The Morning After: Free Fallin'

Georgetown vs. Pittsburgh: Hoyas fall to 1-4 in Big East with 72-57 loss to No. 5 Panthers
"It's not an ideal situation," senior point guard Chris Wright said. "It's not a situation any of us envisioned at our beginning. But at this point, you can't do nothing about it. You have to step up and make plays and win games. There's no time for us to be, basically, acting like punks."

Pitt wins at Georgetown, 72-57
""I was really impressed with how quick our guys picked up their stuff," Dixon said. "Georgetown's sets are unique. Our players really jumped in and understood what they were doing. We have a smart group. They take great pride in knowing what to do."

Hoyas' troubles continue, fall to Panthers, 72-57 | Washington Examiner
"I don't want to not give them credit," Hoyas coach John Thompson III said. "So if they had a meticulous film session, God bless them, it showed up out on the court. That being said, we have option A, B, C, D. We have counters to everything. ... We have to do a better job of getting to our second, third, fourth option possibly, getting back to the mentality of, we just want a good shot."

No. 5 Pitt rolls over Georgetown - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Yeah, it's a concern," coach John Thompson III said. "We're 1-4 in the toughest league in the country. We can still fight our way out of it, and we have to fight our way out of it. But is it a concern to be 1-4? Definitely."

Georgetown vs. Pittsburgh: Have Big East defenses figured out the Hoyas?
A team that averaged 80-plus points before Big East play started has been held to fewer than 60 points in four of the last five games. With Monroe gone, there is no one to fill his shoes at Big Man U.

Hoya Prospectus: Recap: Pittsburgh 72, Georgetown 57
Georgetown is no better than a mediocre defensive team, especially in the Big East.  When they run into a smart team making tough shots inside and open looks from the arc, they're going to give up points.  But more importantly, the Hoyas are simply not making shots - looks that were dropping in OOC play are just not going down, and frustration leads to more misses and poor effort getting back in transition.  Add in missing 10 of 14 free throws in the Lift-off half and the game was mostly over at intermission.

Hoyas drop 4th Big East game; get blown out by 5th-ranked Pitt - Chamberlain | TBD.com
The Hoyas barely looked more lively for most of the second half, as Pitt pushed the lead as high as 22 points, while Georgetown never got closer than 11 points.

Pitt Handles GU as Slide Continues | The Hoya
The Hoyas are now a morbid 22-of-90 from three-point range in conference play. They shot poorly from the charity stripe as well on Wednesday night, making just 4-of-14 free throws in the first half en route to a 41-24 Pittsburgh lead at halftime.

Rush The Court " Blog Archive " ATB: Duke Gets ‘Noled Again
The Hoyas cannot win when they are not getting big games out of their best players. As good as Pitt looked tonight, especially in the first half, the blame has to fall on the Hoyas. The best teams in the country do not come out flat when the No. 5 team in the country comes to town, especially when they are coming off of a loss at home. It’s still early — the Hoyas have 13 more Big East games to right the ship — but at this point Georgetown can no longer be considered a contender in the Big East. As of now, this team needs to focus on getting enough wins to make the NCAA Tournament.

Georgetown’s expectations, not their talent, is why the Hoyas continue to disappoint | Beyond the Arc
This team isn’t playing with swagger. They don’t have the confidence or the mental toughness that you expect out of an elite basketball team. Its a cliched thing to say and I am fully aware of that, but the difference in attitude between the Panthers and the Hoyas was palpable on Wednesday night. Pitt expected to win. They played like it for 40 minutes. Even when their shots stopped dropping in the second half and Georgetown made a little bit of a run, the Panthers didn’t panic. They ran their sets and continued to defend, confident in the fact that they were prepared enough to win so long as they executed what they had practiced. The same cannot be said for the Hoyas

Pitt Basketball: Panthers Roll To 15-Point Win At Georgetown - Cardiac Hill
Having lost three out of its past four games, and with road games against Syracuse, Villanova, UConn, and Cincinnati I really expected Georgetown to put up a much bigger fight on Wednesday against Pitt. The Hoyas looked much less like a top 25 ranked team and much more like (can I say it?) a team that may miss the NCAA tournament.

Post Game Quotes - GUHoyas.com -  John Thompson
On working out of a shooting slump ... We have good shooters that haven't been making shots. That's just the nature of the game in many regards. What we have to do is have a balance in the mentality, a lot of times when we're missing shots is I'm going to shoot my way out of it. It's a balance between that confidence in yourself and understanding let's get some penetration, let's get some post ups, let's get to the foul line which will help me get out of that. Everyone just needs to get back to the basics and get some reps, that's how we get our confidence back.

 Vox Populi " Post Game Roundup: Hoyas slide continues against Pitt
Earlier this week, Washington Post beat writer Tarik El-Bashir wrote about the two major areas of concerns throughout Georgetown’s lackluster Big East play: rebounding and turnovers. Both issues were remedied tonight, but did little to get the Hoyas back on track. Pitt outrebounded Georgetown by just two boards, 34-32, and the Hoyas actually had the advantage on the offensive glass. Meanwhile, even though they turned the ball over nine times to the Panthers’ four, the Hoyas were still well under their season average of 14.4 miscues per game. The new causes for concern were free throw shooting (an abysmal 4-for-14 in the first half) and the ability for the offense to create open looks. The Hoyas managed just five assists on 19 made baskets, compared to an average assist rate of 60.7%.

Pittsburgh Panthers vs. Georgetown Hoyas - Recap - January 12, 2011 - ESPN
Georgetown didn't have a run longer than 4-0 until late in the game, when it went to a full-court press and rolled off seven straight points to cut an 18-point lead to 11 with 5 minutes remaining. Gibbs answered with a 3-pointer, and the game slowed to a crawl in a second half that included 26 fouls. Pitt went 9 for 12 from the line over the final 4 minutes, enough to keep the Hoyas from cutting the lead to single digits.

Pitt dominates Georgetown, 72-57
Pitt never trailed in the game.

Pittsburgh Vs. Georgetown: Hoyas Fall To 1-4 In The Big East After 72-57 Loss - SB Nation DC
The Georgetown Hoyas realized they should probably figure out some way to rally from the huge hole they dug themselves against the No. 5 Pittsburgh Panthers. Unfortunately, it was too late, and now, Georgetown is off to its worst start in the Big East in over a decade.

Big East showdowns turn into big blowouts | Beyond the Arc
Perhaps the most surprising final was No. 5 Pitt beating No. 22 Georgetown 72-57, in a game that wasn’t even that close. The Panthers were crisp on offense and limited the Hoyas’ Big 3 to just 31 points.

Big East's top three rise to the occasion - College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN
It’s worth remembering, too, that two seasons ago, the Hoyas started 10-1 before a disastrous 6-14 stretch to end the season, falling apart at right around the same time. And while last season's fall wasn't quite as grandiose, Georgetown did start out red-hot before tailing off to 10-8 in the Big East and a first-round flameout to Ohio.

Men’s basketball: Pitt dominates Georgetown | The Pitt News
"That was the best half I have seen any team in the nation play all year," ESPN analyst and legendary coach, Bob Knight, said of Pitt at halftime.