THE OFFICIAL GEORGETOWN BASKETBALL SEASON THREAD

[DeadsetAce]

saturday would probably be possible but im not sure.

how do you plan on getting tickets? just like stubhub or something?

 

[al3xis]

I guess.


Looks like Moses is a Hoya. Hoyatalk saying he and Goodman were at the selection show watching party.

 

[downyboy]

hmmm, depending if we make it to saturday and the saturday game time, maaaaybe a day trip. i'm going to look into logistics tomorrow.

hate to keep coming back to this but...

vaughn was getting chewed out big time. late in the 1st half while wright was taking FTs, monroe and vaughn were walking to the other side of the court. monroe was trying to talk to him, vaughn wasn't having it. he shrugged him off and monroe just got louder.

benimon is hurting us more than helping us at this point. vaughn obviously needs to stay out of foul trouble but even still JT3 seems to not have confidence in him right now. benimon kills any kind of offensive set, did this guy even play offense in HS? give me more sims...yea i said it.

its in the past, lets just hope it doesn't spill over to thursday.

 

[downyboy]

[h1]Georgetown earns No. 3 seed in Midwest Region, will face Ohio in first round of 2010 NCAA basketball tournament[/h1]

It was a somber bus ride back to Washington for the Georgetown Hoyas early Sunday morning, with little conversation about the Big East tournament championship that had slipped away in the last four seconds of four consecutive days of tremendous basketball.

By 6 p.m., the Hoyas were all smiles once again, looking on at an oversize TV screen as CBS announcers unveiled Georgetown as the No. 3 seed in the Midwest Region of the NCAA tournament and, with it, laid out the Hoyas' potential path to the Final Four.

Georgetown (23-10) will face 14th-seeded Ohio University (21-14), the unlikely champions of the Mid-American Conference in a first-round game in Providence, R.I., on Thursday.

With a victory, the Hoyas would play the winner of No. 6 Tennessee and No. 11 San Diego State on Saturday before potentially advancing to a Sweet 16 matchup with No. 2 seed Ohio State, which beat Georgetown in the 2007 Final Four.

Big 12 champion Kansas earned the No. 1 overall seed. Assigned to the Midwest, the Jayhawks would likely stand in the way of a trip for the Hoyas to the Final Four this year.

But after the extreme highs and lows of Georgetown's run in the Big East tournament -- not to mention the highs and lows of the past two seasons -- sophomore center Greg Monroe was simply thrilled to know he'd be making his first appearance in an NCAA tournament.

Georgetown missed out on a bid last year and lost in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.

"I'm ready," said Monroe, named to the Big East's all-tournament team, along with Chris Wright. "I mean, to me, it's a year late, so I've been waiting for this chance. I'm very excited."

Georgetown was one of eight Big East schools to receive NCAA bids, slotted about where most of the Hoyas said they expected.

Syracuse joined Kentucky and Duke as the remaining No. 1 seeds and was sent to the West Region.

West Virginia, which edged Georgetown for the Big East championship Saturday, 60-58, on Da'Sean Butler's jumper with four seconds remaining, received a No. 2 seed. Villanova was also slotted as a No. 2 seed despite a late-season slump.

Pittsburgh joined Georgetown as a No. 3 seed. Notre Dame and Marquette received No. 6 seeds.

And Louisville rounded out the conference contingent as a No. 9 seed.

The Big East led all conferences with eight NCAA bids. It's the third time the league has placed half its members in the tournament, doing so in 2006 and 2008, as well.

Georgetown Coach John Thompson III said he felt the league could have made a case for nine.

"I think we're the best league in the country, and the league has showed that all year," Thompson said. "We beat each other up all year. Eight teams getting in is not a surprise. We deserved at least eight. I think you'll see over the next couple weeks [that] those teams will represent the league well."

Ohio had a stirring run to the MAC title and wouldn't have earned its NCAA bid otherwise. Seeded ninth in the tournament, the Bobcats won four games to claim the championship, defeating Akron, 81-75, in overtime to do so.

While Thompson said his coaching staff planned to spend Sunday night studying tape of Ohio to prepare their players for Thursday's game, Wright, the Hoyas' junior point guard, was well aware of the Bobcats' leading scorer, point guard Armon Bassett, who played two seasons for Indiana and sat out last season as a transfer.

"They're a very good team," Wright said of Ohio. "[Bassett] is a very good point guard and very capable scorer."

Ohio enters the tournament riding high, having won seven of its last games. In its only game against an opponent in common with Georgetown, the Bobcats fell to Pittsburgh, 74-49, on Dec. 12.

Despite Saturday's loss to West Virginia, Georgetown is playing its best basketball of the season. And they bring a strong résumé into the tournament, with victories over such ranked teams as Syracuse, Duke, Villanova, Butler, Pittsburgh and Temple.

"We're very happy to be back in the tournament," junior guard Austin Freeman said. "Everybody is ready to play right now. What we did in the [Big East] tournament has given us a lot of momentum."

 

[lmbassclown]

any updates on moses? interesting that ESPN insider significantly raised his rating from like 40 something to 90. not that i buy much into what their rating system says.

 

[lmbassclown]

*** Abraham has narrowed his college choices to two schools: Georgetown and Indiana
*** He had originally said he was going to make his college announcement Sunday night at 7 p.m. but that deadline came and went without a decision. Later, that deadline was moved to midnight Sunday, and then to Monday afternoon. Currently, there is no time announced when he plans to make his decision official.
*** He has visited three schools: Georgetown, Maryland and Tennessee. He was scheduled to visit Seton Hall and Indiana but had to cancel those visits because of the flu. He was supposed to have been at the IU-Northwestern game on Senior Day but that visit was canceled because he was sick.
*** Since he lives in Washington, D.C. and attends Progressive Christian Academy, Abraham has had a couple of unofficial visits to Georgetown.
*** He also attended Georgetown's Selection Sunday party but obviously did not make a commitment while he was there.
*** Georgetown continues to recruit him hard but the reality is that the Hoyas also are trying to prepare for an NCAA Tournament game, too.
*** The IU coaching staff was in Washington D.C. on Sunday and hoped to see Abraham practice but apparently that fell through. They were also there to see IU signee Victor Oladipo play for DeMatha High School in the Abe Polin City Championship Game.
*** Tom Crean has been sighted back in Bloomington, but it's believed a member of the IU staff may have stayed behind in Washington, D.C.
*** Today is the first day of the next open contact recruiting period.
*** Abraham's parents arrived from Nigeria Monday night to aid their son in his decision-making process. A professional basketball player from Nigeria, who is seen as an advisor in the process, arrived Sunday night and is offering his assistance as well.

 

[lmbassclown]

where is mutombo in all of this?

 

[al3xis]

I dont care where he ends up..here, great...elsewhere..move on.

this recruitment is not worth the hype...and if his handlers and himself feel TOM CREAN is a better for a developing big man than GEORGETOWN...then I'm at a loss.

 

[downyboy]

^ pretty much exactly what i was telling LMB earlier. i'd love to hear the pitch crean is putting together.

 

[downyboy]

YoungSapp6 Good game tonight good win for my boys... 39pts 10ast 6reb and a win vs a good team

...

YoungSapp6 @G_Monroe10 I had 22 at half...plus I don't have to run point, spin and strong side lmao

 

[lmbassclown]

i don't really care either. thought it would be nice to add some big man depth but if he's gonna show up for selection sunday and then consider joining coach dwight schrute and jeremiah rivers, he can go ahead and see how that turns out. clearly indiana is a contender every year led by a spectacular point guard. we have a PG, PF, and a wing coming in next year, and i'm happy with that. if i'm gonna get hyped for a big man, i'm hyped on rakeem and hopkins.

 

[al3xis]

I still think they'll get one be it Moses, Reddic or Walker..who cut his list down to G'Town, Pitt, Seton Hall and Rutgers this week. Pitt still does not have a scholarship open for him.

So, hopefully Moses can just make up his mind here and everyone can move on.

 

[lmbassclown]

the road to the final four trumps anything regarding recruiting right now. all i'm focused on is thursday night and ohio. and some beers.

 

[al3xis]

Same. Greg's time is winding down. Time to make the run.

 

[DeadsetAce]

Originally Posted by LMBAssclown

the road to the final four trumps anything regarding recruiting right now. all i'm focused on is thursday night and ohio. and some beers.

beers, bears, beets, battlestar galactica


juiced for thursday. love this time of year.

 

[lmbassclown]

and a happy st patricks day to you mates.

 

[downyboy]

hmmmm... start the conspiracy theories...

 

[downyboy]

all starts tonight. lets get this.

 

[downyboy]

[size=+2]Big man Greg Monroe takes the big stage for Georgetown: the NCAA tournament[/size]

[size=-1]By Liz Clarke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 18, 2010;D04
[/size]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Greg Monroe has started 64 consecutive games for Georgetown. In that span, he has been named Big East freshman of the year, earned all-Big East first-team honors as a sophomore and gone a long way toward establishing himself as the next towering figure in a line of distinguished Hoyas centers.

But Monroe has yet to compete in an NCAA tournament.

How he adapts to college basketball's biggest stage when the tournament tips off in earnest Thursday likely will determine how far this promising Georgetown squad goes.

As the No. 3 seed in the NCAA's stacked Midwest Region, Georgetown (23-10) opens play Thursday in Providence against the 14th-seeded Ohio University Bobcats (21-14), the Mid-American Conference tournament's upstart champions.

When last seen at this city's Dunkin' Donuts Center on Feb. 9, Monroe was shattering a Big East record -- and yet another "big man" stereotype in the process -- by dishing out 12 assists in Georgetown's 79-70 victory over conference rival Providence. Before that, no center in league history had managed double-digit assists in a Big East game.

It is the paradox of the 6-foot-11, 247-pound Monroe, whose rare combination of skill, instincts and vision makes NBA scouts swoon and opposing coaches blanch.

Monroe is the star player who never seems happier than when his teammates seize the spotlight.

His spontaneous on-court applause when a fellow Hoya makes a great play is one measure. The fact that he's second on the team in assists by a considerable margin (with 122, behind only Chris Wright's 135) is another.

"What makes him special is he's such a gifted passer," Ohio Coach John Groce said Wednesday. "He makes guys around him better."

During a broadcast of a regular season Georgetown game earlier this year, ESPN analyst Len Elmore tried to break down exactly what makes a great passer to provide context for analyzing Monroe's game.

Reached Wednesday, Elmore said he felt that Monroe had only gotten better since, with his passing ability the characteristic that sets him apart from college basketball's other heralded big men.

"It's the anticipation to see the play before it happens," Elmore said, enumerating the hallmarks of a great passer. "Obviously hand-eye coordination, which he certainly has. And the willingness to give up the ball even though you think you have a shot, which is so important. But most important is the right pass at the right time."

Time and again, Elmore saw Monroe conjure that correct pass, whether a chest pass, behind-the-back pass or bounce pass.

"The lost art of the bounce pass is not lost on him," Elmore said. "He made passes that only a consummate passer in college basketball would make."

Monroe, for his part, can't explain his passing skills other than to say it's simply how he was taught to play the game.

"I'm just very aware, that's all I can say," he offered.

It starts with his vision.

"God-given," Georgetown Coach John Thompson III said. "He can see, and that's a gift that can't be coached."

What separates Monroe is what he does with his acuity.

"There are many people who can see and have the ability to notice what's there," Thompson said. "He also has the willingness to make the passes, and the caring and understanding and the ability to be a facilitator. The kid sees everything that's going on on the court. He's a step or two ahead of everyone else on the court, in terms of understanding what's going to happen."

There is more to Monroe's game, to be sure.

He can score from multiple points on the floor, and in Wednesday's practice at Dunkin' Donuts Center, knocked down a succession of three-pointers with the ease of a shooting guard.

He has become a more active rebounder, as his impressive stat line in Georgetown's rout of Marquette in the Big East tournament semifinal attests: 23 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals.

And he has become more of an on-court leader -- not as vocal or emotive as Maryland's Greivis Vasquez, but a leader in a more restrained way, whether applauding his teammates' heroics or cutting a disapproving glance at an ill-timed mistake.

"He has learned that he can have an impact on the game without scoring, like he did up at Syracuse or against Providence," said junior forward Julian Vaughn.

Georgetown will need more such performances from Monroe if it's to emerge from the brutal Midwest Region.

Assuming the Hoyas beat Ohio on Thursday, they'll face potential games against Ohio State, No. 1 overall seed Kansas and Maryland just to reach the Final Four.

But no matter how daunting Georgetown's path in this NCAA tournament, it's a welcome and well-earned improvement over last year, when the slumping Hoyas played their way out of consideration for a bid and lost in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.

Vaughn remembers how it felt to watch the NCAA games on television.

"I wished I could be a part of that kind of thing, with all the emotion of the tournament, how it sweeps the whole country and how important it is to people," Vaughn said.

Thursday night, he'll finally know what it's like to compete, along with Monroe.

"It's still basketball," said Monroe. "That's how I look at it."

 

[lmbassclown]

very happy that we're back in the tourney. can't take ANYTHING for granted now. there is no tomorrow. get it done.

 

[DeadsetAce]

let's do it right today, hooah?

 

[henz0]

 

[cmoneymontana]

 If their players were not in the club all the time with Blatche, Portis, and Haynesworth, MAYBE they would have won..... 

 

[downyboy]

BE tourney was fools gold.

Vaughn? No PT in the second half. JT3 tried to match up small and it obviously didn't work.

No heart in these players aside from Wright.

Maybe I'll finally invest in firejt3.com

 

[TheGift23]

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