To be honest, I don't know if I'm as sanguine about this win as most Hoyas fans likely are, as Georgetown can't depend on an unconscious Freeman to show up for every second half (presumably he changes into his superhero outfit in the locker room at halftime).
Let's run the numbers:
TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE . Visitor Home . GEORGETOWN LOUISVILLE . 1st Half 2nd Half Total 1st Half 2nd Half Total Pace 32 29 62 Effic. 89.9 140.3 113.8 108.5 85.6 97.6 eFG% 40.7 72.7 55.1 56.0 44.0 50.0 TO% 18.6 20.5 19.5 12.4 17.1 14.6 OR% 25.0 33.3 27.6 14.3 18.8 16.7 FTA/FGA 40.7 40.9 40.8 32.0 20.0 26.0 Assist Rate 40.0 76.9 60.9 66.7 30.0 50.0 Block Rate 0.0 0.0 0.0 5.0 0.0 3.0 Steal Rate 12.4 3.4 8.1 9.3 6.8 8.1 2FG% 40.0 53.8 45.5 53.3 47.1 50.0 3FG% 28.6 66.7 50.0 40.0 25.0 33.3 FT% 63.6 100.0 80.0 87.5 60.0 76.9
The big shock tonight was the lack of offensive rebounding for the Cardinals in the game. Louisville is the 9th best offensive rebounding team in the nation, and had failed to gather at least 30% of their own missed shots only three times all year: two losses (W. Carolina [28%] and Pitt [28%]) and the 2-OT thriller against Notre Dame [29%].
Tonight they collected only five of their 30 missed shots, by far their worst outing of the year. Obviously, Greg Monroe's 13 defensive rebounds had a lot to do with that, but take a look at the box score below: every single Hoya grabbed at least 1 def. board while in the game. Nice.
The first half was a combination of Georgetown missing a few more shots than they normally do, and Louisville avoiding turnovers so that they had a scoring attempt in every possession. This held for most of the first half: in the Cardinals first 23 possessions, they had no turnovers and 32 points (1.4 points per possession, for the math-challenged). Meanwhile, the Hoyas were shooting 3/8 on layups and 4/11 on 2-pt jumpers in the half. Monroe was dominating those attempts, as he shot only 5/13 from the floor against Samardo Samuels and company. That was the most attempts in a half for Greg this season (previously his high was 11 against Mt. St. Mary's and UConn, both in the 2nd half).
In the Vesper half, shots began to drop for the Hoyas while the lid went on the Cardinals' basket (when they managed to get an attempt). As I noted at the top, Georgetown went on a 24-3 run to open the second half. While Austin Freeman was bombing it from behind the arc, including a deep three from the left elbow that looked suspiciously like a heat-check, Louisville committed four turnovers in their first 14 possessions, to go along with only 1/5 shooting on layups.
Suddenly, a 6-point deficit for the Hoyas was a 15-point lead and the rest, as they say, was history.
INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS GEORGETOWN Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts VAUGHN, Julian 29 17.4 104.9 5.3 30 126.6 7.6 -1.7 MONROE, Greg 61 26.7 106.1 17.3 58 81.2 9.4 +6.0 WRIGHT, Chris 62 16.5 66.8 6.8 60 95.8 11.5 -3.8 FREEMAN, Austin 61 20.1 194.7 23.9 58 98.4 11.4 +12.2 CLARK, Jason 55 12.9 57.0 4.0 53 105.7 11.2 -5.3 THOMPSON, Hollis 21 22.5 103.4 4.9 21 61.5 2.6 +2.1 SANFORD, Vee 6 36.0 122.3 2.6 6 43.7 0.5 +1.9 BENIMON, Jerrelle 25 9.4 114.6 2.7 24 68.7 3.3 +0.2 TOTALS 64 112.4 67.6 62 92.8 57.5 +11.1 LOUISVILLE Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts Delk, Reginald 52 15.6 100.3 8.2 54 87.6 9.5 -0.1 Jennings, Terrence 21 17.5 91.0 3.3 20 119.0 4.8 -1.2 Samuels, Samardo 57 23.4 74.0 9.9 60 104.0 12.5 -3.3 Sosa, Edgar 53 40.4 127.5 27.3 54 115.4 12.5 +8.7 Smith, Jerry 44 12.0 121.8 6.4 44 126.3 11.1 -2.5 Knowles, Preston 20 30.0 0.0 0.0 21 68.3 2.9 -3.5 Siva, Peyton 7 14.3 0.0 0.0 9 102.0 1.8 -1.4 Buckles, Rakeem 13 12.7 222.6 3.7 13 84.2 2.2 +1.9 Kuric, Kyle 10 0.0 - 0.0 10 154.3 3.1 -3.1 Swopshire, Jared 33 5.4 88.9 1.6 35 94.5 6.6 -2.6 TOTALS 62 96.9 60.4 64 104.5 66.9 -5.7
The player of the game, obviously, was Austin Freeman. Freeman showed his innate ability to find his shooting touch and ride it for all its worth, but not just settling for outside shots in the process. During the second half, he also made 2/3 2FGs and 5/5 FTs as he continually put pressure on the Cardinal defense.
Greg Monroe got his, albeit in a less efficient manner than Austin. Monroe dominated first half possessions (using 35%) while forcing the action inside on 5/13 shooting. It wasn't clear to me if this was a game strategy to try to get Samuels in foul trouble, but I wondered if the two were having some sort of personal battle within the game - they've known and played against each other since high school. In the second half, Greg was much more willing to facilitate the offense (2/4 2FGs, 4 A) and play outstanding defense inside. He also had a ridiculous no-look pass after drawing 3 defenders on a drive (linked at the bottom of the recap).
Chris Wright had a statistically poor game. The question to ask is whether the stats are short-changing his effort tonight. He was tasked with breaking the Louisville press, often by himself, which he did with ease. He missed all four attempts from the field and committed 4 turnovers in the half-court offense, but also had four assists and made some clutch free throws late in the game. He also seemed to receive some back-door cut passes late, when he was too deep under the basket to score. I doubt Chris is overly pleased with his game, but his patience in not forcing the action in the second half should be commended.
I have a bone to pick with Jason Clark. With about 90 seconds left in the game and nursing a 7-point lead, the Hoyas easily broke the press and turned down a 2-on-1 opportunity to run offense and burn time. But with 15 seconds still on the shot clock, Jason decided to launch a deep 3FG that missed and gave the Cardinals a chance to close it to a 4-pt game. They didn't, and that was the game, but I would like to think Clark will recognize what a bad shot choice that was. Interestingly, the shot was from about the same spot on the floor that he missed against Syracuse late, a shot that I've argued was a great choice. It's all about time and situation, as the cliche goes.
Julian Vaughn had another quiet game, and had some trouble on defense as well. I'm beginning to think that Vaughn is showing signs of fatigue more than the other starters. His bobble and soft layup off of the crazy Monroe assist would have been a catch-and-flush earlier this year, I suspect.
The bench had a tremendous first half, chipping in for 10 points in a variety of ways: Hollis Thompson hit 2 3FGs, Jerrelle Benimon had a great spin and reverse layup, and Vee Sanford - hopefully playing in front of some family - knocked down a couple of FTs while playing lock-down defense.
HD BOX SCORE
GEORGETOWN vs LOUISVILLE
2/23/10 7:02PM at FREEDOM HALL, LOUISVILLE, KY
Final score: GEORGETOWN 70, LOUISVILLE 60
GEORGETOWN Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
VAUGHN, Julian 19:25 - 4 5/34 2- 4 0- 0 1- 1 4/22 1/10 0/30 2/29 0/16 1/10 2/ 9 3
MONROE, Greg 37:24 + 9 16/65 7-17 0- 0 2- 2 17/48 5/15 1/58 2/61 0/31 1/29 13/29 3
WRIGHT, Chris 38:10 + 9 4/65 0- 2 0- 2 4- 5 4/47 4/21 0/60 4/62 0/31 1/29 1/29 2
FREEMAN, Austin 37:48 +15 29/70 4- 6 5- 6 6- 6 12/49 4/14 0/58 0/61 0/29 2/29 2/27 0
CLARK, Jason 34:13 + 9 4/64 0- 0 1- 4 1- 2 4/42 0/21 0/53 3/55 0/28 1/21 1/25 4
THOMPSON, Hollis 13:22 + 1 6/20 0- 1 2- 4 0- 0 5/16 0/ 6 3/21 0/21 0/12 1/ 9 1/12 3
SANFORD, Vee 03:43 + 1 2/ 6 0- 1 0- 0 2- 3 1/ 5 0/ 1 1/ 6 0/ 6 0/ 2 1/ 5 1/ 3 0
BENIMON, Jerrelle 15:55 +10 4/26 2- 2 0- 0 0- 1 2/16 0/ 4 0/24 1/25 0/11 0/13 2/16 2
TOTALS 40:00 70 15-33 8-16 16-20 49 14/23 5/62 13/64 0/32 8/29 25/30 17
. 0.455 0.500 0.800 0.609 0.081 0.203 0.000 0.276 0.833
LOUISVILLE Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
Delk, Reginald 33:10 - 2 11/53 0- 0 3- 6 2- 2 6/40 0/16 3/54 2/52 0/28 1/22 3/28 2
Jennings, Terrence 15:08 - 8 4/20 2- 4 0- 0 0- 0 4/20 0/ 6 1/20 0/21 1/13 0/12 2/10 3
Samuels, Samardo 36:20 - 5 11/58 5-12 0- 0 1- 2 12/45 0/16 0/60 2/57 0/30 1/26 5/28 1
Sosa, Edgar 33:19 - 2 24/59 6- 9 2- 7 6- 8 16/43 8/14 0/54 1/53 0/26 0/22 2/24 3
Smith, Jerry 29:06 - 9 6/45 1- 2 1- 3 1- 1 5/38 3/15 0/44 1/44 0/22 0/22 1/18 1
Knowles, Preston 12:14 - 1 0/15 0- 2 0- 1 0- 0 3/14 0/ 5 0/21 3/20 0/12 0/10 1/12 2
Siva, Peyton 05:21 - 8 0/ 1 0- 0 0- 1 0- 0 1/ 5 0/ 0 0/ 9 1/ 7 0/ 6 0/ 6 0/ 4 1
Buckles, Rakeem 08:46 + 6 2/19 1- 2 0- 0 0- 0 2/13 0/ 7 1/13 0/13 0/ 4 2/ 5 2/ 3 3
Kuric, Kyle 06:50 - 8 0/ 7 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0/10 0/ 3 0/10 0/10 0/ 5 0/ 8 0/ 1 0
Swopshire, Jared 19:46 -13 2/23 1- 1 0- 0 0- 0 1/22 0/ 6 0/35 1/33 0/19 1/17 5/17 1
TOTALS 40:00 60 16-32 6-18 10-13 50 11/22 5/64 11/62 1/33 5/30 21/29 17
. 0.500 0.333 0.769 0.500 0.078 0.177 0.030 0.167 0.724
Efficiency: GEORGETOWN 1.094, LOUISVILLE 0.968
eFG%: GEORGETOWN 0.551, LOUISVILLE 0.500
Substitutions: GEORGETOWN 21, LOUISVILLE 30
2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: GEORGETOWN 1-1, LOUISVILLE 2-2
Layups/Tips: GEORGETOWN 8-14, LOUISVILLE 9-13
Jumpers: GEORGETOWN 6-18, LOUISVILLE 5-17
Fast break pts (% FG pts): GEORGETOWN 2 (3.7), LOUISVILLE 2 (4.0)
Pts (eff.) after steal: GEORGETOWN 4 (80.0), LOUISVILLE 9 (180.0)
Seconds per poss: GEORGETOWN 21.2, LOUISVILLE 16.3
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Greg Monroe made a nice pass in the 2nd half tonight.
Stats pages will be updated tomorrow.
As great as Austin was in the 2nd half, the team defense was better. That's what won this one and buoyed my spirits.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen lockdown D like that in a while. Reminiscent of the Pitt home game in 07.
What was Greg's DReb%?
ReplyDeleteSaxa -
ReplyDeleteI think the statistics bear out what you are saying (esp. because Louisville has one of the best offenses in the Big East), but to me eye it just looked like some decent shots weren't dropping for them. Just one man's opinion.
John -
You can actually get that right from the HD Box. Greg gathered 13 def. rebounds on 29 available Cardinal missed shots while he was on the floor. That's 45% [= 13/29]!!