March 10, 2007
FINAL-LY!!!!
The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words; and that may hold true here, although excuse me if I add a few words of my own. In the Big East Championship game at Madison Square Garden, Georgetown played like a team of destiny, not just soaring over Pittsburgh, but catching them flatfooted and towering over them like giants. This is what I hastily typed at halftime to keep from chewing my fingernails off in appreciation of too-good-to-be-true fortune:
"One really can't ask for a much better half than Georgetown gave during the first 20 minutes of tonight's game. What the ESPN announcers don't realize is that it's not a question of one player going to sleep and the other player lighting up when talking about Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert. The two Junior frontcourt men are a tandem team. They're enablers of the court kind, opening up and occupying opposing teams inversely for maximum inflicted damage. If they were a comedy team they'd be Abbot and Costello, if thieves, Bonnie and Clyde, if dancers, Ginger and Rogers. Georgetown played its first half against Pitt like a consummate team. The Panthers, frankly, looked a little desperate, clunky, and stilted. Only a fool would count them out after 20 minutes though. They were down to Louisville's Cardinals by 14 points last night and wound up winning by by six. This isn't the Big East Championship for nothing."
Roy Hibbert wound up being the man. Jeff Green scored 21 points to Hibbert's 18, but this lopsided rout was not won with offense: Georgetown only scored 65 points. Pitt's problems was that they were being completely killed at their end of the court on rebounds. Any shot that Pitt missed was as good as a wasted posession. Georgetown outrebounded Pitt by a wide margin at the Panthers' end of the court [stats have not yet been posted at ESPN]. Hibbert had 12 rebounds, nine of them defensive.
With Jesse Sapp on the foul line and under two minutes to play, Hibbert left the floor to a round of applause at the Garden (I'd like to say "thunderous applause", but the Hoyas have never been well liked at MSG), with a 24-point lead. Jeff Green followed Hibbert on the sideline a free throw later when Georgetown was up by 25 points. Green was awarded the Big East Tournament MVP trophy following the game.
It's been 18 years since Georgetown hoisted a trophy at The Garden, so I think a few historic and contextual points are in order. This was Georgetown's 7th Big East Tournament Championship, breaking a six-win tie with UConn and making Georgetown the tournament-championest team in conference history. As extraordinary as the Hoyas' 23-point margin of victory was tonight (65-42), what is more extraordinary is the fact that 42 points is the lowest point total a team has been held to in a championship game in conference history, by a margin of 12. And that includes the era when college basketball was ruled by no shot clock and lacked a 3-point shot line.
The NCAA tournament selection can do whatever they want. The Hoyas may or may not merit a #1 seed come Sunday. I, for one, am thrilled at what this group of men have achieved over a long season. That Big East Championship was a long time coming. Hang the banner in McDonough Arena. Just save some space for the next one.
For the record:
SUPER-DUPER ULTRA MONEY QUOTE:
"I feel grateful that I get to be a part of that, and that I get to wear 'Georgetown' across my chest," Hibbert said.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE
In a game that will probably be talked about for as long as their triple-overtime regular season marathon a few years ago, Notre Dame and Georgetown's Big East Tournament semi-final matchup was some basektball both teams could be proud of.
If one looks at the Game Flow graphic from ESPN.com to the left, one can see that ND dominated the first half, primarily by dropping 3s at will. The Hoyas closed the half with a run though, narrowing the gap to two points. The second half is when things got interesting. Over 20 minutes, the two teams were tied 9 times and the lead changed hands 13 times. The outcome was not certain until the last seconds of the game, when a three-point shot for the win taken by Russell Carter of ND missed its mark and the Hoyas escaped with a two-point victory.
Junior Jeff Green showed the crowd on hand in NYC and probably the whole nation some of the reasons he was named Big East Player of the Year. The forward played 40 minutes, never once coming off the court for a rest in an effort that yielded 30 points and 12 rebounds. To give one a sense of how great a team player Green is and what a catalyst he is in getting Georgetown wins, swallow this: Leading Georgetown to its first regular season title in 18 years and the first Hoya to win Player of the Year since Alonzo Mourning in 1992, Jeff Green never scored a double double (double-digit points and rebounds or assists in a single game) during the regular 2006-2007 season and did not do so until last night. To be named Player of the Year without ever achieving a double double over an entire season is extraordinary and Jeff Green may have been the first to do so. Also contributing significantly––and emotionally––was Patrick Ewing, Jr. Wearing his father's number on his jersey and using the same locker at The Garden that the old man used as a New York Knick, Jr. was electric, coming off the bench to score 15 points. He humbly deflected praise, however, to freshman teammate DaJuan Summers, who scored 18 with four rebounds.
Notre Dame shot out to its early lead thanks to shooting 8 for 14 from 3-point range in the first half. Georgetown muscled its way back into the game thanks to the play of Ewing Jr. and the freshman DaJuan Summers (18 points), who Ewing Jr. called “the next Jeff Green.”
High praise indeed. In a bit of news that will be troubling to all the other Big East teams, it should be noted that Georgetown only has two seniors on its team, both of them four-year bench warmers who I'm embarassed to say I'd never heard of. The Hoyas starting five is comprised of three Juniors (Green, Hibbert, Wallace) a Sophomore (Sapp) and the Freshman Summers. The New York Times has a decent article on last night's game.
In the second of last night's games, Pitt battled back to defeat the Louisville Cardinals 65-59. Georgetown and Pitt have met twice already this season, Pitt winning the first game and Georgetown the second. Both events were closely contested. This will be Pitt's sixth appearance in the Big East Tournament Final in the last seven years. In their prior five appearances, they've only managed to win once, in 2003 against UConn. This will be Georgetown's first appearance in the final since 1996. I was at that game and it may have been the worst thing I've ever seen as a championship slipped through their fingers to UConn in a comedy of errors. The last time Georgetown won the BE Championship was in 1989.
Tagged: basketball, big east, college basketball, georgetown, hoyas, irish, notre dame, pittPosted by Lexiphane at 8:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 9, 2007
DOWN TO FOUR
Georgetown almost surrendered an overwhelming first-half lead, but eventually held off Villanova for a win. The Irish finally got lucky at the Garden and continued their season-long sweep of Syracuse to advance. It took Louisville two overtime periods, but they managed to stave off an upset-minded group of Mountaineers. Pitt's game versus Marquette was past my bedtime; they won. Capsule recaps of the games can be found at the Big East homepage here
So what's happening tonight in the semifinals? All four top-seeded teams who received a first-round bye in the tournament have advanced to penultimate round on 7th Ave. At 7 p.m. Notre Dame's Irish meet the Georgetown Hoyas. According to The New York Times, ND's Big East Coach of the Year Mike Brey is already looking ahead to Saturday's finals.
It was the Irish’s first victory at the Big East tournament since 2004, and it left Brey giddy about his team’s chances to earn its first appearance in the conference title game.
“I told them in the locker room: ‘It’s our destiny, we’re playing on Saturday night,’ ” Brey said. “It’s destiny, and there’s fate involved here. There’s good karma around this group.”
Brey might want to not look too far past the Hoyas, who thrashed his team mercilessly in early January, 66-48. And that was before Georgetown got its on-court act together.
At 9:30 p.m. Louisville will meet season-long conference leaders Pitt, who only surrendered the regular season title to Georgetown at their schedule's bitter end. The two have only met once this year prior to tonight. Louisville issued the Panthers a 66-53 beatdown in mid-February on Pitt's own home court. Both games should be fun to watch.
Tagged: big east, college basketball, georgetown, louisville, notre dame, pitt, tournamentPosted by Lexiphane at 4:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 8, 2007
GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS
While there are 16 schools in the Big East Conference, the bottom four finishers are not invited to its annual conference tournament held at Madison Square Garden in March [see GARDEN PARTY, 3/4/07]. This makes for some heated regular season games down the stretch, as the teams with the four best regular season records are granted byes in the first round. Yesterday was that first round and it passed with relatively little excitement. Higher seed beat lower seed in three out of four games (#9 seed Villanova defeated #8 seed Depaul) and nine and 13 were popular numbers, acting as the margins of victory in two games apiece. Capsule results for each game can be found here.
The quarterfinals start today at noon. Follow along with the brackets above as I give some quick thoughts on today's games.
Game 1, noon: #9 Villanova vs. #1 Georgetown
Villanova has succeded in bedeviling Georgetown on the court for approximately the last decade. Then again, so have most decent teams in the conference. Game time should be a factor. Does the early hour and a day off yesterday leave the Hoyas with creaky or fresh legs? Number of times 1985 upset of G'town by 'Nova in NCAA Championship will be referenced by ESPN commentators: 34
Game 2, 2 p.m.: #4 Notre Dame vs. #5 Syracuse
Irish vs. Orange. A relative newcomer to the conference, ND has a reputation as an underperformer once it enters The Garden in March. Syracuse is almost the exact opposite. It's won the tournament the last two years, last year overcoming a low seed to win four straight games including the final. In their last meeting, ND manhandled the Orange. Number of times "luck" of Irish will be mentioned in reference to upcoming St. Patrick's Day: 9
Game 3, 7 p.m.:#7 West Virginia vs. #2 Louisville
Few coaches in the conference are as experienced in tournament play as Louisville's Rick Pitino and his team came on strong in the second half of the season. I've always liked the Mountaineers though, a good team with the ability to upset anyone.
Game 4, 9 p.m.:#3 Pittsburgh vs. #6 Marquette
After standing dominant atop the Big East throughout the regular season, Pitt stumbled at the finish line, losing two out of its last three games. Will the team hit the floor lacking confidence or eager for redemption?
All games will be broadcast on ESPN.
Posted by Lexiphane at 6:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 4, 2007
MARCH GARDEN PARTY
For the last 25 years, early March has marked a time of pilgrimage for tens of thousands of people. Originally, they would come primarily from the mid-Atlantic states with an occasional band of outliers. Now they flock from the midwest, upstate NY, and as far south as Kentucky. All converge on 7th Avenue in midtown Manhattan at a place called The Garden, where over the course of four days they will cheer for teams of men who will run a single-elimination gauntlet with one goal: to be named the Mens College Basketball Big East Tournament Champions. This year's tournament begins Wednesday at noon. All games can be seen on ESPN.
Full disclosure: I have a rooting interest in the tournament, although I'll try to remain impartial in my commentary here.
Posted by Lexiphane at 7:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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