Apparently, Austin Freeman was sick. The rest of the Hoyas played like they had the flu as well. I can only hope to find out that they did.
In a game where Notre Dame got a good 80% of the loose "50-50" balls, the Hoyas' lack of focus on defense once again allowed a less talented Big East squad to upset them.
It's worth noting that of Georgetown's three bad conference losses, in all three the defense gave up a defensive efficiency of over 110. Today, the Hoyas put forth of the their worst defensive performances in years.
Notre Dame is a good offensive team. But they were also missing their best offensive weapon and only interior threat in Luke Harangody. A brief four minute segment in the second half highlighted by a five possession streak of three forced turnovers and two missed, contested shots highlighted what the Hoyas should have been able to do on defense for most of the game instead of four minutes.
How did they give up 1.4 points per possession? Mostly by giving up open shots. Yes, the Irish are good shooters, but they aren't a team used to getting seven dunks and twelve mostly easy layups. Georgetown often loses the battle in certain elements of the game: getting good shots is almost never one of them.
The blame can be laid at both the coaching staff and the players. The Hoyas' switching, constantly helping defense is not a great style to play against a team with few individual stars that passes and shoots well. In other games where this has been the case, the Hoyas have adjusted by helping less. Today, that didn't seem to happen.
What's worse, I'm not sure it would have worked. Notre Dame guards often got into the lane on drives that were not particularly quick. Rotations were incredibly slow and at times lackadaisical.
Adding to that, the Hoyas gave Notre Dame an huge amount of extra shots. At the end of the game, Notre Dame had a 50% off. rebounding pct., but it was 63% in the first half and many of the Hoyas' def. rebounds came later in the game.
The offense doesn't get completely off the hook. It wasn't nearly as big a problem as the D, especially without a healthy Freeman. But while a 112 efficiency sounds good, the Hoyas could have done better against a poor Irish defense.
The most disappointing part of all this is that while one or two disappointing games are bound to happen over the course of a season, even to the best of teams, as a fan, you'd like the team to take those loses and use them as reasons to focus and improve. The Hoyas have now lost three of their last four "easier" Big East games.
How bad must Providence feel?
Let's run the numbers:
TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE . Home Visitor . Georgetown Notre Dame . 1st Half 2nd Half Total 1st Half 2nd Half Total Pace 24 33 57 Effic. 110.8 112.8 111.9 127.2 143.3 136.3 eFG% 69.4 53.7 60.0 51.8 83.3 65.3 TO% 24.6 18.3 21.0 20.5 21.3 21.0 OR% 12.5 41.2 32.0 62.5 25.0 50.0 FTA/FGA 11.1 44.4 31.1 14.3 66.7 36.7 Assist Rate 90.0 46.2 65.2 53.8 60.0 57.1 Block Rate 21.4 0.0 11.1 20.0 29.4 25.9 Steal Rate 20.5 6.1 12.2 24.6 12.2 17.5 2FG% 50.0 58.8 55.6 71.4 76.9 74.1 3FG% 62.5 30.0 44.4 21.4 62.5 36.4 FT% 100.0 66.7 71.4 50.0 85.7 77.8
What to point out individually?
With Austin Freeman out, those shots had to go somewhere. Hollis Thompson looked comfortable and I wish he'd be as easy taking a shot all the time. His defense is still that of a freshman, but it was nice to see him feel he had a green light and just play.
With Harangody out, Greg Monroe should have taken more shots. He didn't, and it left Chris Wright to step in. This is really never good for the Hoyas -- when Wright is feeling it, he should shoot as much as possible. When when we need someone to be force fed, it shouldn't be the 6' point guard who's streaky from three. Chris is best in transition -- which is impossible to do when you don't defend or rebound. There's a huge gap in usage between Austin and Hollis, and Monroe needed to take those shots and possessions, and he didn't.
Julian Vaughn almost looks like he had a good game until you realize he had two rebounds in 23 minutes and "played interior defense."
Jerelle Benimon and Freeman played 38 invisible minutes combined. Jerelle's an unheralded frosh and Freeman, again, was sick, so it's tough to criticize, but that's a started who gave nothing (and not much on D, either).
Jason Clark made some shots and actually rebounded, so kudos.
Vee Sanford had his usual few minutes and a steal while Henry Sims had an awful turnover but also one of the team's few def. rebounds in a not so bad defensive set of sequences when in. Frankly, in a game like this, I'd have been intrigued to go to a "D" lineup that included both Sims and Sanford.
INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS Georgetown Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts Thompson, Hollis 36 22.8 121.1 9.9 35 122.1 8.6 +0.7 Wright, Chris 55 26.2 90.1 13.0 57 135.1 15.4 -4.5 Monroe, Greg 51 24.1 113.1 13.9 49 118.3 11.6 +0.8 Clark, Jason 47 13.7 142.5 9.2 48 132.4 12.7 -1.4 Vaughn, Julian 26 26.4 123.0 8.5 28 154.2 8.6 -1.2 Sanford, Vee 10 8.3 200.0 1.7 11 91.7 2.0 +0.3 Freeman, Austin 34 9.3 110.5 3.5 31 140.8 8.7 -3.1 Benimon, Jerrelle 17 5.9 0.0 0.0 21 169.7 7.1 -4.4 Sims, Henry 4 25.0 0.0 0.0 5 49.1 0.5 -0.5 TOTALS 56 109.9 59.6 57 132.0 75.3 -14.1 Notre Dame Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts NASH, Tyrone 52 14.9 129.6 10.0 49 117.1 11.5 -0.2 JACKSON, Tory 57 15.9 105.1 9.5 56 101.5 11.4 -0.8 ABROMAITIS, Tim 53 26.7 137.4 19.5 51 114.1 11.6 +5.6 HANSBROUGH, Ben 56 23.1 159.9 20.7 55 114.2 12.6 +7.0 SCOTT, Carleton 53 19.3 143.4 14.6 49 105.6 10.3 +4.1 PEOPLES, Jonathan 5 0.0 - 0.0 6 104.4 1.3 -1.3 COOLEY, Jack 9 8.5 200.0 1.5 14 107.0 3.0 -0.4 TOTALS 57 138.2 75.9 56 110.1 61.6 +15.0
HD BOX SCORE
Notre Dame vs Georgetown
02/27/10 12:00 at Verizon Center
Final score: Notre Dame 78, Georgetown 64
Notre Dame Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
NASH, Tyrone 33:25 +19 8/72 2- 3 0- 0 4- 5 3/42 3/23 0/49 2/52 1/23 2/20 4/20 2
JACKSON, Tory 40:00 +14 9/78 2- 3 1- 4 2- 4 7/49 3/25 5/56 2/57 0/27 0/24 1/25 1
ABROMAITIS, Tim 36:12 +13 19/72 6-10 1- 9 4- 4 19/45 3/18 1/51 1/53 2/26 3/23 1/24 2
HANSBROUGH, Ben 38:59 +15 21/76 4- 5 3- 5 4- 5 10/46 4/20 1/55 3/56 1/27 1/22 2/25 3
SCOTT, Carleton 35:22 +15 17/72 4- 4 3- 4 0- 0 8/45 3/18 2/49 3/53 3/25 4/23 5/23 2
PEOPLES, Jonathan 04:49 + 0 0/ 8 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0/ 7 0/ 4 1/ 6 0/ 5 0/ 1 0/ 3 0/ 1 0
COOLEY, Jack 11:13 - 6 4/12 2- 2 0- 0 0- 0 2/11 0/ 4 0/14 0/ 9 0/ 6 0/ 5 3/ 7 3
TOTALS 40:00 78 20-27 8-22 14-18 49 16/28 10/56 12/57 7/27 12/24 17/25 13
. 0.741 0.364 0.778 0.571 0.179 0.211 0.259 0.500 0.680
Georgetown Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
Thompson, Hollis 26:10 - 8 12/38 3- 3 2- 4 0- 1 7/27 3/10 2/35 2/36 0/13 0/15 0/16 2
Wright, Chris 38:50 -17 10/61 2- 8 2- 4 0- 1 12/43 6/18 1/57 3/55 0/27 1/24 0/24 3
Monroe, Greg 35:03 - 7 15/56 4- 7 0- 0 7- 8 7/41 2/16 1/49 4/51 0/20 0/24 4/17 4
Clark, Jason 33:03 -11 12/58 0- 0 4- 7 0- 0 7/39 2/17 2/48 1/47 0/23 2/21 3/16 3
Vaughn, Julian 23:11 -10 8/31 4- 6 0- 0 0- 0 6/23 2/ 8 0/28 1/26 1/12 2/12 0/13 0
Sanford, Vee 03:36 - 1 2/10 0- 0 0- 0 2- 2 0/ 9 0/ 3 1/11 0/10 0/ 4 0/ 6 1/ 4 0
Freeman, Austin 22:31 - 1 5/42 2- 3 0- 2 1- 2 5/28 0/11 0/31 0/34 1/18 0/17 0/15 2
Benimon, Jerrelle 14:32 -15 0/21 0- 0 0- 1 0- 0 1/12 0/ 8 0/21 0/17 1/16 0/ 4 1/10 0
Sims, Henry 03:04 + 0 0/ 3 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0/ 3 0/ 1 0/ 5 1/ 4 0/ 2 0/ 2 1/ 5 0
TOTALS 40:00 64 15-27 8-18 10-14 45 15/23 7/57 12/56 3/27 8/25 12/24 14
. 0.556 0.444 0.714 0.652 0.123 0.214 0.111 0.320 0.500
Efficiency: Notre Dame 1.368, Georgetown 1.143
eFG%: Notre Dame 0.653, Georgetown 0.600
Substitutions: Notre Dame 16, Georgetown 35
2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: Notre Dame 7-7, Georgetown 1-1
Layups/Tips: Notre Dame 8-12, Georgetown 11-19
Jumpers: Notre Dame 5-8, Georgetown 3-7
Fast break pts (% FG pts): Notre Dame 8 (12.5), Georgetown 2 (3.7)
Pts (eff.) after steal: Notre Dame 14 (140.0), Georgetown 13 (185.7)
Seconds per poss: Notre Dame 25.0, Georgetown 17.4
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Team stats pages will be updated tomorrow; player stats pages will be updated after West Virginia game.
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