Sunday, March 14, 2010

Recap: West Virginia 60, Georgetown 58

Should I be more upset that Georgetown lost? I never thought they deserved to be in the game, but there they were, tied with 9 seconds left when Da'Sean Butler hits a tough, tough shot.

I think the bourbon is helping.

In a game where Georgetown was obliterated on the defensive boards, struggling to hit outside shots and saw Greg Monroe shut down as well as any time all season, the opportunity to steal a win and the Big East title was still within reach.

After trailing by nine points (50-41) at the under-8 minute media timeout, the Hoyas played stifling defense to twice tie the game, but couldn't get the stops at the end for the win.  West Virginia scored 20 points on their first 21 possessions of the second half, then 8 points in their last four possessions to hang on to the win.

A few pithy comments below before I go to bed.

Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.            Visitor                         Home      
.            Georgetown                      West Virginia         
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            28        25        53

Effic.        101.8     120.0     110.5       116.4     112.0     114.3  
 
eFG%           44.2      50.0      46.8        46.7      36.0      41.8  
TO%            10.9      12.0      11.4        14.5      28.0      21.0  
OR%            31.2      41.7      35.7        52.9      64.7      58.8  
FTA/FGA        23.1      47.6      34.0        16.7      40.0      27.3  
 
Assist Rate    45.5      66.7      55.0        53.8      75.0      61.9  
Block Rate      0.0      11.8       5.1        15.8       8.3      12.9  
Steal Rate      3.6      16.0       9.5         0.0       4.0       1.9  
 
2FG%           52.6      50.0      51.6        50.0      35.3      43.6  
3FG%           14.3      33.3      25.0        25.0      25.0      25.0  
FT%            83.3      90.0      87.5        80.0     100.0      93.3

This will likely come as a complete shock to those not savvy to tempo-free stats, but tonight's game was not a defensive battle. Rather, that was two teams putting up quite respectable offensive games at an absolutely glacial pace.

In fact, from a cursory scan this was the slowest-paced game Georgetown has played since . . . a 1-point win at West Virginia in 2008 (the Pat Ewing game-saving block game). The Mountaineers are a slow-paced team this year [63 poss/game, 312th nationally], but 53 possessions is positively Big-Ten-like (perhaps WVU is auditioning?).

Offensively, Georgetown didn't do too much wrong other than struggle from behind the arc in the 1st half.

Defensively, the Hoyas didn't force enough turnovers in the Lift-off half, but made up for that with a nice turnovers-forced rate in the Vesper half.  Oh yeah, and they were completely obliterated on the defensive glass.  That was actually worse than the beat-down Pitt put on Georgetown last season.  In fact, as far as I can tell that was the worse defensive rebounding by a Georgetown team since the regular-season-ending loss to Providence way back in 2005.

And that was the single biggest reason Georgetown lost tonight.  Now to be clear, offensive rebounding is the primary offensive weapon for West Virginia (2nd nationally at 42%), but tonight happened to be their high-water mark for the season.  Great.


INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

Georgetown            Off     %           Pts      Def           Pts   
Player                Poss  Poss  O.Rtg   Prod     Poss  D.Rtg  Allow    Net Pts
Wright, Chris          52   34.5  123.5   22.2      53   112.6   11.9      +6.1  
Monroe, Greg           50   19.1  108.8   10.4      51    92.2    9.4      +1.3  
Freeman, Austin        51   17.5  127.0   11.3      53   107.4   11.4      +0.9  
Clark, Jason           37   15.8   28.6    1.7      38   104.7    8.0      -5.4  
Vaughn, Julian         27   16.7  115.2    5.2      30   103.9    6.2      -0.3  
Thompson, Hollis       24    6.0   92.9    1.3      19   111.2    4.2      -1.6  
Benimon, Jerrelle      19    7.4  135.8    1.9      21   144.4    6.1      -2.1  
TOTALS                 52         108.9   54.0      53   107.9   57.2      -1.3  

West Virginia         Off     %           Pts      Def           Pts   
Player                Poss  Poss  O.Rtg   Prod     Poss  D.Rtg  Allow    Net Pts
BUTLER, Da'Sean        53   28.1  117.0   17.4      52   116.0   12.1      +2.7  
EBANKS, Devin          45    9.6  112.1    4.8      43    99.6    8.6      -1.6  
JONES, Kevin           40   21.2  104.2    8.8      41   119.0    9.8      -1.1  
BRYANT, Darryl         14   16.4   26.1    0.6      12   106.9    2.6      -1.9  
SMITH, Wellington      38   22.8  144.0   12.5      35    95.0    6.7      +5.0  
THOROUGHMAN, Cam        9   28.7  129.1    3.3      12   164.8    4.0      -0.8  
MAZZULLA, Joe          37   16.7  107.2    6.6      37   105.7    7.8      -0.6  
MITCHELL, Casey         7   28.9  122.8    2.5       6    68.7    0.8      +1.4  
FLOWERS, John          13   15.0   97.3    1.9      13   144.5    3.8      -1.4  
KILICLI, Deniz          9    0.0    -      0.0       9    76.2    1.4      -1.4  
TOTALS                 53         113.9   58.5      52   110.3   57.3      +1.5

In a game where Greg Monroe was pushed out of his spots all night and Austin Freeman struggled to score until the most desperate of times (how clutch is Austin Freeman?), Chris Wright simply willed the Hoyas back into the game over and over again.  I may question his outside shooting touch, but I'll never question his heart. And his last-second layup attempt to tie the game was the correct play.

You hate to point a finger at a single player in a game like this, but Jason Clark just couldn't bring anything offensively tonight, after playing very well in the first three games of the tournament.



HD BOX SCORE

Georgetown vs West Virginia
3/13/10 9:00 pm at New York, NY/MSG
Final score: West Virginia 60, Georgetown 58

Georgetown              Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Wright, Chris          40:00  - 2  20/58  6-12  0- 5  8- 8 17/46  7/14  1/53  2/52  0/41  2/27  1/35   2
Monroe, Greg           38:14  + 0  11/58  3- 6  0- 1  5- 6  7/44  3/17  2/51  1/50  0/39  0/25  6/33   2
Freeman, Austin        39:10  - 2  14/58  4- 7  2- 5  0- 0 12/45  1/14  3/53  0/51  0/41  1/26  0/35   1
Clark, Jason           29:11  - 2   2/38  1- 2  0- 3  0- 0  5/35  0/12  0/38  1/37  0/24  0/23  3/25   2
Vaughn, Julian         23:44  - 2   4/29  2- 3  0- 0  0- 0  3/27  0/10  0/30  1/27  1/23  2/15  2/22   5
Thompson, Hollis       16:26  + 4   6/26  0- 0  2- 2  0- 0  2/19  0/ 7  0/19  1/24  0/20  0/10  1/14   2
Benimon, Jerrelle      13:15  - 6   1/23  0- 0  0- 0  1- 2  0/14  0/ 6  0/21  0/19  0/17  1/ 9  0/11   2
TOTALS                 40:00       58    16-30  4-16 14-16    46 11/20  6/53  6/52  1/41  8/27 14/35  16
.                                        0.533 0.250 0.875       0.550 0.113 0.115 0.024 0.296 0.400    

West Virginia           Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
BUTLER, Da'Sean        40:00  + 2  20/60  6-15  1- 5  5- 5 20/56  2/14  0/52  3/53  1/30  4/35  3/27   2
EBANKS, Devin          33:22  + 9   2/53  1- 3  0- 1  0- 0  4/48  1/17  0/43  2/45  1/25  4/30  5/25   1
JONES, Kevin           30:16  - 8  12/41  4- 6  1- 3  1- 2  9/43  0/ 9  0/41  2/40  0/25  3/29  1/22   3
BRYANT, Darryl         09:55  - 3   0/10  0- 0  0- 1  0- 0  1/14  0/ 4  0/12  1/14  0/ 9  1/10  1/ 8   0
SMITH, Wellington      29:49  +12  11/44  4- 6  1- 3  0- 0  9/41  1/11  0/35  1/38  2/21  6/25  4/20   4
THOROUGHMAN, Cam       06:06  - 9   2/11  1- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/ 9  2/ 4  0/12  1/ 9  0/ 6  1/ 4  0/ 4   3
MAZZULLA, Joe          29:11  + 6   6/46  0- 6  0- 0  6- 6  6/41  6/16  0/37  0/37  0/20  0/25  2/18   1
MITCHELL, Casey        04:34  + 2   5/ 9  0- 1  1- 2  2- 2  3/ 8  0/ 1  1/ 6  0/ 7  0/ 5  0/ 6  1/ 3   0
FLOWERS, John          09:58  - 8   2/12  1- 2  0- 0  0- 0  2/10  0/ 3  0/13  0/13  0/ 3  1/ 6  0/ 4   2
KILICLI, Deniz         06:49  + 7   0/14  0- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/10  0/ 5  0/ 9  0/ 9  0/ 6  0/ 5  1/ 4   0
TOTALS                 40:00       60    17-41  4-15 14-15    56 12/21  1/52 11/53  4/30 21/35 19/27  16
.                                        0.415 0.267 0.933       0.571 0.019 0.208 0.133 0.600 0.704    

Efficiency: West Virginia 1.132, Georgetown 1.115
eFG%: West Virginia 0.411, Georgetown 0.478
Substitutions: West Virginia 32, Georgetown 20

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: West Virginia 1-1, Georgetown 2-2
Layups/Tips: West Virginia 11-21, Georgetown 13-23
Jumpers: West Virginia 5-19, Georgetown 1-5

Fast break pts (% FG pts): West Virginia 5 (10.9), Georgetown 8 (18.2)
Pts (eff.) after steal: West Virginia 3 (300.0), Georgetown 9 (150.0)
Seconds per poss: West Virginia 26.5, Georgetown 19.1


1 comment:

  1. You are right about this game (G'Town v. WVA). I was watching the game with a "potential" G'Town recruit (Marco Porcher - Oak Hill Academy) and I told him before the game that if Coach T allow WVA to control the tempo (keep score under 70 pts.) G'Town will lose... also, I told him that the guy he measures himself against on the Hoyas (Clark) will struggle because he is not tough enough (mentally & physically) and I was right again (unfortunately). G'Town needs to sign Marco, he's 6'5", 190 lbs. and have NBA range and is a skilled player from Spain who played at Oak Hill for two years (check him out on YouTube). If everyone returns (and, who knows with the climate of the NBA) the Hoyas can be a Top Five team next year with a deep, talented, and experienced team with skills!

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