Over Again:
The idiot editors of this blog for giving three awards for the same damn play.
The Keri Strug Award:
Fancy contortion act by Chris Wright on that layup with just over a minute left to cut the Owl's lead to three. Unfortunately for Georgetown this game did not end with Wright with a gold medal being held by a burly Romanian.
The No Lead Is Safe Award:
Georgetown never led in this game. Not once. That's pretty amazing.
Live by the Three DIE By The Three Award:
Georgetown. Remember that time we won shooting poorly from three? Wasn't that against a high school team or something? Anyways, we shot 31 percent last night, which for most teams would be just fine. But we are not most teams. We have the HOYA TRINITY (tm)! And Jason Clark (4-5) was awesome. The other two-thirds: 1-8. That is not going to work in the future. It's just not.
The Julian Vaughn Award for Shooting Free Throws:
The Georgetown Hoyas. Let's get over the miracle 18-for-18 of the Missouri game. Last night was 18-20. That is a solid effort. We can all remember years past when that would have been maybe 12-20 and last night's three-point-game would have been out of reach at the end. Well, not last night. And a shout out to this award's namesake, Julian Vaughn, who went 8-8, prompting the following comment from someone within earshot: "Julian Vaughn's free-throw shooting is keeping us in this game. We are screwed."
White House Communications Award for Message Discipline:
JT3 who appears to have corralled the Twitter beast and convinced his minions to show unity via the social networking interwebs. I'm guessing that his postgame speech included the phrases "tough loss", "learn from it", and "don't give ammunition to those morons at CasualHoya by tweeting something ridiculous"
Simsity30 Some mistakes are just lessons learned the hard way. Didn't do my part tonight. Won't happen again
veechie Long as we learn we will be fine. Remember this feeling -for only a bit it will soon be forgotten.
SugarFree_15 Learn from the mistakes we made 2nite...come back on Sunday...and get after it
Cwright_4 Ill take the blame #toughloss but ill take the heat and be a man about it#Hoyas
Julian Vaughn and Jerrelle Benimon Horrific Three Pointer Award:
Julian Vaughn and Jerrelle Benimon. Both of these clowns took uncontested threes last night for no rhyme or reason. Did either shot go in? Absolutely not. These guys are setting bad examples for Nate Lubick, who is another not-so-smooth shooting big man.
Lindsay Lohan Lay Off The Drugs Award:
Every Georgetown fan and member of the media that thinks this team is more talented without Greg Monroe. This team will do better in the tournament because the lack of quality teams in college basketball, so it will go down as a better team than last year's. That said, we would be the presumptive favorites for the national title if the big fella came back this year.
Used Car Salesman Sleazy Liar Award:
All Temple graduates that complain that their alma mater has no spirit and is a commuter school. YOU LIED YOU LIARS! That stadium was absolutely rocking last night.
Vietnam Veteran Nightmare Flashback Award:
Last night reminded me of the Rutgers game from last year. Not because Temple is even remotely close to Rutgers in talent, but just the poor lighting on the court and a fanbase in a hue of red getting louder and louder as they sensed victory. The games were similar as we tried to win the game on the last possession with an ill advised shot, down to Austin Freeman heaving a desperation three at the end of the game. Oh, and then they rushed the court. All I needed was Mike Rosario to start salsa dancing on the scorers table. Oh God, it's still too fresh.
The Broken Record Award:
Turnovers. I've gone back and looked at the box score to find that the Hoyas only had 13 turnovers to Temple's 11. That doesn't seem so bad. But it looked, in real-time, MUCH WORSE. So, let it be noted that, without any basis in fact, it is the opinion of this blog, which is a GLOBAL PHENOMENON, that Georgetown still has a problem holding onto the ball. And if it's a problem in December against Temple, it will be a problem in February against Syracuse and oh lord it will be the death of us against Ohio in March.
The Jim Nantz Commenter of the Game Award:
BC07 is this game's winner for the insight below. Stay classy casuals.
Old School Award:
This award recognizes rewatchable films and goes to 'The Hangover.' Thankfully, Cinemax was replaying the film last night during the second half and it gave me brief comfort to flip to it during the timeouts to cheer myself up as there was never a moment where I believed Georgetown would win the game. That said, I still don't understand the Chinese guy - was he so funny that he deserved the adidas commercials?
Old Balls Award (Named in Honor of the Winner of 2010 Casual Bracket Contest):
That WikiLeaks guy. Is it me or should this guy be shot immediately?
'All of the Lights' Award:
Temple. Quite simply, this game shone light on a problem for Georgetown: it needs to get tougher. This was a poorly officiated game on both ends (not surprising with Class A clown, John Cahill calling it), the play that really typified the game was Moore stealing the ball from Julian while Moore was lying on the ground. Vaughn was likely fouled but the refs damn sure weren't blowing the whistle that late in the game - further verified with Hollis's final drive, where he likely got fouled but really should have finished.
The Silver Lining Award:
No loss is a good loss, but this loss is fine. The Hoyas played a good team and likely Conference champion in their home gym and nearly won the game despite playing like ass. Vaughn established himself as a reasonably reliable presence inside, and The Hoya Trinity will be better than that.
The Distance of the Horizon Award for Perspective:
The following paragraph: who cares that we lost to a good out-of-conference team on the road? It doesn't matter! Oh, now Feinstein can leave us unranked on his next AP ballot and Luke Winn can drop us a few notches in his precious power rankings (we mean precious in a good way! thanks for the shout-out!) But none of this matters a bit. We saw some of the team's mettle in an off night and it didn't look good. It could look even worse at Memphis. But until it is early March and a loss is the difference between leaving MSG and bumping into Bob Huggins on Seventh Avenue and KICKING HIM SQUARELY IN THE NUTS BECAUSE WE WON, or not doing so because we lost, than honestly, we shall not get worked up about this.
WHY THE HELL IS IT SNOWING IN WASHINGTON, DC AWARD:
I guess this isn't really an award but the point has been made. Screw you Mother Nature. And Al Gore.
Two Chicks, One Game Watch Award:
Recognition for the two Hoyas in formal attire that showed up at the Terrible Temple Game Watch last night and claimed they read the blog. You have been outed. And I gave you witty suggestions on handles. Now comment.
David Hasselhoff Award for Being Awesome Drunks:
To sixty-ish folks that showed up to the game watch at Iron Horse last night. Advise in the comments if you want to schedule something for Memphis and/or Notre Dame holiday away games.
Gratuitous picture of Audrina Patridge Award:
Ta-dow.
The Georgetown Hoyas are an undefeated a nationally ranked powerhouse.
Appalachian State is NeXt.
Everything about that game was ugly
Offense, defense, and temple’s fans
by BC07 on Dec 9, 2010 11:01 PM EST reply actions 2 recs