Let's run the numbers:
TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE . Home Visitor . Georgetown Syracuse . 1st Half 2nd Half Total 1st Half 2nd Half Total Pace 36 36 72 Effic. 86.9 110.3 98.8 123.3 85.5 104.3 eFG% 37.9 45.8 42.3 64.6 40.5 53.3 TO% 19.6 8.3 13.9 22.4 27.6 25.0 OR% 23.8 40.9 32.6 25.0 20.0 22.2 FTA/FGA 34.5 38.9 36.9 58.3 76.2 66.7 Assist Rate 33.3 43.8 40.0 69.2 42.9 60.0 Block Rate 18.8 14.3 16.7 35.3 3.6 15.6 Steal Rate 8.4 13.8 11.1 5.6 8.3 7.0 2FG% 29.4 53.6 44.4 50.0 28.6 40.0 3FG% 33.3 12.5 25.0 62.5 42.9 53.3 FT% 90.0 50.0 66.7 92.9 87.5 90.0
It was a tale of two halves, with Syracuse's first half a little better than Georgetown's second half.
In the Lift-off half, Georgetown struggled to make their 2FG attempts. The shot selection was good, but the execution was not: 2/10 on layup and tip-ins, 3/7 on 2-pt jumpers. The poor shooting in the paint can be credited to the aggressive Syracuse frontline which collected 6 blocks in the half (5 by Wes Johnson). But that came at a cost - by the end of the half, Johnson and R. Jackson had two fouls, and A. Onuaku had three. Syracuse simply made shots: 5/8 from behind the arc and 13/14 from the FT line.
The story of the Vesper half was turnovers. Georgetown managed to take care of the ball while Syracuse did not. The latter is not surprising - probably the biggest weakness for the Orange this year is their lousy turnover rate [21.9%, 242nd nationally and last in the Big East] - but Syracuse has done a great job forcing turnovers on defense [23.4%, 37th nationally and 3rd in the Big East]. Meanwhile, Georgetown had managed to commit turnovers less than 20% of the time only once in the last six games (against Providence) coming in. As the Rutgers debacle demonstrated, an offense will start to put up a lot of points when in avoids possessions without a scoring attempt.
The Hoyas defense was built around limiting Syracuse inside shooting and gathering rebounds. For the half, Syracuse made only 4/14 2FGs and gathered only 3 offensive rebounds (on 15 available missed shots).
Unfortunately, the Hoyas couldn't find their shooting touch late in the game, as they made only 3/8 FTs to end the game and watched their best and last chance to take the lead clank off the rim on a wide-open 3FGA by Jason Clark. More so than the Chris Wright miss against Rutgers, that shot felt like a part of the offensive set and Clark was completely unguarded at the arc. It actually reminded me of the missed 3FG attempt by D. Owens in the Sweet Sixteen game vs. Florida in 2006. Under those exact circumstances, I'd want Clark to take that shot every time.
INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS Georgetown Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts Wright, Chris 66 24.1 109.2 17.4 60 92.1 11.0 +4.5 Monroe, Greg 57 30.6 97.1 16.9 46 103.1 9.5 +3.2 Freeman, Austin 68 24.3 118.2 19.5 67 112.0 15.0 +2.8 Clark, Jason 66 17.9 82.8 9.8 66 110.4 14.6 -4.0 Vaughn, Julian 39 7.7 0.0 0.0 43 121.9 10.5 -7.1 Thompson, Hollis 19 10.5 0.0 0.0 19 125.0 4.7 -3.6 Sanford, Vee 8 0.0 - 0.0 10 65.0 1.3 -1.3 Benimon, Jerrelle 30 7.8 115.6 2.7 34 90.7 6.2 -1.4 Sims, Henry 7 26.9 93.6 1.8 10 94.5 1.9 -0.1 TOTALS 72 96.0 68.1 71 105.2 74.7 -6.6 Syracuse Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts JACKSON, Rick 52 25.3 98.2 12.9 52 81.2 8.4 +3.3 RAUTINS, Andy 66 25.7 132.9 22.5 64 87.6 11.2 +9.5 JOHNSON, Wes 71 20.0 114.8 16.3 71 86.9 12.3 +3.9 ONUAKU, Arinze 23 12.1 55.8 1.5 23 66.9 3.1 -0.9 TRICHE, Brandon 60 11.5 112.4 7.8 63 103.0 13.0 -2.3 JARDINE, Scoop 18 11.1 0.0 0.0 21 111.7 4.7 -3.5 JOSEPH, Kris 57 25.1 84.1 12.1 58 116.7 13.5 -3.1 RILEY, DaShonte 8 0.0 - 0.0 8 159.4 2.6 -2.6 TOTALS 71 104.0 73.1 72 95.6 68.8 +5.1
That was an angry Chris Wright we saw out there today, and an aggressive Chris Wright is often a dangerous player. Wright did his best to keep the Hoyas within contact of the Orange in the 1st half, shooting 3/5 2FG and 2/4 3FG along with 2 steals and no turnovers. He didn't have any assists in the half, but his teammates made only 4 FGs in the half, so he didn't exactly have a lot of opportunities. Chris struggled a bit with his shooting in the 2nd half [2/6 2FG, 0/2 3FG, 4/5 FT] and managed to get into it a bit with Andy Rautins (double technicals), but his defense never lacked as he made life difficult for Triche and Jardine all game.
Greg Monroe picked up two quick fouls in the first 3:00 of the 1st half, and was forced to play passively the rest of the half. He still managed to get 9 points in the half (1/1 2FG, 7/8 FTs) but Syracuse ran wild inside as Greg tried to avoid a third foul. He also turned the ball over four times. In the Vesper half, Monroe became more aggressive as the bigs for the Orange had their own foul troubles, shooting 5/8 on 2FGs and playing great defense. Unfortunately, Greg was 1/6 at the FT line, and that - as much as anything - was a critical failure late in the game.
Austin Freeman is mired in a shooting slump. Over the last three games, Freeman has shot 4/16 from behind the arc - coming into this stretch, he was shooting 58% on 3FG in conference, so I'd almost consider this a correction towards reality. In spite of this, Austin still managed to be the most efficient Hoya today, with three assists, three offensive rebounds, only 1 turnover and one monstrous dunk. On offense, he's really, really good.
Jason Clark is also struggling over the past three games, but his problems seem to be as much inside as out: he's now 7/19 on 2FGs over this stretch, to go along with 2/9 3FGs. I wonder if Freeman and Clark are starting to tire as the grind of the season is taking its toll. I hope not.
Julian Vaughn and Hollis Thompson didn't have good games today. Vaughn seemed to struggle against the bigger interior players for Syracuse, and Thompson seemed a bit overwhelmed by Wes Johnson's combination of size and strength.
Henry Sims was the first big off the bench today, getting some burn due to Monroe's foul troubles. He started well (and scored the bench's only two points) before shooting a rushed airball and following with a cheap foul. That was the end of Sims' playing time.
Jerrelle Benimon isn't a favorite here because his passive offensive play and high turnover rate means that he needs to give a supreme defensive effort to be a positive contributor (a la J. Rivers). Tonight he came about as close to this as I can remember, as his physical defense on Wes Johnson took the star completely out of the game in the 2nd half while not committing any turnovers (although I could have done without that wild spinning drive into the lane). Unfortunately, Dick Vitale was too busy talking about anything but the game to give him credit.
"Vee Sanford played 10 defensive possessions with good results. He produced 2 turnovers: he had a steal and he forced the bad pass that Benimon stole."
HD BOX SCORE
Syracuse vs Georgetown
02/18/10 7:00 at Verizon Center
Final score: Syracuse 75, Georgetown 71
Syracuse Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
JACKSON, Rick 28:34 +21 12/62 4- 7 0- 0 4- 4 7/33 2/13 0/52 4/52 1/26 2/17 6/32 5
RAUTINS, Andy 35:39 +14 26/75 1- 2 5- 9 9-11 11/41 3/14 2/64 4/66 1/38 1/23 6/40 4
JOHNSON, Wes 39:53 + 7 16/75 1- 4 2- 4 8- 8 8/45 3/17 2/71 2/71 5/45 1/27 7/44 4
ONUAKU, Arinze 13:33 + 6 2/25 1- 3 0- 0 0- 0 3/16 0/ 7 1/23 1/23 0/13 0/ 8 2/15 5
TRICHE, Brandon 34:28 + 3 8/66 2- 3 1- 1 1- 1 4/38 2/15 0/63 3/60 0/40 0/21 2/38 3
JARDINE, Scoop 11:04 -12 0/12 0- 1 0- 0 0- 0 1/12 0/ 3 0/21 1/18 0/14 0/11 1/11 2
JOSEPH, Kris 32:07 - 9 11/57 3-10 0- 1 5- 6 11/35 2/11 0/58 3/57 0/39 1/23 1/34 1
RILEY, DaShonte 04:42 -10 0/ 3 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0/ 5 0/ 0 0/ 8 0/ 8 0/10 0/ 5 0/ 6 2
TOTALS 40:00 75 12-30 8-15 27-30 45 12/20 5/72 18/71 7/45 6/27 29/43 26
. 0.400 0.533 0.900 0.600 0.069 0.254 0.156 0.222 0.674
Georgetown Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
Wright, Chris 35:37 + 1 20/66 5-11 2- 6 4- 5 17/58 1/16 5/60 0/66 0/27 2/39 2/24 4
Monroe, Greg 30:06 + 6 20/54 6- 9 0- 0 8-14 9/48 1/12 0/46 5/57 1/22 2/34 7/19 4
Freeman, Austin 38:00 + 0 21/68 7-12 2- 8 1- 1 20/61 3/15 0/67 1/68 1/29 3/41 3/26 3
Clark, Jason 36:41 -12 8/61 1- 4 1- 4 3- 4 8/58 4/20 1/66 4/66 1/28 2/40 2/24 5
Vaughn, Julian 23:05 -21 0/28 0- 4 0- 0 0- 0 4/34 0/ 9 0/43 0/39 1/18 0/26 1/14 2
Thompson, Hollis 08:39 - 5 0/17 0- 1 0- 2 0- 0 3/19 0/ 6 0/19 0/19 0/ 6 0/14 0/ 8 1
Sanford, Vee 05:07 + 3 0/11 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0/ 9 0/ 4 1/10 0/ 8 0/ 3 0/ 5 0/ 3 0
Benimon, Jerrelle 18:30 + 7 0/40 0- 2 0- 0 0- 0 2/31 1/15 1/34 0/30 1/15 2/18 4/13 2
Sims, Henry 04:15 + 1 2/10 1- 2 0- 0 0- 0 2/ 7 0/ 3 0/10 0/ 7 0/ 2 0/ 3 1/ 4 1
TOTALS 40:00 71 20-45 5-20 16-24 65 10/25 8/71 10/72 5/30 14/43 21/27 22
. 0.444 0.250 0.667 0.400 0.113 0.139 0.167 0.326 0.778
Efficiency: Syracuse 1.056, Georgetown 0.986
eFG%: Syracuse 0.533, Georgetown 0.423
Substitutions: Syracuse 23, Georgetown 47
2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: Syracuse 2-3, Georgetown 2-2
Layups/Tips: Syracuse 7-12, Georgetown 13-28
Jumpers: Syracuse 3-15, Georgetown 5-15
Fast break pts (% FG pts): Syracuse 6 (12.5), Georgetown 4 (7.3)
Pts (eff.) after steal: Syracuse 2 (40.0), Georgetown 11 (137.5)
Seconds per poss: Syracuse 16.4, Georgetown 17.2
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Stats pages will be updated tomorrow.
Vee Sanford played 10 defensive possessions with good results. He produced 2 turnovers, he had a steal and he forced the bad pass that Benimon stole.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I totally forgot about Sanford there, didn't I? Crap, it was getting late.
ReplyDeleteTell you what, I'm gonna steal your comment and put in the the write-up.
Sorry Vee!
Brian -
ReplyDeleteI had the exact same thought about Jason last night and DJ against Florida in '06. Great look by the guy you'd want shooting - the shot just didn't fall.
Great analysis. Let's get some more angry Wright in future games. Maybe the impending 4 or 5-seed will set him off.
ReplyDelete...
Let's get two dozen Hoyas fans to wear these full body spandex suits in all gray or gray/navy blue.