Saturday, December 17, 2011

Recap: Georgetown 81, American 55

After struggling against the American Eagles in the first half, the Hoyas stopped turning the ball over and started making shots, and that was your ballgame, 81-55.

There was considerable consternation last time out as the Hoyas struggled with their shot against the Howard Bison, but today's result hints that it was a one-time performance. Georgetown's eFG% of 65% was their best effort from the floor since their game at Chaminade during the Maui tournament.

The biggest difference between halves was turnovers. American went into half-time with a 9-5 advantage in turnovers forced [and 5-2 in steals]. The Eagles weren't necessarily turning the errors into points - only 4 points after steals - but rather the turnovers were symptomatic of the Hoyas sloppy play. Georgetown ended 9 of 31 [= 29%] offensive possessions without a scoring attempt. No single player was the cause of all the give aways as Starks, Sims, Lubick and Clark all ended the Lift-off half with multiple turnovers.

Coach Thompson made a clear adjustment in the locker room, as the offense pointedly ran through Henry Sims at the high post in the Vespers half - Henry had all of his 6 assists in the second half with only a single turnover.  For the half, Georgetown had the better of American 10-3 in turnovers and converted six Eagle live turnovers (i.e. steals) into 11 points.

Meanwhile, the Hoyas suddenly were running amok in the paint in the Vespers half - Georgetown shot a ridiculous 18/19 after the break on dunks, tips and layups, while attempts only 12 jump shots (and making just three). This was after attempting only one (!) in-close shot in the first half while hoisting 19 jumpers.


And with today's win, the Hoyas have wrapped up the easy part of their schedule: the previously over-rated (pay) but now under-rated Memphis Tigers arrive at the Verizon Center on Thursday night for a rematch of the overtime battle in Hawaii, then Georgetown heads to Louisville for a brutal road opener of conference play.


Let's run the numbers:

.            Home                            Visitor   
.            Georgetown                      American         
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            31        34        65
 
Points          32        49        81          26        29        55   

Effic.        102.5     145.0     124.3        83.2      85.8      84.4  
 
eFG%           55.0      71.0      64.7        39.3      53.8      46.3  
TO%            28.8       8.9      18.4        16.0      29.6      23.0  
OR%            40.0      25.0      31.8        20.0      26.7      22.9  
FTA/FGA        65.0      22.6      39.2        21.4       7.7      14.8  

Assist Rate    77.8      52.4      60.0        70.0      41.7      54.5  
Block Rate     18.8       0.0       9.7         9.1       4.2       5.7  
Steal Rate      6.4      17.8      12.3        16.0       0.0       7.7  
 
2FG%           45.5      79.2      68.6        50.0      53.3      51.6  
3FG%           44.4      28.6      37.5        16.7      36.4      26.1  
FT%            76.9      71.4      75.0        66.7      50.0      62.5 

More stats and thoughts after the jump

INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

Georgetown            Off     %           Pts      Def           Pts   
Player                Poss  Poss  O.Rtg   Prod     Poss  D.Rtg  Allow    Net Pts
Thompson, Hollis       48   27.8  118.7   15.8      49    83.2    8.2      +6.2  
Starks, Markel         49   22.3  160.8   17.5      50    95.1    9.5      +7.6  
Sims, Henry            43   27.0  158.1   18.4      44    82.9    7.3      +9.9  
Clark, Jason           49   20.8   91.6    9.3      48    60.5    5.8      +3.4  
Lubick, Nate           31   17.8   96.6    5.3      33    76.4    5.0      +0.7  
Whittington, Greg      33    9.9  109.2    3.6      35    83.4    5.8      -0.7  
Hopkins, Mikael         4   19.7  200.0    1.6       5   128.0    1.3      +0.4  
Porter, Otto           35   21.3  153.5   11.5      35    70.8    5.0      +6.3  
Bowen, Aaron            4    0.0    -      0.0       5   128.0    1.3      -1.3  
Caprio, John            2    0.0    -      0.0       2    10.0    0.0      -0.0  
Trawick, Jabril        17   20.6  172.9    6.1      19    74.7    2.8      +3.3  
TOTALS                 63         133.7   89.1      65    80.1   52.0     +36.0  

American              Off     %           Pts      Def           Pts   
Player                Poss  Poss  O.Rtg   Prod     Poss  D.Rtg  Allow    Net Pts
Munoz, Daniel          50   16.0   53.4    4.3      51   107.9   11.0      -5.5  
Jolivette, Blake       54   28.0   74.4   11.3      54   119.5   12.9      -4.2  
Schoof, John           54   24.4   93.5   12.3      50   104.6   10.5      +0.2  
Hinkle, Charles        46   23.7  145.1   15.8      43   136.9   11.8      +2.5  
Wroblicky, Tony        29   14.5   58.3    2.5      29   112.6    6.5      -3.2  
McCormack, Simon       28   20.4  130.7    7.5      30   140.0    8.4      -0.7  
Kager, Kyle             2    0.0    -      0.0       2   100.0    0.4      -0.4  
Simon II, Wayne        11   20.3   24.0    0.5       9   167.3    3.0      -2.8  
Flood Jr., Warren       1   100.0 100.0    1.0       0   128.6    0.0      +0.4  
Fisher, Daniel         10    0.0    -      0.0       9   155.8    2.8      -2.8  
Grafft, Riley          26    8.3  122.1    2.6      25   125.9    6.3      -1.9  
Hill, Joe               4   25.0    0.0    0.0       3   133.3    0.8      -1.1  
Bersch, Mike           10   37.9   62.3    2.4      10   193.5    3.9      -3.2  
TOTALS                 65          89.3   60.1      63   124.2   78.3     -20.1 

Henry Sims was the player of the game today, getting the nod over Markel Starks.  While Starks was going off [4/6] from behind the arc, Sims came to life in the second half to wake up the Princeton offense - lots of the cuts to the basket were suddenly rewarded.

Hollis Thompson got his points despite struggling again from deep - after making 6/7 3FG against NJIT, Hollis has missed his last 6 3FG attempts (the horror!).

In spite of scuffling a bit on offense, Jason Clark and Nate Lubick chipped in with solid defense against the Eagles.  Like Hollis, Jason is also a bit off on his outside shots [3/12 in his last three games] - perhaps an unfairly high standard, but delusion often trumps cynicism when it comes to Hoya fans.  Clark also appears to be reverting to his 25-foot shot attempts from last season.

While watching the game, I was thinking "Otto seems to be struggling a bit."  Then I looked at the box score after the game, and Mr. Porter was serving as the key contributor [+6 net points].

With the uptick in opponent quality coming, an argument can be made to move Porter into the starting lineup for Lubick.  It's a tricky decision - Porter is playing well coming off the bench and it's hard to know how Lubick will react to moving to the bench.  Further, the move would make the Hoyas considerably smaller (if not in height, than in bulk).  It could work against undersized Memphis, but the larger Big East teams - Louisville, Connecticut, Syracuse - could definitely cause some issues for either Thompson or Porter defending in the post.

We'll have to see if Coach Thompson makes the move.



HD BOX SCORE

American vs Georgetown
12/17/11 12:00 at Verizon Center
Final score: Georgetown 81, American 55

American                Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Munoz, Daniel          32:11  -20   2/40  1- 3  0- 1  0- 1  4/43  4/16  2/51  3/50  0/27  1/27  2/21   2
Jolivette, Blake       33:46  -20  11/43  4-10  1- 4  0- 0 14/45  3/13  0/54  4/54  0/31  0/29  1/21   1
Schoof, John           31:01  - 9  12/49  2- 2  2- 7  2- 2  9/44  1/15  2/50  3/54  0/25  1/28  2/19   3
Hinkle, Charles        28:31  -16  16/40  4- 6  2- 7  2- 3 13/37  1/10  0/43  1/46  1/28  1/22  2/18   4
Wroblicky, Tony        17:32  -11   2/21  1- 3  0- 0  0- 0  3/23  0/ 8  0/29  1/29  0/18  1/16  1/10   2
McCormack, Simon       18:35  -20   8/23  4- 5  0- 0  0- 0  5/26  0/ 6  0/30  1/28  0/16  1/17  2/10   2
Kager, Kyle            01:12  - 1   0/ 1  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 1  0/ 0  0/ 2  0/ 2  0/ 1  0/ 2  0/ 0   0
Simon II, Wayne        05:49  - 8   0/ 9  0- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/ 8  1/ 3  0/ 9  1/11  0/ 6  0/ 6  0/ 2   2
Flood Jr., Warren      00:29  + 1   1/ 1  0- 0  0- 0  1- 2  0/ 0  0/ 0  0/ 0  0/ 1  0/ 0  0/ 1  0/ 0   0
Fisher, Daniel         05:46  - 5   0/ 9  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 7  0/ 3  0/ 9  0/10  0/ 6  0/ 5  0/ 5   1
Grafft, Riley          16:42  -10   0/25  0- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/24  2/10  1/25  0/26  0/11  2/14  2/ 9   2
Hill, Joe              02:00  + 2   0/ 6  0- 0  0- 1  0- 0  1/ 3  0/ 2  0/ 3  0/ 4  0/ 2  0/ 2  0/ 1   0
Bersch, Mike           06:26  -13   3/ 8  0- 0  1- 3  0- 0  3/ 9  0/ 2  0/10  1/10  1/ 4  0/ 6  0/ 4   1
TOTALS                 40:00       55    16-31  6-23  5- 8    54 12/22  5/63 15/65  2/35  8/35 15/22  20
.                                        0.516 0.261 0.625       0.545 0.079 0.231 0.057 0.229 0.682    

Georgetown              Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Thompson, Hollis       29:38  +21  15/62  6-10  0- 2  3- 3 12/39  2/16  0/49  0/48  0/25  1/19  7/25   1
Starks, Markel         31:10  +20  18/63  2- 2  4- 6  2- 2  8/39  2/16  0/50  2/49  0/26  0/17  0/27   1
Sims, Henry            26:22  +23  17/58  7-10  0- 0  3- 4 10/35  6/15  0/44  3/43  2/22  0/15  3/23   1
Clark, Jason           29:43  +22   9/59  2- 2  1- 5  2- 2  7/39  2/19  4/48  3/49  0/24  0/19  3/26   4
Lubick, Nate           20:32  + 9   4/37  2- 3  0- 0  0- 0  3/27  1/13  1/33  3/31  0/15  1/12  4/17   1
Whittington, Greg      22:25  +17   3/47  0- 0  1- 2  0- 2  2/27  1/17  1/35  0/33  1/18  0/12  1/22   2
Hopkins, Mikael        02:26  + 0   2/ 6  1- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/ 4  0/ 2  0/ 5  0/ 4  0/ 1  0/ 2  0/ 2   0
Porter, Otto           22:41  +11   8/42  3- 6  0- 0  2- 4  6/29  2/12  1/35  0/35  0/14  3/17  7/19   2
Bowen, Aaron           02:26  + 0   0/ 6  0- 0  0- 1  0- 0  1/ 4  0/ 3  0/ 5  0/ 4  0/ 1  0/ 2  0/ 2   3
Caprio, John           01:12  + 1   0/ 2  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 1  0/ 1  0/ 2  0/ 2  0/ 0  0/ 0  1/ 2   0
Trawick, Jabril        11:25  + 6   5/23  1- 1  0- 0  3- 3  1/11  2/ 6  1/19  1/17  0/ 9  0/ 5  0/10   3
TOTALS                 40:00       81    24-35  6-16 15-20    51 18/30  8/65 12/63  3/31  7/22 27/35  18
.                                        0.686 0.375 0.750       0.600 0.123 0.190 0.097 0.318 0.771    

Efficiency: Georgetown 1.286, American 0.846
eFG%: Georgetown 0.647, American 0.463
Substitutions: Georgetown 29, American 34

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: Georgetown 2-2, American 0-0
Layups/Tips: Georgetown 17-18, American 7-14
Jumpers: Georgetown 5-15, American 9-17

Fast break pts (% FG pts): Georgetown 8 (12.1), American 4 (8.0)
Pts (eff.) after steal: Georgetown 14 (175.0), American 4 (80.0)
Seconds per poss: Georgetown 16.5, American 21.1

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Stats pages will be updated tomorrow evening

1 comment:

  1. Is this right, Georgetown shot 19 of their 20 dunks and layups/tips in the second half? That seems... extreme, but that seems to be what the PBP says.

    ReplyDelete