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I think they're tired of looking at long armed athletes right on top of them. - Jay Bilas
The Hoyas put together one of their best all-around games of the season tonight, absolutely shutting down the Fighting Irish while putting together one of their better offensive performances. (Fifty nine points in 53 possessions against a decent defense is a strong offensive game for this team.)
On defense, the Hoyas gave Notre Dame very few good shots. Jack Cooley, who until Saturday had been the scourge of the Big East, was completely shut down on the interior. Jerian Grant, who has been excellent as a playmaking wing, was forced into tough shot after tough shot. The Hoyas even managed to force a few more turnovers than normal and owned the defensive boards.
The Irish didn't help themselves much, either, missing many of the few open looks they received. But at the end of the day the biggest different was in watching Notre Dame attempt to execute their burn offense. They would run the clock down, and then attempt, in the last ten to fifteen seconds, to get the open shot they have been able to get over the last ten or so games. But today, it wasn't there -- a long, active Hoya defender would turn away the easy shot, forcing a poor one or a bad pass. There were few open jumpers.
More importantly, there were few shots at the rim. The Irish shot 32 jump shots and only 16 layups. The Irish guards could not penetrate and Cooley did nothing inside.
The Hoyas actually weren't that much better in their shot selection (27 jumpers, 17 layups), but offensively, the team seemed to do everything else right. They crashed the offensive boards well and despite a number of frustrating turnovers, kept the overall TO count down. And then they went and made a lot of those jumpshots (something we probably shouldn't count on them continuing).
But the most impressive aspect was the team's cutting to the basket. The cuts came often and were fast and decisive. Clark and Whittington, particularly, continually forced their men to trail them as they looked for easy baskets. Henry Sims had five assists, mostly on cuts. And he and his teammates actually missed quite a few open cutters. Perhaps the Irish weren't well-prepared or maybe the Hoyas simply were clicking, but either way, those easy baskets were the key reason the team was able to put up 28 in the first half.
TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE . Home Visitor . Georgetown Notre Dame . 1st Half 2nd Half Total 1st Half 2nd Half Total Pace 26 28 53 Points 28 31 59 18 23 41 Effic. 109.4 111.4 110.5 70.3 82.6 76.8 eFG% 56.5 57.1 56.8 37.0 36.0 36.5 TO% 15.6 25.1 20.6 19.5 21.6 20.6 OR% 33.3 45.5 39.1 20.0 33.3 27.3 FTA/FGA 17.4 42.9 29.5 13.0 28.0 20.8 Assist Rate 66.7 45.5 56.5 50.0 37.5 43.8 Block Rate 5.9 14.3 9.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 Steal Rate 7.8 10.8 9.4 11.7 14.4 13.1 2FG% 55.6 60.0 57.6 41.2 42.9 41.9 3FG% 40.0 33.3 36.4 16.7 18.2 17.6 FT% 50.0 77.8 69.2 33.3 71.4 60.0
More thoughts and stats after the jump
Seniors Henry Sims and Jason Clark had nice offensive and defensive games in their last home games as Hoyas.
Henry has been a wonderful story for the Hoyas, replacing Ya-Ya Dia in my mind as "that player that suddenly got pretty good as a senior." Yes, Henry had some non-conference success last year, but this year he's had some big games against some top notch opposition.
In this game, Henry avoided the turnovers that have plagued him at times and made a decent percentage of his shots. When he does that, he's an incredibly valuable part of the offense. Even when he doesn't though, it's fun to watch him play defense. He may not have Roy Hibbert's size, but he's quicker guarding players on the perimeter and despite his lack of heft, hasn't been pushed around inside at all.
It's also important to keep in mind that Henry is as young or younger as some sophomore centers in this league (Louisville's Dieng and Syracuse's Melo). I hope some NBA teams realize this and, at minimum, stash Henry in the NBDL for some seasoning.
Clark was his usual dynamo self -- scoring when needed, handling the ball, and generally being a perimeter pest. He was always positioned as the third wheel in the "DC3," but his senior season may be the most complete season any of those three players had. If he leads the Hoyas to tourney success, I suspect most of the fanbase will remember it that way.
Either way, Jason Clark has been a great Hoya for four years and it's been a pleasure to watch him play.
Still, it was not only the present that was on display tonight. Greg Whittington's game tonight, combined with the everlasting allure of his gigantic potential* has probably already inspired odes to Whit and what he will become.
There's no doubt he had a tremendously efficient offensive game and was his usual self on defense. But instead of dreaming of next year, or the year after, I'm hoping we saw the short term future of Whittington tonight.
He cut hard on offense and knew exactly where to go -- he probably could have had six more points if Henry had hit him. Yes, he made his shots, which always helps, but he also wasn't forcing shots. He used 19% of the possessions while he was in -- exactly where he should be. What we saw today wasn't necessarily Greg Whittington, offensive superstar, but rather Greg Whittington, perfectly in the flow of the offense.
Forget what he is as a junior -- if Whit can simply play efficiently within the offense right now, our offense gets significantly better -- and he stays on the floor more on D. He's not going to make almost every shot every game, and that's okay. Playing active and within control is enough.
*A Tracy McGrady clone with less offensive skill but more defensive intensity. I think by virtue of the profile the Spurs have already secured his draft rights.
The rest of the player stats are below. It was also nice to see Markel Starks bounce back with a decent game; Nate Lubick had a decent lunchpail performance; Otto Porter was hitting his jumpers.
I'd actually like to see Otto take after Whit a bit more in his offense. My favorite game of his was the Syracuse game, where he didn't settle for so many mid-range jumpers. Yes, he's good at them, but he'll never make them like he can make layups.
INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS
Georgetown Off % Pts Def Pts
Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts
THOMPSON, Hollis 36 24.7 56.2 5.0 38 69.1 5.3 -0.7
SIMS, Henry 46 28.8 112.3 14.9 47 73.5 6.9 +6.5
CLARK, Jason 43 18.1 160.3 12.5 46 62.2 5.7 +7.2
PORTER, Otto 46 20.2 116.7 10.8 49 54.2 5.3 +5.7
LUBICK, Nate 22 11.1 206.2 5.1 23 79.5 3.7 +2.3
WHITTINGTON, Greg 32 18.9 207.8 12.6 31 57.9 3.6 +9.0
HOPKINS, Mikael 3 33.3 0.0 0.0 2 250.0 1.0 -1.8
STARKS, Markel 28 18.7 87.1 4.6 27 89.4 4.8 -0.2
BOWEN, Aaron 2 100.0 0.0 0.0 2 250.0 1.0 -3.0
CAPRIO, John 2 0.0 - 0.0 2 250.0 1.0 -1.0
TRAWICK, Jabril 5 0.0 - 0.0 3 172.2 1.0 -1.0
TOTALS 53 116.9 65.3 54 72.8 39.3 +24.9
Notre Dame Off % Pts Def Pts
Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts
ATKINS, Eric 52 20.9 80.1 8.7 50 116.5 11.6 -3.5
MARTIN, Scott 45 17.0 107.2 8.2 44 117.9 10.4 -1.5
GRANT, Jerian 50 23.7 81.8 9.7 48 113.2 10.9 -2.4
CONNAUGHTON, Pat 43 22.3 78.3 7.5 42 99.3 8.3 -1.4
COOLEY, Jack 35 19.7 26.1 1.8 37 108.7 8.0 -6.0
CROWLEY, Patrick 2 0.0 - 0.0 3 0.0 0.0 0.0
DRAGICEVICH, Alex 21 9.5 0.0 0.0 20 86.1 3.4 -2.6
KNIGHT, Tom 11 37.8 127.8 5.3 9 32.2 0.6 +4.3
BROOKS, Joey 11 13.5 65.0 1.0 12 108.3 2.6 -1.1
TOTALS 54 76.8 40.9 53 105.5 55.9 -15.0
HD BOX SCORE
Notre Dame vs Georgetown
02/27/12 7:00 at Verizon Center
Final score: Georgetown 59, Notre Dame 41
Notre Dame Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
ATKINS, Eric 38:17 -23 9/36 3- 6 1- 4 0- 0 10/46 1/11 1/50 3/52 0/33 1/33 0/20 2
MARTIN, Scott 33:46 -21 9/31 3- 5 1- 2 0- 0 7/39 1/ 9 0/44 2/45 0/32 0/28 3/19 1
GRANT, Jerian 36:32 -20 8/36 1- 7 1- 5 3- 3 12/45 4/13 1/48 2/50 0/33 2/32 0/20 2
CONNAUGHTON, Pat 31:05 -12 6/37 3- 5 0- 3 0- 0 8/40 1/11 1/42 1/43 0/27 3/28 8/21 0
COOLEY, Jack 25:19 -17 2/26 1- 5 0- 0 0- 2 5/29 0/10 2/37 1/35 0/21 0/19 0/15 4
CROWLEY, Patrick 01:43 + 5 0/ 5 0- 0 0- 1 0- 0 1/ 2 0/ 1 0/ 3 0/ 2 0/ 0 0/ 1 0/ 4 0
DRAGICEVICH, Alex 16:18 - 2 0/15 0- 0 0- 2 0- 0 2/17 0/ 5 0/20 0/21 0/10 0/12 0/10 1
KNIGHT, Tom 07:48 + 3 5/ 9 2- 2 0- 0 1- 1 2/ 8 0/ 1 2/ 9 2/11 0/ 4 1/ 5 0/ 5 4
BROOKS, Joey 09:12 - 3 2/10 0- 1 0- 0 2- 4 1/14 0/ 3 0/12 0/11 0/ 5 0/12 1/ 6 1
TOTALS 40:00 41 13-31 3-17 6-10 48 7/16 7/53 11/54 0/33 9/33 14/23 15
. 0.419 0.176 0.600 0.438 0.132 0.204 0.000 0.273 0.609
Georgetown Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
THOMPSON, Hollis 27:41 +13 5/40 2- 5 0- 2 1- 2 7/32 0/14 0/38 3/36 0/19 1/17 5/23 2
SIMS, Henry 34:42 +21 12/57 4-10 0- 0 4- 4 10/39 5/18 1/47 2/46 1/29 1/19 5/31 2
CLARK, Jason 32:46 +19 13/50 4- 5 1- 2 2- 2 7/38 1/15 1/46 1/43 1/25 1/20 5/25 1
PORTER, Otto 35:29 +22 6/56 3- 6 0- 0 0- 2 6/39 3/19 2/49 2/46 1/30 4/20 6/31 3
LUBICK, Nate 16:29 + 6 4/23 2- 2 0- 0 0- 0 2/18 2/ 7 0/23 0/22 0/ 9 1/10 1/ 9 1
WHITTINGTON, Greg 24:12 +21 15/39 2- 3 3- 3 2- 2 6/22 0/10 1/31 1/32 0/20 0/ 9 1/24 1
HOPKINS, Mikael 01:43 - 5 0/ 0 0- 0 0- 0 0- 1 0/ 3 0/ 0 0/ 2 0/ 3 0/ 1 0/ 4 0/ 1 1
STARKS, Markel 21:25 + 8 4/30 2- 2 0- 1 0- 0 3/22 2/ 9 0/27 2/28 0/19 0/13 1/22 2
BOWEN, Aaron 01:12 - 5 0/ 0 0- 0 0- 2 0- 0 2/ 2 0/ 0 0/ 2 0/ 2 0/ 1 0/ 2 0/ 1 0
CAPRIO, John 01:12 - 5 0/ 0 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0/ 2 0/ 0 0/ 2 0/ 2 0/ 1 0/ 2 0/ 1 0
TRAWICK, Jabril 03:09 - 5 0/ 0 0- 0 0- 1 0- 0 1/ 3 0/ 0 0/ 3 0/ 5 0/ 1 0/ 4 0/ 2 0
TOTALS 40:00 59 19-33 4-11 9-13 44 13/23 5/54 11/53 3/31 9/23 24/33 13
. 0.576 0.364 0.692 0.565 0.093 0.208 0.097 0.391 0.727
Efficiency: Georgetown 1.113, Notre Dame 0.759
eFG%: Georgetown 0.568, Notre Dame 0.365
Substitutions: Georgetown 23, Notre Dame 21
2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: Georgetown 1-1, Notre Dame 0-0
Layups/Tips: Georgetown 10-16, Notre Dame 8-16
Jumpers: Georgetown 8-16, Notre Dame 5-15
Fast break pts (% FG pts): Georgetown 2 (4.0), Notre Dame 4 (11.4)
Pts (eff.) after steal: Georgetown 4 (80.0), Notre Dame 7 (100.0)
Seconds per poss: Georgetown 21.5, Notre Dame 23.4
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