Playing the Game

Some time ago, I tried to buy some additional time at a Georgetown game by walking my eldest around the loggia. We happened past Alonzo Mourning signing copies of his autobiography "Resilience: Faith, Focus, Triumph." I did not follow Mourning's career, but there was no one around so I picked up a copy and put it on the shelf.

I finally read the book last month; it basically confirms everything that I've loved about Georgetown's basketball program. The story of a kid in foster care in the Tidewater growing up to be a member of the board of directors of an elite private university is likely to be interesting regardless of the vehicle for ascendance. But because the last basketball book I read was George Dohrmann's fantastic (albeit horrifically depressing) "Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine," Mourning's tale is affirmation of the value of collegiate athletics.

As the mirror image to Dohrmann's exposure of Tim Floyd to be everything we thought he was, Mourning exalts John Thompson II as everything we hoped he might be. I may live in a town where a head coach was allowed to temporarily dismiss a woeful educational record with vacuous claims about the professional careers of a minority of his players, but the long shadow of JT's program meant that folks up here always understood that -- national championship notwithstanding -- it didn't have to be this way.

So it surprises me that in terms of the concocted conflict between the men's basketball programs of Georgetown and Maryland, I'm fully on board with Kevin Anderson's approach of overt confrontation. Is there likely to be a Georgetown-Maryland basketball game played anytime soon? No, of course not. Egos have been bruised and the Hoyas have been backed into a corner.

There will certainly be collateral damage. The refusal to schedule games across all sports after this season is a blow to the intense rivalry between the men's and women's lacrosse teams (although the lady Hoyas haven't taken a game since 2006, so perhaps they will welcome the respite). It is also a blow to the budding rivalries between the women's soccer programs -- after Georgetown's women's soccer team knocked off the number one team in the country in the second round of the 2010 NCAA tournament -- and women's basketball programs -- after Georgetown's women's basketball team blistered the Terps in the second round of the 2011 NCAA tournament.

But there's a deeper point here. Some teams announce their return to prominence with t-shirts that read "Respect Is Back/ Fear Is Next"; others call out the local powerhouse and demand a reckoning.

Maryland will get blown off. And critics will find another reason to take shots at Kevin Anderson. But in the interim, Maryland's going to be a major impediment to Georgetown's concerted efforts over the last several years to lock up elite local talent. When Queen Anne's County High's Damonte Dodd decided to become a Terp, he turned away from an unparalleled tradition of excellence in developing big men:

Former Georgetown great and NBA veteran Dikembe Mutombo was in regular contact with Dodd, according to [Queen Anne's head coach Dale] Becraft.

"Mutombo had his cell number, and called him from time to time," Becraft said. "Damonte, I know, enjoyed that, too."

And why?

"I always liked Maryland," said Dodd, who attended the Terps' 75-70 victory over Miami on Tuesday night. "And visiting them, I liked how they stuck together as a team, and how the coaches wanted players to be successful, whether in the NBA or getting a degree."

New day.

The gauntlet has been thrown down -- Maryland wants to test itself against the biggest kid on the block and Georgetown prefers derbies with American University and Howard.

Thanksgiving

I read Tracee Hamilton's most recent column as my three-year old napped prior to tip-off of the Maryland-Florida Gulf Coast game. We were taking our daughters to their first Maryland men's basketball game after a pleasant Tuesday evening visit to campus for my five-month old's first Maryland women's basketball game.

The view of Comcast that my girls had at both games was roughly the same, as the stadium was largely devoid of fans for Mark Turgeon's second home game of the year. The thousands of empty seats led the Baltimore Sun's Don Markus to observe:

One more thing. I have never seen the Comcast Center as empty as it is tonight. I know it's Thanksgiving break, but the marketing department should have done a better job getting tickets out to youth groups, etc. to try to fill the student section behind the basket.

Of course, if Markus ever wants to see Comcast more empty, he need only show up to a women's basketball game.

Hamilton's frivolous lament stuck with me during the game because it seemed to so perfectly reflect the ethos of what it means to be a Washington-area sports fan. It also encapsulates why midwesterners (among others) have such difficulty sympathizing with the fickle nature of the DC-area sports fan.

Washingtonians behave as if this is an anointed city of Champions. And not just run-of-the-mill "we're ridiculously, phenomenally blessed in these particular areas of sport" but Champions in things that will earn the attention of important people around the globe. What matters is the Redskins competing for the Super Bowl, the Wizards marching towards the Eastern Conference finals, the Nationals stirring towards a wild-card spot, the Capitals hoisting the Stanley Cup, and the Terps in play for a BCS bowl or yet another Final Four men's basketball tournament appearance.

The complaints about the dire status of Redskins and Terps football, Wizards and Terps men's basketball, and Washington sports generally comes at a time when my enjoyment of local sports -- particularly those at the University of Maryland -- is at an all-time high. And the incongruences between the way sports are covered in this region and what actually takes place become all the more remarkable.

The best example I can give is from two weekends ago beginning with Veterans Day.

The weekend began with a trip to Ludwig to watch the Maryland women open up their NCAA tournament games against a La Salle team that had given up seven goals all season. Led by a fantastic performance by sophomore transfer Hayley Brock, the Terps put five in the back of the net against the Explorers in one game. There were probably more La Salle students in the stands for the game than Maryland students, but those Maryland supporters that showed up were treated to a terrific showing by an extremely talented Terp team that had sputtered a bit through ACC play.

After the game, we walked down to Comcast to watch the women's basketball team open the regular season by blowing out Loyola. And, as usual, the student showing was even more sparse than at the soccer game. Even with few eyes on them, Coach Frese's team served notice that this year's squad is much stronger than last year's version.

Saturday night, we traveled over to FedEx Field to catch Maryland get whacked by Notre Dame. There were probably better ways to spend the evening and there's little doubt that the Terps are not a good football team, but, for us, we're not going to do a lot of traveling with the team and sitting down on the field engulfed by Notre Dame supporters afforded us a level of intense fan support that is unmatched at Byrd on gameday. Plus, despite being pounded on the scoreboard and pummeled in the stands, we got to watch solid linebacker play out of Demetrius Hartsfield and freshman Alex Twine.

And Sunday, I went to Comcast twice -- first for the Maryland women's prolific beat down of a very, very good Georgetown team (a team that embarrassed Georgia's women tonight in Las Vegas) and later for Coach Turgeon's inaugural win as head coach of the Maryland men against UNC Wilmington. For both games, the Center was largely empty. And the massive line from community supporters waiting to meet the Maryland women's players and coaching staff after the Georgetown upset was piteously juxtaposed with the short wait I endured to get into the men's game as students got their tickets scanned, then turned around and walked out of the stadium (something I've never previously seen first hand).

In between all of that, I also attended my first ever field hockey games, watching Maryland beat Iowa in their first round NCAA tournament game and then sitting through most of a thrilling, tense affair that concluded with the Terps upending Syracuse to advance to the Final Four.

Of all the Maryland events I went to that weekend, the Syracuse field hockey game was the single-best sporting event; although I had little idea of what was going on in terms of rules or playing strategy, the contest was so engrossing I forewent a large part of the Maryland-Georgetown game. And the timing could not have been better... the next weekend, for entirely bizarre and providential reasons, we toured the Field Hockey Hall of Fame housed in Collegeville, Pennsylvania on Saturday and then my three-year old and I watched, through a live feed, Maryland's stunning comeback win over the Tar Heels in the National Championship game on Sunday.

I may not have any ability to appreciate the subtlety of the sport, but even my three-year old could appreciate the drama of a two-goal comeback with four minutes in regulation and the exhilaration of Jill Witmer's determined run in overtime to give the Terps yet another National Championship.

But an NCAA field hockey championship is not a real championship and Kevin Anderson still deserves to be fired and Debbie Yow remains the worst person in the world. And *yawn* we've got another top ten women's basketball team in College Park. And *shrug* Maryland's men's soccer team absolutely obliterated West Virginia -- with a hat-trick from future professional Casey Townsend -- in their opening game of the NCAA tournament, roughly a week and a half after Maryland alum Omar Gonzalez was named MLS defender of the year and shortly before he and fellow Maryland alum A.J. DeLaGarza would start together and secure a clean sheet MLS Cup win.

Of course, all of the above relates only to Maryland.

After skipping the Georgetown men's home opener to watch field hockey, I went to Verizon that Monday to see the win over UNC Greensboro and was floored by how good Georgetown's young team was. I sat down behind Roy Hibbert, equally impressed by how accommodating Hibbert was with fans in the crowd and how impressive Georgetown's freshman class looks on the court. For those who were paying attention, the Hoyas remarkable run at the Maui Invitational wasn't wholly unexpected -- indeed, on the strength of the Greensboro game I stayed up to watch the Kansas opener live because I thought that Georgetown had a decent opportunity to pull the upset win. Although this year was written off as a down year for the program, the chances now are better than fair that the Hoyas will once again be among the nation's elite.

And none of the foregoing even begins to account for the insane level at which prep sports are played in this region: DeMatha's soccer team went undefeated and was generally considered the number one or two high school team in the entire country. The last ESPN ranking I looked at had Good Counsel's football team placed at sixth nationally.

Yet, even with these overflowing blessings, the accepted storyline is the paucity of compelling sports storylines this fall.

I don't get it.

On almost any weekend day over the last couple of months, anyone could easily have taken themselves over to watch world-class athletes compete in high-level sporting contests. Those of us in this region are privileged to have before us a bountiful cornucopia of excellence across fall sports -- football, basketball, soccer, and field hockey -- and yet the complaints about what we don't have register the loudest.

There are many, many more important things that I am thankful for. Nevertheless, the simple fact is, as a massive fan of sports, I am thankful for what D.C. offers. And, in my own selfish way, I'm thankful for all the empty seats around us that facilitate going to these matches with an infant and toddler in tow.

Preppie

At Verizon on Wednesday, talking to Georgetown alums after the tough loss to Syracuse on Saturday, and again tonight at Bender Arena, Georgetown's supporters voiced the same negative theme: the Hoyas have made too many reaches on local talent nice guys -- Jerrelle Benimon is not good enough to play in the Big East; DeMatha's Mikael Hopkins is not aggressive enough to play in the Conference and will not help the program; and making an offer to DeMatha's James Robinson was a mistake and a misguided effort to curry favor with local AAU teams and the WCAC.

The Benimon criticism kills me. As soon as Jerrelle is introduced, the grumbling starts. No matter where I sit in the stadium, inevitably someone will audibly, obnoxiously groan "Why does Thompson play him?" Benimon's numbers are pretty meager and he has not progressively built on the promise he's shown in a few performances, most notably against Memphis this year. But he always plays hard and, as a sophomore, his efforts and JTIII's obvious faith in Benimon should be enough to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The Hopkins and Robinson criticism seems crazy. Admittedly, I've seen both play a grand total of two times -- Monday against St. John's and this afternoon against Paul VI in the WCAC Semifinals -- but I want to see how both develop under Georgetown's coaching staff.

The ESPN Profile of Mikael Hopkins includes this analysis of his perceived weaknesses:

Hopkins must be more physical and learn to welcome contact. At times he seems not into the game and untimely disappears on the floor. He is a very capable rebounder on both ends but at times watches the action instead of perusing the ball sometimes the only rebounds he gets are the one that come right to him. Hopkins must play with more energy and urgency on a consistent basis to obtain the production he is capable of.

From the limited sample set I have, that seems about right. But, two things are important to keep in mind in relation to this criticism: first, he is immensely physically gifted and is unquestionably a good high school basketball player and second, if he wants to fully harness those talents, he'll be able to do that at Georgetown and, if he does, he's going to be a very good D-I college player. This is a kid who got scholarship offers from Kansas, Texas, West Virginia, and Maryland. The fact that he is local means that Georgetown alums can dissect his game and its purported flaws up close. But that doesn't mean that their negative reaction somehow invalidates what is immediately evident to anyone who watches him play (he is a very talented basketball player).

The ability to see the player first hand also plays a huge role in the rush to denigrate James Robinson. Robinson may not decide to come to the Hilltop. He's got a ridiculous number of scholarship offers: at least five schools in the ACC (Maryland; UVa; NC State; Boston College; Wake Forest), at least six schools in the Big East (Gtown; WVa; Pitt; Marquette; Rutgers; and Notre Dame) and Oklahoma. Robinson's the type of prospect who is thinking about how to cut down the number of schools he's considering. But if he decides that Georgetown is the right place for him, color me excited. Indeed, the prospect of just getting to see Robinson for another season at DeMatha makes me happy.

Watching Robinson play basketball is a pleasure. He controls the game, makes good decisions on the floor, and is the type of player that makes everyone around him better. He's faulted for being slow, but he is able to beat opposing players off the dribble and can get to the rim fairly quickly. He's also a big point guard, who is not afraid of drawing contact or playing physically.

Today, DeMatha struggled with Paul VI. Josh Barr's summary for the Post correctly and appropriately focuses on the role Robinson played in avoiding an upset.

Setting to one side the future of Georgetown, both WCAC boys semifinals games were great. In the first game, Paul VI's junior guard Patrick Holloway very nearly beat DeMatha with a tremendous performance that had everyone at Bender buzzing. But as good as Holloway was, Bishop McNamara's senior guard (and WCAC boy's player of the year) Marcus Thorton was even better. A series of missed open perimeter shots put the Mustangs in a major hole against Gonzaga, but a frenzied comeback in the fourth quarter took place after Thorton's shots started falling. Thorton doesn't need a lot of space to get his shots up and when he hits a groove, he is deadly.

What I liked most about watching Holloway and Thorton (and most everyone on the floor) was the way they play. Thorton was hitting ridiculous shots and was pulling McNamara back into the game, but it would have been very difficult to tell from his reactions whether he had hit or missed the shot he just launched. I doubt that I could have ever show similar restraint, but as a neutral at the games, it is refreshing to see kids this talented approach the game with respect.

The DeMatha-Gonzaga final tomorrow night (8:30 pm at Bender) should be highly entertaining. Of all the players we saw today, I was most impressed by Gonzaga's Kris Jenkins. I would be surprised to hear that Jenkins plays in the final as an ill-considered late block attempt in the middle of McNamara's run seemed to have resulted in a bad injury that prevented Kris from putting weight down on his leg. Without Jenkins, Gonzaga misses a potent offensive post and perimeter threat.

Bender may be the place to be for DC Hoops fans tomorrow, but for me, the place to be is the Verizon Center for yet another chance to see Derrick Rose and the Bulls live.

Bball Frenzy

In advance of the Bulls second visit to DC this coming Monday, I've gone a bit basketball mad. Monday night: DeMatha vs. St. John's; Wednesday night: Georgetown vs. Cinci; Tonight: (sitting on the couch) Chicago vs. Miami. More high school hoops (hopefully) tomorrow and Sunday.

Sitting at Verizon last night and absorbing a tough loss made far worse by the injury to Chris Wright, I spent a lot of time contemplating how blessed folks are in this area in terms of basketball. The Wizards are a long way from making DC relevant in the NBA, but Georgetown and Maryland boast decent college programs with occasional flourishes from George Mason and George Washington. And then, sounding the same repetitive theme, basketball at the prep level is stunningly good.

I went to the Georgetown game with a Duke alum. As we watched Austin Freeman, Chris Wright, Julian Vaughn, Jason Clark, Henry Sims, and Markel Starks represent the DC-Baltimore metro area as six of the ten man rotation on the number eleven team in the country, I realized that local kids also make up one third of the rotation of the number one college team in the country (Nolan Smith, Tyler Thorton, and Josh Hairston). And there will be more local products (Mikael Hopkins and Quinn Cook) joining these two programs next year.

Two years ago, I marveled at the number of D-I basketball players that hailed form PG County. Broadening that out to the DC-Baltimore metro area further underscores the depth of the talent pool in the region.

I may be late to this realization, but I'm certainly enjoying taking advantage of it -- as a passive fan of the sport -- now.

Hoop Dream

Saturday began with a surprisingly entertaining ESPN broadcast of the Sunderland - Stoke City tie and was followed by reports of Charlton Athletic's maintenance of Chris Powell's perfect record (three wins in three fixtures) and household-favorite Gregory Tade's brace that gave Raith Rovers another three points.

And, yet, most of my thoughts today have focused on a sport other than soccer. I am tapping this out while watching the remarkably entertaining first half between my Chicago Bulls and the Golden State Warriors. The Bulls play like a finely-tuned machine; for whatever reason -- and I would imagine that it is a confluence of many different things going right -- everything has clicked and their current form has to put them in the top four in the NBA.

But the appointment television of Chicago Bulls game, tonight, follows the privilege of having seen Marshon Brooks' ridiculous performance at the Verizon Center this afternoon.

My daughter joined me for the game and, consequently, my attention was not always on what was happening on the floor. Nevertheless, even distracted, it was impossible not to notice what Brooks was doing. Throughout the first half, it seemed a novelty. At halftime, the friend that had given us the tickets and I reminisced about Quincy Douby. Douby's final game against the Hoyas in DC a little less than five years ago -- where he dropped in 29 of the Scarlet Knights' 50 -- left an impression.

As it turned out, another Douby -- Brooks comparison would have been more apt. Three weeks before his last trip to Verizon, Douby went to the Carrier Dome and nearly carried Rutgers to an upset victory in overtime. Douby accounted for 41 of Rutgers' 84 points, but a Terrence Roberts' three at the death negated Quincy's ridiculous effort.

This afternoon, Brooks' 43 (of Providence's 81) put the Friars in a position to win a game that, by rights, they had no business contesting. I think I get what JTIII was trying to do by shutting down everyone else not named Marshon, but the strategy seemed to backfire when the game came down to a single shot on two separate occasions. Both times, Chris Wright did enough to disrupt (and perhaps foul) Mr. Brooks to deny the storybook ending.

Years of watching Big East basketball mean that performances like Brooks' today are particularly savored. He managed to keep all of us on the edge of our seat -- including my two-year old. Thoroughly entertaining. It's nice to love basketball again.

Love and Basketball

I accidentally clicked on a story when visiting the Daily Herald's web-site earlier this week and read two sentences before realizing that it was another affected rant by Barry Rozner, who, not surprisingly, was blowing hot air in an overwrought tone about the Cubs' need to get rid of Carlos Zambrano. Rozner's bogus angry fan schtick is more than compensated for by the tremendous work from Herald columnist Bruce Miles. But Miles is exceptional amongst Chicago sportswriters, as he avoids sanctimonious hectoring of the subjects of his reporting. The constant barrage of negative opinion and concocted controversy is a blight on Chicago sports and a fraud upon the great history of sportswriting that the city had developed prior to the arrival of hacks like Skip Bayless and Jay Mariotti.

For this reason, its nice to see Michael Wilbon writing for ESPN. Wilbon's recent essay on his admiration for this year's version of the Bulls struck a particular chord with me because the most remarkable quality of the squad is its inherent charisma as a unit. The Bulls are a very likable team -- even accepting that Noah is a lightning rod who is vilified by opposing squads.

I'm not particularly objective about the Bulls and have eventually, during the course of the season, fallen in love with each of the iterations of the team since 2004-2005. But it generally took a little time and it would always be an affection with caveats -- about the limitations of the team's coaching, about the inherent value of certain underperforming players (e.g., Ty Thomas and Tyson Chandler) and, most often, my persistent doubts about Captain Kirk.

But with this team, the love was immediate and has been unwavering. I'm tapping this out while watching the Clippers handle the Bulls in impressive fashion, but am still greatly enjoying the game. Everything about this team flows from Derrick Rose, who is the most charismatic player that the Bulls have had since Jerry Krause destroyed the team. Rose's rookie season clearly earned the respect and admiration of Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, Taj Gibson, and James Johnson. After nearly every tremendous play that Rose has made this season, the film of the reaction of his teammates -- particularly the returning Bulls -- has been priceless. Similarly, the drawn breath and deep concern registered on the faces of Bulls' players whenever Rose goes down hard is also remarkable.

Carlos Boozer slots in well as a veteran free agent power and the Bulls' front office seems to have finally pulled together pieces that complement one another without tremendous friction. This may, again, be more due to Rose's presence on the team rather than management expertise; either way, the result is a squad that is gelling and is raising expectations in Chicago.

Maybe not just Chicago. We've been going to see the Bulls on their visits to DC since 1998 and, outside of the playoffs, I cannot recall a time when resale ticket prices for a Wizards-Bulls game are as high as they are for this Wednesday's fixture. (Chicago just fell short on an improbably comeback attempt against the Clippers, losing the game when Rose missed a free throw that would have tied the game at the end of regulation. No tears -- it may have been a loss, but that was a hell of a valiant run at the end -- the team could easily have packed it in, but they really do not like losing).

Just as I've had no problems falling for the Bulls of the last seven years, I've also been smitten with JTIII's Georgetown teams over that same period. This year is, of course, no different.

My daughter was gifted free tickets to today's game against Loyola as part of her membership in the Hoya's Kids Club (which is, by the way, awesome). Up until our little girl decided it was time to go with five minutes left and the Hoyas' focus slipping, we were treated to a beautiful demonstration of Georgetown's strengths and possibilities going into a tough non-conference test against Memphis.

The Hoyas started out the game a bit flat and the first four minutes made it seem like Loyola would give Georgetown all it could handle but... well, that was only 10% of the game and the balance was quickly swung by substitutions that brought in Henry Sims, Nate Lubick, and Markel Starks. Four minutes later, Georgetown was up nine and the rout was on.

The fans have raucously celebrated the addition of Moses Ayegba to the Georgetown rotation in the last two games, but as promising as Ayegba is, I am enjoying Henry Sims' development into a force in the post. Since his introduction as a freshman, we've taken particular notice of Sims whenever he was on the court. He always seemed frustrated by his limitations and his inability to keep up with the speed and skill of players bearing down on him. No more. In his fifteen minutes on the floor, Sims was an impressive force -- going five for five from the field, with two strong slams through defensive pressure, and five assists.

Jerrelle Benimon was also impressive -- although I can't claim to have previously paid that much attention to his game. Benimon is a guy I've taken for granted, but he made a distinct impact this afternoon, scoring the most points he's put up in a game (nine) so far in his short Georgetown career. Benimon appeared to be as comfortable on the perimeter as he was in the paint. And, along with freshmen Aaron Bowen, Benimon's progress gives the Hoyas a potentially potent pair of swing players going into Big East conference play.

But as much as I enjoyed watching Sims, Benimon, and Bowen play, they'll have, at best, a limited impact on the team's fortunes this season. The core of the team -- Chris Wright, Austin Freeman, Jason Clark, Markel Starks, Vee Sanford, Hollis Thompson, Julian Vaughn, and Nate Lubick -- is solid. One thing that we did not anticipate was Wright's development as a passer. In each of the three games we've gone to this season, Wright has made at least one pass that has roused the crowd out of their seats.

Regardless of how the next two tough away tests -- against Memphis and Notre Dame -- shake out, we're planning on spending New Year's Day at Verizon welcoming the Hoyas home.

Powder Puff

Georgetown's early non-conference schedule is not exactly daunting. After watching the Hoyas brutalize Lafayette on Saturday, we were back at the Verizon Center tonight to see them walk over Mt. St. Mary's. We'll probably be back on Saturday for the game against American, although American is having a horror-show of a season to date and 4 pm might just mark a massacre.

Other than Shawn Atupem's (#10) awesome hair style, there was not much in the way of entertainment to be had from tonight's game. Although at least two things are promising: first, at some point during the second half, Austin Freeman forewent an open three pointer to step up and shoot a mid-range jumpshot. That he missed is of little consequence. I had thought that the mid-range jumper was taboo in Hoyaland and was pleased to see it make a momentary comeback. Second, free throw shooting, at least amongst the guards, has improved considerably. Although Julian Vaughn's problems at the line will grab the most attention, Jason Clark, Freeman, Chris Wright, and freshman Vee Sanford look pretty comfortable at the line. Long may it continue.

Colossus

One of my Christmas gifts this year was a nifty coffee table book on the X-Men that ends with a brief bio and description of Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin aka Colossus. As a kid, I read X-Men intensely and found Colossus to be one of the more boring characters developed in the group of fictional mutants. At the same time, there were a number of things about the Colossus of my youth that were admirable -- character qualities that stood out. Colossus was young, strong, disciplined; a reluctant warrior. He might bore, but he could never be a heel; he was without a plausible dark side.

I was thinking about Colossus as I watched Georgetown dominate UConn to kick off the Big East conference schedule on Monday night. The win over the Huskies came after a fairly impressive drubbing of an undisciplined Florida International Union team. The victory reflected a young, coalescing squad that could challenge any team in the Big East. The UConn match, however, exceeded expectations. Georgetown's young team was physical, disciplined, and motivated. And, all the while, the Hoyas are a likable team that will be continually underappreciated because of the Princeton offense. Greg Monroe is the perfect player for the team to form around. Monroe was fearless matching up with Hasheem Thabeet and following Monroe's lead, Thabeet's seven blocks did little to rattle Georgetown -- a sentiment that culminated in DaJuan Summers' confident attacks of the basket late in the second half. The upcoming five game stretch will be the crucible in which this season's team is either forged or broken. Home against a Pitt team that hasn't really been challenged in their undefeated run thus far (although Rutgers played Pitt pretty close yesterday); then to South Bend to take on a mercurial Notre Dame; then home for back to back games against Providence and Syracuse; and then down to Cameron Indoor Stadium to renew rivalries with the second-best team in the ACC. Young, strong, disciplined, reluctant warriors: the Big East's Colossus. Bring 'em on.

One other note: Although he only played six minutes, Jason Clark continues to show that there may be some serious talent on the Hoyas bench. We went to watch Clark play last year in the Catholic High School championship at American University and there was little about that game that prepared me for what Clark has become in G'town's scheme: Clark seems to have effortlessly slid into PE2's role as a defensive disruptor, a hustling player that fills passing lanes, flashes out in transition, and shows enough offensive competence to require attention from opposing defenses. He is my favorite player to watch on the team, for much the same reasons that I loved watching Patrick Ewing Jr. play.

We are...

After back to back road losses at Louisville and Syracuse in February, the Hoyas started to be derided as overrated and overexposed. Convincing wins over Providence, Cinci, and St. John's has done little to quell the growing criticism of the team by college hoops pundits. But, frankly, these shots have had, I believe, little impact on the enjoyment Georgetown's fans derive from following this squad. Through forty minutes of their last home game against the Johnnies, Gtown let St. John and Anthony Mason Jr. hang around before taking over to close out the game. In the interim, DaJuan Summers went through a ridiculous stretch that included a missed one-handed breakaway slam (an opportunity created by his flash into a passing lane for a steal), an immediate benching, a subsequent missed slam dunk (this time with two hands), and then, even more absurdly, a missed layup at point blank range that Hibbert followed up by putting in the basket. While 0 for 3 at the rim, the fans at the Verizon Center stayed fully behind Summers and the team (sans students, as, once again, many more Gtown students could not spare the time to attend the second to last home game of the season), and they repaid the faith -- Summers, while 0 for 3 at the rim was 5 for 8 from behind the three-point arc. Fast forward to today's game, against a tough Marquette team in Milwaukee, and Georgetown once again evidenced why DC has gotten behind this team. The Hoyas' sloppy passing led to a remarkable 20 turnovers, but as Clark Kellogg and Gus Johnson observed, it is hard to imagine a team less phased by a prolonged run of poor play. Against Marquette, this team overcame a horrible game by Jessie Sapp, poor offensive decision making by Summers, and an injury that seemed to reduce the effectiveness of a blossoming Austin Freeman. It was Patrick Ewing Jr.'s best game as a Hoya, proving that PE2 has the ability to change the course of game, building on what he did for the team last year in its impressive win over Pitt at home. Ewing's defense -- he effectively shut down James and made sure that the Golden Eagles did not get a shot off with the chance to win the game at the end of overtime -- passing, and rebounding sparked the impressive win.

Come tournament time, much will be said about controversial calls that helped Georgetown win games against Villanova, Marquette and West Virginia, but none of the calls at issue in those three games, to my mind, come close to what DeMarcus Nelson was allowed to get away with on Ben McCauley when Coach K was gifted his 800th win earlier in the day. Nevertheless, I hope this is the case. I hope that most of what Gtown has done this season is overlooked and that "fluke" wins and the road losses to Memphis, Pitt, Louisville and Syracuse are emphasized by folks commenting on the tourney. This team can lose focus and its guard play can be shaky (Wallace, who has been the rock of the backcourt, has faltered of late), but I can't imagine any team in the country that would want to match up against them in an elimination game.

To that end, the final regular season game against Louisville is huge. First, it provides the opportunity for Gtown to make up for a game they let get away from them in Louisville. Second, it would close out an amazing undefeated record at home. Third, it would continue the remarkable progression of JTIII's teams... from 16 and 11 in his initial 2004-2005 season, to 19 and 8 in 2005-2006, and 23 and 6 in 2006-2007. Should the Hoyas close out with a win, they'll finish 25 and 4 heading into the Big East tournament, capping an incredible season.

And the guard play looks like it will continue to improve even after the departures of Wallace as a graduating senior (how strange that comment is for someone who lives within walking distance of the Comcast Center -- indeed, the Hoyas have four graduating seniors who will play their last home games at the Verizon Center next Saturday ... Wallace, Hibbert, Ewing, and the ridiculously under appreciated Tyler Crawford) (I kid, as Gist, Osby, and McAlpin will all hopefully graduate from UMd this year). Much has been made of Georgetown's recruiting class for 2008-2009, featuring two highly touted 6' 10" interior players (Greg Monroe and Baltimore's Henry Sims) and another big forward, Chris Braswell. But that class also features a pretty good guard named Jason Clark that will join the backcourt with Freeman, Wright, Rivers, and Sapp. After Clark's heroics (in part) keyed a satisfying win over DeMatha, I went to watch him in person at Bender Arena as Bishop O'Connell took on Gonzaga in the WCAC finals last Monday. It made for one of the more enjoyable sporting events that I've witnessed in the past couple of years. The level of basketball played by these two teams was amazing -- Clark impressed, both in his offensive prowess and his fearless defense at the top of the key and inside the paint (he is very, very good) as did his teammate, sophomore guard Kendall Marshall... who has already committed to UNC (?). But both Clark and Marshall were overshadowed by a very disciplined Gonzaga team and a remarkable run by Harvard-bound senior (?) Max Kenyi, who at one point made twelve consecutive shots (of varying degrees of difficulty, the most shocking of which was a baseline dribble drive that resulted in an explosive hammer dunk) against O'Connell and effectively buried the upstarts. Kenyi's second-half performance (for the game he was 13 for 16 and scored 30 points) eclipsed a great game from Clark (who finished the game with 26 points and willed O'Connell back into the game).

Without doubt, the losses of Hibbert, PE2 and captains Wallace and Crawford will hurt the Hoyas in a conference that will, unbelievably, be even stronger next season. The question, however, is, how long will they hurt? Another soft non-conference schedule may give the Hoyas time to fully integrate their four very talented freshmen into the rotation and with the return of Sapp, Summers, Rivers, Macklin, Freeman, and Wright (hopefully healthy), Gtown may even be deeper than it was this year.

ZZ & Roy . . . Roy, Roy, Roy ... Roy, Roy, Roy

Great day for two athletes that I've come to very much enjoy watching: the incomparable Zheng Zhi and Roy Hibbert. ZZ netted two more goals for Charlton at the Valley against the Tangerines, bringing his season total to nine as an Addick (7 in the fizzy pop, one in the Carling Cup, and one in the FA Cup). ZZ's got many detractors in SE7, but I was thrilled when Charlton was able to pick him up regardless. At the one match I've been able to attend this season, I spent much of the second half of the match with Scunthorpe trying to decide whether to approach ZZ and thank him for signing up for another go around. I chickened out and contented myself with taking snaps instead:



I am even happier for Roy Hibbert. At the beginning of the second half in the Hoya's blowout of Fordham on New Year's eve, Roy launched a cheeky shot from behind the three point arc, thus connecting on the first and only tres of his collegiate career. Hibbert hit another shot from inside the three point line during the game, seemingly showing off range that he has not previously demonstrated for Georgetown.

Fast forward to Gtown's Big East home opener against UConn. Verizon Center is packed. Students are in the rafters. Consecutive three point shots by the freshman Austin Freeman and the junior Jessie Sapp close a six point lead that the Huskies posted late on the Hoyas. With 32 seconds left in the game, JTIII subbed in DaJuan Summers, who had been benched in favor of Ewing Jr. for most of the Hoya's comeback, and put the game in his hands. Whatever Summers' deficiencies on defense, he makes good decisions on offense and, after nothing opened up for anyone with the clock winding down and UConn's very good shot blockers ensconced below the basket (Thabeet had five blocks for the game), Summers put the ball in Hibbert's hands to shoot an open three at the top of the arc with no defender in sight. Pandemonium. As surprising as the shot was, it shouldn't have been. Roy has clearly been working on his outside shot. We got to the game twenty minutes later and I snapped off some photos of Hibbert, most of which were, like the one below, of Roy taking outside shots:



Hibbert even took a long range two point shot to start the game (that he missed). It will be interesting to see over the next few weeks whether this part of his game is further integrated into the Hoyas' offense, as his shots from the perimeter certainly look good.

Horrid

This year I've gone to all of Georgetown's home games, watched the Illini fall to the Terps at Comcast, and attended two other area college basketball games that I had no rooting interest in: American University visiting the University of Maryland on December 22nd and the Rick Majerus-led St. Louis Billikens traveling to Foggy Bottom last night. Both of the latter games marked historic feats. American's win over the Terps was the school's first victory over Maryland since 1926 - 1927. And it was not a fluke win for American -- Terps fans had so little faith in their squad that people began filing out of Comcast with 3:30 left and Maryland ten points down.

I assumed that the American-Maryland game was going to be the most bizarre college hoops match I witnessed this year. American after all had been drilled by the University of Maryland at Baltimore County (and started this month off by losing to Brown . . . although I did not think that they kept score at Brown sporting events) before handily beating the University of Maryland at College Park. Now, however, I think I need to make a little more time to take in the college game at area schools.

A colleague invited me to watch a George Washington game largely to try and understand what Rick Majerus was thinking when he came out of retirement to take the reins of the Billikens. Neither George Washington nor St. Louis seemed to be very good -- GW had already, like American, been fallen by the mighty UMBC Retrievers (the current home of Crystal Palace FC USA, leading me to become a Charlton supporter and Crystal Palace season ticket holder), while St. Louis had managed to beat a weakened Southern Illinois but got doubled up by Kent State.

Nevertheless, watching a team score seven points in a twenty minute half is, well, a thoroughly confusing experience. It would be nearly impossible to replicate how bad the basketball played in the first half of that game was. The refereeing of the game was horrid: players were routinely hammered after often openly traveling on their way to the basket, but the refs ate their whistles. The Billikens scored their first point, on a free throw, after 5 minutes and 45 seconds had elapsed. St. Louis closed out the first half by not scoring for 8 minutes and 30 seconds. There were two three minute stretches in that half where neither team scored: GW's Wilmore hit a three with 17:36 left and no one scored until St. Louis scored its first point with 14:16 on the clock; GW's Green hit a three with 7:55 to go in the half and the scoreboard didn't move again until Diggs scored with 4:03 in the half. The game was so bad that even though St. Louis had only scored seven points in the first half, they still had a reasonable chance to win. That is, of course, until the Billikens followed up their futility in the first half with an almost nine minute stretch where they failed to score anything in the second half.

Unfortunately, not many GW students saw the spectacle. The Smith Center was fairly empty for the historic occasion -- the lowest point total scored by a D1 team since the imposition of the shot clock. Steven Goff, my favorite DC sports reporter, was, however, amongst the few people with me at the game and his article for the Washington Post (registration required) accurately captures the atmosphere. Nevertheless, what goes unmentioned in Goff's piece is that the surreal night got even more absurd when one of the scores of St. Louis fans in the stands stood up around the 15 minute mark of the second half to berate the kids on the court, pleading that they "wake up" and begging that the Billikens "do something." His screaming seemed to unnerve some of the St. Louis players and was certainly unexpected, given how horrible the game had been going for a solid twenty-five minutes at that point. The preppie GW alums around us tried to shout down the fan, but eventually (correctly) decided that it was best to let him vent in peace.

Outside of the entertainment value of the two hours (which was virtually nil, despite the rarity of the event), I left the Smith Center with an even greater appreciation for what JTIII has done with Georgetown and look forward to a much more entertaining Hoyas-Huskies matchup this afternoon.