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
Several thoughts:
ReplyDelete1. How big was our offensive rebounding? Pretty fantastic.
2. The difference in possessions for offense and defense for a single player exposes a small flaw in +/-. Vaughn shouldn't be punsihed for being in on defense more than offense -- perhaps in the long run, instead of subtracting points for defense, it is adding (replacement level points allowed - points allowed) to adjust for this possibility.
3. I think replacement level would make some kind of sense on offense as well. Not sure Sapp's low usage should punish him so much -- only one player can "end" a possession and while a low usage player on offense isn't as valuable as a high usage, a good defender who doesn't make mistakes shouldn't come out negative.
4. Eh, my gameplan wasn't so good. I admit I wasn't confident we'd force fouls against a team like UConn. I was very, very wrong.