OMG ***NEW BLOG*** OMG

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.