When last we saw the Georgetown Hoyas up close and personal, Creighton was on the verge of a huge road win with three minutes left…and then choked away a double-digit lead in a 74-73 loss. That improbable win for G’Town is their only win in the last calendar year over a Big East team other than St. John’s and DePaul (the bottom two teams each of the last two years, FYI) — a streak that has reached 15 games. Following that win over the Jays, the Hoyas lost nine of ten to close the regular season, with the lone win coming over the Red Storm. It was a bizarre end for a team that was 6-2 in the league after that win vs CU, and left them at home in March.
They’ve picked right back up where they left off, so to speak, losing six of their first seven Big East games to start the year, with the lone win coming over St. John’s. They’re 1-6, the worst start to a league schedule since the 1998-99 team started 1-7, a stretch that led (at least in part) to the retirement of John Thompson, Jr. mid-season. Will this start lead to a similar fate for his son, John Thompson III? It’s hard to say, but when a prominent website covering your program publishes a piece called “Is Georgetown the Next DePaul?” — most assuredly, not in a flattering way — you’ve entered a dark place as a program.
The Bluejays head to Washington D.C. as a program that, if not totally written off by national pundits after the loss of Maurice Watson, is severely discounted. They fell nine spots in the AP poll to 16th after a week where they beat a top 25 team on the road, mostly without Watson, and lost at home to a Marquette team who’s playing themselves onto the NCAA Tournament bubble. Writers like this one are pointing out the cruel realities of the NCAA Tournament committee’s seeding process:
In other words, all those Top 50 wins the Jays piled up now have an asterisk next to them, and in order for them to not be dismissed as the work of a totally different team, they need to continue winning so the post-Mo record doesn’t overrule all that came before. Fortunately, it appears they’ve found themselves a point guard, as Davion Mintz was terrific on Saturday.
“I haven’t decided who’ll start, but Davion was really good coming off the bench, and if something’s not broke why try to fix it?” Coach Greg McDermott noted on Monday. “I liked the way he played. He was aggressive, he made good decisions with the basketball, and he didn’t play like a freshman.”
“I wished we’d gotten him more time as we went along in the preseason,” McDermott continued, “but when you’re in the middle of those games you want to make sure you win them.”
The Bluejays spent the majority of last week’s preparations for Marquette focusing on their offense without Maurice Watson. They scored 94 points against Marquette, and after starting the game 11-34 from the field, made 22 of their next 34 (65%) and got more and more comfortable in their offense the more they played with Mintz at the helm. For the game, they shot 48.5 percent from the field, 45.8 percent from three-point range and 81.0 percent at the line. They scored on 41-of-81 possessions and averaged 1.160 points per possession; in other words, their offense was mostly terrific, so much so that they’ve been able to devote the majority of their practice time before the Georgetown game to their defense.
The news on that front has been a mixed bag this week; Toby Hegner re-injured the ankle he had nagging pain in most of last season, and his status for the Georgetown game is up in the air. But Zach Hanson, a veteran who’s an assertive voice on the defensive end, continues making progress, and could be back as early as next week — or even as early as the game Wednesday night in D.C. according to a report from WBR’s Matt DeMarinis.
“It’s going to be a wait-and-see thing with Toby,” McDermott said on Monday. “That’s the same ankle he had the problem with last year. He toughed it out on Saturday and kept playing, but it’s pretty swelled up today.”
If Hegner can’t go, that means it will be all the more imperative that Justin Patton stays out of foul trouble; he’s played a total of 37 minutes the last two games because of fouls, and without Hegner behind him, there’s no great option to back him up (assuming Hanson doesn’t make an appearance). Martin Krampelj is that guy, almost by default, but at this point in his career he’s not someone you want to rely on to play 15-20 minutes in a Big East road game. The “5” isn’t the only trouble spot if Hegner can’t play. He’s seen significant time at the “4”, as well, and that means Ronnie Harrell (and Krampelj) will see big minutes in that spot.
That’s particularly concerning because Georgetown, for all their struggles, has big bodies patrolling the middle of the paint and long, athletic players on the wings. Jessie Govan (9.0 ppg., 5.2 rpg., 1.0 bpg.) leads the Hoyas in rebounding and blocked shots, and in the first game in Omaha a year ago, the 6’10”, 270-pound center’s ability to stretch the floor was problematic for whoever the Jays had defending him. He scored 17 points on 7-9 shooting from the floor and 3-3 from three-point range; in the rematch the Jays were able to get him in foul trouble and he played just 10 ineffective minutes.
7’0”, 275-pound center Bradley Hayes has split time with Govan, alternatively starting and coming off the bench, and is second on the team in rebounding at 4.9 boards per game. Marcus Derrickson, a 6’7”, 250-pound forward, is third on the team in both scoring and rebounding (9.4 ppg., 4.4 rpg.) and shoots 42% from three-point range (25-59).
The bulk of their scoring comes from the backcourt, however. Robert Morris grad transfer Rodney Pryor, a 6’5” guard, averages 18.0 points per game to lead the team, and is second on the team with 4.9 rebounds a game. Pryor is their predominant three-point weapon, with twice as many attempts and made threes as any of his teammates (49-115, 42.6%). He broke out of a slump in their loss to Xavier over the weekend with 23 points on 10-12 shooting; prior to that game, he had an ugly 0-8 night against Butler where he scored zero points, and games of 13, 14, and 12 in their next three.
Fellow 6’5” guard LJ Peak is second on the team with 15.9 points per contest, and leads the team with 3.1 assists per game. He’s had back-to-back rough games, shooting 3-11 in a loss to Providence and 3-12 in a loss to Xavier. One-third of his points come from the free-throw line (103 of his 317 points), as he has both an amazing ability to draw fouls and to convert at the stripe, shooting 83.1%.
Oddly, despite all that size, Georgetown isn’t that great of a rebounding team — they’re +0.5 on the glass for the year, and have given up 48 more offensive rebounds than they’ve grabbed themselves. Opponents grab an offensive board on 34.9% of their misses against Georgetown. For context: opponents get an offensive board on 32.5% of their misses against Creighton, a team who’s been maligned for their lack of rebounding prowess all year, and somehow Georgetown gives up even more than they do.
This game will probably come down to two things: keeping Justin Patton out of foul trouble and on the floor, and better defensive communication to keep Georgetown’s guards from getting wide-open looks. If Creighton can do those two things, they should have enough offense to pull off their first win in D.C. since joining the Big East.
Quick Notes on the Hoyas:
- Omaha native Akoy Agau, a first-team all-state selection in 2011, 2012 and 2013, has started eight games for the Hoyas this year. He averages 4.6 points and 3.8 rebounds in nearly 15 minutes of action per game
- In their 86-75 win over Georgetown on Sunday in Cincinnati, Xavier attempted nearly as many free throws (49) as field goals (50). The Hoyas were whistled for an absurd 34 fouls, and had four players with four fouls, and two others that fouled out. G’Town attempted just 14 free throws themselves; Creighton can sympathize with that sort of ridiculous foul discrepancy at the Cintas Center.
Bluejay Bytes:
- Davion Mintz joined Austin Chatman (twice), Grant Gibbs (once), Maurice Watson Jr. (six times) and Antoine Young (once) as the only players with a game of 17 points and eight assists in the seven-year era of Greg McDermott with his performance on Saturday. He’s the only Bluejay to have had a game of 17 points and eight assists off the bench in the last 35 seasons (going back to 1981-82).
- Creighton has won all five road games this season, and with a win on Wednesday at Georgetown will produce a six-game win streak on the road for just the second time in more than 40 years — they won six straight road games in the 2011-12 season, and in the 1974-75 campaign. The last time they won seven straight? January 31, 1928 to January 19, 1929, a stretch spanning two seasons.
- Marcus Foster scored 30 points in last Saturday’s game vs. Marquette, making 13-of-24 shots from the floor. It’s a season-high for the junior, and the second time in his college career that he’s gone for 30 or more points. Foster scored a career-high 34 points vs. #15 Texas during his freshman season at Kansas State in 2013-14.
The Series:
Creighton is 3-5 all-time against Georgetown. They’re winless in three tries at the Verizon Center, however, and coming into the season it was one of only two venues in the Big East that they’d never won at. Providence’s Dunkin Donuts Center was the other, and they won there two weeks ago, leaving the Verizon Center as the lone holdout.
Greg McDermott is 2-6 all-time (2-5 at Creighton) against Georgetown and coach John Thompson III, losing a 54-49 game to the Hoyas in a 2007 NCAA Tournament game that wound up being his last game as coach at Northern Iowa. Thompson, meanwhile, is 5-2 against Creighton.
The Last Time They Played:
Last January, Creighton dominated the Hoyas for 37 minutes before suffering an epic meltdown in a one-point loss at Georgetown. Here’s the WBR highlight package, which focuses almost entirely on the portion of the game where the Jays were rolling, and mostly ignores the part where they allowed a 15-3 run in the closing minutes. There’s no need to relive that.
Gratuitous Linkage:
WBR’s Patrick Marshall was a guest on Casual Hoya’s “Sleeping With the Enemy” segment, and gave some good perspective on Creighton’s season, as well as answered the usual off-topic question or three that the Casual gang throws out.
What the Other Side is Saying:
The Washington Post recently took a deep dive into Georgetown’s struggles as a program, and while the entire thing is a must-read, this passage in particular stood out:
“Since 1972-73, Georgetown basketball has as many Final Four appearances as losing seasons: four. Those losing seasons each marked a watershed for the program: the first season for John Thompson Jr.; Thompson’s last, in which he retired mid-year; Craig Esherick’s final season, after which he was fired; and last year, when the beat-up Hoyas lost 10 of their final 12 and Thompson III suffered his first losing campaign among 12 running his dad’s old program.
Let’s deal with that fact right here and now, because it is inescapable: Georgetown’s position is unlike any other program in the country because the coach’s father not only hung three Final Four banners on campus and won the 1984 national championship, and not only was also a bold voice for change and progress in college sports, but because he sits on the baseline for each game at Verizon Center, taking in a team that remains in the family. It is the biggest part of the big picture, whether that’s fair to either the Hall of Fame coach or his 50-year-old son.”
This Date in Creighton Hoops History:
On January 25, 2012, Creighton beat Drake 77-69 in Des Moines following a familiar gameplan — getting an unexpected game from one of their native Iowans. Pierce Hibma was the patron saint of that, torching the Bulldogs two straight years in 2006 and 2007, but in the ’12 game, it was Will Artino. From WBR’s recap:
“The surprise of the night was the play of Waukee, Iowa native Will Artino against the Bulldogs. The freshman played 16 big minutes as Gregory Echenique was saddled with foul trouble. Artino’s line of 6 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists may not seem like much, but it was instrumental down the stretch opening the floor a little more for McDermott to go on a streak scoring 12 of 13 points from the 5:59 mark until 52 seconds left in the game.”
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day:
I can’t adequately explain what’s going on in this mash-up, but I also can’t stop listening to it either. Every time I go to hit STOP, something else makes me smile. I lost track of how many songs are sampled in this 56-minute extravaganza called “Mouth Moods” that is making the rounds today online. One friend of mine texted me to say “The fire on it’s way to you in this track is SEVERE. Play this at my funeral.”
http://neilcic.com/mouthmoods/
The Bottom Line:
This is an incredibly important game for the Bluejays. Their stock has taken a hit, and they’re feeling disrespected:
They need to get a win to silence the doubters who are writing online and saying on TV/radio that they’re in trouble without Watson. I think they’ll take care of business in this one.
Creighton 82, Georgetown 73