Game stats: Syracuse 58, Georgetown 55 [OT]

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.            Home                            Visitor   
.            GEORGETOWN                      Syracuse         
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            28        28        55
 
Points          20        35        55          29        29        58   

Effic.         72.3     100.7      88.2       104.8      83.4      93.0  
 
eFG%           32.7      50.0      41.5        47.8      39.7      43.3  
TO%            14.5      20.1      17.6        18.1      25.9      22.5  
OR%            30.0      36.8      33.3        26.7      39.1      34.2  
FTA/FGA        26.9      48.1      37.7        34.8      37.9      36.5  

Assist Rate    75.0      75.0      75.0        88.9      30.0      57.9  
Block Rate      0.0       9.1       5.9         5.3      18.8      11.4  
Steal Rate     14.5       8.6      11.2         3.6      14.4       9.6  
 
2FG%           36.8      56.2      45.7        41.7      31.8      35.3  
3FG%           14.3      27.3      22.2        36.4      42.9      38.9  
FT%            42.9      61.5      55.0        87.5      54.5      68.4

And so it goes for the Hoyas in the last year of the "original" Big East tournament.

What I hope doesn't get lost in this is that Mikael Hopkins grades out as clearly the best player on the court for either team tonight (see below). After a mostly difficult season for Hopkins, I was glad to see him have a performance that he can build upon during the NCAA tournament.

more stats after the jump

Game stats: Georgetown 61, Syracuse 39

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.            Home                            Visitor   
.            GEORGETOWN                      Syracuse         
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            27        28        55
 
Points          25        36        61          18        21        39   

Effic.         91.7     130.5     111.2        66.0      76.2      71.1  
 
eFG%           45.7      55.6      51.0        30.0      36.4      33.0  
TO%            25.7       7.3      16.4        29.3      21.8      25.5  
OR%            35.7      38.5      37.0        38.9      21.4      31.2  
FTA/FGA        17.4      29.6      24.0        24.0      31.8      27.7  

Assist Rate    75.0      92.3      85.7        28.6      25.0      26.7  
Block Rate     10.0      12.5      11.1         9.1      17.6      14.3  
Steal Rate     25.7       7.3      16.4         7.3       7.3       7.3  
 
2FG%           27.3      52.9      42.9        30.0      50.0      38.9  
3FG%           41.7      40.0      40.9        20.0       0.0       9.1  
FT%           100.0      75.0      83.3        50.0      71.4      61.5 

more stats after the jump

Game stats: Georgetown 57, Syracuse 46

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.            Visitor                         Home      
.            GEORGETOWN                      Syracuse         
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            32        27        59

Points          21        36        57          23        23        46   

Effic.         65.1     133.1      96.3        71.3      85.0      77.7  
 
eFG%           26.7      60.4      41.7        36.2      40.5      38.0  
TO%            15.5      25.9      20.3        24.8      29.6      27.0  
OR%            21.7      58.3      34.3        30.0      46.7      37.1  
FTA/FGA        20.0      33.3      25.9        10.3      42.9      24.0  
 
Assist Rate    57.1      58.3      57.9        55.6      37.5      47.1  
Block Rate      7.1       6.2       6.7        35.3       8.3      24.1  
Steal Rate     15.5      14.8      15.2         9.3      14.8      11.8  
 
2FG%           29.4      58.3      41.4        42.9      43.8      43.3  
3FG%           15.4      41.7      28.0        20.0      20.0      20.0  
FT%            83.3      87.5      85.7        66.7      66.7      66.7

I guess Alan's post about Otto was spot-on. Now I'm expecting a post from him before every game the rest of the way.

And from the category of I'm not saying, but I'm saying:

• In 16 minutes of game action with Mikael Hopkins on the court, the Hoyas were outscored by Syracuse 20-11.
• In 27 minutes of game action with Moses Ayegba on the court, the Hoyas outscored Syracuse 51-26.

And if anyone has a copy of the game that they can send me, I'd appreciate it.

more stats after the jump

Recap: Syracuse 64, Georgetown 61 [OT]

Kris Joseph had a career-high number of makes from behind the arc [6/11] to carry the Syracuse Orange over the Georgetown Hoyas in overtime at the Carrier Dome, 64-61.  Joseph had shot a combined 3/27 from 3FG in his previous seven games before tonight.

I'm stuck in a hotel room that may have the slowest internet connection in the continental US.  I've had the replay from ESPN3 on for the past hour and 45 minutes, and the game has just passed the 4:00 mark of the first half. It's about 5 seconds of game action, then 30 seconds of waiting for the video to load.

In other words, I don't think I'm going to be able to write much of a recap tonight, so a stats dump will have to suffice for now.

Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.            Visitor                         Home      
.            Georgetown                      Syracuse         
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            29        27        56

Points          31        30        61          27        37        64   

Effic.        107.2      87.7      96.7        93.4     108.2     101.4  
 
eFG%           43.9      30.0      37.3        33.3      48.5      41.3  
TO%            24.2      23.4      23.8         6.9      20.5      14.3  
OR%            55.0      52.2      53.5        31.8      36.4      34.1  
FTA/FGA         6.1      46.7      25.4        26.7      24.2      25.4  
 
Assist Rate    61.5     100.0      76.2        66.7      61.5      63.6  
Block Rate     10.5      20.0      15.4        10.0      40.9      26.2  
Steal Rate      6.9      17.5      12.7         6.9      11.7       9.5  
 
2FG%           50.0      27.3      38.1        36.8      35.0      35.9  
3FG%           23.1      25.0      23.8        18.2      46.2      33.3  
FT%           100.0      85.7      87.5        87.5      62.5      75.0

more stats after the jump

Recap: Syracuse 58, Georgetown 51

Picture from here.

Georgetown lost to the Syracuse Orange today at the Verizon Center, 58-51.

This wasn't a bad loss, in the sense that the Hoyas were playing without their point guard - Chris Wright - and anyone betting with their brains rather than their heart should have jumped at the point Georgetown was giving for the game.  Georgetown fans may not want to hear it, but Syracuse is a good team in spite of their losing 6 times during an 8 game stretch, and losing to them without probably the best-playing Hoya over the past few weeks shouldn't be a shock.

No, the bad loss was last game, when Georgetown hosted the Cincinnati Bearcats as 6-point favorites and instead played easily their worst game of the season.

As for the game itself, the Hoyas ran into the same problem today as in the Cincinnati game, namely poor shooting, as well as an old nemesis, turnovers.  In the Lift-off half today, Georgetown missed a bunch of outside shots [2/12 3FG], and but for the inside work of Henry Sims [3/3 2FG] would have been behind by more than the ten-point difference at the break, 33-23.  The Orange had managed a 9-2 TO margin going into the locker room, and had scored more than a quarter of their points on the fast break.

The Hoyas did dig deep and make a run in the Vesper half, thanks especially to Austin Freeman and Jason Clark, and even after losing a 2-point lead in the middle of the half held the ball down 3 points with 30 seconds to go.  But Kris Joseph blocked a Jason Clark attempt to tie, and the rest was academic.

Scoop Jardine was clearly the best player on the court today, and I'd say that without his outstanding play at both ends, the Hoyas just might have pulled it out.

No time for me to write an expanded recap, hopefully Alan can bail me out.


Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.            Home                            Visitor   
.            Georgetown                      Syracuse         
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            31        29        59
 
Points          23        28        51          33        25        58   

Effic.         74.3      98.1      85.7       106.6      87.6      97.5  
 
eFG%           38.5      47.9      43.0        50.0      40.9      46.3  
TO%            29.1      24.5      26.9         6.5      24.5      15.1  
OR%            33.3      43.8      38.2        25.0      26.7      25.7  
FTA/FGA        15.4      33.3      24.0        12.5      40.9      24.1  

Assist Rate    55.6      55.6      55.6        64.3      37.5      54.5  
Block Rate     10.5      26.7      17.6        28.6       9.1      20.0  
Steal Rate      3.2       7.0       5.0        16.1      14.0      15.1  
 
2FG%           50.0      36.4      44.0        52.6      40.0      47.1  
3FG%           16.7      38.5      28.0        30.8      28.6      30.0  
FT%            75.0      62.5      66.7        25.0      77.8      61.5

Recap: Georgetown 64, Syracuse 56

Picture from here.

The Georgetown Hoyas learned a lot about themselves tonight up in the Carrier Dome: if they keep working hard, someday they'll be as good as Seton Hall.

The Hoyas played solid second-half defense and rode the hard work of Julian Vaughn and Hollis Thompson to an eight-point win in Syracuse, 64-56. This was the first win for Coach John Thompson III in Syracuse, and Georgetown's first since 2002.

I'm sick as a dog right now, so you're getting an exceptionally brief recap tonight.  Try the usual suspects (link, link, link, link) for someone who can muster a bit more energy.


Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.            Visitor                         Home      
.            Georgetown                      Syracuse         
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            28        31        59

Points          29        35        64          31        25        56   

Effic.        102.3     114.7     108.8       109.4      81.9      95.2  
 
eFG%           51.9      55.8      53.8        48.1      38.6      43.8  
TO%            21.2      22.9      22.1        21.2      26.2      23.8  
OR%            35.3      57.1      45.2        43.8      26.7      35.5  
FTA/FGA        11.1      38.5      24.5        26.9      50.0      37.5  
 
Assist Rate    81.8      84.6      83.3        63.6      62.5      63.2  
Block Rate      0.0      13.3       6.2        33.3      35.3      34.4  
Steal Rate      7.1       6.6       6.8        10.6      13.1      11.9  
 
2FG%           33.3      58.8      46.9        47.1      46.7      46.9  
3FG%           50.0      33.3      42.9        33.3      14.3      25.0  
FT%            33.3      60.0      53.8        85.7      72.7      77.8  

Sometimes when I watch a game, I need to double check the rankings to make sure that the teams I'm watching are really that good.  That's usually the case when the game is being dominated by the defenses, and that's what happened in the second half tonight, until Georgetown found its groove late against the 2-3 zone by getting the ball to the FT line and looking opposite.

The Orange, meanwhile, suddenly abandoned their best strategy - pounding the ball inside - and started settling for outside shots.  When they finally found Rick Jackson on the left block with two minutes left, and promptly watched Chris Wright smack his shot out of bounds, they had gone from a 4 point lead with 6 minutes to go to trailing by 6.

And with that the game was over.


This was an important win for Georgetown, not just for the usual significance of beating Syracuse, but because the Hoyas did it defensively, by forcing turnovers and getting the Orange to settle for jumpshots.  This is the fourth game in the last five that Georgetown's defensive performance has been a big positive [+5 points (or better) than expected], and may indicate that last Saturday's ugly win over Providence may indeed have been an aberration.

The Hoyas will have another opportunity to make believers out of the skeptics when Marquette and their conference leading offense (yeah, they've got a better offense than Pittsburgh) arrive at the Verizon Center on Sunday.

BE Game of the Night: Seton Hall 90, Syracuse 68

Just a quick look at the biggest shocker so far of the Big East season, as Seton Hall blew the doors off of the Syracuse Orange in the Carrier Dome tonight.

I ran the stats mostly because I was curious if Jeremy Hazell had a good a night statistically as he thought he was having. 

He did.

The box score shows that he scored 28 points in the game, but my preferred stat (Net Points) gives him credit for producing 22 points on offense.  What's more impressive to me is that he also lead the Pirates defensively, with a 71 DRating in the game thanks to 9 def. rebounds and 4 steals.  Hard to believe that this guy was literally running for his life a month ago.

While the outcome was a real surprise, I don't think I'd take away too many lessons from this game. 

Seton Hall came into the game as the worst outside shooting team in conference play, at 22% [= 31/147].  That included a 3/26 effort at the Prudential Center just 17 days ago.  I'd expect that the game plan was very much to let the Pirates have at it from behind the arc, and it must have come as a slowly horrifying realization that Hazell and Theodore weren't going to miss many, even if the shot was from 28 feet.

But what should worry Syracuse fans a bit is the Orange offense.  This is the second time in three games that the team hasn't broken 1.0 ppp, and those performances were against Pitt and Seton Hall, neither elite defenses. 

Syracuse now departs on a three-game road trip, and Pomeroy currently pegs them as underdogs for the first two games.  These next two games probably will tell us how good Syracuse really is.

All the goofy stats are below the jump.

BE Game of the Night: Pitt 74, Syracuse 66

In a truly shocking development, I actually got to sit down and watch a couple of non-Georgetown Big East games today.

Image lifted from here

The headliner:  Syracuse at Pittsburgh

Just like the Villanova-UConn game, the visiting team came in a man down; but the Orange were missing one of their big-3 stars, Kris Joseph.  Just as I did for Villanova, I'm willing to give Syracuse some slack in having to go on the road without a player that would have given their opponent some problems.

However, such is life in the Big East.


Just some random thoughts, as it's getting late:

• Ken Pomeroy expected Pitt to score about 1.11 points per possession tonight, which is about what they did [1.09].  He figured Syracuse to get 1.05 PPP, but they fell a bit short [0.97].  I think James Southerland for Joseph tonight shows up right there.
• During that 19-0 run to start the game for Pitt, the Panthers shot 9-12 on 2FGs, all of which were dunks, layups or tip-ins. 
• During the ensuing 17-0 run by the Cuse, the Panthers shot 0-6 on 2FGs, all of which were jump shots.
• Pitt did a great job on Syracuse's starting guards (Scoop Jardine and Brandon Triche).  You can't overstate the athleticism of the Pitt backcourt, which played great tonight.
• But the backups - C.J. Fair and Dion Waiters - were the best two players for the Orange tonight.
• Speaking of athleticism, Gilbert Brown's block on Waiters was amazing in real-time speed.  That should be on YouTube any minute now.
• I think Nasir Robinson and Brown will get the press clippings tonight, but I'm always most impressed by Brad Wanamaker.  As a fan of one of Pitt's competitors, I am so glad he's leaving after this season.

Something else I noticed tonight was how often the Panthers tried to push the ball up-court for a quick shot.  This always seems to make sense against Syracuse, as you want them to scramble and not be able to set up into their 2-3 zone.  But in a game that ended up with a pace about 4 possessions over what Pomeroy expected, I think this was a big part of Jamie Dixon's strategy (it sure is nice to have the guards to pull it off).  Did it work?

Here's a breakdown of Pitt's possessions tonight by time until "first action":

Time     Poss.   Points   Eff.
0-8       18       27     1.50
9-20      17       21     1.24
21-25     16       15     0.94
26+       16       11     0.69

Now some of that effect would be normal - teams are more efficient at scoring on the fast break than in their half-court offense - but I was mostly impressed that more than 1/4 of Pitt's possessions had a scoring chance within 8 seconds of getting the ball.


Full stats breakdown after the jump, if you're into that sort of thing.

Deep bench, short rotation

JT3 subs in five players - documented! (Joseph Silverman / The Washington Times)

Alan's excellent post about likely minutes for the upcoming season got me thinking about John Thompson III's reputation for playing a short rotation.  I think this rep was developed in his first two seasons, when the cupboard was mostly bare beyond the first 6 or 7 players on the roster.  But now that he's been coaching the Hoyas for six seasons, I wonder if this reputation is myth or reality.

But before I can dig into the question of whether JT3 goes with fewer players than he should, I need to work through some basics and find a reasonable measuring stick.

First, we need to decide what constitutes being part of the rotation for a player, rather than just playing garbage minutes.  Next, we need to have some meaningful comparison of the size of Georgetown's rotation versus what other coaches/teams run.  Finally, we'll need to consider what to do about injured/suspended players and their effect on the rotation.

More after the jump

Recap: Georgetown 91, Syracuse 84

Georgetown rode the incredibly efficient offensive performances of Chris Wright, Greg Monroe and Jason Clark to an upset of top-seed Syracuse at the Big East tournament today.  This was the first win by the JTIII-led Hoyas against Syracuse away from the Verizon Center.

The Hoyas will take on the Marquette Golden Eagles, who pulled a mild upset of Villanova, tomorrow evening in the semi-finals.


Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.            Visitor                         Home      
.            Georgetown                      Syracuse         
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            35        39        74

Effic.        106.3     137.2     123.2       114.9     111.8     113.7  
 
eFG%           53.2      75.0      63.2        70.4      57.8      63.6  
TO%            17.2      15.2      16.2        31.6      15.2      23.0  
OR%            25.0      38.5      31.0        41.7      18.8      28.6  
FT Rate        12.9      92.3      49.1        14.8      25.0      20.3  
 
Assist Rate    66.7      66.7      66.7        62.5      56.2      59.4  
Block Rate      0.0       4.3       2.6        20.0       0.0      10.3  
Steal Rate     20.1      15.2      17.6        14.4      12.7      13.5  
 
2FG%           60.0      78.9      69.2        62.5      47.8      53.8  
3FG%           27.3      42.9      33.3        54.5      55.6      55.0  
FT%           100.0      62.5      67.9        50.0      87.5      75.0

The big picture number today is the final offensive efficiency for Georgetown today.  The Hoyas finished the game averaging over 1.2 points per possession.  In their first 31 games of the season, the Syracuse Orange had only thrice allowed a team to score more than 1.1 points per possession:  Louisville (2 losses) and Providence (a win).

Because of the vaunted 2-3 zone, Syracuse normally forces teams to shoot a lot of outside shots:  opponents attempt 3FGs as 41% of all shots from the floor, which is the 10th highest rate against in Div-I.  Today, Georgetown resisted that temptation, as they shot 18 3FGAs on a total of 58 shot attempts [= 31%], just about at their season average [30%].

Instead, the Hoyas pounded it inside.  A lot.  If you've been paying attention around here, you may have noticed a post earlier this week breaking out each player's shot selection over the past three months of the season.  As a team, the Hoyas take 67% of their 2-pt shots as either dunks, layups or tip-ins - a fantastic percentage.  In today's game, Georgetown was even better, taking 82% of the shots from in close.

Those shots came from a variety of ways, either on the secondary break, post moves from Greg Monroe or off touch passes to a guard running the baseline (especially Chris Wright in the 1st half, but all the guards in the 2nd half).  And a lot of them went in - 67% of them, in fact.  That's actually not much higher than the Hoyas have averaged on layups and tips all season (61%).

This wasn't a fluke offensive performance, but rather a team successfully running a game strategy.  Of course, cutting the turnover rate down about four percentage points from the conference season average certainly helped by adding 4 possessions with a scoring attempt.


The biggest non-Georgetown story of the game was the shocking injury to Arinze Onuaku late in the game.  The extent of his knee injury should become known on Friday, but hopefully it just looked much worse than it was.  

INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

Georgetown            Off     %           Pts      Def           Pts   
Player                Poss  Poss  O.Rtg   Prod     Poss  D.Rtg  Allow    Net Pts
Wright, Chris          72   23.4  145.7   24.5      72   107.4   15.5      +7.8  
Monroe, Greg           72   17.3  146.3   18.2      72    98.2   14.1      +5.0  
Freeman, Austin        67   23.1  111.3   17.2      68   103.4   14.1      +2.2  
Clark, Jason           65   18.6  136.5   16.5      67   115.8   15.5      +1.8  
Vaughn, Julian         16   11.8   94.0    1.8      18   180.6    6.5      -3.2  
Thompson, Hollis       48   20.0   95.2    9.1      48    89.8    8.6      +0.5  
Sanford, Vee            7   25.0   85.7    1.5       7    90.0    1.3      +0.1  
Benimon, Jerrelle      14   16.7   28.6    0.7      13   108.5    2.8      -2.0  
Sims, Henry             4    0.0    -      0.0       5   165.3    1.7      -1.7  
TOTALS                 73         123.7   89.6      74   108.1   80.0     +10.5  

Syracuse              Off     %           Pts      Def           Pts   
Player                Poss  Poss  O.Rtg   Prod     Poss  D.Rtg  Allow    Net Pts
JACKSON, Rick          60   17.9   59.7    6.4      59   122.2   14.4      -7.4  
RAUTINS, Andy          74   19.8  117.3   17.2      73   126.7   18.5      -1.4  
JOHNSON, Wes           69   23.8  126.1   20.7      68   117.2   15.9      +3.1  
ONUAKU, Arinze         30    9.6  105.7    3.1      27   100.8    5.4      -1.1  
TRICHE, Brandon        32   14.6   82.1    3.8      31    94.3    5.8      -1.3  
JARDINE, Scoop         47   29.5  117.5   16.3      48   129.7   12.4      +1.1  
JOSEPH, Kris           58   17.5  155.9   15.9      59   126.4   14.9      +2.0  
TOTALS                 74         113.5   83.3      73   119.9   87.5      -4.4 

While for long stretches of the game it looked like the Wright and Monroe show, neither player used as many as 25% of available possessions, with Monroe actually using less than 20%.

Chris Wright had a great shooting game today - those driving layups that we talked about yesterday were dropping for him.  His shot selection (twice as many 2FGAs as 3FGs) was outstanding and appropriate.  He also was second on the team with 6 rebounds (5 defensive), as his motor looked to be running about one gear faster than everyone else out there.

Greg Monroe may still be receiving complaints for his passivity, but he willingly drew defenders to facilitate open looks for his teammates.  A point I only hear Doug Gottlieb mention afterward was that Monroe's defense against the Syracuse bigs was also a key aspect of the game.  The net points tracker brings it out a bit, but Monroe did a great job denying Onuaku touches and harassing Jackson all game.

If someone's seen Austin Freeman's outside shooting touch, please return it to MSG immediately.  Freeman is now 0-6 on 3FG in the Big East tournament.  Today he recognized what was working and what wasn't, and went hard to the basket to get layups and FTs.  He'll need to start making some outside shots for the Hoyas to continue to advance.

Jason Clark has been doing his best to cover for his teammate behind the arc:  his 3/7 3FG shooting today brings him up to 7/13 for the tourney, as it appears that his late-season shooting slump [9/31 in the seven games prior to this week] is over.  His excellent play so far is the biggest difference over the past few weeks, and if the announcers can get his name correct, I hope they acknowledge him a bit more.

Julian Vaughn didn't see a lot of playing time today, as he struggled defensively and was often replaced by Hollis Thompson.  Thompson was solid for a freshman in his first BET, until late in the game at the FT line where he missed 4 consecutive attempts.  At one point Austin Freeman clearly suggested that he "MAKE THEM."

Vee Sanford continues to see playing time with Freeman back, and continues to be a plus off the bench - his ability to be at least a modest scoring threat allows the offense to continue to run seamlessly when he's in (as opposed to Benimon and Sims).

HD BOX SCORE

Georgetown vs Syracuse
3/11/10 12:00 pm at New York, NY/MSG
Final score: Georgetown 91, Syracuse 84

Georgetown              Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Wright, Chris          38:48  + 9  27/89  8-11  2- 5  5- 6 16/57  6/22  2/72  3/72  0/36  1/30  5/27   2
Monroe, Greg           38:26  + 6  17/88  6- 9  0- 0  5- 8  9/56  7/26  4/72  2/72  1/37  1/29  9/27   3
Freeman, Austin        36:48  +10  16/84  6-11  0- 3  4- 4 14/52  3/24  3/68  1/67  0/37  2/27  2/27   2
Clark, Jason           36:44  + 4  17/83  3- 4  3- 7  2- 3 11/53  4/25  2/67  1/65  0/37  2/27  1/25   0
Vaughn, Julian         11:53  -11   4/19  2- 2  0- 0  0- 0  2/17  0/ 6  0/18  1/16  0/ 8  0/ 9  0/ 2   2
Thompson, Hollis       23:21  +18   8/66  1- 1  1- 3  3- 7  4/36  0/19  3/48  1/48  0/28  3/19  2/20   2
Sanford, Vee           03:36  + 3   2/ 8  1- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/ 5  1/ 2  0/ 7  1/ 7  0/ 2  0/ 2  0/ 4   0
Benimon, Jerrelle      07:44  + 0   0/14  0- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/10  1/ 6  0/13  1/14  0/ 6  0/ 5  0/ 5   2
Sims, Henry            02:40  - 4   0/ 4  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 4  0/ 2  0/ 5  0/ 4  0/ 4  0/ 2  0/ 3   0
TOTALS                 40:00       91    27-40  6-18 19-28    58 22/33 14/74 11/73  1/39  9/30 20/28  13
.                                        0.675 0.333 0.679       0.667 0.189 0.151 0.026 0.300 0.714    

Syracuse                Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
JACKSON, Rick          33:02  -14   4/65  2- 6  0- 0  0- 0  6/49  2/24  2/59  5/60  2/33  2/23  3/21   4
RAUTINS, Andy          40:00  - 7  14/84  1- 1  4- 9  0- 0 10/59 11/27  0/73  5/74  0/40  1/28  3/30   1
JOHNSON, Wes           38:14  - 6  24/79  7-12  3- 5  1- 2 17/55  1/20  3/68  3/69  2/37  2/26  5/28   5
ONUAKU, Arinze         17:02  + 6   3/37  1- 2  0- 0  1- 2  2/22  1/12  1/27  0/30  1/18  0/10  3/13   2
TRICHE, Brandon        18:07  + 4   2/39  1- 2  0- 0  0- 0  2/26  3/14  3/31  2/32  0/19  0/11  1/11   2
JARDINE, Scoop         23:44  -12  19/50  4- 9  2- 3  5- 6 12/37  1/13  0/48  2/47  0/24  0/19  2/22   3
JOSEPH, Kris           29:51  - 6  18/66  5- 7  2- 3  2- 2 10/47  0/18  0/59  0/58  0/29  2/23  3/25   4
TOTALS                 40:00       84    21-39 11-20  9-12    59 19/32  9/73 17/74  5/40  8/28 21/30  21
.                                        0.538 0.550 0.750       0.594 0.123 0.230 0.125 0.286 0.700    

Efficiency: Georgetown 1.247, Syracuse 1.135
eFG%: Georgetown 0.621, Syracuse 0.636
Substitutions: Georgetown 21, Syracuse 24

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: Georgetown 0-0, Syracuse 1-1
Layups/Tips: Georgetown 22-33, Syracuse 17-29
Jumpers: Georgetown 5-7, Syracuse 3-9

Fast break pts (% FG pts): Georgetown 4 (5.6), Syracuse 7 (9.3)
Pts (eff.) after steal: Georgetown 23 (164.3), Syracuse 14 (155.6)
Seconds per poss: Georgetown 18.8, Syracuse 13.9

Occasional contributor Ray Floriani was at the game, and sent along his thoughts:

NEW YORK CITY - The offensive numbers were impressive. Georgetown had a 125 OE while Syracuse checked in at 114. The deciding factor was turnovers. The pace was 74 possessions as Syracuse will run. Georgetown is known for its Princeton (variation) offense but will push if the opportunity arises, especially off turnovers. Georgetown had an 11-9 scoring edge off fast breaks. Hoyas cared for the ball with a 16% rate while Syracuse was too high at 23%.

Georgetown missed a number of free throws in the stretch but still had a significant 50-20 edge in free throw rate. A look at three point attempts shows why. The Orange took 39% of their attempts beyond the arc, Georgetown took only 20%. In late game Syracuse was in a fouling mode which inflates the FT rate, but the Hoyas simply did a better job attacking the basket all game.

John Thompson III noted after beating a good South Florida team on Wednesday, his club is physically and emotionally at their best right now. It showed against Syracuse. The Hoyas are very loose yet playing hungry, poised to make a significant tourney run.

Coach Thompson also commented on Austin Freeman’s diabetes noting it hasn’t altered his stamina or performance. The changes are in his [Freeman’s] regular life as Thompson noted and in practice and games there is always someone there to monitor his condition.

Greg Monroe. At times I feel he should do more. The Hoya big man did go for 15 points 10 boards 7 assists, a nice complete game. Monroe doesn’t force the issue nor do they force it into him on offense. Thompson utilized his center's passing skills out of the mid- and high-post and when the time came he got the looks inside and utilized his nice baseline move on the blocks. His numbers and performance today were just fine.

Friday night is for the Big East Jesuit title, Georgetown-Marquette. Fully expect this to go to the wire.

-----------

Stats pages will be updated after the Big East tournament.

Recap: Syracuse 75, Georgetown 71

The Hoyas staged a furious comeback attempt late, but fell short to the Syracuse Orange tonight at the Verizon Center.  It's tough losses like this that make it plain how important those bad losses (USF, at Rutgers) become - Georgetown has effectively lost any chance at a top-4 seed in the BET.


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

-------

Stats pages will be updated tomorrow.

Recap: Syracuse 73, Georgetown 56

Sometimes this team can take apart a zone, and sometimes they look completely clueless.

Credit the Orange for forcing the latter, though the Hoyas played their own role. After getting out to a quick 14-0 start, Jim Boeheim made the simple adjustment of extending the zone on the shooters (and specifically Austin Freeman), forcing the Hoyas to either take deeper threes or to try and attack the seams in their 2-3 zone.

The Hoyas were tricky. They did neither.

Instead, the Hoyas committed turnovers on 7 of their next 13 possessions and watched their lead shrink to two points.  In fact, that was the start of a 48 possession stretch (from 16:36 in the 1st half to 6:27 in the 2nd half) where Georgetown committed 19 turnovers - that's a TO rate = 39.6%.  Which generally makes folks think of Bill Paxton in "Aliens": Game over.

However, it was worse than that. On most possessions, the Hoyas refused to attack the zone, often tossing the ball back and forth across the top. In the early going, this often led to a poor shot or a lazy turnover as they became predictable.

The few times the ball did go to the holes in the zone, the result was often a turnover. Much credit should go to Syracuse's length. They kept the Hoya guards from attempting many passes -- even skip passes across the zone rarely occurred, presumably because of worries about Syracuse's height and quickness.

When the team didn't turn it over, generally good things happened, though Syracuse's size often posed an additional problem in terms of converting down low.

It was ugly, and there's really no getting around it.

The good news is that the Hoyas really aren't this bad, and I'm not sure this game even says that much about the Hoyas-Orange rematch at Verizon later this year. Hopefully it turns into a learning experience and motivates the team. Because there's not much else good there.

Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE 

.            Visitor                         Home      
.            Georgetown                      Syracuse         

.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total

Pace            31        38        68
Effic.         94.2      71.9      82.1       110.4     103.8     107.0   

eFG%           60.4      42.0      51.0        60.4      54.8      57.8  
TO%            32.5      24.0      27.8        16.2      26.6      22.0  
OR%            25.0      10.0      15.6         9.1      35.7      24.0  
FTA/FGA         0.0      44.0      22.4        25.0     104.8      62.2   

Assist Rate    66.7      66.7      66.7        76.9      72.7      75.0  
Block Rate     11.1       0.0       5.9        14.3      42.9      28.6  
Steal Rate      3.2      21.3      13.2        22.7      16.0      19.1   

2FG%           50.0      42.9      46.4        55.6      62.5      58.8  
3FG%           50.0      27.3      38.1        50.0      20.0      36.4  
FT%             0.0      54.5      54.5        83.3      72.7      75.0

The only thing to note here is that no one had a good game. Oh, Austin Freeman and Jason Clark shot relatively well, but no one played well.

The guards refused to test the zone with any consistency, despite better results when they did. The bigs barely saw the ball, but turned it over often when they did and failed to grab any offensive boards to make it easier on them.

Defensively, the team wasn't strong but became an absolute sieve when the bench came in. And the offense got worse.

There's nothing much to see here.

On the other side, it doesn't help when you hit a game where Rautins is on fire and somehow Scoop Jardine is making shots all over the place. I wasn't impressed with the defense watching it, but the results actually weren't all that poor, considering how good Syracuse has been and the fact that the game was at the Dome.

INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

Georgetown            Off     %           Pts      Def           Pts   
Player                Poss  Poss  O.Rtg   Prod     Poss  D.Rtg  Allow    Net Pts
Vaughn, Julian         38   13.9   73.7    3.9      40    85.2    6.8      -1.8  
Monroe, Greg           48   25.4   52.2    6.4      47   103.5    9.7      -4.8  
Wright, Chris          66   18.5   83.2   10.2      67   105.6   14.2      -3.4  
Freeman, Austin        68   29.0   99.8   19.7      67   101.1   13.5      +2.9  
Clark, Jason           58   21.8  104.5   13.2      56    96.3   10.8      +1.7  
Thompson, Hollis       26    8.6   23.5    0.5      24   108.3    5.2      -3.3  
Sanford, Vee            5   26.2   59.5    0.8       5    96.0    1.0      -0.3  
Benimon, Jerrelle      36    8.9   13.8    0.4      34   114.5    7.8      -5.3  
Sims, Henry             5   20.0    0.0    0.0       5   140.0    1.4      -1.4  
TOTALS                 70          78.9   55.1      69   102.0   70.4     -15.6  

Syracuse              Off     %           Pts      Def           Pts   
Player                Poss  Poss  O.Rtg   Prod     Poss  D.Rtg  Allow    Net Pts
JACKSON, Rick          36   22.4  100.7    8.1      38    78.8    6.0      +1.9  
JOHNSON, Wes           66   25.7   80.9   13.7      66    70.8    9.4      +3.0  
ONUAKU, Arinze         42   18.5   85.9    6.7      43    88.9    7.6      -0.6  
RAUTINS, Andy          66   19.6  128.4   16.6      67    64.9    8.7      +8.0  
TRICHE, Brandon        43   16.4   73.8    5.2      45    98.8    8.9      -2.7  
JARDINE, Scoop         34   16.4  144.7    8.1      31    80.9    5.0      +3.3  
REESE, Brandon          0    0.0    -      0.0       1   300.0    0.6      -0.6  
JOSEPH, Kris           58   14.5  142.9   12.0      59    72.4    8.5      +4.7  
TOTALS                 69         105.5   70.4      70    78.2   54.7     +17.4

HD BOX SCORE

Georgetown vs Syracuse
1/25/10 7:03 p.m. at Carrier Dome, Syracuse, NY
Final score: Syracuse 73, Georgetown 56
Georgetown              Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Vaughn, Julian         24:37  + 1   3/36  1- 2  0- 0  1- 2  2/25  1/12  1/40  2/38  0/24  1/15  2/21   3
Monroe, Greg           28:34  -15   8/38  4- 7  0- 0  0- 0  7/33  0/10  1/47  7/48  1/26  0/22  4/16   5
Wright, Chris          37:33  -22   7/48  3- 4  0- 6  1- 3 10/46  7/15  1/67  1/66  1/33  0/32  2/23   4
Freeman, Austin        38:37  -17  23/54  5-11  4- 7  1- 2 18/47  0/11  2/67  3/68  0/32  3/31  3/24   1
Clark, Jason           33:05  - 6  15/52  0- 3  4- 7  3- 4 10/42  3/15  2/56  2/58  0/26  1/27  2/22   3
Thompson, Hollis       14:45  - 8   0/20  0- 0  0- 1  0- 0  1/19  1/ 8  1/24  1/26  0/13  0/11  1/ 7   1
Sanford, Vee           01:19  - 1   0/ 5  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 4  1/ 2  1/ 5  1/ 5  0/ 0  0/ 2  0/ 0   0
Benimon, Jerrelle      18:52  -15   0/22  0- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/25  1/ 9  0/34  2/36  0/13  0/18  2/10   2
Sims, Henry            02:38  - 2   0/ 5  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 4  0/ 2  0/ 5  1/ 5  0/ 3  0/ 2  1/ 2   1
TOTALS                 40:00       56    13-28  8-21  6-11    49 14/21  9/69 20/70  2/34  5/32 19/25  20
.                                        0.464 0.381 0.545       0.667 0.130 0.286 0.059 0.156 0.760    

Syracuse                Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
JACKSON, Rick          20:29  + 7   8/38  4- 8  0- 0  0- 2  8/22  1/ 9  1/38  1/36  3/15  2/12  2/19   2
JOHNSON, Wes           38:51  +20  14/71  4- 7  1- 2  3- 3  9/45  2/19  3/66  7/66  4/27  1/25  8/30   0
ONUAKU, Arinze         25:42  + 6   7/42  3- 7  0- 0  1- 3  7/31  1/13  0/43  1/42  0/15  1/17  6/18   3
RAUTINS, Andy          38:10  +22  15/73  0- 2  2- 6  9-10  8/43  6/22  6/67  1/66  0/27  0/23  1/32   2
TRICHE, Brandon        24:42  + 3   5/44  1- 1  0- 1  3- 4  2/25  2/12  0/45  3/43  0/17  0/15  3/22   2
JARDINE, Scoop         18:23  +13   9/35  3- 3  1- 1  0- 0  4/22  4/ 7  0/31  2/34  0/13  0/12  2/12   0
REESE, Brandon         00:20  - 3   0/ 0  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 0  0/ 0  0/ 1  0/ 0  0/ 0  0/ 0  0/ 0   0
JOSEPH, Kris           33:23  +17  15/62  5- 6  0- 1  5- 6  7/37  2/14  3/59  0/58  1/26  0/21  2/27   0
TOTALS                 40:00       73    20-34  4-11 21-28    45 18/24 13/70 15/69  8/28  6/25 27/32   9
.                                        0.588 0.364 0.750       0.750 0.186 0.217 0.286 0.240 0.844    

Efficiency: Syracuse 1.058, Georgetown 0.800
eFG%: Syracuse 0.578, Georgetown 0.510
Substitutions: Syracuse 20, Georgetown 27

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: Syracuse 4-5, Georgetown 1-1
Layups/Tips: Syracuse 11-13, Georgetown 9-16
Jumpers: Syracuse 5-16, Georgetown 3-11

Fast break pts (% FG pts): Syracuse 10 (19.2), Georgetown 11 (22.0)
Pts (eff.) after steal: Syracuse 13 (100.0), Georgetown 13 (144.4)
Seconds per poss: Syracuse 15.8, Georgetown 19.0

------------

Stats pages will be updated tonight.

Recap: Syracuse 98, Georgetown 94 [OT]

The Hoyas nearly stole one at the buzzer in Syracuse, but ended up losing for the 5th straight time in the frozen hinterlands to the Orangemen. This is the 2nd straight game lost in overtime for Georgetown, but tonight's overtime loss was preceded by a furious 16-point comeback in the last 8 minutes of regulation.

This was also the second straight G'town-Syracuse game in which K. Ongenaet has assaulted D. Summers - tonight with a swinging elbow to the back of the head which lead to Ongenaet's ejection. Is anyone aware of any sort of history between these two? I didn't see any evidence in either game that Summers did anything to provoke the attacks.

With the loss, Georgetown (13-10, 4-8) faces a monumental challenge to make the NCAA tournament, with three of the next four games against KenPom.com top-25 teams.


Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE

.            Visitor                         Home    
.            GU                              Syracuse
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            31        34        66

Effic.        102.0     137.4     122.4       105.1     144.1     127.6

eFG%           48.4      64.3      57.5        45.0      72.6      59.0
TO%            31.9      13.3      20.8        22.3      13.3      16.9
OR%            61.1      45.0      52.6        50.0      31.2      41.2
FT Rate        19.4      26.2      23.3        23.3      87.1      55.7

Assist Rate    46.2      69.6      61.1        50.0      75.0      65.6
Block Rate      5.3       9.5       7.5        26.3       9.1      17.1
Steal Rate      6.4       6.7       6.5         9.6       4.4       6.5

2FG%           47.4      68.2      58.5        47.4      71.4      60.0
3FG%           33.3      40.0      37.5        27.3      50.0      38.1
FT%            33.3      72.7      58.8        85.7      74.1      76.5

It's getting late, so just a few quick thoughts:

• The Orangemen had a block party in the 1st half (more than 1 in 4 G'town 2FGA was blocked), which likely lead to the low 2FG% for the Hoyas in the half.

• Georgetown exploited seams in the 2-3 zone to rack up a ton of offensive rebounds

• The Hoyas' carelessness with the basketball in the first half was a big reason they trailed at the half.
  

• Syracuse came into the game 3rd best in the country at defensive FT Rate (3rd fewest FTA/FGA), and lived up to that billing.

• In any game that goes to overtime, it's easy to look at FT shooting as the difference between a win and a loss, but Syracuse shot well above their season average (63.8%), while Georgetown shot well below their season average (72.1%).
  

INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

GU                    Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ                
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
Summers, DaJuan        70    13.9   133.1    18.6        71    115.5     16.4       +2.2  
Mescheriakov, Nikita   40     5.0    46.8     2.4        40    120.7      9.7       -7.3  
Monroe, Greg           62    11.9   138.6    16.4        60    105.5     12.7       +3.8  
Wright, Chris          69    12.6   148.9    18.7        70    112.8     15.8       +3.0  
Freeman, Austin        69    11.8   137.2    16.2        68    120.2     16.4       -0.1  
Clark, Jason            9     5.1    42.6     2.2         9    176.2      3.2       -1.0  
Sapp, Jessie           45     7.4   132.3     9.8        45    134.1     12.1       -2.3  
Vaughn, Julian         16     4.4    91.1     4.0        18    150.8      5.4       -1.4  
Sims, Henry            10     4.3    39.3     1.7         9    147.1      2.6       -1.0  
TOTALS                 78    76.4   117.7    90.0        78    120.7     94.2       -4.2    

Syracuse              Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ             
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
JACKSON, Rick          54     8.6   121.9    10.4        54    129.8     14.0       -3.6  
HARRIS, Paul           63    12.2   108.6    13.2        63    115.9     14.6       -1.4  
ONUAKU, Arinze         65    15.6   117.3    18.3        65     92.3     12.0       +6.3  
FLYNN, Jonny           73    23.7   123.4    29.2        72    119.4     17.2      +12.1  
DEVENDORF, Eric        75    10.0   132.8    13.3        74    127.6     18.9       -5.6  
RAUTINS, Andy          37     5.2   202.5    10.5        38     95.1      7.2       +3.3  
ONGENAET, Kristof      13     1.1    61.1     0.7        13     88.8      2.3       -1.6  
JOSEPH, Kris           10     0.0     -       0.0        11    184.4      4.1       -4.1  
TOTALS                 78    76.3   125.3    95.7        78    115.7     90.3       +5.4

Georgetown got strong offensive games by the 5 normal starters (N. Mescheriakov started for J. Sapp today, hopefully in a one-time experiment).

Summers, C. Wright and G. Monroe were all positive contributors today, with A. Freeman just missing the cut. Monroe also tied for game-high in plus/minus, despite being on the losing side. Any chance we can clone him in the off-season?

HD BOX SCORE

GU vs Syracuse
2/14/09 12:02 p.m. at Carrier Dome, Syracuse, NY
Final score: Syracuse 98, GU 94

GU                      Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Summers, DaJuan        40:34  - 2  17/87  3- 7  3-11  2- 2 18/68  4/27  1/71  2/70  0/37  5/35  3/31   3
Mescheriakov, Nikita   23:49  - 7   0/40  0- 0  0- 4  0- 0  4/36  3/17  0/40  2/40  1/23  1/19  0/20   4
Monroe, Greg           33:45  +12  16/82  8- 9  0- 0  0- 1  9/58  2/23  2/60  3/62  0/27  5/27  6/22   4
Wright, Chris          41:31  + 0  25/85  5- 7  5- 8  0- 0 15/67  6/22  1/70  2/69  1/38  0/35  5/32   5
Freeman, Austin        40:04  + 2  19/86  3- 6  3- 6  4- 8 12/64  6/27  1/68  3/69  0/35  1/31  1/29   3
Clark, Jason           04:00  - 9   2/ 6  1- 3  0- 0  0- 0  3/ 8  0/ 2  0/ 9  2/ 9  0/ 3  1/ 5  1/ 1   1
Sapp, Jessie           24:44  + 3   9/62  2- 4  1- 4  2- 2  8/46  1/19  0/45  0/45  0/20  2/24  1/20   2
Vaughn, Julian         11:15  -16   5/12  2- 4  0- 0  1- 2  4/16  0/ 3  0/18  0/16  1/13  1/11  1/12   2
Sims, Henry            05:18  - 3   1/10  0- 1  0- 0  1- 2  1/ 7  0/ 4  0/ 9  2/10  0/ 4  1/ 3  0/ 3   1
TOTALS                 45:00       94    24-41 12-33 10-17    74 22/36  5/78 17/78  3/40 19/38 20/34  25
.                                        0.585 0.364 0.588       0.611 0.064 0.218 0.075 0.500 0.588    

Syracuse                Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
JACKSON, Rick          32:44  + 2  13/71  6- 7  0- 0  1- 3  7/44  2/18  0/54  2/54  2/30  2/22  2/26   2
HARRIS, Paul           35:12  + 4   9/83  2- 7  0- 1  5- 6  8/47  3/25  2/63  2/63  0/28  3/25  2/24   3
ONUAKU, Arinze         39:49  +12  15/82  6-10  0- 0  3- 7 10/56  1/22  2/65  3/65  4/29  7/31  6/30   3
FLYNN, Jonny           41:57  + 9  25/93  5- 9  0- 3 15-16 12/56 13/25  0/72  4/73  1/38  0/31  4/38   1
DEVENDORF, Eric        43:17  - 1  23/93  3- 5  5- 9  2- 2 14/60  1/23  0/74  1/75  0/41  0/34  2/37   1
RAUTINS, Andy          21:59  + 3  13/45  2- 2  3- 7  0- 0  9/30  1/10  1/38  1/37  0/23  1/19  1/23   5
ONGENAET, Kristof      06:58  + 0   0/11  0- 0  0- 1  0- 0  1/10  0/ 3  0/13  0/13  0/10  1/ 7  0/ 9   1
JOSEPH, Kris           03:04  - 9   0/12  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 2  0/ 2  0/11  0/10  0/ 6  0/ 1  0/ 3   1
TOTALS                 45:00       98    24-40  8-21 26-34    61 21/32  5/78 14/78  7/41 14/34 19/38  17
.                                        0.600 0.381 0.765       0.656 0.064 0.179 0.171 0.412 0.500    

Efficiency: Syracuse 1.256, GU 1.205
eFG%: Syracuse 0.590, GU 0.568
Substitutions: Syracuse 20, GU 29

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: Syracuse 5-6, GU 1-1
Layups/Tips: Syracuse 10-18, GU 14-21
Jumpers: Syracuse 9-16, GU 9-19

Fast break pts: Syracuse 23 (0.319), GU 13 (0.155)
Seconds per off. poss: Syracuse 16.4, GU 18.3

Syracuse Highlights, etc.

Just checking in to post some highlights from the Syracuse game - I believe this is the first highlight package I've put together this season, and I now remember why I don't to this very often anymore. The motivation sprung from this thread on HoyaTalk, which I've tried to stay faithful to, other than the order (call me old fashioned, but I used a linear storyline).



This clip can also be found on the archive page, and a higher res. version can be downloaded here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also, I've admittedly fallen a bit behind on updating stats on the right sidebar, both Georgetown and Big East HD box scores. I'll try to catch up this weekend, if I carve out some free time.

Recap: Georgetown 88, Syracuse 74

Coming into the game, we identified three important factors for today's game:

• Rebound. Syracuse is mediocre overall, but it's still a huge issue.
  • Georgetown had a Total Reb. Pct = 44% (not good)
  
  
• Get the ball to Monroe. He tore apart Providence's zone. Let's see what he can do against Syracuse.
• G. Monroe shot only 3/8 FG, but managed 6 assists to 3 turnovers (not bad)

• Contain Johnny Flynn. Flynn wreaks havoc in the lane, draws defenders and fouls. He's simply their best player. But he, like the rest of the Orange, are turnover prone, so there is an opportunity there as well.
  • J. Flynn played a nice game tonight. While he had only 14 points on 14 FGA, he also recorded 9 assists to only 2 turnovers (not good)

But Georgetown shot 12/21 3FG against the nation's second best defense against threes, enervating Syracuse's vaunted zone defense, and the rest was history.

Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE

.            Home                            Visitor 
.            GU                              Syracuse
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            36        31        68

Effic.        137.0     120.1     128.4        87.7     132.8     108.0

eFG%           73.3      66.7      70.4        43.5      61.7      52.5
TO%            27.4       6.3      17.5        24.7      19.0      21.9
OR%            63.6       8.3      34.8        40.9      56.2      47.4
FT Rate        30.0      37.5      33.3        35.5      40.0      37.7

Assist Rate    66.7      64.3      65.6        33.3      58.8      48.3
Block Rate     13.0      13.6      13.3        21.4      15.8      18.2
Steal Rate     11.0       9.5      10.2        16.4       0.0       8.8

2FG%           71.4      52.6      60.6        39.1      63.6      51.1
3FG%           50.0      80.0      57.1        37.5      37.5      37.5
FT%            66.7      66.7      66.7        45.5      41.7      43.5

The Orange (née Saltine Warriors) are one of the fastest-paced teams in college, preferring a pace greater than 72 possessions per game. And that pace is exactly what they got in the 1st half, with 36 possessions played. Unfortunately, Syracuse was also down 50-32 at this point, and struggled to maintain the uptempo in the Vesper half, as Georgetown methodically milked the shot clock to reduce possessions, thereby shorten the game.


The first half was a combination breakout for two of the Hoya's recent weaknesses: offensive rebounding and outside shooting. While allowing 8/16 3FG, Syracuse simultaneously lost control of their defensive glass, allowing Georgetown to rebound 7 of 11 available missed shots. Meanwhile, the Orange struggled shooting from in close (6/15 on dunks, layups and tip-ins), and both teams were a bit sloppy with the ball (SU: 10 TO, GU: 11 TO).


After Syracuse opened the second half 13-3 to close the lead to single digits (2 dunks by R. Jackson, a dunk and 2 FT by P. Harris and a 3FG by J. Flynn), the Hoyas responded over the next five minutes with a 14-4 run of their own to regain an 18 point lead, which never shrank below double-digits for the remainder of the game.

Georgetown was clobbered on the glass on both ends during the 2nd half, gathering only 7 of Syracuse's 16 available misses, while rebounding 1/12 on the offensive end. The Hoyas overcame this with more efficient outside shooting (4/5 3FG) and control of the ball (2 turnovers, no steals allowed).

INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

GU                    Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ           
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
Summers, DaJuan        60    17.7   104.1    18.4        60    106.0     12.7       +5.7  
Wright, Chris          41     3.1   158.1     4.9        43    104.2      9.0       -4.0  
Monroe, Greg           49    14.1    91.8    13.0        50    101.1     10.1       +2.9  
Freeman, Austin        60    10.0   158.2    15.8        61    109.2     13.3       +2.5  
Sapp, Jessie           35     5.3    93.9     5.0        34    100.8      6.9       -1.8  
Mescheriakov, Nikita    3     0.5   300.0     1.5         3    100.0      0.6       +0.9  
Clark, Jason           40     4.3   183.9     7.9        41    105.2      8.6       -0.7  
Vaughn, Julian         18     6.6   178.1    11.7        18     92.0      3.3       +8.4  
Sims, Henry            20     2.8   178.2     4.9        21     62.0      2.6       +2.3  
Wattad, Omar            9     2.0   141.2     2.9         9    116.1      2.1       +0.8  
TOTALS                 67    66.4   129.5    86.0        68    101.8     69.2      +16.8  

Syracuse              Off    Poss           Individ     Def             Individ           
Player                Poss   Used    ORtg   Pts Prod    Poss    DRtg   Pts Allow   Net Pts
JACKSON, Rick          45    13.8   108.6    15.0        42    111.9      9.4       +5.6  
RAUTINS, Andy          15     3.0     0.0     0.0        15    134.5      4.0       -4.0  
FLYNN, Jonny           64    13.6   111.2    15.1        65    132.0     17.2       -2.0  
HARRIS, Paul           61    10.9   139.6    15.2        61    118.8     14.5       +0.8  
ONUAKU, Arinze         52     9.9   102.4    10.1        52    110.8     11.5       -1.4  
PRESUTTI, Jake          1     0.0     -       0.0         0    131.3      0.0       +0.0  
ONGENAET, Kristof      18     2.4   122.6     3.0        17    149.1      5.1       -2.1  
DEVENDORF, Eric        60    12.7   111.3    14.2        60    131.1     15.7       -1.6  
REESE, Brandon          1     0.0     -       0.0         0    131.3      0.0       +0.0  
JOSEPH, Kris           23     2.0     0.0     0.0        23    133.0      6.1       -6.1  
TOTALS                 68    68.4   106.2    72.7        67    124.7     83.5      -10.9

D. Summers and A. Freeman led the starters in possessions played (60), and both gave strong positive contributions. Summers was the high possession user (17.7/60 = 30%) amongst the starters, and turned his into more than 18 points produced via adequate efficiency (104). He is penalized a bit for committing 4 turnovers during the game. Freeman was much more efficient (158) in getting his points, thanks in large part to his 4/5 3FG shooting; he had shot 1/10 3FG in the Hoyas previous four conference games, so this was a nice turnaround (or simply a regression towards the mean).

C. Wright and J. Sapp both played relatively passive games, using a combined 8.4 poss. in 76 poss. played. Wright was efficient on offense (no turnovers, 3/4 FG), while Sapp's offensive slump continues for yet another game. He is still making the hustle plays (3 S, 3 Off. Reb), but it would be nice to see Onions shake out of his funk.

G. Monroe may not have matched last game's statistics, but he lead the team with 6 assists and also had 2 blocks and 6 Def. Reb.


But today's recap must salute the much-maligned bench, which received contributions from all 5 of it's scholarship reserves (no, H. Thompson doesn't count).

• J. Clark shot 3/3 2FG, 2/3 3FG to lead the bench in scoring
• H. Sims turned in his second straight strong game, this time with 3 points, 2 assists and by far the most efficient defensive game. I haven't checked, but I wonder if he played quite a bit teamed with Monroe, giving Syracuse problems with their combined length.
• O. Wattad made a three in the 2nd half to re-establish an 18 point lead for G'town, from which they were able to dictate the pace and control the game.
• N. Mescheriakov lived up to his billing as the Belarusian Assassain with two made 3FGs in only 3 possessions played (all in the 1st half).
  

And today's Player of the Game is . . . Julian Vaughn! Errr, what? I thought my stats program had given up the ghost for sure, but I went back and looked at the play-by-play and it turns out that Mr. Vaughn had a knack for finding the open outside shooter, with 3 of his 4 assists on 3FG (Clark, Freeman and Wattad). He also made 2/3 2FG, added in one steal, one off. and one def. rebound, all in 18 possessions played. And that was enough to put him at the top of the list.


Today's H.P. tip-of-the-cap goes to R. Jackson, who managed 8/10 2FG shooting today (along with an ugly 1/8 FT) and 4 off. rebounds. Shades of Vernon Macklin?


Well, that's it for me - time to re-watch the 1st half.

HD BOX SCORE

Syracuse vs GU
01/14/09 7:00 at Verizon Center
Final score: GU 88, Syracuse 74

Syracuse                Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
JACKSON, Rick          26:55  - 9  17/45  8-10  0- 0  1- 8 10/42  1/11  2/42  4/45  1/25  4/29  3/19   2
RAUTINS, Andy          09:09  -10   0/10  0- 1  0- 2  0- 0  3/15  0/ 4  0/15  1/15  1/ 5  0/14  1/ 8   0
FLYNN, Jonny           37:32  -21  14/67  4- 9  2- 5  0- 1 14/57  9/20  1/65  2/64  0/33  1/35  0/21   1
HARRIS, Paul           36:52  -13  15/66  5-10  0- 2  5- 6 12/56  1/21  2/61  1/61  1/31  5/36  6/23   2
ONUAKU, Arinze         29:58  - 9   6/55  3- 6  0- 0  0- 2  6/47  1/18  1/52  2/52  1/24  7/30  4/19   3
PRESUTTI, Jake         00:47  + 2   0/ 2  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 1  0/ 1  0/ 0  0/ 1  0/ 0  0/ 1  0/ 0   0
ONGENAET, Kristof      09:39  - 2   2/24  0- 0  0- 0  2- 2  0/16  1/ 8  0/17  1/18  0/ 4  1/10  0/ 2   3
DEVENDORF, Eric        35:14  - 8  20/70  3- 8  4- 7  2- 4 15/52  1/20  0/60  3/60  0/29  0/31  0/17   4
REESE, Brandon         00:47  + 2   0/ 2  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 1  0/ 1  0/ 0  0/ 1  0/ 0  0/ 1  0/ 0   0
JOSEPH, Kris           13:07  - 2   0/29  0- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/18  0/12  0/23  2/23  1/14  0/ 8  0/ 6   2
TOTALS                 40:00       74    23-45  6-16 10-23    61 14/29  6/67 16/68  5/33 18/38 15/23  17
.                                        0.511 0.375 0.435       0.483 0.090 0.235 0.152 0.474 0.652  

GU                      Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Summers, DaJuan        34:14  +10  21/75  5- 8  2- 5  5- 8 13/47  3/21  1/60  4/60  3/39  0/21  4/33   3
Wright, Chris          27:05  + 5   7/52  2- 2  1- 2  0- 0  4/36  1/16  1/43  0/41  0/30  0/19  1/30   3
Monroe, Greg           28:27  + 7  10/61  3- 8  0- 0  4- 4  8/42  6/19  0/50  3/49  2/37  1/21  6/30   3
Freeman, Austin        35:07  + 7  19/73  3- 5  4- 5  1- 2 10/48  3/20  0/61  2/60  0/45  1/22  2/36   1
Sapp, Jessie           19:06  - 1   2/39  1- 2  0- 2  0- 0  4/32  1/13  3/34  2/35  0/28  3/18  0/19   1
Mescheriakov, Nikita   01:57  + 5   6/ 8  0- 0  2- 2  0- 0  2/ 2  0/ 0  0/ 3  0/ 3  0/ 0  0/ 0  0/ 2   0
Clark, Jason           25:20  +14  12/60  3- 3  2- 3  0- 0  6/30  0/17  0/41  1/40  0/21  0/ 8  1/20   2
Vaughn, Julian         11:33  + 7   5/27  2- 3  0- 0  1- 2  3/12  4/ 8  1/18  1/18  0/ 8  1/ 2  1/ 9   3
Sims, Henry            11:21  +13   3/31  1- 2  0- 0  1- 2  2/14  2/10  1/21  0/20  1/13  1/ 2  2/13   1
Wattad, Omar           05:50  + 3   3/14  0- 0  1- 2  0- 0  2/ 7  1/ 4  0/ 9  0/ 9  0/ 4  0/ 2  1/ 3   0
TOTALS                 40:00       88    20-33 12-21 12-18    54 21/32  7/68 13/67  6/45  8/23 20/38  17
.                                        0.606 0.571 0.667       0.656 0.103 0.194 0.133 0.348 0.526    

Efficiency: GU 1.313, Syracuse 1.088
eFG%: GU 0.704, Syracuse 0.525
Substitutions: GU 28, Syracuse 23

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: GU 3-3, Syracuse 6-7
Layups/Tips: GU 10-16, Syracuse 14-27
Jumpers: GU 7-14, Syracuse 3-11

Fast break pts: GU 4 (0.053), Syracuse 11 (0.172)
Seconds per off. poss: GU 20.7, Syracuse 15.4

Syracuse Preview

Here are the current four factors for the Orange:

.                    Offense         Defense
Adj. Efficiency     111.7 (32)       91.7 (44)
eFG%                 56.3 (8)        43.5 (25)
Turnover %           21.1 (190)      18.0 (308)
Off Rebound %        35.2 (104)      33.7 (186)
FT Rate              30.5 (40)       22.0 (5)

One number is immediately shocking: a team with Arinze Onuaku, Rick Jackson and Paul Harris being mediocre at rebounding? How is that possible?

Well, it isn't the fault of those guys:

Player               O Reb%          D Reb%
Onuaku               12.3%           17.3%
Jackson              14.7%           20.8%
Harris               10.4%           19.1%
Ongenaet             12.1%           20.2%

However, a funny thing is happening with the guards. Neither Rautins, Flynn nor Devendorf grabs more than 1.5% of offensive rebounding opportunities. This number is so low that this almost has to be a conscious decision by Boeheim to get his guards back on defense.

It will interesting to see if our guards can take advantage of this to grab a few extra defensive rebounds, especially since fast break points may be hard to come by.

The Hoyas also have another bit of hope on the defensive boards. The Hoyas have defensive rebounded at a 66% and a 68% rate the last two games. If this is a trend, they may be able to hold down a Syracuse team that could very well go Pitt on them and grab 60% of the possible offensive rebounds.

Syracuse also presents a difficult matchup for the Hoyas because of their strength and the fact that they play zone defense all but exclusively. The former has manifested itself not only in the aforementioned rebounding issues, but also in bumping cutters and disrupting our offense.

And zone -- the Hoyas have consistently played better against man to man than zone since John Thompson has been here.

Zones do have inherent weaknesses. For one, it's easy to shoot over them. Unfortunately for the Hoyas, they are only shooting 33% from three. That's not going to beat Syracuse if the team tries to go over the zone.

Zones also weaken defensive rebounding. Georgetown, unfortunately, only grabs an average amount of offensive rebounds at best.

The last way to beat a zone is the same way you can beat any help defense, and that is with great interior passing. Just like a quarterback picks apart a zone defense in football, players are open in a zone, often close to the hoop. It's just getting the ball there that is the issue.

And here's where improvement in the Providence game comes into play. Led by Greg Monroe's eight assists on 23 made baskets while he was on the floor, Georgetown assisted on 69% of made baskets against mostly zone defense.

That kind of play will be absolutely necessary against Syracuse. The Hoyas cannot rely on shooting over the zone, and they certainly can't rely on second chances, so they are going to have to pick apart the zone's rotations.

Ken Pomeroy is predicting an eleven point victory for the Hoyas and an 85% chance of winning the game, but I find that suspect. The matchups are not strong for the Hoyas -- zone defense and rebounding in particular.

So I dove into Syracuse's previous games, expecting them to be underrated by Pomeroy's model. They only have one loss, in a complete letdown game to Cleveland State, and I expected their worst games to be against weaker opponents. A team that doesn't come to play against weaker opponents but turns it on against better ones will be underrated by most statistical systems.

For Syracuse, though, it really isn't true. They are actually one of the most consistent teams in college basketball, according to Pomeroy, and they have plenty of blowouts versus lesser teams and close calls against good but inferior teams. In other words, they are no different than any other team in that respect.

Still, the Orange will come to play. When was the last time they collapsed against the Hoyas?

Keys to the game:

• Rebound. Syracuse is mediocre overall, but it's still a huge issue.


• Get the ball to Monroe. He tore apart Providence's zone. Let's see what he can do against Syracuse.


• Contain Johnny Flynn. Flynn wreaks havoc in the lane, draws defenders and fouls. He's simply their best player. But he, like the rest of the Orange, are turnover prone, so there is an opportunity there as well.