View From My Couch: Hoyas Defeat DePaul

Happy Hoyas New Year Rockin' Eve, Eve

When you go to the Chicago area to play DePaul, you have to come back home with a win.  And on of the final days of 2015, that's exactly what Georgetown did by opening up their BIG EAST season with a 70-58 victory.  I'm not sure it was the greatest win in the world but that doesn't matter as the Hoyas basically put away the Blue Demons on both sides of halftime to go three games above .500!

For Starters - Tre Campbell got the second start of his career against DePaul tonight as JT3 finally shuffled up the starters.  Even though Campbell had a pretty nondescript stat line by going scoreless with two assists, one turnover, and two steals in 18 minutes, I'd say that it's important to get another ball handler on the court at the start of games. 

It seemed to be to DSR's benefit as the senior guard got going early on and snapped out of a recent frigid shooting slump by hitting on 5 of 12 shots from the field and both of his 3-pointers.

Cameron - I didn't see Georgetown tweet or email anything official about it but if we can believe Dickey Simpkins it sounds as if Paul White had a setback with his injury tonight even though he was dressed and on the bench.  With White out, Cameron scored nine points on three 3-pointers in 32 minutes of action.  It was the fourth time this season that Cameron hit multiple shots from deep and he came up just two minutes short of matching his career high of 34 minutes that he set in a home loss to Seton Hall his freshman season.

Bench Power - The aforementioned Cameron and the newly reassigned L.J. Peak accounted for 23 of the Hoyas 28 bench points against DePaul.  In fact Peak was one of three Hoyas in double figures with 14 points and hit 2 of 4 from 3-point range despite coming into the game shooting just 28 percent from that distance.  It was Peak's second multi 3-point game of the season. 

From Deep - Five different players hit at least one 3-pointer as Georgetown shot 44 percent (10-for-23) from deep despite shooting under than 40 percent overall from the field.  The Hoyas made just one more shot from inside the arc than outside.  DSR, Copeland, Peak, and Cameron all had multiple 3-pointers while Marcus Derrickson was 1-for-3.  JT3 needs more out of Derrickson although the frosh played just 12 minutes tonight.  Tonightmight have been a bit of fool's gold in terms of percentages but it was good to see DSR become more selective in his shots.  DSR had been just 3-for-22 in the last two games but was a perfect on both attempts against the Blue Demons.

Areas of Concern - For me these remain the same.  The assist to turnovers remain nearly 1:1 as the Hoyas had 15 assists to 13 turnovers tonight.  For a team that doesn't really run a lot of set plays for its stars, the ball movement just isn't good enough to run the Princeton type offense.  I'm also concerned with the amount of ball fakes and pump fakes that result in defenders leaving their feet too easy.  Hayes did his part in the middle by having three blocks and just using his big body to turn away some of the penetration.  The Hoyas did hold DePaul to just 39 percent from the field and 3-of-9 from deep. Georgetown picked up eight steals - DSR had 3 - as DePaul committed 14 turnovers.  I'm also a bit freighted at times with the inbounding situation.  It seems to be Cameron's job right now but it's kinda shaky at times and doesn't inspire much confidence.  Maybe it's a roll he'll grow into although I'm not sure who else I want doing it assuming that Paul White isn't on the court.