"Stop Taking Threes!"

That's been a common refrain in sports bars, living rooms and chat rooms for Hoya fans since John Thompson, III has become coach. For the most part, it's been justified. There's no doubt that when the Hoyas become lazy on offense, they tend to jack up the easy shot, which is often a three.

I've long been a defender of shooting the three in college ball. Because of the added point and a relatively close line, it's not a bad shot. It's a better shot than anything from 15' to 20', provided they are both open.

That said, there's no doubt that it should be part of a team's arsenal, not all the team can get. A great offense takes open threes it wants. It does not settle for the shot.

If you look at the last few national champions, you'll also notice a bit of a trend in the teams percent of three-point shots attempted per FG attempt:

Year   Champ         3PA/FGA
2008   Kansas         29.3%
2007   Florida        34.0%
2006   Florida        34.8%
2005   North Carolina 30.4%
2004   Connecticut    25.8%

(median is 33.0%, but % range from 19% to 52%)

For some reason, the next couple of winners have slipped my mind. Needless to say, though, National Champs don't rely exclusively on the three, and often almost ignore it (relatively speaking). Florida's title winners were much more three minded than most, and even their ranks were in the mid-100s. In other words, average for DI, but probably above average for a major conference team (mid-majors and low majors tend to be a bit more dependent on the three).

It's not that teams who do not rely on the three are necessarily better because of that choice; it's that better and more talented teams rely on it less because they have other, better options. If you have a great low post player (which champions tend to have), great offensive rebounding or penetrating point guards, you tend to get a lot more dunks and layups and need to shoot threes less. Of course, you also draw more fouls, but we'll get to that.

Under Thompson, the Hoyas have been somewhere between 35% and 42%. When Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert were both on the team and playing big minutes together, the Hoyas had a 3PA/FGA of 37% and 35%. In the other years, it's been 43% and 40%.

The Hoyas are currently sitting at 39%.

This is not particularly surprising. With only one post player and a burgeoning crowd of elite perimeter players, this shouldn't seem odd.

Now this might be a bit discouraging to Hoya fans. After all, none of those prior National Champs had a number that high. And it's nowhere near the number in 2006-7, the most successful season under Thompson.

But wait! The number is also a bit deceptive, because it doesn't include free throws. Free throws don't register as a field goal attempt, but they are most often the equivalent of a shot taken, and when they are, they are almost always on a two point attempt. In other words, the more a team draws fouls, the more their 3PA/FGA is overstated relative to a team that doesn't draw fouls.

Here's another way to think about it. Using the proxy of .43 shots per FTA (adjusting for one and ones, hoop and the harms, etc.), here's how the % of shot attempts breaks down for the last three years:

Year	3 PT	2 PT	FT
2006-07	30%	56%	14%
2007-08	35%	52%	13%
2008-09	31%	49%	19%

Now, some of those free throws are one and ones, end of game fouling, etc., so they aren't all off two point shots. Still, the percentage of shots taken from three is actually much closer to the Final Four year than it is to last year.

It doesn't mean the Hoyas are going to the Final Four, but it does indicate that the Hoyas have a more diversified offense this year. And that should pay off when the shots aren't falling.

Recap: Georgetown 74, UConn 63

Well, that was a nice way to start off the Big East season.

Georgetown jumped out to a 15-1 lead to start the game, and never relinquished it on the way to an impressive road win against the #2 ranked UConn Huskies. There will likely be a great deal of press coverage for this game, so check the front page of HoyaSaxa.com in the morning for a blow-by-blow recap and collected links.

In the preview of tonight's game, SFHoya99 wrote:

At the end of the day, the formula for a win at Connecticut seems somewhat of a long shot. But here it is:

• Minimize the rebounding damage.
• Go at Thabeet early to try to draw some fouls
• Hope the Hoyas are making their threes

To find out if this game plan worked, let's run the numbers:

.            Visitor                         Home     
.            GU                              CONNECTICUT
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            30        32        63

Effic.        116.9     117.0     117.0        87.7     110.9      99.6

eFG%           56.2      47.6      52.8        43.8      52.0      48.0
TO%            19.5      24.6      22.1        26.0      27.7      26.9
OR%            44.4      41.7      43.3        37.5      61.5      48.3
FT Rate         6.2      90.5      39.6        37.5      52.0      44.9

Assist Rate    43.8      33.3      40.0        33.3      23.1      27.3
Block Rate      6.2       4.3       5.1        20.8      25.0      22.5
Steal Rate     16.2      18.5      17.4        16.2      15.4      15.8

2FG%           50.0      43.8      47.5        37.5      56.5      48.7
3FG%           50.0      40.0      46.2        37.5       0.0      30.0
FT%             0.0      94.7      85.7        66.7      76.9      72.7

The game was clearly played at Georgetown's pace, as the ~62 possession game was the slowest this season for the Huskies, while the Hoyas have played three previous games at roughly this speed (Maryland, American, FIU).

The 9-point lead with which G'town ended the first half was effectively the difference in the game, so how did they do it? The Hoyas played well on both sides of the ball:

• Georgetown made 4/8 3FGs for the half, lead by D. Summers (2/3). A general rule is when the Hoyas make half of their three's, the opposition is in for a very long night.

• G'town didn't get to the FT line (0/2 FTs) - credit the Huskies smart defense that has been stingy with fouls and FTs all season.

• For the half, Georgetown actually outrebounded UConn, getting 8 of 18 own available misses and 10 of 16 UConn misses. This was frankly shocking, as the Hoyas came in a mediocre to poor rebounding team while the Huskies are a very good one.

• In conjunction with the strong rebounding, G'town did a good job minimizing the damage Connecticut could do inside the arc, with UConn making 1/2 dunks (H. Thabeet's monster dunk miss), 3/5 layups and tips and 2/9 on 2-pt. jumpers. Meanwhile, Georgetown had more near in (7/13 dunks/layups/tips) than outside (4/10 jumpers) from 2FG.

The 2nd half was nearly an even affair (38-36 GU), but both teams' offensive strategy was completely different.

Undoubtedly the UConn locker room was an unpleasant spot for halftime, but the Huskies came out with a more aggressive inside game, pounding the ball in to J. Adrien (4/6 2FG, 3/4 FT) and crashing the offensive glass (OReb = 8/13 = 62%). By the box score, J. Dyson struggled in the Vesper half, shooting 1/8 on 2FG, 0/1 3FG, but 6 of his 8 missed shots were actually rebounded by the Huskies. This game plan was likely, in part, an attempt to exploit G. Monroe, who picked up two late fouls in the 1st half.

JTIII countered two ways:

• Much to the consternation of Shulman & Bilas, Monroe and J. Vaughn switched out at nearly every stoppage for most of the 2nd half, in an attempt to maximize Monroe's offensive possessions while relying on Vaughn to play adequate defense and to rebound. Check the off. & def. possessions played by each in the Ind. Net Pts. table below to see how well Coach Thompson did.
  

• The Hoyas relentlessly attacked inside, earning 19 FTs (and making 18) in the half to grind out a stalemate and secure the win. A. Freeman started the attack with about 13 minutes left in the game, getting and making 5 FTs (including an and-1) in about 2:30 of game time. J. Clark (2/2), Monroe (2/2), C. Wright (3/4) and Summers (6/6) followed suit. For the game, UConn drew more fouls and shot more FTs, but the Hoyas outscored the Huskies 18-10 at the line in the 2nd half.
  

INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

GU                    Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ             
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
Summers, DaJuan        53    16.2   113.8    18.4        55    101.6     11.2       +7.3
Monroe, Greg           47    11.5   128.9    14.9        40     77.3      6.2       +8.7
Wright, Chris          53    10.1   121.4    12.3        54     87.7      9.5       +2.8
Freeman, Austin        54     9.8   130.0    12.7        55     92.2     10.1       +2.6
Sapp, Jessie           55     5.1   100.5     5.1        57     92.1     10.5       -5.4
Clark, Jason           11     1.6   221.7     3.6        10    131.1      2.6       +1.0
Vaughn, Julian         13     4.2    67.4     2.9        21    123.4      5.2       -2.3
Wattad, Omar           19     0.0     -       0.0        18    107.2      3.9       -3.9
TOTALS                 61    58.6   119.3    69.9        62     95.4     59.1      +10.8 

CONNECTICUT           Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ          
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
ADRIEN, Jeff           54    12.8   115.5    14.8        53    109.9     11.6       +3.1
THABEET, Hasheem       54     5.6    96.7     5.4        52    122.9     12.8       -7.4
DYSON, Jerome          44    11.3    60.4     6.8        43     91.8      7.9       -1.1
PRICE, A.J             54    11.9   115.6    13.8        52    119.6     12.4       +1.3
AUSTRIE, Craig         26     2.1   200.0     4.3        25    137.0      6.8       -2.6
WALKER, Kemba          36    10.4    98.0    10.1        35    102.6      7.2       +3.0
ROBINSON, Stanley      28     6.6    75.9     5.0        31    122.4      7.6       -2.6
EDWARDS, Gavin         14     1.5   164.9     2.4        14     99.4      2.8       -0.4
TOTALS                 62    62.1   100.7    62.6        61    113.4     69.2       -6.5 

While J. Sapp continues to struggle with his shot (1/4 2FG, 1/3 3FG), the other four starters all played strong games to earn the win.

A. Freeman had his typical quietly effective offensive game, except for an acrobatic up-and-under for an and-1 in the 2nd half. He had a bit of trouble on defense, since he was often matched up against Adrien in the paint, but his 4 def. rebounds actually led the team.

C. Wright played a similar game to Freeman. His great speed was put on display several times, such as his two hustle steals immediately after Georgetown had a committed a turnover of their own. I'm going to give Mr. Wright a demerit, however, for giving the Hoyas their only 2nd half FT miss.

D. Summers ended up leading the team in points produced, in spite of 3/9 2FG shooting. He made half of his 3FGs (much to HoyaHoops surprise), and lead the team in FTs attempted and made (6/7). As mentioned above, the FT shooting was critical to G'town's continued success in the 2nd half. Summers did use up 5 more possessions than any teammate to get his points, but I don't think this high usage is any sort of trend to worry about.

Finally, the player of the game is . . . Greg Monroe. Let's get this out of the way first - UConn has now watched Georgetown's centers shoot 3/3 on 3FGs in the last two games played. While Monroe's 2nd half was pedestrian (by his terms) as he played more passively to avoid fouls, his 1st half showed a national audience what a singular talent he is, with 3/5 2FG, 1/1 3FG, 3 A and 3 S. This may have actually been a nightmare scenario for Hoyas fans, as Monroe showed that, until saddled with foul trouble, he was clearly the best player on the court in front of 31 (?) NBA scouts.


One fun fact about UConn: as a reader, you might look at the defensive efficiency and net points total for H. Thabeet and decide that I'm clueless. Well, you may be right, but I was also surprised so I went and checked how a player with 7 blocks could be considered a defensive liability.

Turns out, Georgetown was able to recover 5 of those 7 blocked shots, thereby keeping the possession alive. The Hoyas ended up shooting 12/20 on dunks, layups and tip-ins, as they recognized that, while Thabeet's blocks are flashy, they don't serve as a hinderance to an effective inside scoring game.

HD BOX SCORE

GU vs CONNECTICUT
12/29/08 7:00 p.m. at XL Center  Hartford, Conn.
Final score: GU 74, CONNECTICUT 63

GU                      Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Summers, DaJuan        34:47  + 4  18/59  3- 9  2- 4  6- 7 13/41  3/15  1/55  2/53  1/32  2/23  2/25   3
Monroe, Greg           27:25  +22  16/58  4- 8  2- 2  2- 3 10/39  4/14  3/40  3/47  0/22  1/21  2/19   3
Wright, Chris          35:20  +12  14/64  4- 8  1- 1  3- 4  9/41  2/16  3/54  3/53  0/33  0/22  2/26   2
Freeman, Austin        36:05  +11  13/68  4- 8  0- 1  5- 5  9/48  1/18  2/55  1/54  1/35  2/27  4/24   2
Sapp, Jessie           36:22  + 5   5/61  1- 4  1- 3  0- 0  7/49  0/21  2/57  1/55  0/33  2/28  3/26   2
Clark, Jason           06:41  + 1   4/15  1- 1  0- 0  2- 2  1/13  0/ 3  0/10  0/11  0/11  1/ 9  0/ 6   2
Vaughn, Julian         11:35  -13   2/14  1- 1  0- 1  0- 0  2/12  0/ 3  0/21  2/13  0/16  2/ 8  0/ 9   3
Wattad, Omar           11:45  + 3   0/21  0- 0  0- 1  0- 0  1/17  0/ 6  0/18  0/19  0/13  0/12  0/10   0
TOTALS                 40:00       72    18-39  6-13 18-21    52 10/24 11/62 13/61  2/39 13/30 15/29  17
.                                        0.462 0.462 0.857       0.417 0.177 0.213 0.051 0.433 0.517 

CONNECTICUT             Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
ADRIEN, Jeff           35:04  -12  15/52  5- 8  0- 0  5- 7  8/43  1/14  3/53  2/54  1/34  3/26  2/27   2
THABEET, Hasheem       33:55  -11   4/52  2- 4  0- 0  0- 1  4/40  0/16  0/52  1/54  7/31  3/24  4/22   2
DYSON, Jerome          27:59  + 1   4/47  1- 8  0- 2  2- 4 10/37  3/16  4/43  4/44  0/27  3/21  2/21   3
PRICE, A.J             33:11  - 4  16/58  4- 7  2- 4  2- 2 11/43  2/15  0/52  3/54  0/33  0/24  5/24   2
AUSTRIE, Craig         17:57  - 2   4/30  2- 4  0- 1  0- 0  5/20  0/ 9  0/25  0/26  0/12  1/10  0/ 8   1
WALKER, Kemba          22:02  - 8  14/29  4- 6  1- 2  3- 4  8/27  0/ 4  1/35  4/36  0/23  1/20  1/20   2
ROBINSON, Stanley      20:03  -14   4/29  1- 2  0- 1  2- 2  3/22  0/ 9  1/31  3/28  0/24  2/12  3/18   1
EDWARDS, Gavin         09:49  + 5   2/18  0- 0  0- 0  2- 2  0/13  0/ 5  1/14  0/14  1/11  1/ 8  0/10   1
TOTALS                 40:00       63    19-39  3-10 16-22    49  6/22 10/61 17/62  9/39 14/29 17/30  14
.                                        0.487 0.300 0.727       0.273 0.164 0.274 0.231 0.483 0.567 

Efficiency: GU 1.180, CONNECTICUT 1.016
eFG%: GU 0.519, CONNECTICUT 0.480
Substitutions: GU 35, CONNECTICUT 35

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: GU 1-1, CONNECTICUT 2-3
Layups/Tips: GU 11-19, CONNECTICUT 9-17
Jumpers: GU 6-19, CONNECTICUT 8-19

Fast break pts: GU 6 (0.111), CONNECTICUT 6 (0.128)
Seconds per off. poss: GU 22.2, CONNECTICUT 15.8

Housekeeping: New Stats Feature and Big East HD Boxes

I've added a new pages of stats analysis on the sidebar to the right:

Individual Net Points

It's a work in progress, where I'm trying to summarize the individual net points tables I generate after each game. The goal is to provide a simple way to visually compare offensive, defensive and overall performance of each player per game. Obviously, you can look at the game stats of any individual game if you want to delve into the details.

Let us know what you think:

• a worthwhile effort
• a waste of time, space and electrons
• whaaaa?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm sure I'll regret it, but I'm still planning on posting HD Box scores for all available Big East conf. games. At this point, however, there are a number of schools that are not posting complete play-by-play data, so this may be limited.

Here's a summary of what I've found so far (table edited, thanks to info from FriarBlog.com in comments):

School           PBP Good?      Comments
Cincinnati        Maybe         No substitution data at team site; StatSheet.com?
Connecticut        Yes          Only pbp & final box score; should be able to handle this
DePaul             No           No substitution data
Georgetown         Yes          Preferred style
Louisville         Yes          Same format as G'town
Marquette          Yes          Same format as G'town
Notre Dame         Yes          No 2nd half box score; can handle this
Pittsburgh         Yes          No 2nd half box score; can handle this
Providence        Maybe         Box score only at team site; StatSheet.com?
Rutgers           Maybe         Box score only at team site; StatSheet.com?
St. John's         No           Box score only
Seton Hall         Yes          Only pbp & final box score; should be able to handle this
South Florida      Yes          Only pbp & final box score; should be able to handle this
Syracuse           No           No substitution data
Villanova          Yes          Same format as G'town
West Virginia     Maybe         Box score only at team site; StatSheet.com?

As I understand it, the home team will determine what kind of game data is available, so right now only 9 teams will put out play-by-play that I can process. With StatSheet.com, that would be 13 teams, with only DePaul, St. John's and Syracuse missing.

I'll send off an e-mail to each school's S.I.D. where the game data is lacking, and maybe I can fill in some of these gaps.

I don't want to clutter up the front page with box scores that may not be of great interest to my reader (e.g. DePaul v. South Florida), so I'll put a link on the right side bar to a master page with links to all teams, and then sub-pages for each team. I'll try to get that set up tonight.

Let me know if you'd like to see something that I'm not providing, either in the HD box score or in how it's presented here. And please be patient if a game isn't posted right away - real life duties will likely take up most of my time on-and-off during the rest of the season.

Connecticut Preview

Here are the current four factors for Connecticut:

.                    Offense         Defense
Adj. Efficiency      120.5 (6)       87.4 (28)

eFG%                 54.9 (29)       43.8 (33)
Turnover %           17.4 (18)       18.3 (297)
Off Rebound %        38.3 (41)       27.9 (24)
FT Rate              39.3 (5)        18.3 (1)

Looking at the numbers for Connecticut, four thoughts immediately come to mind, some encouraging and some not so encouraging:

• Connecticut, like last year, isn't nearly as good a defensive team as they should be.

• Connecticut is probably the best offensive rebounding team we've faced so far this year.

• Unlike against Memphis, Georgetown's newfound ability to get fouled is not matched against a weakness in an opponent's defense.

• For the first time this year, the Hoyas will face a team that draws fouls.

It's somewhat surprising that UConn isn't a dominant defensive team when you look at personnel. They have 7'3" shotblocker Hasheem Thabeet, a good cast of rebounders and plenty of athleticism. But like last year, they just aren't a great defensive team. I certainly don't watch a lot Huskies games, but it could be as simple as the players not committing to defense as well as offense.

One consistent aspect of their weak defense is that the Huskies don't force turnovers. They didn't last year with similar personnel, and they don't this year. That's probably a coaching choice due to having Thabeet in the middle.

The Huskies also don't defend against the three well. That was true last year as well. However, this year, their shot-blocking is down and opponents are making many more twos than last year, even with Thabeet in the middle. Some of that may change if Calhoun goes more to a standard lineup with Stanley Robinson back -- the three guard lineup with Price, Dyson and Walker may have been hurting that.

That's the good news. The Hoyas should be able to protect the ball and should be able to get some good shots -- especially from outside.

Now for the rest of the news.

It may be a bit of the weak competition playing havoc with the numbers, but Hasheem Thabeet has turned into a rebounding machine. Both on offense and defense, where he's nearly twice as productive as he was last year. Pair him with Adrien, a strong if somewhat overrated rebounder and a very strong rebounding group of guards, and the Huskies are going to get a ton of second chance points. And keep the Hoyas from getting very many at all. I don't think there's much chance of winning the rebounding battle, but the Hoyas must minimize the damage.

Against Memphis, the Hoyas were able to offset this rebounding disadvantage by getting to the line. That's not likely to happen against Connecticut. For one, the game is on the road. More importantly, Connecticut doesn't foul much at all. Even in the Gonzaga game, the Zags had a fairly low FT Rate (in the 30s, much like Wisconsin did against UConn). They just happened to hit Thabeet with a number of those fouls. Can the Hoyas go after Thabeet? Sure. But systematically getting to the line isn't likely to happen.

On the flip side, Connecticut draws as many fouls as the Hoyas do. Like the Huskies, Georgetown does not foul very much. Both teams are coming into the game drawing a lot of fouls but not committing them. It's hard to tell which way each matchup will break, though Connecticut has the advantage of being at home.

Who would foul trouble hurt more? Both teams are actually very thin at center, neither having a real backup, though Connecticut has more bodies, period. Connecticut's extra depth -- Gavin Edwards/Stanley Robinson have proved more than Sims and Vaughn, and Austrie gives them an edge over Wattad -- makes the foul situation an advantage for them if the game is called tight.

But at the end of the day, Monroe and Thabeet are both at risk and key to each team. And who has the edge there? The junior at home or the freshman in his first road game?

At the end of the day, the formula for a win at Connecticut seems somewhat of a longshot. But here it is:

• Minimize the rebounding damage.
• Go at Thabeet early to try to draw some fouls
• Hope the Hoyas are making their threes

I realize that's not exactly a strong plan. Thompson will undoubtedly come up with something better. But the reality is, the Hoyas need to execute extraordinarily well in the halfcourt -- on offense and defense -- to win. And even if they do that, they are likely to need a strong shooting day. The formula that worked against Memphis won't work against UConn on the road.

Recap: Georgetown 76, Florida Int'l 38

Edited: A special thanks to Georgetown's S.I.D. Mex Carey, who came through with a corrected game file today. All numbers are now updated and final for the game. Merry Christmas Mex!

You see, this is what happens when I say something nice about the play-by-play guy (or gal) - there's no p-b-p posted for the 2nd half of tonight's game.

I've e-mailed for help, but probably won't hear back until tomorrow at earliest, so I'll improvise as I go here. Needless to say, all numbers are subject to change if GUHoyas.com corrects their error.

As for the game, Georgetown jumped out to a 23-4 lead with 10:31 left in the 1st half, and the game was effectively over. Much like the Savannah St. game, the second half (and the latter stages of the first) was used more as a scrimmage than a competitive game.

Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE

.            Home                            Visitor
.            GU                              FIU
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            33        27        60

Effic.        130.0     115.6     123.4        48.4      77.1      61.7

eFG%           73.9      36.4      55.6        28.0      47.8      37.5
TO%            24.2      10.5      17.9        33.2      28.0      30.9
OR%            33.3      41.2      37.9        28.6      15.4      23.5
FT Rate        52.2     100.0      75.6        24.0       0.0      12.5

Assist Rate    76.9     100.0      84.2        50.0      66.7      60.0
Block Rate     12.5      10.0      11.5         0.0       0.0       0.0
Steal Rate     24.2      21.0      22.7        18.1       3.5      11.4

2FG%           55.6      20.0      36.8        25.0      50.0      34.6
3FG%           57.1      33.3      46.2        22.2      30.8      27.3
FT%            75.0      77.3      76.5        33.3       -        33.3  

The pace of the 1st half was typical of this year's run-and-gun (kidding) Hoyas, while the 2nd half was played at a pace more familiar to earlier JTIII teams. In fact, the 2nd half was the slowest half so far this season.

On offense in the first half, Georgetown had average rebounding and turnover rates, but showed what happens when this team gets hot from 3FG - A. Freeman made all three of his attempts as he (hopefully) broke out of his season-long shooting slump from deep, and the Hoyas shot 8/14 3FGA total for the half.

Meanwhile, G'town held a team under 20 points in the 1st half for the third time this season, thanks to a ton of forced turnovers (note the high steal rate all game) and poor 2FG shooting by the Panthers - FIU shot 2/13 on 2-pt jumpers in the half.

The second half featured much more time for Georgetown's bench players, and, while the Hoyas were able to extend the lead, the game wasn't quite so lopsided. G'town struggled from in close (2/10 2FGA), but controlled the glass at both ends.

INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

GU                    Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ            
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
Summers, DaJuan        34     7.2   160.8    11.5        31     59.9      3.7       +7.8
Wright, Chris          43    10.3   146.1    15.0        44     71.2      6.3       +8.8
Monroe, Greg           39     9.5   123.6    11.7        38     35.2      2.7       +9.0
Freeman, Austin        32     4.4   217.6     9.6        31     68.4      4.2       +5.3
Wattad, Omar           31     4.2   111.5     4.7        29     56.2      3.3       +1.4
Mescheriakov, Nikita   12     3.8    72.0     2.8        13     55.7      1.4       +1.3
Jansen, Bryon           4     1.0   200.0     2.0         4    112.5      0.9       +1.1
Clark, Jason           28     4.9    92.9     4.6        28     55.9      3.1       +1.4
Sapp, Jessie           31     6.0   103.7     6.2        31     55.0      3.4       +2.8
Vaughn, Julian         23     4.0    30.9     1.2        23     69.2      3.2       -1.9
Sims, Henry            37     5.7    72.1     4.1        37     48.9      3.6       +0.5
TOTALS                 62    61.0   120.4    73.4        61     58.8     35.8      +37.6   


FIU                   Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ            
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
Asprilla, Freddy       39    12.1    77.0     9.3        40    138.4     11.1       -1.8
Essola, Cedric         34     4.9    78.6     3.8        35    120.9      8.5       -4.6
Taylor, Nick           58     6.1    36.8     2.2        59    114.9     13.6      -11.3
Bright, Marlon         55    12.7    37.0     4.7        58    107.5     12.5       -7.8
Dominguez, Michael     56    17.6    74.4    13.1        57    112.4     12.8       +0.3
Fuller, Harley         36     4.5    30.3     1.4        36     88.2      6.3       -5.0
Karosas, Jonas         26     2.0     0.0     0.0        24    124.2      6.0       -6.0
Cano, Michael           1     0.0     -       0.0         1    200.0      0.4       -0.4
TOTALS                 61    60.0    57.7    34.6        62    113.2     71.1      -36.5    

The net points stats are being derived from the box score rather than the play-by-play, so they are less certain (or useful) than normal. I won't make too many observations here, since I trust these numbers less - and because it's getting late and I want to get to bed.

J. Sapp wasn't in the starting line-up tonight!! I don't know if we're getting the true story as to why, but JTIII did comment about it after the game:

We put Omar in charge of the second team and everyday, particularly this week, the huge disparity that had been there is getting smaller, which is better. He has managed that team, so it was more about Omar than it was Jessie. Jessie knows what to do more than anybody, he knows what his coach wants more than anyone, so he knows what we want to do.

Looking at the numbers, Sapp played well in his limited time (31 possessions), so he didn't seem to let it affect his game. I'd be shocked if Sapp is not back in the starting lineup against UConn on Monday.

Edited:
Final numbers mean a change for Player of the Game. Our new POTG is . . . Greg Monroe. How did Greg do it? He had a better offensive 2nd half (1/1 2FG, 4/4 FT, 2 OReb) after struggling a bit in the 1st (0/1 3FG, 4/6 FT, 1 OReb, 2 TO), but his defense was ridiculous all game, with 5(!) steals, 1 block and 3 defensive rebounds. So, while he played 38 defensive possessions for the game, he is credited with only 2.7 points allowed, which enabled him to nose out C. Wright (see next).

The Player of the Game had been Chris Wright (sorry Chris!), who was efficient in modestly high usage (% Poss = 24.0, 2/3 2FG, 2/2 3FG, 4/4 FT, 7 A, 1 OR), with only 1 demerit for committing 4 TOs on the night. What I found interesting is that Wright accrued almost all of those stats in the 1st half, and had only 2 FTs and 3 assists (no TOs) in 12 minutes played in the Vesper half, indicating that he chose to let his teammates use up possessions once the game was in hand. I think that speaks very highly of Mr. Wright.

Everyone else had a positive game except J. Vaughn, who was penalized for making only 1/4 FTs. While this may have sparked V. Macklin flashbacks, I doubt his FT shooting will be as serious a problem.

Also, kudos to FIU's M. Dominguez, who managed net positive points despite being on a team that was blown out by 38 points - making 6/14 3FGs will do that.

HD BOX SCORE

FIU vs GU
12/23/08 7:30 at Verizon Center
Final score: GU 76, FIU 38

FIU                     Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Asprilla, Freddy       26:07  -32   9/26  4- 8  0- 0  1- 4  8/28  1/ 7  0/40  3/39  0/11  2/19  4/16   5
Essola, Cedric         24:24  -29   4/19  2- 5  0- 0  0- 0  5/28  1/ 6  1/35  1/34  0/13  1/21  2/18   4
Taylor, Nick           37:32  -36   2/38  1- 3  0- 4  0- 0  7/46  1/14  2/59  0/58  0/17  0/33  2/27   3
Bright, Marlon         37:01  -38   3/35  1- 7  0- 2  1- 2  9/43  2/13  4/58  5/55  0/18  2/31  3/25   3
Dominguez, Michael     36:28  -29  20/36  1- 1  6-14  0- 0 15/44  0/ 7  0/57  7/56  0/18  1/31  3/28   4
Fuller, Harley         23:04  -12   0/19  0- 1  0- 2  0- 0  3/27  3/ 7  0/36  1/36  0/11  0/21  2/23   2
Karosas, Jonas         14:39  -12   0/17  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/19  0/ 6  0/24  2/26  0/ 6  0/14  1/ 8   2
Cano, Michael          00:45  - 2   0/ 0  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 0  0/ 0  0/ 1  0/ 1  0/ 1  0/ 0  0/ 0   0
TOTALS                 40:00       38     9-25  6-22  2- 6    47  8/15  7/62 19/61  0/19  8/33 18/29  23
.                                        0.360 0.273 0.333       0.533 0.111 0.311 0.000 0.242 0.621    

GU                      Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Summers, DaJuan        23:44  +22  13/43  3- 3  1- 2  4- 4  5/27  2/ 9  2/31  1/34  0/17  2/16  3/15   2
Wright, Chris          28:05  +38  14/67  2- 3  2- 2  4- 4  5/34  7/14  1/44  4/43  0/20  1/16  1/23   0
Monroe, Greg           24:17  +35  10/57  1- 1  0- 1  8-10  2/30  0/14  5/38  2/39  1/18  3/17  3/20   0
Freeman, Austin        21:48  +21  17/43  1- 3  5- 6  0- 0  9/25  1/ 7  1/31  0/32  0/17  0/14  2/18   1
Wattad, Omar           20:55  +26   4/42  0- 1  1- 5  1- 2  6/25  2/11  0/29  0/31  0/13  0/14  3/16   1
Mescheriakov, Nikita   07:36  + 6   3/14  0- 1  0- 1  3- 4  2/ 7  0/ 2  1/13  0/12  0/ 1  0/ 5  0/ 5   0
Jansen, Bryon          02:12  - 3   2/ 3  0- 0  0- 0  2- 2  0/ 2  0/ 0  0/ 4  0/ 4  0/ 0  0/ 2  1/ 2   1
Clark, Jason           17:55  +11   5/27  0- 2  1- 2  2- 2  4/18  0/ 4  1/28  1/28  0/ 8  1/14  2/16   0
Sapp, Jessie           18:52  +12   4/31  0- 1  1- 5  1- 2  6/22  3/ 6  2/31  1/31  0/13  2/18  1/19   1
Vaughn, Julian         15:43  + 3   1/19  0- 1  0- 0  1- 4  1/15  1/ 4  0/23  1/23  0/ 7  0/12  4/14   3
Sims, Henry            21:05  +16   3/37  0- 3  1- 2  0- 0  5/22  0/ 5  1/37  1/37  2/11  2/19  5/24   1
TOTALS                 40:26       76     7-19 12-26 26-34    45 16/19 14/61 11/62  3/25 11/29 25/33  10
.                                        0.368 0.462 0.765       0.842 0.230 0.175 0.120 0.379 0.758

Efficiency: GU 1.210, FIU 0.623
eFG%: GU 0.556, FIU 0.383
Substitutions: GU 22, FIU 23

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: GU 2-2, FIU 0-0
Layups/Tips: GU 3-8, FIU 6-10
Jumpers: GU 2-9, FIU 3-15

Fast break pts: GU 6 (0.120), FIU 2 (0.056)
Seconds per off. poss: GU 17.7, FIU 21.4

Recap: Georgetown 69, Mount St. Mary's 58

It was a rather desultory effort today, but Chris Wright and . . . er . . . Chris Wright played a strong game in leading the Georgetown Hoyas to a 69-58 victory against local rival (?) Mount. St. Mary's. I didn't get a chance to watch or listen to the game, so this recap is done exclusively from the box score / play-by-play.

Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.            Home                            Visitor   
.            GU                              Mount St. Mary's 
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            31        32        64

Effic.        104.1     109.8     106.8        75.7     103.7      89.8

eFG%           41.7      47.5      44.0        36.7      48.3      42.5
TO%             9.5      18.3      13.9        18.9      21.4      20.1
OR%            40.9      31.2      36.8        27.3      50.0      37.5
FT Rate        46.7     120.0      76.0        13.3      30.0      21.7

Assist Rate    72.7      25.0      52.6        50.0      61.5      56.5
Block Rate      4.3      10.0       7.0        14.3      16.7      15.2
Steal Rate      9.5      15.3      12.4         3.2      12.2       7.7

2FG%           38.1      41.7      39.4        34.8      50.0      41.9
3FG%           33.3      37.5      35.3        28.6      30.0      29.4
FT%            57.1      70.8      65.8        50.0      55.6      53.8

First, a kudos to whoever entered the play-by-play for today's game - no errors (at least none detected by my compiler), which makes working up the numbers a pleasure.

The tempo-free box make it look like a relatively one-sided 1st half, but it actually was a fairly even game excluding the last 3:30, when, with the scored tied at 24, the Hoyas went on a 9-0 run to pull decisively ahead. The Mountaineers got no closer than 5 points in the 2nd half, but never trailed by more than 13 points.

Georgetown took excellent care of the basketball in the 1st half, with just three turnovers in 31 offensive possessions. However, the Hoyas settled for 2-pt jumpers too often, making only 2/8 (not surprising) out of 30 total FGA in the half.

From the realm of non-shocking developments, Georgetown allowed far too many offensive rebounds in the 2nd half (Mt. St. Mary's was able to gather half of their own misses), which likely was the determining factor in allowing the Mountaineers to hang around. Since Mt. St. Mary's is a pedestrian rebounding team, I think this has officially become one of the Hoyas' Achilles' heels (as noted by Basketball Prospectus).

The 2nd half eventually degenerated into a FT shooting contest (G'town shot more FTs than FGs in the half), but is also notable for the Hoyas shooting 0/2 on dunks (D. Summers and A. Freeman).

INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

GU                    Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ             
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
Summers, DaJuan        56    13.6    90.6    12.3        54    105.1     11.4       +0.9
Wright, Chris          59    16.6   109.1    18.1        57     61.6      7.0      +11.1
Monroe, Greg           39     7.9    95.9     7.6        39     89.0      6.9       +0.7
Freeman, Austin        48     7.3   117.0     8.5        47     97.0      9.1       -0.6
Sapp, Jessie           43     6.9   110.6     7.6        43     82.2      7.1       +0.5
Mescheriakov, Nikita    5     1.0     0.0     0.0         5      0.0      0.0       +0.0
Clark, Jason           23     3.2   137.9     4.4        23     86.7      4.0       +0.5
Vaughn, Julian         21     3.7    93.4     3.4        21     94.3      4.0       -0.5
Sims, Henry             6     0.0     -       0.0         7    200.0      2.8       -2.8
Wattad, Omar           20     1.5   217.3     3.3        19     51.9      2.0       +1.3
TOTALS                 64    61.7   105.9    65.3        63     86.1     54.2      +11.1    

Mount St. Mary's      Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ             
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
Cajou, Jean            53     6.8   102.3     7.0        53     96.9     10.3       -3.3
Goode, Jeremy          51    15.8    65.7    10.4        49    105.0     10.3       +0.1
Beidler, Kelly         55    15.7    93.6    14.7        57    101.3     11.5       +3.1
Atupem, Sam            51    13.5    95.8    12.9        51    119.2     12.2       +0.8
Mitchell, Markus       45     4.3   137.2     5.9        45     81.4      7.3       -1.4
Brown, Pierre          12     1.0     0.0     0.0        13     67.4      1.8       -1.8
Atupem, Shawn          26     3.6   118.0     4.3        27     96.8      5.2       -0.9
Holland, Will          11     0.5   200.0     1.0        11    116.0      2.6       -1.6
Trice, Lamar            8     1.7    82.4     1.4        10    122.8      2.5       -1.1
Jackson, Tayvon         3     0.0     -       0.0         4    100.0      0.8       -0.8
TOTALS                 63    62.9    91.4    57.5        64    100.6     64.4       -6.9    

The 11-point margin of victory is also the net points attributed to Chris Wright (player of the game) in the game, so we can statistically say that he truly was the difference today. Mr. Wright was not particularly efficient today, but he did use 28% of the possessions he played in producing his points, while his defense was markedly stronger than his fellow starters.

Summers and Freeman were the next best starters in producing points, although they did it in different manners (missed dunks withstanding). Summers used a large percentage (24%) of available possessions to inefficiently generate offense (2/7 2FGA, 2/5 3FGA, 3/8 FTA (!), 2 TOs), while Freeman shot much better (2/5 2FGA, 1/2 3FGA, 3/4 FTA) but did so by using only 15% of possessions. Both struggled a bit on defense, as well.

G. Monroe and J. Sapp had games similar to Summers and Freeman, respectively, although their defensive effort was stronger.

J. Clark, J. Vaughn and O. Wattad appear to be settling into the 6-8 spots in the rotation, and Clark and Wattad had nice games in limited playing time. I'm penalizing Vaughn for shooting a 3FGA.

HD BOX SCORE

Mount St. Mary's vs GU
12/20/08 1:00 at Verizon Center
Final score: GU 69, Mount St. Mary's 58

Mount St. Mary's        Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Cajou, Jean            32:56  - 6  10/50  2- 3  2- 7  0- 0 10/49  1/15  1/53  0/53  0/25  0/33  2/28   5
Goode, Jeremy          32:15  - 4   8/52  2- 9  0- 2  4- 7 11/51  4/18  1/49  2/51  0/26  3/34  4/26   0
Beidler, Kelly         34:36  -11  16/52  3- 8  3- 7  1- 2 15/52  3/15  1/57  4/55  0/30  3/34  5/34   4
Atupem, Sam            30:46  -18  12/43  6-12  0- 0  0- 0 12/46  0/11  0/51  4/51  2/25  5/31  3/26   1
Mitchell, Markus       28:39  - 2   5/40  2- 2  0- 0  1- 2  2/44  2/14  2/45  1/45  2/26  4/32  5/31   3
Brown, Pierre          07:13  - 8   0/ 2  0- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/ 7  0/ 1  0/13  0/12  0/ 6  0/ 7  2/10   1
Atupem, Shawn          17:57  + 0   5/29  2- 5  0- 0  1- 1  5/22  1/ 9  0/27  1/26  1/13  0/13  2/18   5
Holland, Will          08:01  - 1   2/12  1- 1  0- 1  0- 1  2/13  0/ 4  0/11  0/11  0/ 6  0/ 9  1/ 7   1
Trice, Lamar           05:21  - 5   0/ 6  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 4  2/ 3  0/10  1/ 8  0/ 6  0/ 2  0/ 9   2
Jackson, Tayvon        02:16  + 0   0/ 4  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 2  0/ 2  0/ 4  0/ 3  0/ 2  0/ 0  0/ 1   0
TOTALS                 40:00       58    18-41  5-17  7-13    58 13/23  5/64 13/63  5/33 15/38 24/38  22
.                                        0.439 0.294 0.538       0.565 0.078 0.206 0.152 0.395 0.632    

GU                      Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Summers, DaJuan        34:30  + 4  13/61  2- 7  2- 5  3- 8 12/45  2/13  1/54  2/56  1/37  2/35  2/32   2
Wright, Chris          35:59  +20  19/62  5- 9  1- 2  6- 9 11/46  3/11  4/57  3/59  0/40  3/36  3/38   3
Monroe, Greg           24:24  + 2   8/40  2- 5  0- 0  4- 6  5/30  1/10  1/39  1/39  0/25  1/23  3/22   3
Freeman, Austin        30:01  + 0  10/49  2- 5  1- 2  3- 4  7/40  2/12  0/47  2/48  0/33  1/31  6/31   2
Sapp, Jessie           26:33  + 4   6/41  1- 5  1- 4  1- 2  9/37  0/10  0/43  0/43  0/32  4/31  4/32   2
Mescheriakov, Nikita   03:06  + 6   0/ 6  0- 0  0- 2  0- 0  2/ 3  0/ 1  0/ 5  0/ 5  0/ 2  0/ 2  0/ 3   1
Clark, Jason           15:26  + 6   6/31  1- 1  0- 0  4- 4  1/15  0/ 6  2/23  1/23  0/ 9  0/ 9  1/ 9   1
Vaughn, Julian         13:14  + 6   2/24  0- 1  0- 1  2- 2  2/15  2/ 5  0/21  0/21  2/15  1/12  1/15   0
Sims, Henry            04:11  - 4   0/10  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 5  0/ 3  0/ 7  0/ 6  0/ 3  0/ 2  0/ 0   0
Wattad, Omar           12:36  +11   5/21  0- 0  1- 1  2- 3  1/14  0/ 5  0/19  0/20  0/ 9  1/ 9  3/13   1
TOTALS                 40:00       69    13-33  6-17 25-38    50 10/19  8/63  9/64  3/41 14/38 23/38  15
.                                        0.394 0.353 0.658       0.526 0.127 0.141 0.073 0.368 0.605    

Efficiency: GU 1.078, Mount St. Mary's 0.921
eFG%: GU 0.440, Mount St. Mary's 0.440
Substitutions: GU 21, Mount St. Mary's 36

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: GU 1-3, Mount St. Mary's 2-3
Layups/Tips: GU 9-18, Mount St. Mary's 13-21
Jumpers: GU 3-12, Mount St. Mary's 3-17

Fast break pts: GU 6 (0.136), Mount St. Mary's 10 (0.196)
Seconds per off. poss: GU 19.2, Mount St. Mary's 17.9

Game Ball: Memphis

CO has already given his player of the game to DaJuan Summers, so consider this an extra game ball.

But it has to go to John Thompson, III. In every sport, coaches who are considered geniuses at one point are often exposed when they cannot adjust their strategy and game plans to their personnel. System coaches will look brilliant when the players fit, and when it does not, their teams often fail miserably.

This year's incarnation of the Hoyas hasn't gotten enough credit for both simultaneously running the same offense and at the same time, running it differently from previous years.

CO has already detailed how the team is running more. But the team has also undergone another dramatic shift: it is driving more in the halfcourt as well, and as a consequence is drawing many more fouls. For several years, Georgetown perimeter players simply didn't draw fouls. Sapp, Freeman and Wallace all hovered around a 20 FT Rate last year. This year, Chris Wright's 39 is the lowest of the top six players.

It was that ability to get to the line that won the Memphis game -- a game we would have lost last year (well, we did lose last year). Many people questioned Thompson's ability to adjust his style to his players. Thompson has done that smoothly, without abandoning any of the principles of his offense as well.

Recap: Georgetown 79, Memphis 70

I have a Christmas party to go to, so the numbers will have to mostly speak for themselves. I'll try to flush this out a bit if I have time later tonight.

Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE

.            Home                            Visitor   
.            GU                              Memphis 
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            37        33        70

Effic.         99.5     100.4     100.1       102.1      76.5      88.7

eFG%           41.1      48.3      44.8        42.1      33.8      37.8
TO%            13.4      21.5      17.7        26.9      23.9      25.3
OR%            26.3      26.3      26.3        58.3      40.7      49.0
FT Rate        64.3      60.0      62.1        23.7      15.0      19.2

Assist Rate    60.0      28.6      41.7        26.7      50.0      37.0
Block Rate     12.9      10.7      11.9         5.9       4.8       5.3
Steal Rate      8.1       7.2       7.6        13.4      14.3      13.9

2FG%           41.2      61.9      52.6        41.9      32.1      37.3
3FG%           27.3      11.1      20.0        28.6      25.0      26.3
FT%            77.8      72.2      75.0        66.7      83.3      73.3  

That 3FG% is normally the kiss of death for the Hoyas - G'town shot 20% or less twice last season, and lost both games (at Pitt and at Louisville). And today's percentage is a bit inflated by J. Sapp's garbage 3FG as the game ended. I'm not sure how much as attributable to the uber-long Memphis guards - Memphis came in allowing 30.7% on 3FG, good but not exceptional.

The +16 points scored at the FT line seems to have been the real key to the game, and very unusual for the Hoyas before this season.

Another key was forcing Memphis into 3/22 on 2FG jumpers (thank you Mr. Evans). That helped offset G'town's own shooting woes.

INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

GU                    Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ           
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
Summers, DaJuan        73    14.2   120.5    17.1        74     80.5     11.9       +5.2  
Wright, Chris          72    13.6    98.6    13.4        73     86.2     12.6       +0.9  
Monroe, Greg           72    14.9   101.7    15.1        74     87.7     13.0       +2.1  
Freeman, Austin        68    18.7    92.9    17.4        68     98.7     13.4       +3.9  
Sapp, Jessie           53     7.7    97.7     7.5        49     82.6      8.1       -0.6  
Clark, Jason           29     5.6    89.7     5.0        34     91.7      6.2       -1.2  
Vaughn, Julian          7     0.0     -       0.0         6     96.0      1.2       -1.2  
Wattad, Omar           21     3.8    59.7     2.3        22     62.9      2.8       -0.5  
TOTALS                 79    78.5    99.2    77.8        80     86.4     69.1       +8.7  

Memphis               Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ           
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
Dozier, Robert         60    13.3    77.1    10.3        57     92.2     10.5       -0.3  
Henderson-Niles, P     14     3.7    99.1     3.7        12    104.4      2.5       +1.2  
Anderson, Antonio      72     8.2    31.7     2.6        70     92.3     12.9      -10.3  
Witherspoon, Wesley    47    10.2    77.2     7.9        47     83.4      7.8       +0.1  
Evans, Tyreke          62    19.1    88.0    16.8        63     90.1     11.3       +5.5  
Taggart, Shawn         65    14.9   117.3    17.5        66     97.7     12.9       +4.6  
Kemp, Willie           34     2.0     0.0     0.0        34    111.1      7.6       -7.6  
Simpkins, Matt          9     0.0     -       0.0        12     53.3      1.3       -1.3  
Mack, Doneal           37     5.7   111.4     6.3        34    103.6      7.0       -0.7  
TOTALS                 80    77.1    84.3    65.0        79     93.6     73.9       -8.9    

Coach Thompson played a very short bench today, with only J. Clark and O. Wattad getting significant minutes. Special kudos to Omar for drawing at least 2 offensive charges (that's what I remember), which helped him lead the team in defensive efficiency. The play-by-play doesn't credit which player draws those fouls, but it still picked up on the additional TO's by Memphis while he was on the court

Player of the game is . . . DaJuan Summers, who also had a strong defensive game which was complemented with nice shooting day inside (6/7 2FG, 6/8 FT). He missed 4 out of 5 3FGA, but the team as a whole really struggled with this (as noted above).

HD BOX SCORE

Memphis vs GU
12/13/08 2:00 at Verizon Center
Final score: GU 79, Memphis 70

Memphis                 Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Dozier, Robert         33:56  - 6   9/52  3- 9  1- 2  0- 2 11/59  2/16  1/57  4/60  0/31  5/40  6/28   5
Henderson-Niles, P     08:33  - 1   4/14  2- 3  0- 0  0- 0  3/14  1/ 4  0/12  1/14  0/ 8  1/ 8  2/ 5   2
Anderson, Antonio      40:17  -13   2/59  0- 4  0- 4  2- 3  8/65  1/23  2/70  1/72  0/34  1/43  6/33   4
Witherspoon, Wesley    29:23  + 2   7/48  1- 6  1- 2  2- 2  8/51  2/16  3/47  3/47  0/22  3/33  3/26   3
Evans, Tyreke          35:24  - 6  20/56  7-19  1- 5  3- 4 24/64  3/13  3/63  5/62  1/31  3/44  4/33   4
Taggart, Shawn         36:23  -10  21/53  8-15  1- 1  2- 2 16/63  0/11  0/66  4/65  0/30  6/44  4/33   3
Kemp, Willie           16:24  -17   0/22  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/28  0/ 9  1/34  2/34  0/16  0/20  0/12   0
Simpkins, Matt         04:52  + 4   0/11  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 9  0/ 5  1/12  0/ 9  0/ 3  0/ 4  0/ 5   3
Mack, Doneal           19:48  + 2   7/35  1- 3  1- 5  2- 2  8/37  1/11  0/34  0/37  1/15  1/24  1/15   0
TOTALS                 45:00       70    22-59  5-19 11-15    78 10/27 11/79 20/80  2/38 25/51 28/38  24
.                                        0.373 0.263 0.733       0.370 0.139 0.250 0.053 0.490 0.737  

GU                      Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Summers, DaJuan        41:22  +13  21/77  6- 7  1- 5  6- 8 12/53  1/16  2/74  1/73  3/54  1/34  6/49   2
Wright, Chris          41:03  +12  14/75  5-10  0- 3  4- 4 13/51  3/17  1/73  2/72  0/54  0/33  3/46   3
Monroe, Greg           41:45  + 9  13/75  2- 7  0- 0  9-12  7/53  3/22  2/74  3/72  3/54  2/33  4/48   2
Freeman, Austin        39:10  - 2  18/65  5- 9  1- 3  5- 8 12/46  1/13  1/68  4/68  0/54  2/31  3/46   1
Sapp, Jessie           27:22  +12   6/54  1- 3  1- 4  1- 2  7/42  1/15  0/49  2/53  1/36  2/27  5/33   4
Clark, Jason           18:43  - 7   4/23  1- 2  0- 1  2- 2  3/19  0/ 6  0/34  1/29  0/24  2/14  3/22   2
Vaughn, Julian         03:15  + 0   0/ 4  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 5  0/ 0  0/ 6  0/ 7  0/ 5  0/ 5  0/ 4   0
Wattad, Omar           12:20  + 8   3/22  0- 0  1- 4  0- 0  4/21  1/ 7  0/22  1/21  0/14  0/13  2/12   1
TOTALS                 45:00       79    20-38  4-20 27-36    58 10/24  6/80 14/79  7/59 10/38 26/51  15
.                                        0.526 0.200 0.750       0.417 0.075 0.177 0.119 0.263 0.510  

Efficiency: GU 1.000, Memphis 0.875
eFG%: GU 0.448, Memphis 0.378
Substitutions: GU 31, Memphis 52

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: GU 1-1, Memphis 4-4
Layups/Tips: GU 15-25, Memphis 15-33
Jumpers: GU 4-12, Memphis 3-22

Fast break pts: GU 5 (0.096), Memphis 4 (0.068)
Seconds per off. poss: GU 17.3, Memphis 16.7

Memphis Preview

Georgetown gets its second ranked opponent this Saturday and its last chance to really impress before the Big East season starts, massive blowouts of overmatched opponents notwithstanding.

Given how incredibly difficult the six game run of at UConn, Pitt, at Notre Dame, Providence, Syracuse and at Duke will be, a home game versus Memphis gives the Hoyas a chance to go into those games with some breathing room. I'm not sure that having one quality win before that run will actually help the team, but it will keep the fanbase from getting too neurotic.

If nothing else, the Memphis opportunity stands out because of how isolated it is. We have five days between Savannah State and the Memphis game, and it's been two weeks since Maryland. It'll be another two weeks before the Connecticut game.

So the staff has had a little bit of time to prepare. And the only thing to look ahead to are Christmas presents.

Let's break it down, NFL-style:


When the Hoyas have the ball

The Hoyas' offense is, as usual, driven by taking great shots, which is constituted of many open threes, some looks down low and plenty of cuts to the basket. Unlike prior years, however, the Hoyas have added to their arsenal more of a driving game in the halfcourt and a fullcourt fast break offense.

The offense's weaknesses have been turning the ball over and an inability to generate second chance scores, but when the Hoyas have lost, it has almost always been because of a poor shooting day in addition to those issues. In other words, the defense that can beat us is a defense that keeps up with us, contests our shots, rebounds well and forces turnovers.

But if we're shooting well, or the opponent plays man, well, it's extremely rare that our offense doesn't completely blow our opponent away.

The good news is that Memphis is going to play a decent amount of man. The bad news is that they are physically talented enough to do so.

Memphis has a strong defense (ranked 24th) that does a good job across the board. They don't allow high shooting percentages on twos or threes, they block shots and they force turnovers via steals. They defensive rebound well.

The one thing they do have a tendency to do is foul. In fact, in their loss to Xavier (which wasn't a bad defensive game), Memphis let Xavier shoot .7 FTs for each FGA. Some of that was likely end of game positioning, but Memphis also struggled to keep Seton Hall off the line. Even Chattanooga and Marist went to the line a decent amount for cupcakes.

The Hoyas need to stay aggressive and get to the line. That's Memphis' weakness on D. And they have to watch the turnovers, because only Xavier has managed to control Memphis' pressure.


When the Tigers have the ball

Memphis is a good, but not great, offensive team. They are still athletic and quick. Shawn Taggart has done a decent job of impersonating Joey Dorsey, which a few less muscles and a few more skills.

But so far this season, they haven't been able to hit the outside shot. They are shooting under 30% for the year from three. Then again, they have players like Antonio Anderson and Doneal Mack who should be better shooters, so like the Hoyas' low percentage, that may be something of a mirage.

They also struggle to hit their free throws, even with several of last year's culprits leaving the team.

The good news is that, as a team, they don't do anything particularly well, offensively. They are decent offensive rebounding team, but not a great one. Because of the Hoyas' weakness, rebounding will of course be something to watch. But Memphis isn't anywhere near as good as they were least year, or Tennessee is, or Cincinnati, or Pitt, or you know, half the Big East.

Dozier and Taggart don't draw a lot of fouls for big men, but keeping Monroe in the game is obviously a concern. Again, it's more of a concern for what Georgetown doesn't do well rather than what Memphis does particularly well, but it is still a concern.

The Tigers beat us last year by being able to break down our defenders one on one at will. They either got good shots at the rim or got fouled or missed and had a player clean up the board. Offensively, they took us out of our game in the second half just enough to allow their offense to pull away.

This Memphis team simply isn't the same team. There's no Chris Douglas-Roberts or Derrick Rose to penetrate and dish. There's no Joey Dorsey to grab the miss. Sure, they have good replacements in Tyreke Evans and Shawn Taggart, but Evans can't replace Rose, let alone Rose and CDR. And Taggart played with Dorsey last year, so even if he performs at that level, who replaces Taggart?


In short, the Hoyas should be favored here. Calipari likely won't be dumb enough to play man to man all game, so I suspect that the Hoyas' performance to date is overrating them for this game. Still, the Hoyas are at home; they are playing well; and this Memphis team simply isn't as good or as talented as last year's version.


Memphis Tigers Basketball Blog (Blogspot)

Recap: Georgetown 100, Savannah St. 38

No, that's not a typo.

A cursory look through the Georgetown Basketball History Project's archives indicates this was the most lopsided win since a 97-35 drubbing of Hawaii-Hilo in 1983. This was even worse than last year's Radford game (110-51), and that slaughter seemed to be incited by some chippy play by the Highlanders in the 1st half. I'm sure that HoyaSaxa.com will be able to put the game in its true historical context later tonight.

To add insult to injury, the official box score has the name of Tigers' school misspelled.

Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.            Home                            Visitor   
.            GU                              Savannah State 
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            34        32        66

Effic.        165.3     133.3     150.1        43.5      71.3      57.0

eFG%           79.3      72.9      76.4        21.9      34.0      27.2
TO%            20.3      24.8      22.5        23.2      24.8      24.0
OR%            81.8      55.6      70.0        30.8      22.2      27.3
FT Rate        55.2      41.7      49.1         6.2      32.0      17.5

Assist Rate    42.9      56.2      48.6        66.7      57.1      61.5
Block Rate     26.1       5.6      17.1         4.8       0.0       2.6
Steal Rate     11.6      18.6      15.0        11.6       6.2       9.0

2FG%           81.0      76.5      78.9        17.4      22.2      19.5
3FG%           50.0      42.9      46.7        22.2      42.9      31.2
FT%            68.8      80.0      73.1        50.0      75.0      70.0  

Since the Hoyas got to the century mark, you'd expect that the game was played at a high pace, but not so - 66 possessions is about average for G'town so far this year.

Let's get that red mark out of the way early - the Tigers came into the game as a poor offensive rebounding team, yet still managed to get 30% of their own misses in the 1st half. Now, to be fair, an OReb = 30% is no great shakes, but it is above their season average of 28% coming into the game.

Georgetown shot obscenely well from 2FG all game, with 26 of 38 2FGA either dunk, tip-in or lay-up. And when they did take 2-pt jump shots, they made a remarkable 10/12 - that's as much good fortune as skill.

But the most impressive stat has to be offensive rebounding: there were 20 available rebounds when Georgetown was on offense, and the Hoyas corralled 14 of them - 70%!! Amazingly, the Hoyas have had an even better night on the glass in the not-so-distant past, when they got 71% OReb against Seton Hall in 2007.

Savannah St. never shot the ball well from 2FG, but made a few more 3FGs to start the second half (and annoyed JTIII enough to cause him to call a timeout) to lift their shooting percentage in the Vesper half.

INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

GU                    Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ             
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
Summers, DaJuan        33    10.5    99.9    10.5        34     52.2      3.5       +6.9
Wright, Chris          35     6.5   109.5     7.1        36     72.2      5.2       +1.9
Monroe, Greg           34     6.2   217.8    13.6        33     67.0      4.4       +9.1
Freeman, Austin        31     8.5   152.2    13.0        33     70.6      4.7       +8.3
Sapp, Jessie           38     5.7   190.2    10.8        37     64.5      4.8       +6.0
Mescheriakov, Nikita   24     1.9   127.2     2.4        25     43.6      2.2       +0.2
Jansen, Bryon           4     1.0   200.0     2.0         4    100.0      0.8       +1.2
Clark, Jason           37     7.8   153.7    11.9        37     31.2      2.3       +9.6
Vaughn, Julian         30     7.9   154.7    12.2        32     54.3      3.5       +8.7
Sims, Henry            29     4.2   143.5     6.0        29     30.1      1.7       +4.3
Wattad, Omar           25     4.2   215.4     9.1        25     51.9      2.6       +6.5
TOTALS                 64    64.3   153.2    98.5        65     54.9     35.7      +62.8    

Savannah State         Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ             
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
Bailey, Raye           56     8.7   117.8    10.3        54    149.2     16.1       -5.8
Jones, Anthony         46    10.5    71.0     7.5        46    155.1     14.3       -6.8
Shuler, Jovonni        34     6.2    40.4     2.5        31    132.0      8.2       -5.7
Hassan, Rashad         32     2.6   208.8     5.3        32    152.7      9.8       -4.4
Linton, Chris          42    15.0    35.4     5.3        42    145.5     12.2       -6.9
Hardy, Patrick         34     2.0     0.0     0.0        34    161.8     11.0      -11.0
St. Fort, Mark         15     0.0     -       0.0        14    155.2      4.3       -4.3
Mitchell, Rod          13     5.0     0.0     0.0        11    114.2      2.5       -2.5
Izevbigie, Glen        13     2.0     0.0     0.0        12    199.3      4.8       -4.8
Brown, Curtis          25     6.0    34.9     2.1        27    159.2      8.6       -6.5
Louis, Arnold          15     3.2    82.6     2.7        17    160.6      5.5       -2.8
TOTALS                 65    61.3    58.3    35.7        64    152.0     97.3      -61.6    

This was definitely a game for stat padding, as D. Summers was the only Georgetown player - starter or bench - to fail to produce a 100+ offensive rating, and he only missed by 0.1. He did, however, have the un-televised highlight of the game with a backdoor cut turned into a thunderous dunk in the 2nd half. As Dan Shulman (?) said a few years ago, "I never saw Princeton do that!"

In terms of absolute offensive efficiency, G. Monroe led with way, with his 3 offensive rebounds and 1 A / 0 TO (along with 3 blocks on defense) complimenting his efficient shooting performance.

Well, I could keep going down the list, but everyone had a nice offensive game today, so I'll cut right to the chase: the player of the game is . . . Jason Clark. Mr. Clark secures the first POTG for a bench player this season, as he was a perfect 3/3 2FG, 4/4 FT (and 0/2 3FG), grabbed 4 off. rebounds and 2 steals and committed no turnovers.

HD BOX SCORE

Savannah State vs GU
12/08/08 7:30 at Verizon Center
Final score: GU 100, Savannah State 38

Savannah State           Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Bailey, Raye           33:49  -48  14/36  1- 2  3- 5  3- 4  7/47  4/ 8  1/54  3/56  0/30  0/35  2/19   4
Jones, Anthony         28:58  -39   9/31  1- 6  2- 6  1- 2 12/42  0/ 8  0/46  0/46  0/27  1/31  0/17   1
Shuler, Jovonni        20:07  -24   2/23  0- 3  0- 2  2- 2  5/33  1/ 8  2/31  1/34  0/20  1/25  3/ 8   4
Hassan, Rashad         21:00  -24   4/24  2- 5  0- 0  0- 0  5/32  1/ 7  0/32  0/32  0/23  3/23  0/13   1
Linton, Chris          24:55  -32   5/29  2-11  0- 0  1- 2 11/38  0/ 9  0/42  4/42  0/26  2/27  0/11   2
Hardy, Patrick         21:14  -44   0/13  0- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/26  0/ 4  1/34  2/34  0/20  0/22  0/ 8   1
St. Fort, Mark         08:45  -17   0/ 6  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/10  0/ 1  0/14  0/15  1/ 5  0/ 9  1/ 4   2
Mitchell, Rod          07:13  -15   0/ 0  0- 5  0- 0  0- 0  5/13  0/ 0  1/11  1/13  0/ 4  1/13  0/ 3   2
Izevbigie, Glen        08:46  -21   0/ 5  0- 2  0- 0  0- 0  2/ 9  0/ 1  1/12  1/13  0/ 8  0/ 8  0/ 3   2
Brown, Curtis          15:52  -31   2/11  1- 3  0- 3  0- 0  6/23  1/ 3  0/27  1/25  0/17  1/19  0/ 8   0
Louis, Arnold          09:21  -15   2/12  1- 3  0- 0  0- 0  3/12  1/ 3  0/17  1/15  0/10  1/ 8  0/ 6   2
TOTALS                 40:00       38     8-41  5-16  7-10    57  8/13  6/64 16/65  1/38 12/44  6/20  21
.                                        0.195 0.312 0.700       0.615 0.094 0.246 0.026 0.273 0.300    

GU                      Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Summers, DaJuan        19:21  +25  14/49  4- 6  2- 2  0- 1  8/28  1/13  2/34  5/33  0/21  1/11  4/25   1
Wright, Chris          21:03  +32   6/58  3- 5  0- 1  0- 0  6/32  4/18  1/36  1/35  0/22  0/14  2/25   1
Monroe, Greg           19:40  +31  13/54  4- 6  0- 0  5- 7  6/30  1/16  1/33  0/34  3/19  3/11  4/21   1
Freeman, Austin        20:30  +21  14/45  6- 6  0- 1  2- 2  7/27  3/13  1/33  3/31  1/21  0/ 9  3/24   2
Sapp, Jessie           23:58  +30  14/56  3- 3  2- 4  2- 2  7/29  1/16  1/37  0/38  0/25  0/ 9  3/26   0
Mescheriakov, Nikita   15:11  +30   3/39  0- 1  1- 1  0- 2  2/18  1/11  0/25  1/24  0/14  0/ 8  2/15   2
Jansen, Bryon          02:57  + 3   2/ 7  0- 0  0- 0  2- 2  0/ 2  0/ 2  0/ 4  0/ 4  0/ 1  0/ 0  0/ 1   0
Clark, Jason           21:14  +45  10/56  3- 3  0- 2  4- 4  5/32  1/19  2/37  0/37  0/24  4/13  1/27   2
Vaughn, Julian         20:20  +31   7/46  3- 3  0- 0  1- 2  3/23  3/14  0/32  2/30  1/22  5/ 9  3/23   3
Sims, Henry            18:33  +36   8/50  2- 2  1- 1  1- 2  3/24  0/15  2/29  2/29  2/16  0/ 8  4/16   0
Wattad, Omar           17:13  +26   9/40  2- 3  1- 3  2- 2  6/20  3/11  0/25  1/25  0/20  0/ 8  4/17   0
TOTALS                 40:00       100   30-38  7-15 19-26    53 18/37 10/65 15/64  7/41 14/20 32/44  12
.                                        0.789 0.467 0.731       0.486 0.154 0.234 0.171 0.700 0.727    

Efficiency: GU 1.562, Savannah State 0.585
eFG%: GU 0.764, Savannah State 0.272
Substitutions: GU 32, Savannah State 41

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: GU 4-4, Savannah State 1-1
Layups/Tips: GU 16-22, Savannah State 2-8
Jumpers: GU 10-12, Savannah State 5-32

Fast break pts: GU 8 (0.099), Savannah State 2 (0.065)
Seconds per off. poss: GU 17.5, Savannah State 20.2

Much like last season, Georgetown will turn from an absolute blow-out to a much more difficult task, facing off against the Memphis Tigers. Memphis is in the midst of an 11-day break (scheduled for finals, I'd expect), and will be looking to beat the Hoyas in consecutive seasons. SFHoya99 has a preview above.

Recap: Georgetown 74, American 49

The Georgetown Hoyas had a ridiculous 1st half, then coasted the rest of the way in a lopsided win over fellow D.C.ers, the American University Eagles today.

Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE

.            Home                            Visitor  
.            GU                              AU
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            28        30        58

Effic.        140.6     108.7     124.2        42.2     121.9      83.4

eFG%           66.0      78.1      70.7        24.0      53.7      39.4
TO%            17.6      32.9      25.5        42.2      26.4      34.0
OR%            36.4      28.6      33.3        45.0      56.2      50.0
FT Rate        32.0      68.8      46.3         0.0      37.0      19.2

Assist Rate    42.9      80.0      58.3        40.0      76.9      66.7
Block Rate     38.5       6.2      20.7         7.7       0.0       4.8
Steal Rate     14.1       9.9      11.9         0.0      19.8      10.2

2FG%           69.2      62.5      66.7        23.1      62.5      44.8
3FG%           41.7      62.5      50.0        16.7      27.3      21.7
FT%            87.5      72.7      78.9          -       80.0      80.0  

Sure enough, after hearing how Georgetown was playing at a significantly faster pace this season, the Hoyas played a real grinder today, a full 5 possessions slower than their previous pace nadir (v. Maryland).

The 1st half was the best defensive half the Hoyas have played this season, or last season for that matter (I only have games broken out by half going back that far). The previous best half defensively was . . . the 2nd half against Louisville (60.8) playing for the Big East regular season title - obviously against stiffer competition [Edited: Whoops - it was actually the 2nd half against Fairfield - stoopid math].

To put the difference in efficiency during the 1st half into context, on average every time the teams traded possessions today, the Hoyas were ahead by another point.

Georgetown shot the ball extremely well, making fully half of all 3FGA (10/20) and also 14/21 2FGs. Can't really hope for much better.

Meanwhile, the Eagles had a miserable time trying to score before intermission, having 5 of 13 2FGA blocked in the 1st half, and making 5/23 3FGs all game. American came into the game shooting a respectable 33% from 3.

The main glaring shortcoming for the Hoyas today is - all together now - rebounding. G'town allowed half of all available Eagles misses (18/36) to be rebounded by their opponent. American is not an exceptionally strong rebounding team (288th out of 344 teams coming into the game).

INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

GU                    Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ            
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
Summers, DaJuan        34    11.1   128.5    14.3        32     81.4      5.2       +9.1
Wright, Chris          41     9.0   164.2    14.7        40     72.2      5.8       +8.9
Monroe, Greg           38    12.4    94.1    11.6        37     62.5      4.6       +7.0
Freeman, Austin        36     5.8   193.1    11.2        34     62.8      4.3       +7.0
Sapp, Jessie           39     5.1   167.8     8.6        39     53.4      4.2       +4.4
Mescheriakov, Nikita   17     3.6    49.5     1.8        16    116.3      3.7       -1.9
Jansen, Bryon           1     0.0     -       0.0         2    100.0      0.4       -0.4
Clark, Jason           31     3.2    51.3     1.7        31    103.8      6.4       -4.8
Vaughn, Julian         18     4.7    82.9     3.9        18    121.9      4.4       -0.5
Sims, Henry            19     0.0     -       0.0        20     97.4      3.9       -3.9
Wattad, Omar           21     3.0    64.9     1.9        21     82.7      3.5       -1.6
TOTALS                 59    57.9   120.5    69.7        58     79.9     46.4      +23.3   

AU                    Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ            
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
Mercer, Derrick        56     8.9    73.4     6.5        58    124.3     14.4       -7.9
Markusovic, Frane       9     2.0     0.0     0.0        10    210.0      4.2       -4.2
Carr, Garrison         47    12.4    62.0     7.7        48    122.6     11.8       -4.1
Gilmore, Brian         52     9.4    91.2     8.6        52    123.3     12.8       -4.3
Borden, Frank          26     6.4   103.1     6.6        27    109.7      5.9       +0.7
Wilson, Matthew        23     4.0    92.6     3.7        23     99.1      4.6       -0.9
Hendra, Nick           22     3.8    57.3     2.2        21    117.5      4.9       -2.8
Luptak, Steve           2     1.0     0.0     0.0         1      0.0      0.0       +0.0
Hill, Joe               2     0.0     -       0.0         1      0.0      0.0       +0.0
Lumpkins, Stephen      10     4.9   130.4     6.4        11    106.4      2.3       +4.0
Nichols, Jordan        41     3.3    79.9     2.7        43    104.6      9.0       -6.3
TOTALS                 58    56.1    79.0    44.3        59    118.6     70.0      -25.6    

Four of the five starters today were highly efficient, with only G. Monroe failing to break the 100 threshold; it's the first time this season that Mr. Monroe failed to score less than a point per possession used. Monroe's 4 turnovers were the main problem.

A. Freeman was amazingly efficient on offense today, despite the apparently disappointing 1/2 2FG, 0-2 3FG effort. How did he do it?

• Six assists, no turnovers
• 5/5 on FT shooting
• Two of his three missed FGs today were rebounded by a fellow Hoya (yes, I actually track that), so he's actually only penalized for 1 miss ending a possession.

J. Sapp took better care of the basketball today, with only 1 TO in ~5 possessions used today (TO Rate = 19.6%), so I guess he took SFHoya99's scolding to task. He also shot a sparkling 4/5 from 3FG today (starting to run out of positive modifiers here).

C. Wright scored a career high 22 points today, but that's not how we roll here at H.P.; to us, he produced almost 15 points on only 9 possessions used - outstanding either way. He also made all 3 of his FTs, as he slowly atones for his 3/8 FT shooting from the season-opener.

And the player of the game goes to . . . DaJuan Summers, for his first POTG this season. How did he do it, when three other starters were more efficient offensively and all 4 were better defensively? Usage. Summers burned 11.1 possessions in 34 offensive possessions played today (Poss % = 32.6) for a Harangody-like workload. This allowed him to produce more than 14 points in those 34 possessions played. And, since he was defending for only 32 possessions today, the actual points he allowed is less than his more defensively efficient teammates who played more.

The bench is still struggling to score, putting up only 8 points total (or 9.3 total points produced, if you're so inclined) in an average of 21 possessions played (ignoring B. Jansen). What's troubling to me is passivity of J. Clark (3.2 poss used in 31 played = 10.3%) and especially H. Sims (0.0 / 19 = 0.0%) in the extended garbage time today. It would have been nice to see Sims attempt at least 1 shot in 19 trips down the court - yes, even a three. On the other hand, N. Mescheriakov nailed his first career 3FG today, so the sky's the limit.


Up next is the Savannah State Tigers, led by former Hoya Horace Broadnax. While a weak offensive team so far this season, Savannah has been surprisingly strong on defense thanks to their ability to force turnovers at a ludicrously high 30.2% rate. That will be the stat to keep an eye on this Monday.

HD BOX SCORE

AU vs GU
12/06/08 1:00 at Verizon Center
Final score: GU 73, AU 49

AU                      Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Mercer, Derrick        39:20  -26   9/47  3- 6  1- 4  0- 0 10/51  1/14  0/58  3/56  0/21  0/35  3/19   3
Markusovic, Frane      06:41  -21   0/ 0  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 4  0/ 0  0/10  2/ 9  0/ 2  1/ 4  2/ 2   1
Carr, Garrison         33:26  -30   9/36  1- 6  1-11  4- 4 17/42  1/11  3/48  4/47  0/19  1/30  0/16   0
Gilmore, Brian         35:25  -24   8/40  2- 2  1- 3  1- 1  5/45  4/12  0/52  5/52  0/19  3/31  3/18   2
Borden, Frank          16:58  - 9   8/23  2- 2  1- 3  1- 2  5/20  1/ 6  1/27  2/26  0/ 6  2/13  1/ 8   3
Wilson, Matthew        15:13  + 6   2/29  0- 1  0- 1  2- 2  2/22  3/10  0/23  1/23  0/ 6  1/13  0/ 5   3
Hendra, Nick           15:03  -13   3/12  0- 2  1- 1  0- 0  3/21  1/ 3  0/21  1/22  0/11  1/17  0/ 9   0
Luptak, Steve          00:40  + 2   0/ 2  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 1  0/ 0  0/ 1  1/ 2  0/ 0  0/ 1  0/ 0   0
Hill, Joe              00:40  + 2   0/ 2  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 1  0/ 0  0/ 1  0/ 2  0/ 0  0/ 1  0/ 0   0
Lumpkins, Stephen      08:25  - 1   6/12  3- 6  0- 0  0- 1  6/13  1/ 2  1/11  0/10  1/ 4  3/ 9  0/ 3   0
Nichols, Jordan        28:09  - 6   4/42  2- 4  0- 0  0- 0  4/40  0/14  1/43  1/41  0/17  0/26  3/15   2
TOTALS                 40:00       49    13-29  5-23  8-10    52 12/18  6/59 20/58  1/21 18/36 12/18  14
.                                        0.448 0.217 0.800       0.667 0.102 0.345 0.048 0.500 0.667   

GU                      Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Summers, DaJuan        22:22  +14  14/43  3- 4  2- 3  2- 4  7/23  0/ 8  1/32  2/34  1/16  3/11  2/20   2
Wright, Chris          27:12  +30  22/60  5- 6  3- 4  3- 3 10/32  0/12  1/40  2/41  0/18  0/14  2/27   1
Monroe, Greg           27:04  +26   8/53  3- 6  0- 1  2- 3  7/28  4/15  1/37  4/38  2/18  1/11  4/19   0
Freeman, Austin        23:01  +23   7/48  1- 2  0- 2  5- 5  4/28  6/16  2/34  0/36  1/14  0/11  2/19   1
Sapp, Jessie           27:32  +30  14/54  1- 1  4- 5  0- 0  6/32  1/13  1/39  1/39  0/19  0/15  4/22   2
Mescheriakov, Nikita   10:45  + 4   3/22  0- 0  1- 2  0- 0  2/11  0/ 6  0/16  2/17  0/ 8  0/ 5  0/ 7   3
Jansen, Bryon          00:40  - 2   0/ 0  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 0  0/ 0  0/ 2  0/ 1  0/ 0  0/ 0  0/ 1   0
Clark, Jason           22:27  - 2   1/29  0- 0  0- 1  1- 2  1/18  1/ 9  0/31  2/31  0/18  0/11  1/21   2
Vaughn, Julian         10:57  - 6   2/16  0- 1  0- 1  2- 2  2/10  2/ 5  0/18  2/18  1/ 9  0/ 6  1/12   1
Sims, Henry            13:08  + 0   0/17  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/10  0/ 5  0/20  0/19  1/12  0/ 6  0/19   1
Wattad, Omar           14:52  + 3   2/23  1- 1  0- 1  0- 0  2/13  0/ 7  1/21  1/21  0/13  0/ 5  1/13   1
TOTALS                 40:00       73    14-21 10-20 15-19    41 14/24  7/58 16/59  6/29  6/18 18/36  14
.                                        0.667 0.500 0.789       0.583 0.121 0.271 0.207 0.333 0.500   

Efficiency: GU 1.237, AU 0.845
eFG%: GU 0.707, AU 0.394
Substitutions: GU 26, AU 19

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: GU 0-0, AU 0-0
Layups/Tips: GU 9-10, AU 3-10
Jumpers: GU 5-11, AU 10-19

Fast break pts: GU 6 (0.103), AU 0 (0.000)
Seconds per off. poss: GU 19.3, AU 21.9