Letter to the Editor: ‘Georgetown: New Big East Standard-Bearer, or Pallbearer?’

Georgetown: New Big East Standard-Bearer, or Pallbearer?

By: Gimme Shelton

OK, that headline doesn't really make sense. But then again, neither do any of JT3's increasingly inane, self-serving post-game comments and excuses. The fact is that the men's basketball conference has flourished since the founding of the New Big East prior to the 2013-2104 season - DESPITE our Hoyas, the New Big East's supposed flagship program, having fallen flat on their collective faces during that time. Just how badly have the Hoyas failed our NBE-brethren since the formation of the league? Sadly, the numbers speak for themselves - as seen below. While Georgetown's 4-14 record over the past 18 games is, in itself, historically abysmal, and reasonable grounds for advocating for the dismissal of JT3, for those who consider this to be too small of a sample size take a look at the following statistics covering the last 3+ years (i.e., since the NBE was formed):

Georgetown aggregate team record beginning in 2013-14: 57-48 (54%)

Record Vs. Teams in the New Big East: 29-31 (48%)

Record Vs New Big East Teams other than DePaul and St Johns: 18-28 (39%)!!

Record in Total Away Games: 10-21 (32%)

Record in Neutral-Site Games: 10-11 (48%)

Aggregate team record for all games outside of D.C.: 20-32 (38%)

New BE Record in "close games" (5 -points or less, or OT): 7-12 (37%)

Record vs Villanova: 1-6

Record vs Xavier: 2-5

Record vs Providence: 1-5

Not only haven't we been the standard-bearer of the New Big East since it's inception, as we'd promised (implicitly or otherwise), we have, instead, been in the bottom half of the league during that time - and are still trending down. And we've been embarrassingly uncompetitive against the actual NBE leaders during this period - Villanova and Xavier (3-11, or a 21% winning percentage). These frightful numbers are more befitting of Halloween than Thanksgiving. And, sadly, the first 6 games of this year have to lead one to believe that these already pitiful results are likely to get even worse this season. It doesn't take a statistician to conclude that these results over the 3+ years of the NBE are statistically-significant - and not in a good way.

For those who rationalize that we will never be Kentucky, Duke, UNC or Kansas - fine. But this is a red herring. There is absolutely NO reason that we can't be at least on the same level as Villanova and Xavier. And, as the numbers show, since the NBE was formed we haven't even been close - and everything that we've seen so far this year indicates that this isn't going to change anytime soon.

Since the end of 2012-2013 the entire roster, except for Bradley Hayes, and the entire coaching staff, except for Kevin Broadus, have changed. I don't think that any Hoya fan would pin our failures since on either of them. If this were Clue, then, the answer as to why Georgetown has woefully underperformed since the formation of the New Big East would seem to be: Mr. Thompson III, on the bench, with a crappy game plan.