There is an old adage in golf that there are no pictures on the scorecard, meaning that it doesn't matter how one gets a score, as long as it is good. That adage does not apply to Georgetown basketball today. Sure, we got our first Big East victory today over an improving Depaul squad. But for 30 minutes, the Hoyas were lifeless, apathetic, and defenseless in an 86-75 victory. Austin Freeman seemed to be the only player aware that Georgetown played today, pacing the team with 21 crucial points on 12 shots. Jason Clark and Chris Wright continued to struggle shooting the basketball, but were able to find other ways to score, netting 21 points and 17 points respectively.
Depaul got 29 points from Cleveland Melvin and 24 points from Tony Freeland against the poorest defensive performance by this Georgetown team since the first round loss to Ohio last year. It is unclear why the Hoyas believe that they will shoot their way out of any deficit, but this team will not be better than .500 in the Big East if their defense continues to look like it has in the last two games. Depaul hit one three pointer all game, and were still down by only three points with eight minutes to go. If you nursed a hangover during the game and didn't get up to watch, you may be asking how they stayed in the game with no contributions from beyond the arc. The reason is because Depaul had somewhere between 80 and 7,000 uncontested layups today.
More Anger After The Jump.
Julian Vaughn got abused down low, seeming shaken by his recent foul trouble. His lateral quickness leaves something to be desired, as he continually was beaten off the dribble by guys four and five inches shorter. Vaughn has had a hard time staying on the floor this year, and doesn't seem to know how to play as the only big man on the floor. Part of this is his fault, because he picks up ticky tack fouls. Part of it is on John Thompson III because so much of the defensive responsibility down low falls on Vaughn. The next biggest player in our starting lineup is Hollis Thompson, who is too skinny to play the four in a rugged league like the Big East. I believe that Henry Sims should be starting along with Vaughn, and Hollis Thompson should be our sixth man. Sims has proven himself this year, and has been our most consistent big man. I'd rather JT3 make this change early in the Big East season and get Hollis back into his natural three position. We have seen what our interior defense does against big teams, and it isn't pretty. If we continue with this starting lineup, we have no chance of beating Pittsburgh or Syracuse.
The lackadaisical performance by the Hoyas does not excuse the pathetic showing by our "home" crowd today. The students are on Christmas break, so it is natural that the energy in the building will be less than a normal home game. But for those who were actually in the stadium, you should be ashamed. If you weren't too hungover from your New Year's Eve celebration to get in a car or take the metro to the game, you should have had enough energy to cheer. It is both frustrating and embarrassing to watch a Georgetown game on TV and see the majority of fans in the stands texting instead of paying attention to the game. No one cares about how wild and crazy your night was last night. Our players devote their college experience to playing basketball for Georgetown, and get only nine home Big East games throughout the season. They deserve better. We wrote about this last year, but it warrants mentioning again. We have the 9th best team in college basketball, we should have a home crowd that EXPLODES when Austin Freeman hits momentum swinging threes like he did late in the game today. Georgetown players are between 18 and 22 years old, they feed off the energy. It is important to our current players that our fans are loud, and it is important to the future of the program, because if I were a recruit watching the game today, I'd think Georgetown is a lame place to play college basketball.
Happy New Year.