ROAD TO THE TOURNEY: Looking at the Back Half of the Conference Schedule

The Georgetown Hoyas (13-9, 3-6) have 9 regular season games left and are currently knocking on the door of the NCAA Tournament Bubble. Putting forth an effort like Sunday’s second half for 80 minutes against Seton Hall on Wednesday and DePaul next Saturday would, as Patrick Ewing put it, “build on” the momentum of the win at St. John’s.

We don’t want to get too far ahead—I can feel the jinx coming, even beyond Mac McClung’s injury—but looking at the rest of the schedule, there are some tough but valuable opportunities ahead of them, with four of them against ranked opponents. Having a good conference cuts both ways.

With 5 home games and 4 on the road, the Hoyas have to hold on to some hope for a tournament berth. With high-ranking NET scores, there are plenty of opportunities for Q1 and Q2 wins, even if Georgetown does drop a game to a top-25 team. Inside the Hall reminds hoops fans that:

• Quadrant 1: Home vs. teams ranked 1-30 / Neutral vs. teams ranked 1-50 / Road vs. teams ranked 1-75
• Quadrant 2: Home vs. teams ranked 31-75 / Neutral vs. teams ranked 51-100 / Road vs. teams ranked 76-135
• Quadrant 3: Home vs. teams ranked 76-160 / Neutral vs. teams ranked 101-200 / Road vs. teams ranked 136-240
• Quadrant 4: Home vs. teams ranked 161-351 / Neutral vs. teams ranked 201-351 / Road vs. teams ranked 241-351

Cracked Sidewalks, a Marquette-centered blog, notes that, with every BIG EAST team in the top-75 NET, every road game is in Quadrant 1 and every home game is at worst in Quadrant 2 (St. John’s was top75 during the win). This means that, quantitatively, a loss to DePaul is not a bad loss and that even “[i]f they get the worst wins available, 5 wins would still give [] Georgetown 11 Q1+2 wins and no more than 1 loss outside Q1. That locks [them] in at 8-10 in league play.”

While a few wins against ranked opponents like Villanova (home), Seton Hall (Wed, home), Butler (away), and Creighton (away) would certainly help boost the overall resume, perhaps five wins against DePaul (twice), Providence (home), Xavier (home), and at Marquette (road) could be enough Q1 and Q2 wins to be dancing.

• 2/5 WED Seton Hall (Home) NET #16 Q1
• 2/8 SAT DePaul (Home) NET #59 Q2

6-DAY REST

• 2/15 SAT at Butler NET #12 Q1
• 2/19 WED Providence (Home) NET #65 Q2
• 2/22 SAT at DePaul NET #59 Q1
• 2/26 WED at Marquette NET #25 Q1
• 3/1 SUN Xavier (Home) NET #47 Q2
• 3/4 WED at Creighton NET #14 Q1
• 3/7 SAT Villanova (Home) NET #13 Q1
• 3/11-14 BIG EAST Tournament (Q1 and/or Q2 on neutral court)

Does Georgetown get 5+ wins? Is it enough? Who do you think they knock off?