That was not a good loss. That was not an acceptable loss. That was a pathetic loss. Losing to West Virginia on the road is one thing, but losing to a mediocre Cincinnati team at home? That just sucks. Georgetown lost 68-64 to the Bearcats in easily the worst performance by both the players and coaching staff this season. Hollis Thompson and Jason Clark missed two shots all night combined, yet they only took THIRTEEN. The junior and senior each had 14 points, but it wasn't enough tonight.
Otto Porter had another challenging game, committing careless turnovers that we did not expect from the stellar freshman. Greg Whittington got torched by Cincinnati's Sean Kilpatrick, who led the Bearcats with a cool 27 points. In addition, Dion Dixon had a smooth 22 points. Yes, two guys on Cincinnati scored 49 of their 68 points.
I may cry, after The Jump.
The Hoyas were again careless with the ball, turning it over 17 times, including 3 out of 4 crucial possessions with less than 3 minutes left. In a year that he has been spectacular, John Thompson III got his pants coached off him by Mick Cronin tonight. Cincinnati had two guys that were hot, Georgetown had two guys that were hot. Cincinnati figured out how to stop Georgetown's guys, and the Hoyas weren't able to return the favor. Yet, that is too simple an explanation. There were a ton of headscratching decisions tonight. JT3 refusing to use Jabril Trawick on Kilpatrick is completely and utterly puzzling. JT3 sitting Markel Starks late in the second half, when it seemed like every Hoya possession ended in a turnover, is just astounding. I really hope that Trawick was sick or something, because if not, that personnel decision is absolutely indefensible.
The poor finish to this game overshadowed the best performance by Nate Lubick this year. Of course, Lubick was also sitting at the end of the game, even though he was by far our most active and engaged player throughout. Half way through the season, it is nice to see Lubick regaining his mojo, we are definitely going to need big minutes from him going forward.
I thought I had this team figured out. Our problems, before tonight, were ball security and guarding aggressive fours. But after tonight's performance, one that was eerily reminiscent of the last three years, I don't know what to think. Can we guard the perimeter? Can JT3 adjust? Will he stop playing favorites? Will we have poise at the end of games? Can we inbound the freaking basketball?
Obviously, tonight is just one game, we are still 3-2 in the Big East with a bunch of winnable games ahead, and it is still January. But, holy hell, tonight's game was EXTREMELY winnable. Lose games like the Kansas and West Virginia games, where we competed as hard as we could, took the other team's best shot, and came out on the wrong side. But to lose a game at home while shooting almost 60% from the field? Give me a damn break.
This year's Big East conference is built on parity, and we stand out from the pack because of our depth and flexibility. Tonight JT3 put a noose on that flexibility, relying on Porter and Whittington for way too long, and getting outcoached by some dude named Mick. Cincinnati has a three game winning streak against us. The same Cincinnati team that got absolutely waxed by Xavier in everything but the end-of-game brawl. There is no excuse for an effort like that, and the blame tonight is focused on the coaching staff. We have an excellent team this year, so let's try to avoid getting outscored 16-6 by a vastly inferior team to end another game this season.
End of rant, St. John's is next.
0 recs | 51 comments
Amen!
RileysDressLikeAHoyaJersey - January 9, 2012 via mobile
too painful
tjm62 - January 9, 2012
also goes for the paper tomorrow
tjm62 - January 9, 2012
Celine Dion "it's all coming back to me" is the sound track for this moment
RileysDressLikeAHoyaJersey - January 9, 2012 via mobile
i dont get this "playing favorites" crap
starks, clark and thompson played 31, 35, and 36 minutes, respectively. where exactly were trawicks minutes going to come from? sit hot hands clark and thompson? bench starks even more than you are complaining about?
in the final two minutes of the game, thompson decided that porter was more valuable on defense than trawick is on offense. for the whole season, this has been true. it wasnt tonight.
that being said, jt3 got outcoached in this one. but season is still young
Hire Esherick - January 9, 2012
Re-reading and looking at minutes
You are right about the playing favorites thing, doesn’t make that much sense. Just feels like Porter has an extremely long leash right now. That said, probably deserved considering he’s been pretty phenomenal for 14 of 16 games.
JGD - January 9, 2012
he should not have been guarding
their guards 25 feet from the basket. Either bring in Trawick at the end when it’s clear that their offense consisted of exploiting that mismatch or figure out something else. You have to get stops to win a close game like that. Then you worry about offense. I have had no qualms with III’s substitution patterns all year. I think he bricked on that one though, but it’s not the reason they lost.
The Lorry Michel Backrub - January 9, 2012
to realized that jabril couldve pressured dixonnnn and kilpatrick
just to state the obvious kilpatrick only had one TO and only 2 for dixon and 22/27 points for each couldve been shaven off a little if jabril was pressed on them. there was a lot of mistakes but that one was the discernible one. it just makes me sad i really really wanted some vengeance for what was done to chris wright.
kayyybelita - January 10, 2012
As a UC fan, I can tell you the Xavier comment is meaningless, we don’t use the same offense we did before the fight.
The turnovers were partly carelessness, but also our guys getting deflections. Cronin keeps track of deflections and keeps 40 as a goal. Sometimes you get lucky with those, which I think you did in the first half, some times you don’t. I was mad to see our guys losing track of people on defense, and the start of the game where we were missing long shots.
I think Cronin picked out mismatches, rather one mismatch, the freshman.
JTIII, didn’t seem to have a response. This, in addition to the ND win is nice.
I wish we hadn’t shot so awful against St. Johns. We’d be 4-0.
I gotta be honest, I really thought a Georgetown team would want revenge for last year and Gates would have a big game. He didn’t make his bunnies until way late in the game. Helps when he shoots well from the line.
That ridiculous shot Thompson made to close the first half, left me feeling sick. Glad UC pulled it out.
EvilButterfly - January 9, 2012
I want to respond to this
in the same rational and calm manner that you posted it, but I am really struggling to do that since I have developed a strong dislike for UC over the past couple years. Cronin was the better coach last night, and that’s about the most civil thing I can say about it.
Also, interesting handle you’ve got there.
J-Wall's Mom's Broom - January 10, 2012
Ok... deep breath. Expectations coming back to earth now.
We’ll be a streaky team like we’ve been in the past. This team has the potential to beat good teams. We’ve also showed limitless potential to lose to average teams – whether at home or on the road. We just won’t do either consistently.
Guessing we have a few good streaks left in us, and a few more gutwrenching abominations like tonight too.
Take a deep breath before each game. Cynicism and delusion – as always – on a collision course all season long!
TouomouIsMyHomie - January 9, 2012
Kilpatrick torched Otto tonight. Thought JT3 should of went to Trawick in the 2nd half after Wittington and Porter kept getting torched by Kilpatrick. With that said there is alot of basketball left to play and I have confidence in this Hoya team.
Gtownfan92 - January 9, 2012 via iPhone app
he kept blowing by Otto
who looked like he had nowhere near the lateral speed to stay in front of him on drives
Lord Humongous - January 10, 2012
turnover problems are a slippery slope
it affects confidence, clouds judgment, and makes you second guess and second clutch.
jt3 must fix this problem asap. maybe the three day turnaround between wvu and cincy wasnt enough. got little less than a week to fix it for st johns, and then we head into our “easy” stretch.
i think we have seen how bad this team can be. i dont think we have seen how good they can be.
Hire Esherick - January 9, 2012
You are some kind of hero
That only shows up when times are darkest
WarmupEwing - January 10, 2012
that is hoyasincebirth
Hire Esherick - January 10, 2012
JahidiLikesPie will be thrilled
If this prompts Positive Postgame Prognosis to return
Hoya Saxual - January 10, 2012
What on Earth happened to Hollis??
After a great first half, puts up a bagel and only attempts a few shots in the second. Jason can’t be the only veteran to step up and try to save us every time we are down.
rochesterhoya07 - January 9, 2012
By "a few"
don’t you mean “one?” (Did he end up 0-1 in the second half? I remember seeing that stat thrown around a lot in the post-game panic session, I think. Trying my best to forget about this…)
J-Wall's Mom's Broom - January 10, 2012
They Did a pretty good job taking him away
ESPECIALLY on the last few possessions. I dont remember which guy was guarding him but I don’t even remember him touching the ball on our last 2 or 3 possessions. They were gana force someone else to beat them and it worked out. (again Coaching)
Iwillpaytheway!! - January 10, 2012
Didn't understand why we didn't play more zone?
really, really not one of III’s better showings.
alleninxis - January 10, 2012
I love Otto
but damnit son make your free throws.
jwallobjects - January 10, 2012 via Android app
I think Otto's assumption that the baseline had somehow retreated
Was much more of an issue when the game was on the line (though I do realize that if he’d made a couple more FTs earlier that might misstep might not have been so relevant and heart-rending)
Hoya Saxual - January 10, 2012
Agreed
And he has hit some clutch free throws – and also missed a handful too. That said, we obviously have only seen glimpses of his potential for the next few years. The clutch free throw shooting – and other essential late game plays – Jason and Henry displayed tonight will come.
jwallobjects - January 10, 2012 via Android app
although the game swung around
on the two free throw misses from Hank, quickly followed by a Cincy 3. A possible 8 point margin became 3, and then it was game on. Just killer.
SirHoya - January 10, 2012 via iPhone app
It confuses me
Everyone seems to be in love with Otto for the small things he does. I get that but until he shows me that he can make a shot outside of 3 ft I can not think of him as a “star” player in the future.
JewFroHollis - January 10, 2012
I've been discussing this
with the people in my section at VC. Love what Otto does away from the basket, but he has a lot of work to do to improve his finishing around the basket. Even those 3 footers don’t seem to come easy for him (finger roll, anyone?)
Still, keep it up Bubba!!!
vivanloshoyas - January 10, 2012
Are we as fans
over analyzing on what Otto brings to the table? I think he’ll be fine, he’s entering BE play and we as fans know how brutal it can be. This team is young and we’re not seeing the bigger picture.
Big Spoon - January 10, 2012
Just playing the other side
I’ve watched many on here crucify lubick for the exact same thing. I get it soph vs freshman, Otto has more flashes of brilliance but when does it become a topic of importance as opponents sag off him when he continues to not even look for his shot, and barely hit rim when he does. Either way just another frustrated rant
JewFroHollis - January 10, 2012
Understood
I was really glad to see Lubick make some noise last night, and hopefully this will be confidence booster for him
Big Spoon - January 10, 2012
Just to clarify
we were talking about his finishing touch around the basket. Still believe he will be a star for this team in the future.
vivanloshoyas - January 10, 2012
deja vu all over again
These past few games have been incredibly frustrating and eerily reminiscent of the prior year. We have repeated our same struggles: 1. We revert to jump shooting bitches with not enough movement. 2. We become too enamored with cutesy passes and end up forcing too many, resulting in foolish momentum- killing turnovers. 3. We failed to address the defensive mismatches – our length was torched by the speed of their guards. 4. I don’t even want to discuss inbound plays and the lazy passes.
JT3 needs to ratchet up the intensity and we need to get our killer instinct and mojo going in these next several winnable games. I am afraid that we are who we thought we were.
AlamoHoya - January 10, 2012 via iPhone app
Last minute or so...
What the hell happened? We took (I think) two timeouts and Cinci took one as well, and we couldn’t execute out of the timeouts at all. We certainly had plenty of time to plan. We saw this problem a lot last year – really has to get fixed and soon.
jwallobjects - January 10, 2012 via Android app
^this
How many times have we seen the Hoyas under JTIII have no clue what to do coming out of a TO a t a critical juncture.
Still, let’s go Hoyas, get the rebound win against the Johnnies!!!
vivanloshoyas - January 10, 2012
Just got back from the game...
and much like you feeling like the Hoyas just got outplayed and out-coached tonight. UC’s defensive pressure in the second half was stifling and even though we played out of the half-court trap most of the time, we just couldn’t match their intensity. Porter shrunk from the spotlight in this one, and why we never saw Trawick is on par with the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Just going to have to digest this one and move the fuck on as quick as we all can.
Disappointing night all around.
Cuse Swallows - January 10, 2012
could have been worse
At least it wasn’t a shutout.
onceahoya - January 10, 2012 via mobile
oh otto
there is a lot of expectations or otto, and most of us has heard a snippet of his story (if not see link below) the kid has played hard in the earlier games and has been off the past two, but as his story goes, if he is really the kid that look at things with such significance, he will learn from what he did today or maybe what he will do/not do in a couple more awry games (well i hope not), but color me corny and optimistic but i believe in the kid too much due to how i perceived his story, we all know that we’d rather have him be a little off now than late in feb/march.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/954798-georgetown-hoyas-otto-porter-was-born-to-be-a-star
Ronny Thompson's Forehead - January 10, 2012
pardon the mispellings i got tipsayy after the game and its 5 am
OOPS
Ronny Thompson's Forehead - January 10, 2012
and im extremely emotional
Ronny Thompson's Forehead - January 10, 2012
Sometimes...
it’s just not your night. Cronin is a decent coach.
Esteban d' Amur - January 10, 2012
sigh
Last night to me they looked like a team that was afraid to lose. In their best games they’ve played as if they had nothing to lose.
And so, so many turnovers.
And I officially hate all refs. ALL OF THEM.
MyFairHoya - January 10, 2012
Not the Bearcats win I was looking for
Can we have Broadus back please? 0-15, last in the Sagarin’s and 3rd or 4th from bottom on kenpom.com. killer. you guys are all i have left. win dammit
bearcat saxa - January 10, 2012
Mistakes!!!!!!!!!!!
1) Lets stop forcing the back door cut, I believe it has been scouted. It will work but please lets stop forcing it.
2) Lubick will have to shot the mid range, this also has been scouted. He’s open on the perimeter only because the defense knows he’s a passer and this creates turnovers when he tries to pass into the post.
3) Why are we not cutting to the rim more? Our guards need to penetrate in order to break the defense down.
4) Where is Porter???
5) Where was Trawick???
6) What up with Aaron??
7) What up with the FT’s???
Melvin M. Tuggle III - January 10, 2012
Regarding number 3
Something CW did pretty well last year – maybe he’ll share some wisdom with Jason and Markel (though Jason has already shown he can get to the rim pretty well) a la Roy and Jeff helping Henry.
J-Wall's Mom's Broom - January 10, 2012
What I've seen that is good!!!!!
Sims is playing!! He has matched or out played his opponents and we need this all year long from him. Keep it up Hank!!!
Melvin M. Tuggle III - January 10, 2012
Not panicking yet, but not happy!!!!!!!!
Melvin M. Tuggle III - January 10, 2012
Nate had a tremendous game...
… but I forgot all about it after that lazy inbounds pass.
fijimf - January 10, 2012
Gentlemen
we have to understand that this team is very young (however it doesn’t overlook the fact of JT3 head-scratching moments). As of right now this team has overachieved (so far), and we’re going to observe the up and down stretches in BE play.
Patience is a must from this team right now, AGAIN let this be a lessons learned for JT3 on over-relying on the system and not letting his athletic players make a play down the stretch. The freshmen were exposed on the perimeter and Cronin did a great job of out-coaching JT3 (others will follow suit once the game is tight down the road).
Do we as fans see JT3 over-relying in his system over sheer athleticism (I’m sure the response will be in the affirmative from the majority of the masses). Perhaps, just perhaps trust is lacking on JT3 to his players, furthermore this issue has to be rectified sooner, rather than later.
Big Spoon - January 10, 2012
The ledge I am standing on is getting much smaller
Or I could jump in front of the thundertrain
Iwillpaytheway!! - January 10, 2012
Not just yet, give it some thought!
Big Spoon - January 10, 2012
I post this statement in the past.
“If this 2011-12 team does as well or better then last years team it will be a great accomplishment. But on the other hand we strive for so much more, we strive for that “WOW FACTURE!!!!!!!”
Melvin M. Tuggle III - January 10, 2012
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