Hire Esherick

OMG NEW BLOG OMG

2009-03-09T17:38:00.006-04:00

Well folks, it's been fun. But all good things must come to an end, but in this case I am just moving to a new, prettier and fancier venue. Check out the new blog at:

www.casualhoya.com

Be sure to sign up to be a member and participate in discussion boards. All my old postings shall be transferred over at some point so you will have something to look back at when you feel nostalgic. Pretty sure you will be able to figure out my blogging name...

For some reason, this is the only song I am singing in my head as I take this huge step in my blogging life:

Good talk.

One Last Chance

2009-03-09T13:06:00.003-04:00

The basketball gods have a cruel sense of humor. They gave Georgetown countless ways to guarantee a NCAA Tournament berth during the regular season and the Hoyas failed to take advantage of the generosity. In a final attempt to give Hoyas fans something to cheer for, the gods have given Georgetown quite possibly the easiest draw into the semifinals of the Big East Tournament. St. John's --> Marquette --> Villanova.

St. John's - the team Georgetown should have beaten and should be looking for redemption against.

Marquette - the team that has lost four straight since a season-ending injury to its star guard.

Villanova - the only team with a winning record that Georgetown has defeated in the past two months.

Big East Tournament Bracket

(Click picture to expand)

Three straight wins could potentially put Georgetown on the bubble again, but don't get your hopes up. Here's looking forward to more heart-break.

Good talk.

Sucks for Summers

2009-03-09T12:58:00.002-04:00

Congrats to Greg Monroe for being named to the Big East All-Rookie team.

Congrats to no one else on the team.

After being named to the preseason All-Big East Team, DaJuan Summers received no recognition whatsoever. Going to suck when he has to explain that to his future employer.

Good talk.

It's Finally Over

2009-03-08T20:06:00.036-04:00

The much awaited end to this season has come. JT3's worst season as a head coach and one of Georgetown's most disappointing seasons ever is officially over. It is remarkable that the same selfish and out-of-sync group of players donning the Georgetown uniforms on Saturday beat UConn in Hartford a little over two months ago. It is remarkable that this group of uninspired players has beaten four teams this season that were at some point ranked in the Top Ten. And it is remarkable that this team itself was once ranked as one of the Top Ten teams in the country and has spent nearly 70% of the season ranked in the Top 25.

Here were my preseason predictions. Not too far off on these, I was 9-4 in the major games I forecasted, two games off my 18-11 finish to the season and three games off on my 10-8 prediction for the conference season. I knew we would lose some bad ones, but never thought we would lose to Seton Hall and St. John's in the same season. If we had won one of those games we would still have a fighting shot for a tourney spot come Sunday. Now our only shot is to win four straight to be a bubble team and five straight to get an automatic bid.

Here were my midseason predictions. I was way off on these, but I was trying to predict the sloppy and sporadic play we saw through the first half. I knew we would lose a really bad game and win a really good one. I just thought it would be a South Florida loss and Syracuse win instead of the actual St. John's loss and Villanova win.

For the midseason review, I split the conference season into two types, Good Georgetown and Bad Georgetown. Not every win was good (Providence) and not every loss was bad (Notre Dame). But for the end of the season, there aren't enough games considered to be good to make any type of statistical comparison relevant. The only good wins were UConn, Syracuse and South Florida. The other four wins were horribly played games where we pretty beat a much weaker opponent (South Florida, DePaul and Rutgers) or we lucked out (Villanova). So instead, I will just split the conference season into games we won and games we lost and look at the difference in the teams through the same six categories.

Fouls
Good Georgetown committed 17 infractions a game, whereas Bad Georgetown committed 19. Opponents of Good Georgetown (teams that lost to us) averaged 11 points from the line and opponents of Bad Georgetown (teams that beat us) averaged 16 points. But the numbers are all over the place; in the loss to Pitt, the Panthers only made 3 foul shots, whereas Marquette scored 30 from the line when they beat us for the first time.

Turnovers
Good Georgetown averaged 16.1 giveaways which were converted into 15.9 points by opponents. Those figures are skewed by the Villanova win where Georgetown had a season high 23 turnovers and miraculously won the game. Bad Georgetown averaged 13.4 turnovers a game which were converted into 17.8 points by opponents. So Good Georgetown actually had more turnovers, but opponents were less likely to take advantage of the mishaps.

Good Georgetown averaged 18.3 points off of 15.3 turnovers by opponents, whereas Bad Georgetown averaged only 12.7 points off of 12.6 turnovers by opponents. So Bad Georgetown was more likely to have Chris Wright throw a layup off the bottom of the rim after a turnover.

Passing
Assist to turnover ratios for Good and Bad Georgetown were the same; both were below one, a telling sign since we run an offense so dependent on precise passing. This marks the first time a JT3-led Georgetown team has had more turnovers than assists in a season.

64% of the field goals for Good Georgetown were created by assists whereas only 54% of field goals for Bad Georgetown had the same attribute. Seems logical, Bad Georgetown had a tendency to forget the principles of its offense (i.e. Summers shooting off balance jump shots with 25 seconds left on the shot clock whilst trying to impress NBA scouts with his lack of an outside game).

Rebounding
Both Good and Bad Georgetown were badly rebounded on the offensive glass, embarrassing since they normally had a height advantage over the teams they played. Major problem for this season and probably will be in the future until Monroe learns how to... wait for it... BOX IT OUT.

With the offense we run, it is okay to not get many offensive rebounds since we take high percentage shots. But there is no excuse to allow opponents to hit the offensive boards as much as they do. We are not a running, up-tempo offense; there is no need for our five players to be out of position when a shot goes up. Opponents realized this very early on and took advantage. Opponents of Bad Georgetown took five more jumpers and three pointers than opponents of Good Georgetown.

Defense
Opponents of Good Georgetown averaged 10 assists a game and had an assist to turnover ratio of 0.65. Opponents of Bad Georgetown averaged 15.5 assists a game and had an assist to turnover ratio of 1.22. That is where the games were lost. We were unable to shutdown opponents' best players and often were unable to get a defensive stop in critical times. Good passing leads to easy buckets, something that affected Georgetown on both sides of the court.

Good Georgetown gave up 56 points a game (very skewed by Rutgers, South Florida and DePaul games but those make up half our wins...) and Bad Georgetown gave up 74 (also skewed by the three overtime losses).

Offense
Good Georgetown averaged 67 points a game and Bad Georgetown averaged 65. Good Georgetown shot 50% from the field whereas Bad Georgetown shot 43%. Surprisingly, both types of teams took and made the same types of shots. Of Good Georgetown's 49 shot attempts a game, 58% were layup/dunks, 25% were three pointers and 16% were jump shots. Of their 24 field goals a game, 45% were layup/dunks, 34% were three pointers and 21% were jump shots.

Of Bad Georgetown's 55 shot attempts a game, 56% were layup/dunks, 25% were three pointers and 19% were jump shots. Of their 24 field goals a game, 45% were layup/dunks, 34% were three pointers and 21% were jump shots. Interesting that despite the opponent, we still managed to do the same thing on offense, miss the shot.

Summary
What does all this mean? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, so sorry for wasting your time. It really comes down to intangibles. It comes down to execution in crunch time, it comes down to making the play when it counts and it comes down to heart. Georgetown has shown all of the above at different times this season but was never really able to put it together for a meaningful streak (we haven't won two in a row since Jan. 14). Before this season, JT3 was 5-1 in overtime games at Georgetown and had won his last three conference overtime matches. This season, JT3 was 1-3 in overtime games and lost all three conference overtime matches.

Syracuse found a way to regroup in overtime against us in order to thwart a crushing and historic collapse. We couldn't find a way to do that against St. John's. Good teams find ways to win when it matters. People call it luck but at the end of the day it is really about confidence in yourself and trust in your teammates. This team severely lacks both.

A quote to sum it up:

"We've got a serious challenge on our hands and I've got a young team."

As said by JT3 in a preseason press conference when asked about his expectations for this season.

Good talk.

Game 29 - DePaul

2009-03-08T12:56:00.002-04:00

This miserable season is finally over and Georgetown ended it in fitting fashion, playing quite possibly its worst and least inspired basketball of the season. To say this game was ugly is an understatement.

A look at the Big season as a whole will come later, but there are only a few stats that say it all about this game:

- Greg Monroe shot attempts: 2 (all in first half)
- Greg Monroe shots made: 2
- DaJuan Summers three point attempts: 7
- DaJuan Summers three pointers made: 1
- Fewest amount of points scored by Georgetown in a Big East, regular season win

Good talk.

Change is Coming

2009-03-06T12:04:00.000-05:00

Hire Esherick is moving websites shortly. The change should be seamless, all my absurd posts, biased rants and offensive statements will be archived on the new site. The new venue will have more features including a discussion board, picture, video and quote sections and quick links to Hoya Basketball information. And followers will have more ability to interact and voice opinions, including remarks that I am most likely two tacos short of a combo meal. I will also have a similarly delusional blogging buddy, who will represent my first non-inflatable friend!

Be excited. Change is a comin'.

Good talk.

More Fuel to the Fire

2009-03-05T22:12:00.010-05:00

Former class of 2009 Hoya commit DaShonte Riley has just committed to Syracuse. Congrats to the 6'11'' idiot. No better place to get attention as a big man than Syracuse.

Let's take a look at the most notable Hoya and Orange big men over the last thirty years. Here is a list of centers post-1980 that have played in the NBA.

Georgetown
Craig Shelton
Patrick Ewing
Dikembe Mutombo
Alonzo Morning
Othello Harrington
Jahidi White
Jerome Williams
Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje
Mike Sweetney
Roy Hibbert

Syracuse
Roosevelt Bouie
Danny Schayes
Rony Seikaly
Derrick Coleman

Well thought out DaShonte. Maybe 'Cuse was the right decision for you, academically speaking of course. Look forward to laughing at you for the next four years.

Good talk.

Hip Hip Hooray!

2009-03-05T10:49:00.012-05:00

The normally reliable and accurate NBADraft.net has taken Greg Monroe and DaJuan Summers off their list of prospects for the 2009 draft. Both had been lottery picks for most of the year and if they decided to leave after this tragedy of a season, the Hoya program would be in shambles. Imagine a starting lineup of Clark, Wright, Freeman, Thompson and Vaughn. I just cried into my own puke after thinking Vaughn could be a starter.

Both, however, are listed as lottery picks in 2010 draft. Summers will be forced to leave since will be a senior but I am hoping Greg stays at least three years. But that is for a discussion next year, when we hopefully have a couple of off-days in rounds 1 and 2 of the Big East Tournament.

The Big East is projected to have 11 players taken in this year's draft, more than any other conference. I already discussed the experience of this year's conference, a look at what to expect next year will come soon.

Good talk.

More Music for the Soul

2009-03-04T13:49:00.010-05:00

There are five things I was told that I would have to abide by in order to enter the blog world:
(1) You cannot plagiarize,
(2) You cannot do anything but play Dungeons & Dragons on Friday nights,
(3) You cannot deny that you wear sweatpants all the time,
(4) You cannot deny that you live in your grandmother's basement,
And most importantly,
(5) You cannot mess with Kelly songs.

Well I had enough of this season so I am going to tempt fate and take off my sweatpants and move out. And I am also going to re-write a Kelly song. Presented for your auditory pleasure: My March Is Free Because of You by my future wife.

Guess this means it's over,
Our tourney hopes are naught.
Guess this means N-I-T,
Cause you miss foul shots.
Never had a leader,
No one would step up.
Cause you couldn't box out,
I'm left to cry and pout.

Lost to St. John's and Seton Hall, yeah.
I can't believe this huge downfall, yeah.
I put my faith in you,
And it fell through.
My March is free because of you.

Maybe I was naive,
For believin' we were fine.
Maybe I was dumb for,
Trustin' such young guys.
I know we had some bright spots,
But we had some bad ones too.
Now my heart is broken,
I'm empty thanks to you.

Lost to St. John's and Seton Hall, yeah.
I can't believe this huge downfall, yeah.
I put my faith in you,
And it fell through.
My March is free because of you.

Watching you play,
Takes years off my life.
Have to hope that next year,
Will rid me of this strife.
Oh yeah.

Lost to St. John's and Seton Hall, yeah.
I can't believe this huge downfall, yeah.
I put my faith in you,
And it fell through.
My March is free because of you.

Good talk.

Game 28 - St. John's

2009-03-03T20:31:00.006-05:00

The sky is really falling this time.

The inexperienced Hoyas square off with the banged-up Red Storm in a battle of traditional Big East powers. That was Comcast's description of this game. And they could not be more spot on.

Free throws and rebounds lost it for us. Don't really want to look at the numbers because it will make me sick. But that is one of JT3's worst games of his career. And the only positive in this disaster is that since we are unranked, no one will really care that Georgetown just collapsed in historic fashion.

And oh, Greg Monroe, the 2008 Parade High School Player of the Year, got outplayed by a 6'6'' player that averaged 13 minutes and 6 points a game. His name was Rob Thomas. And he tore my heart out and spat on it. And then sang a duet with Santana.

If anyone needs me I will be in my car with the windows down and the exhaust funneling in sweet fumes of serenity.

Good talk.

Speechless

2009-03-03T09:24:00.003-05:00

Cause I'm laughing too hard. Is this the next logical step for my songs?

Special shout-out to follower Sweet 16 for passing along this gem.

Good talk.

Calhoun Follow-Up

2009-03-02T18:00:00.006-05:00

Well I might not agree with the name of his site (I did at the end of January and for most of February and all of 2002-2004), but I certainly agree with the results of his investigative reporting.

Here is reason number two why Jim Calhoun is a dirtbag courtesy of Hoya Suxa: He is a liar.

Reason number one is because he is dirty coach (link attached for those that don't remember my Happy Holidays post).

Kudos to Hoya Suxa. Only for the next 2 minutes... And I'm over it.

Good talk.

Big East Tourney Quick Look

2009-03-02T10:16:00.011-05:00

With all 16 teams making the trip up to MSG this year, the Big East Tournament has become a five-day marathon. The top four teams get a double-bye until Thursday and teams ranked 4-8 get a single-bye. Georgetown, due to it piss-poor play in late January and most of February has no shot of being ranked anything above 10th going into the conference tournament.

To add insult to injury for the back-to-back regular season champions, the first-round games will not even be televised. But they can be viewed online www.BigEast.org.

So where will Georgetown end up? Right now we are tied for 11th with Seton Hall, who has the tiebreaker over the Hoyas since they beat us head-to-head. I just teared up when I wrote that. Georgetown has two games left, against St. John's and winless DePaul. Seton Hall plays at Louisville and Cincinnati. They should lose both of those matches and assuming that we do not collapse in Esherick-like fashion in the final two games, we should have sole possession of the 11th spot come Sunday. We are currently a game out of the 10th spot and would need a lot of help to take sole possession. Since Notre Dame has the tie-breaker over us, we would need to win both of our games, and them to lose both of their games. They play both Villanova and St. John's at home, where they are 12-2 this year.

So assuming the 11th spot, four spots behind our pre-season predicted finish, we could play the 14th seed in Round 1 of the Tournament. South Florida currently occupies the 14th spot and has no way to more higher than that as they are two games out of the 13th spot (St. John's) and has already lost to them this season. They can fall to the 15th spot if Rutgers beats Syracuse tomorrow and then beats South Florida on Saturday. Unlikely scenario but don't put it by Cuse to choke. So the Tuesday matchup would put us against a South Florida team that we defeated by 15 points earlier in February.

After that, we would play the 6th seed, which is currently Providence. Given the current standings and records, there are a total of 5 teams that could end up in that spot, Villanova, Providence, Syracuse, West Virginia and Cincinnati, but tie-breakers would most likely lead Providence back to the top spot. Unless... Nova loses to Notre Dame and then loses to Providence, in which case there is a shot of us playing Nova again in the second round. I probably could figure out the tie-breakers but I really don't want to so I will just caveat everything I say by probably and could and maybe. Or we can just see what SportsCenter has to say:

No point in pondering over the far future when our fate could be determined tomorrow. Fun times.

Good talk.

Game 27 - Villanova Part Deux

2009-03-01T22:04:00.007-05:00

Still living off a high of actually beating a ranked team in a close game. Quick look at the numbers and trends below:

- Welcome back DaJuan, although you had 8 turnovers, the most you have ever committed in a game.
- Welcome Nikita - although you still scare me when you have the ball.
- 23 turnovers, 25 including the two team turnovers - most this season, by far.
- More turnovers than rebounds, quite a remarkable feat. Georgetown was more likely to hand the ball over to the other team than chase down the ball after a missed shot (which there were a lot of).
- Assist to turnover ratio of 0.65, one of our worst for the season.
- But Nova had a ratio of 0.45, along with 20 turnovers.
- Despite having one player over 6'6'', Villanova out-rebounded us.
- Second largest differential in shooting percentages against a Big East opponent this season.
- Fewest amount of layups/dunks we have missed against a Big East opponent this season.
- We average 11 misses, we only had 5 against Nova.
- And I wore the hat again for the first time this season.

Many people asked for it so here it is: We are gonna lose to St. John's.

Good talk.

Game 27 - Villanova

2009-02-28T14:11:00.005-05:00

Only one thing to say and it was astutely stated by T^3 as he sat on my couch nervously chewing on his red Burger King straw: Disgusting.

God was on our side in this one.

And Jay Wright was wearing purple.

Good talk.

The Sky is Falling - Part Three: Expectations

2009-02-27T12:08:00.018-05:00

This season sucked. The way the players wore out at the end. The way the fans gave up on the team. The way the students stopped showing up to home games. The way the message boards are plastered with posts questioning the team's effort, the team's conditioning, the team's preparation and the team's coach. I too have many times complained about all of the above throughout the season but sometimes you need to take a step back and look at the big picture.

I remember when Georgetown was a joke. I remember when a UConn fan asked me outside of Madison Square Garden before the 2004 Big East Tournament if Georgetown was still playing Division 1 basketball. I remember when I would be excited for our games to be broadcast on TV; I still have the tape of the time we played Cal State Fullerton in the second round of the NIT in 2005 and it was broadcast on ESPN. I remember when I asked President DeGioia why he gave Esherick a contract extension, as the room full of ass-kissers gasped that I would have the audacity to question the President of our beloved and perfect University. And I remember when we lost the last nine games of the 2003-2004 season. Here's the last six years as I remember it:

- In 2004, Georgetown failed to make a post-season tournament.
- In 2005 Georgetown had its first year under a brand new coach and had incredible, invigorating and inspiring wins against Pittsburgh, Villanova and Notre Dame.
- In 2006, Georgetown went to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.
- In 2007, Georgetown went to the Final Four for the first time in 22 years.
- In 2008, Georgetown won its second consecutive Big East regular season title, the first time in school history.
- In 2009, after losing three key players and having three players from the 2007 Final Four team drafted by NBA teams, fans are worried about the state of the program. They are worried about the team consisting of mostly of freshmen and sophomores who this season defeated two teams currently ranked in the top 5 and have played the hardest schedule in the history of the program.

Lofty expectations lead to disappointment. Disappointment leads to rationalization. Rationalization leads to optimism or anger. For the first time ever as a Georgetown fan, I am sticking with optimism. We will be good. Very good. This is 2005 all over again. And look where that ended up.

Hopefully this isn't where the delusional part of my tagline comes into play.

We're going to lose tomorrow. And it will not be pretty. But that's ok. The future is bright.

Good talk.

The Sky is Falling - Part Two: Consistency

2009-02-25T22:45:00.002-05:00

So we are young. If you look at the current top eight teams in the Big East, seven of them also rank as the most experienced in the league. The only young team included in top half of the standings is West Virginia, which replaces Notre Dame, an experienced team that is in the lower half of the standings. But next on the docket is the notion that somehow this season ruins any chance of JT3 and Georgetown building a true program, and that we have taken a step back from the turnaround over the past four years. But first a story.

A team enters the season with 8 freshman and 5 sophomores. Every analyst in the country has labeled them as "very young and very talented." They are ranked 18th in the preseason polls. After tearing through their November and December schedule they find themselves at 11-0 and ranked 9th in the national polls. Young, energetic and excited about the national attention, they open their conference schedule with a loss on the road. They climb back by winning their next 2 out of 3 conference games, but sandwiched in-between those games is a road loss to an out of conference ranked opponent. They are now sitting 12-3, ranked 23rd in the national polls. They win an easy road game against a bottom-feeder conference foe to rebuild confidence and momentum. With 14 games left in the season the young team runs out of steam. They lose 10 out of those 14 games, including 8 to unranked teams. The stretch consists of a five game losing streak and ends with a three game losing streak. They lose in the first round of their conference tournament and do not go to a post season tournament for the first time in twenty years. The season is a major disappointment and fans of the program wonder what went wrong.

This team was the 2006-2007 UConn Huskies. A program three years removed from winning their second National Championship in a six year span. Two years later that same group of young and talented freshman and sophomores are now experienced and NBA-bound juniors and seniors. They have won 26 out of 28 games so far this season, been consistently ranked as one of the top five teams in the nation and are on the brink of being ranked #1 in the country on Monday.

Sticking with the UConn program, two years after winning the first national championship in school history in 1999, they failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. They eventually lost in the second round of the NIT to the Titans of Detroit Mercy. I will repeat. The Detroit Mercy Titans. Three years after that shocking and embarrassing loss, they won the national championship again.

One of the most storied and legendary basketball programs in NCAA history has a similar story. In 2005, North Carolina won its fourth national championship. This was also the school's 16th Final Four appearance, a record at the time. The team was led by a talented group of juniors and seniors who as freshman, failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. They ended the 2003 season by losing to Georgetown in the quarterfinals of the NIT.

The UNC story is also a good way to address a point Anonymous made after the Louisville game. In response to my argument that a program wins national championships, not a team, Anonymous responded "Agree, but this team will hurt the program by scaring recruits away." The three UNC juniors that won in 2005 were recruited to the program in 2001-2002. While being recruited, they saw Matt Doherty run the storied program into the ground. While seniors in high school, UNC failed to qualify for a post-season tournament and accumulated a 8-20 record, the first losing season in 40 years for the program. They stuck with their commitment, even after the coach that had recruited them was fired and those three Doherty recruits ended up bringing the UNC program back to national prominence.

Recruits commit to a program, a coach, a system and a story. And not all of those have to stay constant for them to remain interested in a particular school. I am hard-pressed to believe that a high school player is scared away by a losing season. A look at the recent post-season tournament history of the current top 25 illustrates that point:

# 2 Connecticut - Nothing in 2007
#3 Oklahoma - NIT in 2004
#4 Memphis - NIT in 2005
# 6 Louisville - NIT in 2006
# 8 Missouri - Nothing in 2006, 2007, 2008; NIT in 2004, 2005
#10 Marquette - NIT in 2004, 2005
#11 Arizona St. - NIT in 2008; Nothing in 2006, 2007
#12 Villanova - NIT in 2004
#13 Clemson - NIT in 2006, 2007
#14 Wake Forest - Nothing in 2007, 2008
#16 Purdue - Nothing in 2006
#18 LSU - Nothing in 2007, 2008
#19 UCLA - Nothing in 2004
#20 Illinois - Nothing in 2008
#21 Washington - CBI in 2008, Nothing in 2007
#22 Xavier - Nothing in 2005
#23 Butler - NIT in 2006
#25 Florida St. - NIT in 2008, 2007, 2006

So 75% of the teams voted to be the Top 25 teams in the country today have some point in the last 5 years failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Nearly 50% have failed to qualify at some point in the last 3 years. And nearly 30% failed to qualify last year alone. Now I realize five or any stretch of consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances is indeed a great feat but the above is to just refute the point that a bad season scares recruits away. If this were the case, none of the teams that failed to make even a post-season tournament appearance in previous years would be able to attract recruits to bring them to a Top 25 ranking today.

All teams go through dry spells. That is what happens when you have a work force that loses it's most experienced workers every year. But what creates a program is the ability for players to learn and build off of a bad year.

Consistent programs get to the Sweet Sixteen every year. They have good underclassmen and reliable upperclassmen. Great programs win National Championships. They take those good underclassmen and mold them into unstoppable upperclassmen. The jury is still out on which program JT3 runs.

The Sky is Falling - Part Three: Expectations to come later.

Good talk.

The Sky is Falling - Part One: Youth

2009-02-24T22:35:00.003-05:00

I think this is the perfect opportunity to mention to those new to the website or that have not already figured it out, that the name of this blog is a joke. A very bad joke since the Georgetown season has now dropped to the point where people actually think I am serious when I say Hire Esherick. But to all of those who are running to the bunkers and stocking up on canned tomatoes and powdered milk to survive the nuclear winter that is now Georgetown basketball, I offer the following: This season has been a major disappointment and we have played poorly, but why were we expecting anything different?

After our loss at home to Cincinnati, which was our sixth loss in seven games, our first overtime loss in four years and our first overtime loss at home since 2003, I mentioned that all programs go through slumps. I tried to rationalize that teams that have as much attrition as we had last season take time to rebuild the program. I am going to expand on this a little further. And I know there are plenty of ways to debate, refute and argue what I am about to propose, so I welcome all the naysayers. And I also accept that this year has been particularly hard by the seemingly careless, selfish and lackadaisical play by some of our supposed leaders. And for those who know me, I am always the last to drink the Kool-Aid and always see the downside in everything so maybe I am on to something here...

Youth
Much has been said about the lack of experience of the Georgetown team. We have 2 upperclassmen on scholarship, a starting lineup that consists of 1 senior, 1 junior, 2 sophomores (one of whom missed 18 games last year due to injury) and 1 freshman, and a bench that consists of 2 sophomores (one red-shirted last year), 2 freshman and 1 transfer. Before the match against Louisville, Barker Davis of the Washington Times wrote:

According to basketball analyst Ken Pomeroy, Georgetown's roster ranks 314th among 344 Division I programs and 14th in the Big East with an average of 1.12 years of experience. Given that Pomeroy credits Mescheriakov with a season of experience, Wright with a season (though he was injured throughout league play in his freshman campaign), and seldom-used walk-on Bryon Jansen with a season, Georgetown is even younger than 1.12 years suggest.

Youth equals energy which equals more late game spurts and wins right? Let's take a look at the last four NCAA Tournament Champions, and the experience of their starting squads and benches. To add transparency to my madness I'll set forth the following definitions:

Starting Team - players ranked in the top five in minutes per game for the season
Bench - players not included in the starting team that average ten or more minutes per game
Contributor - player that averages 10 or more minutes a game
Experience - 3 years for seniors, 2 years for juniors, 1 year for sophomores and 0 years for freshman
Age Classification - as listed on roster, regardless of injury, transfer or red-shirt status
(Note: Not the same as Pomeroy calculations)

Some things to note from the above:
- In the past four years, there have only been two freshmen that have contributed to a national championship team.
- Georgetown currently has two freshmen contributors.
- They have three freshmen contributors if Nikita were counted as a freshman, since he red-shirted last year.
- They have four freshmen contributors if you consider that Omar averaged three minutes of playing time as a freshman, the least amount any sophomore contributor averaged in the previous year. The average sophomore contributor saw twenty minutes of playing time as a freshman.
- They have five freshmen contributors if you factor in that Wright missed 18 games last year.
- On average, 71% of a championship winning team's contributors are upperclassmen.
- 25% of Georgetown's contributors are upperclassmen.
- On average, a championship winning team has 2 upperclassmen bench players.
- Georgetown has 0 upperclassmen bench players.
- The 2008-09 Georgetown starting five has 32% less experience than the average starting five of the past four national champions.
- The 2008-09 Georgetown bench has 227% less experience than the average bench of the past four national champions.
- The 2008-09 Georgetown team has 75% less experience than the average team of the past four national champions.
- Take away a freak Florida team that won back-to-back championships with a roster that included three of the top nine players selected in the 2007 NBA draft and two additional players drafted later in the first and second rounds, this Georgetown team has nearly half the experience of an average winning team.

Before you say it, I'll try and address the comment first. Yes, there is a difference between the current Georgetown team and a national champion. So below is the same analysis applied to Big East Tournament Champions of the past four years.

Teams that have won the Big East Championship have starting teams with the same average experience as NCAA Tournament Champions, but average less experience on the bench. The current Georgetown team is still vastly younger than the average Big East Tournament Champion, by over 40%.

So we are young. Very young by champion standards. Equate that downwards and maybe we are right about where we should be in the standings. Now add on the fact that JT3 runs an incredibly complicated offense; an offense so complicated that Pete Carril, the coach attributed to creating the offensive scheme, had trouble teaching it to NBA players when he was an assistant coach at Sacramento. Don't forget about losing three seniors contributors from last season. And oh yeah, we played one of the toughest schedules in the country. What were we really expecting?

The Sky is Falling - Part Two - to come later in the week.

Good talk.

Game 26 - Louisville

2009-02-23T22:34:00.005-05:00

Before the game I half-jokingly mentioned that when we lost, I hoped it would be by a lot so I wouldn't have the nagging heart-broken feeling I have had after the past six losses. The same feeling where I get my hopes up after we amount an impressive comeback and end up losing due to lack of clutch shooting and poor ball control. Well we lost tonight, by a lot. And I still feel awful.

Granted we started fouling with 2 minutes to go in the game, tonight is still tied for our worst home defeat in JT3's career at Georgetown. How bad was it? Well after we lost of West Virginia by 17 points way back in January (that was only our 5th loss of the year) I outlined previous games in which we got destroyed. Below is the updated version.
- Largest margin of defeat since losing at UConn by 19 points on March 2, 2005, 136 games ago. This was JT3's first year.
- Tied for the largest margin of defeat at home since losing to Temple by 18 points on November 22, 2004, 77 home games ago. This was also in JT3's first year.
- Largest margin of defeat at home since losing to Duke by 19 points on January 24, 2004, 78 home games ago. This was in Craig Esherick's last year.
- Largest margin of defeat at home against a Big East opponent since losing to Notre Dame by 23 points on March 4, 2000, 65 home Big East games ago. This was in Craig Esherick's first full year as head coach.

That pretty much says it all but first a comment on DaJuan Summers. It is clear to everyone that has watched him play over the past month that there is only one thing on his mind; his professional career. He was the reason our momentum stopped in this game. He took incredibly selfish shots, firing up quick three pointers and jump shots every time we had a chance to cut the Louisville lead below double digits. He wasn't even square to the basketball on most of the shots and his momentum from running up the court was still carrying him forward. When you miss a fadeaway, you are most likely to hit the front of the rim or airball the shot. When you shoot while still moving, you are most likely to miss by hitting the side of the rim you are falling towards. Most of Summers' shots hit the back of the rim; means he was pretty much taking a running shot. He made one shot in the game, which cut the lead to 8 but then after a Louisville conversion he fired up a horrible three with over 25 still on the shot clock. Go pro DaJuan; it's obvious you don't want to be a team player anymore. Luckily you are still projected to be a first rounder, and possibly a lottery pick in a very weak draft class. Take the money and run.

More morbid thoughts:
- The officiating was horrific in this game, but can't really complain because it wouldn't have changed the outcome. And we wouldn't have hit our free throws.
- We couldn't hit our three pointers; we were 3-16 from beyond the arc which impressively is only our third worst three point shooting performance in Big East play this season. West Virginia and Seton Hall losses were worse.
- But not to be outdone, there is one stat from this game that makes it our worst of the season: We only converted 8 out of our 20 layup/dunk attempts. But this was just the worst percentage-wise; we missed 14 layup/dunks in the Notre Dame and West Virginia losses.
- Summers finished the game 1-8 from the field, and 0-4 from behind the arc.
- Wright was our leading scorer but total points don't define a good play. He was 3-12 from the field, 1-4 from three-point land, and 5-8 from foul line. He also missed all 6 of his layup/dunk attempts in the second half and turned the ball over 4 times while only accumulating 1 assist.
- Our worst night on the boards since the loss to West Virginia; Terrence Williams and Earl Clark had more rebounds than our starting team.
- Speaking of starting team, I think the Nikita experiment is officially over; Clark started the second half over him.
- Freeman didn't start the second half for the first time all season.
- Student attendance woefully pathetic, especially for an ESPN, Big Monday game. But the crowd was loud when he had to be.
- Louisville had an incredible shooting night, they hit more of their three point attempts than they did layup/dunk attempts.
- They hit their first 9 shots and first 7 three pointers of the game.
- Team looks dejected and burned out. Unfortunately we still need to win at least one out of the next three to guarantee a NIT spot.
- But the bright side: We are very young. And we are very talented. And we will be very good in the years to come. Remember, the same team that led us to the Sweet 16 as sophomores and Final Four as juniors lost their last 5 games of the season and blew a NCAA Tournament berth as freshman. A program wins a national championship, not a team.
- This season hurts, bad.

Good talk.

WSJ Wants Georgetown in the NIT

2009-02-23T16:53:00.020-05:00

With the newspaper industry in a death spiral and the recent announcement of Journal Register seeking Chapter 11 protection fresh in media moguls' minds, the Wall Street Journal has decided to make a bold move and stray into the world of poorly thought out sports opinions. Unfortunately, they will soon find out that this niche sector is already saturated with the likes of Dick Vitale and Doug Gottlieb. Today, the WSJ attempted to argue that mid-major schools should get more bids to the NCAA Tournament. First off, there are only three reasons why mid-major schools should even be in the Tournament.

(1) They have super-sweet lax-bro nicknames and mascots.
(2) Their fans are egregiously more intoxicated and entertaining when their team is playing since they know they have no shot of winning and their invitation to the Big Dance was out of courtesy for going 25-4 against high school-level competition.
(3) It creates gender and age equality because they are the only reason why the boss's daughter wins your NCAA pool. And those who know me are aware that I am always a fan of equality. And sweatpants.

But where this article really makes me laugh at its pitiful attempt at journalism is the final paragraph:

The republic will survive if Georgetown and Notre Dame land in one of the three-letter tournaments. Instead of rewarding them for compiling a losing conference record, the sport would be better off letting the little guys try to keep winning.

So if the republic will survive if two mid-majors get in over Georgetown and Notre Dame, does that mean the republic will fall if they don't? I don't know about you but I would much rather watch a game between two teams in the middle of major conferences, say Arizona and West Virginia, than two teams at the top of mid-major conferences, say Chattanooga and Long Beach State. That is like asking if you would rather watch Gossip Girl or Matlock. The question like, totally, like answers itself, like.

xoxo.

Gossip Girl

Calhoun = Dirtbag = Funny

2009-02-22T22:33:00.010-05:00

Not much to be happy about this weekend but the following video is awesome. A freelance reporter questioned Jim Calhoun's salary after their win over South Florida and Calhoun goes off on him.

ESPN picked up the story as well. (1) Calhoun is a dirtbag. (2) But this is funny. (3) And he is right. (4) Cuse lost.

Good talk.

Game 25 - Marquette: Part Deux

2009-02-22T13:45:00.006-05:00

I said it after the second loss to Cincinnati and I feel the same exact way after yesterday's repeat loss to Marquette. We are just not a good team. We have the personnel, we have the coaches, and most importantly we have the talent. We just do not have the experience, yet. And that will come. But we will have to wait until next year.

I left the game shaking my head. We played so well for 35 minutes, just like we have in other losses. We showed so much promise, so much potential but could not maintain the momentum for the full game. I often talk about the Connecticut win as giving a false sense of hope for Hoyas fans but in reality the last few losses closely resemble the Memphis win, except for the outcome. In that game, we were badly outplayed and magically came away with a victory in overtime, which always seemed to be the case in previous years. Regardless of the score, we were the steady, calm and confident team that could slowly chip away at any lead and play exceptionally well under pressure. That is not this year's team. We came close at Syracuse but couldn't hit the shots when they mattered in overtime.

But potential doesn't mean anything when you keep losing. Amazingly, we still have a shot at making the tourney with two straight wins again Louisville and Villanova but I wouldn't count on it. We will lose just like we did to Marquette, in heart-breaking fashion. Some more quick thoughts:

- Turning point of the game was Monroe missing the front end of the 1 and 1 with 6 minutes left. He missed the shot, Summers picked up his 4th foul on the rebound and Jimmy Butler hit both of his free throws to make it a 4 point game.
- Said it before and will say it again, Monroe is not clutch.
- And he is soft and can't rebound. Lazar Haywood led both teams in rebounds. He is 5 inches shorter than Monroe.
- JT3 made his point with starting Nikita for three straight games but it has to end. Nikita is terrible. He had 5 fouls and 2 turnovers in 15 minutes of playing time. Put Sapp back in the starting lineup, at least I trust him with the ball.
- Welcome back bad-Bowman/Summers. Wild, out of control drives near the end of the game lost it for us. 5 turnovers, 5 fouls and 12 points. Not something to write home about.
- Looking at the numbers, it was actually one of our best offensive games. We hit more threes, jump shots, and field goals than we average against Big East opponents. And we had fewer turnovers.
- But we made and attempted fewer foul shots, and fewer of our field goals were from assists. And it was the second largest difference in turnovers in a loss this conference season. We had 12 turnovers, Marquette had 6.
- Officiating was poor. 6 fouls were called in the first 5 minutes of the game. Only 7 were called for the remaining 15 minutes of the half. Lot of hand checks and nothing down low. I don't care if you allow them to play rough; I actually think it is better. Just call the came consistently.
- Third acknowledgment of existence from Ed Hightower this season. I thought it was a good sign Georgetown was 2-0 when Hightower blows kisses in my direction. I was wrong. We lost.
- Sucks we lost on the 25th anniversary celebration of the national championship. But still not as bad as when Darrel Owens hit two free throws in 2005 to seal a victory against Villanova on the day they were celebrating their 20th anniversary of defeating Georgetown in the great upset in NCAA championship history. And oh, the free throws left the final score at 66-64, which was coincidently was the final score of the game they had won 20 years earlier. So things could be worse.
- Maryland beat #3 UNC and Vasquez put up one of the best performances this year by any player. Things can't get worse.

Good talk.

Game 25 - Marquette

2009-02-21T20:18:00.005-05:00

There is only one way to describe my feelings after yet another loss.

If I hear another person talk about how we can get into the Tourney by winning here and doing a backflip there, I am to throw my shoe at them. Maybe even both shoes if the person is funny looking.

More thoughts about the game tomorrow, going to drown my sorrows in a big Root Beer Float.

Good talk.

Truth in Advertising

2009-02-20T14:16:00.014-05:00

While perusing the Internet this afternoon, in search of news on the legendary Kelly Clarkson and her not yet announced new tour, I came across an advertisement informing me of the aforementioned legend's IQ.

I questioned the intrusive and seemingly impossible advertisement which contends that the creator of the ad has either gotten on Kelly's super-busy schedule to administer the test or legally obtained documents proving the score. Thus I decided to investigate further. As I dug deeper and deeper into the Truth in Advertising standards created by the FTC, I came across the following section simply entitled, The Internet. It stated:

Every word, sentence and picture displayed in an advertisement on the Internet is true. Given its broad reach, the Internet is closely monitored by both the FTC and FCC and users should feel secured that anything they are offered, whether or not they are asked to provide monetary recourse, is in fact a valid and legitimate legal contract. All statements and claims have been thoroughly checked and researched. Caveat emptor does not apply to the Internet.

After reading that I felt assured. So I decided to find out what other IQ tests I could find. I ventured over to ESPN and noticed that they had the IQ of the fans of every major college program. Listed below for your viewing pleasure are the IQs of Big East fans.

Now, to be completely fair and unbiased, as is the goal of any analysis put forth in this blog, I checked each school three times and chose the lowest score that appeared at least twice. I also doubled checked against non-Big East schools to make sure the range of scores made sense holistically. Harvard had an average IQ of 128, which seems reasonable. Duke had an average IQ of 99, which again seems on par. I have always questioned the intelligence of any student willing to blindly and unconditionally follow a coach that preaches seeking the audible and shriek sympathy of partial referees through exaggerated, voluntary and self-induced loss of body control (i.e. flopping). Also, I hear there is lead in the face paint.

School / Avg. IQ
Providence - 120
Notre Dame - 114
Georgetown - 113
Syracuse - 109
Marquette - 105
Pittsburgh - 104
Villanova - 103
St. John's - 103
Cincinnati - 103
West Virginia - 103
Louisville - 101
South Florida - 101
Connecticut - 101
Depaul - 99
Rutgers - 98
Seton Hall - 97

Here's what the scores mean:
*Over 140 - Genius or near genius
*120 - 140 - Very superior intelligence
*110 - 119 - Superior intelligence
*90 - 109 - Normal or average intelligence
*80 - 89 - Dullness
*70 - 79 - Borderline deficiency
*Under 70 - Definite feeble-mindedness

Congrats to Friars fans. You guys are way smart brosefs.

Good talk.

The Weather is Nice Today

2009-02-20T10:06:00.001-05:00

The last four games I have previewed we have lost. So because I am superstitious I am just going to put the below quote from JT3 after the USF win and say no more. Additionally, the last time I went to a home game wearing pants and deodorant, we lost too. Well I guess tomorrow is gonna suck for the people sitting next to me.

"Hopefully we can get a little momentum from this, winning on the road and coming home. Our fans are great and we're going to need them."

I love it when he politely and indirectly tells me what to do. There are only two people that I listen to unconditionally. The first is JT3. The second is Billy Mays. JT3 gives me hope and Billy Mays gives me a variety of products to repair and clean my house. What more can an ol' fashioned country girl like myself ask for?

Good talk.