Sleeping with the Enemy: The Johnnies

Your Fighting Hoyas of Georgetown are back after a one week hiatus to take on the Johnnies at The World's Most Famous Arena and as usual we here at THE GLOBAL PHENOMENON are bringing you everything you need to know about Georgetown's next opponent.  Here with us to chat about St. John's is our good buddy Rumble in the Garden, your source for all of your Red Storm needs. Let's do this!

Well, well, well. What a difference a week makes for you guys, huh?

What a difference not playing Georgetown makes, too!

The Hoyas throttled the Johnnies in our last matchup. What is it about Georgetown that frustrates St. John's?

Length and organization. The Hoyas bottle up D`Angelo Harrison fairly well, stay home on defense, get back in transition, and provide a forest worth of long arms to make the St. John's staples - getting transition points in end-to-end chaos and shooting long twos - a lot harder than they are against any other team.

It's sometimes hard to watch. Speaking of...

Speaking of our last matchup, the game was tight about halfway through the 1st half before Rysheed Jordan picked up a tech and the Hoyas went on a run. Before you could come up for air Georgetown was up by nearly 20 points. The question - how come Steve Lavin never called a single timeout during the entire game? Discuss.

I mean, what was Lavin going to say? During televised timeout conversations he'll tell his guys to make sure they go over the top when they get to the rim (it helps, of course, if the can find a way to get to the rim in the first place, but that's not germane to this statement, really), but he knows that few of his players have the size and leaping ability to get over the top of the Hoyas.

Or maybe he was admiring the way Georgetown plays?

Or waiting for them to tire out and for the Johnnies to take advantage?

Maybe his advice involved a brand new play and game plan and he realized he needed a full practice to tell them, so he saved it for now? You know, for the drama?

Neil Patrick Harris couldn't save the Oscars. Is the show beyond salvation at this point or do you have any ideas as to what might make it work again?

SNOORRRRRREEEEEEEEEEE

It's a pageant, not of art, but of the marketing power of wealthy studios' unorganic products. Boring. I'd rather watch... well, I hate awards shows. They have to really struggle to be entertaining; if not they are a self-congratulatory festival, an excuse for ball gowns and drunken tirades. Like this one I'm writing.

This is a huge game for the Johnnies and with a win you'd finish no worse than .500 in the Conference and likely get off the Bubble. Simply put, you need this game. How nervous for this game are you and what snacks and or drinks are you likely to consume during it?

Not nervous. I will imbibe, but I feel like I expect so little when St. John's plays Georgetown now that competence gets applause and winning gets teary singalongs.

I am only sort of kidding.

Truthfully, now that they have knocked off Xavier twice, I think the team is looking solid, assuming they win at Marquette. After typing that sentence, I'm now thinking that I would feel much better about the team's NCAA chances with a win against Georgetown. Because this team is so thin, so dependent on imposing a certain kind of game on opponents, that they could definitely lose a late evening road game in Milwaukee.

But this game doesn't have the level of desperation the Seton Hall game did (for example). If the Johnnies lose, they're not shed from the bubble like a kid's glove in the winter when she comes inside.

What is the latest TV series that you bingewatched?

For a moment I thought you saw my Facebook status update about Deadwood being such a depressing "ending", but then I realized, unlike the fine fellows at VU Hoops, we are not Facebook friends, Mr. Casual.

Earlier this week, I finished Deadwood (I've been working remotely for a few months) and geez... that was a worthwhile bingewatch but I wish it didn't leave me thinking about how humans are so ineffectual. Also, watching that as my wife and I rewatched House of Cards made me reflect on that fact that that good old Major Dad (Gerald McRaney) is the same man who creepily plays both George Hearst on Deadwood and Raymond Tusk on House of Cards.

(Casual Note: Facebook blows goats.)

Give me an outlook as to how the Johnnies are going to look next season.

Like Marquette this year but with much less talent. Actually like Virginia Tech this year. But less good.

(Casual Note: Oof.)

Final score prediction?

Pain?

St. John's brawls it close, but falls, 64-59.