Recap: Our man Floriani

Ray Floriani made the trek to the Meadowlands. Here's his report:

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - Forty minutes away ! Georgetown survived an outstanding effort by Vanderbilt to move on to the regional final against North Carolina. Game time is 5:05 pm on Sunday.

Georgetown 66 Vanderbilt 65

The keys to the Hoya victory:

• Better defense
• Poise while trailing by double digits
• Jeff Green

Coming in, Georgetown coach John Thompson III was concerned with Vanderbilt’s perimeter game. After trailing early, the SEC reps started firing up from the perimeter and built a double digit lead midway through the first half. Quick ball reversal and/or kick outs to the perimeter left the Commodores with some outstanding looks; Vanderbilt shot 46 % during the first half (40% from 3).

The Hoyas stuck to a philosophy they used against Notre Dame two weeks ago: don’t try to get the deficit trimmed in a minute; take it possession by possession.

One way they did it was to come out a little harder defensively to afford Vanderbilt less room on the perimeter. During the final 20 minutes, the Commodores cooled down to 36 % from the field and 25% beyond the arc. Hoyas just did a better job of ball pressure and locating shooters.

Offensively the Hoyas also made an effort to look inside a little more. Roy Hibbert had but three points in the 1st half, all the last six minutes. He finished with 12 and asserted himself inside the final half. Vanderbilt’s 6’11" center Ted Skuchas was soon saddled with foul trouble; the Commodores simply showed more 2-3 and packed it in.

With the Hoyas trailing by one and the season on the line, Jeff Green showed why he is Big East Player of the Year and one of the nation’s best talents.

Thompson called for two cutters to the high post and look for a back door. “I told Jeff if he gets it and can’t find Patrick [Ewing Jr.], to take it himself.” Green told the media he got the ball high, found the cutting Ewing covered and took it on a spin move. “I was double-teamed and just went up hard and sent it off the glass.” Green’s shot kissed the backboard and fell through. “I think he was more triple- rather than double-teamed on that shot,” Thompson added.

Green and DaJuan Summers had 15 pts. each for Georgetown. Dan Cage and SEC Player of the Year Derrick Byars led all with 17 points.


North Carolina 74 USC 64

USC led by 9 at the break and increased it to 18 early second half. Hoya fans were backing the Trojans - rooting for the lower seed, plus the Song Girls were near the Georgetown section. How could they not root for the SC Song Girls?

Carolina regrouped much the same way Georgetown did: take it possession by possession and don’t panic.

Taj Gibson (16 pts., 12 rebs.) was hit with second half foul trouble. Gibson is USC’s inside presence, but his absence didn’t entirely explain the collapse - Southern Cal went 9 of 27 from the field in the second half. The Tar Heels pounded USC on the offensive boards and ran. Trojans also rushed some shots and took some ill-advised attempts. Limiting the offensive boards and stopping transition will be keys for the Hoyas Sunday.

Tyler Hansbrough was asked the significance of Georgetown meeting North Carolina a quarter century ago. “I watched the video of that (‘82) championship game,” Hansbrough said. “I know it was a great game and we have (Carolina) players from that team come to our games. It's a big part of tradition."

A great answer at 12:25 a.m.

Analysis: A Tale of 2 Halves (Sweet 16 edition)

Much like the 2nd round game against Boston College, Georgetown played a brilliant 2nd half on offense to make up for a lousy 1st half. The difference this time was that Vanderbilt played better in the 2nd half themselves, which made it such a close game.

Here are the numbers (from this box score):

Stat	1st	2nd	Full
Pace	29	28	57
OEff	83.5	150.3	116.4
eFG%	37.5%	62.5%	51.8%
TO%	24.3%	14.3%	19.4%
OR%	41.2%	56.3%	48.5%
FTM/FGA	25.0%	6.3%	14.3%
DEff	111.3	118.1	114.6
eFG%	57.7%	42.0%	50.0%
TO%	10.4%	7.1%	8.8%
OR%	13.3%	44.4%	29.4%
FTA/FGA	15.4%	64.0%	39.2%

The difference between halves for Georgetown is incredible; significant improvement in the first 3 factors lead to an 80% increase in offensive efficiency. JTIII's ability to make adjustments at halftime is what is keeping the Hoyas alive in the tournament.

Vanderbilt played smart, valuing the ball in a slow-paced game (5 TOs for the whole game!). Vanderbilt's shooting cooled in the 2nd half, but the team did a great job on the offensive glass to keep in the contest (also note the lopsided foul-shooting in the 2nd half - I wonder, if Green had missed that final shot, how many commentators would have pointed out the one-sided officiating favoring Vanderbilt?).

Individual player notes:

• After playing only 4 minutes in the 2nd half against BC, Dajuan Summers played the entire 2nd half last night, hitting 3 of 4 3-pt. attempts.
• Jeff Green (PPWS = 1.31) and Roy Hibbert (1.35) were their typical efficient selves; but Jon Wallace (1st half = 0.00, 2nd = 1.33) and Jessie Sapp (0.17, 0.91) cannot repeat their 1st half performances if G'town is to have a chance against UNC.
• Hats off to Dan Cage (1.32) and Ross Neltner (1.65) of Vandy for stepping up when Derrick Byars (0.83, 1.43) had a quiet 1st half and Shan Foster (1.29, 0.67) had a quiet 2nd half.

See also Jon Solomon's nice bit about the history of the last play.

News: Hoyas Win! Hoyas Win! On to the Elite 8

Georgetown was able to pull out a tough 66-65 win over Vanderbilt, thanks to Jeff Green's running hook shot high off of the glass with 2.5 seconds left. Check the basketball page of HoyaSaxa.com for a recap and article links.

The last seconds, Chvotkin-style (higher-quality version here):

Georgetown faces UNC on Sunday.

Here's the HD box score for the game:

  Vanderbilt vs Georgetown 
 03/23/07 7:27 at Continental Airlines Arena E. Rutherford 
 Final score: Georgetown 66, Vanderbilt 65
   
 Vanderbilt              Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF 
 BYARS, Derrick         37:54  + 4  17/65 2 -5  3 -7  4 -5  12/48 5 /16 1 /54 1 /54 0 /36 1 /30 0 /33  2  
 FOSTER, Shan           38:10  + 6  16/65 5 -11 2 -6  0 -1  17/50 1 /14 0 /54 2 /54 0 /35 0 /31 3 /34  3  
 NELTNER, Ross          34:19  - 2  8 /57 2 -2  0 -0  4 -6  2 /42 3 /16 1 /50 1 /48 1 /33 2 /27 4 /27  1  
 GORDON, Alex           26:23  - 9  3 /38 0 -1  1 -7  0 -0  8 /36 2 /11 0 /39 0 /40 0 /29 0 /26 1 /23  2  
 CAGE, Dan              37:50  - 6  17/60 1 -3  3 -7  6 -6  10/49 4 /15 3 /55 0 /55 2 /37 2 /33 4 /32  2  
 BEAL, Jermaine         13:37  + 8  2 /27 1 -1  0 -0  0 -0  1 /15 2 /8  0 /18 0 /17 1 /8  1 /7  0 /11  1  
 BROWN, JeJuan          02:06  - 5  0 /0  0 -0  0 -0  0 -0  0 /3  0 /0  0 /3  0 /3  0 /1  0 /3  0 /1   1  
 SKUCHAS, Ted           09:41  - 1  2 /13 1 -1  0 -0  0 -2  1 /12 0 /4  0 /12 1 /14 0 /6  0 /8  2 /9   4  
 TOTALS                 40:00       65    12-24 9 -27 14-20    51 17/21 5 /57 5 /57 4 /37 8 /32 18/34  16 
                                          0.500 0.333 0.700       0.810 0.088 0.088 0.108 0.250 0.529     
  
 Georgetown              Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF 
 Summers, DaJuan        33:39  + 4  15/59 2 -9  3 -4  2 -4  13/49 3 /17 0 /49 3 /49 2 /21 3 /30 4 /30  1  
 Green, Jeff            39:54  + 1  15/66 7 -9  0 -2  1 -1  11/56 3 /18 1 /57 1 /57 0 /24 3 /34 1 /33  3  
 Hibbert, Roy           28:34  + 17 12/56 5 -7  0 -0  2 -4  7 /46 0 /17 1 /37 2 /42 0 /19 5 /26 5 /26  5  
 Wallace, Jonathan      33:34  + 1  8 /58 1 -3  2 -5  0 -0  8 /47 4 /19 0 /50 0 /50 0 /22 1 /28 2 /29  1  
 Sapp, Jessie           35:14  + 2  6 /61 1 -5  1 -5  1 -3  10/50 3 /21 1 /51 1 /52 1 /21 0 /30 5 /30  3  
 Rivers, Jeremiah       05:48  + 1  0 /8  0 -0  0 -0  0 -0  0 /8  0 /3  0 /7  0 /6  0 /2  1 /5  0 /4   0  
 Crawford, Tyler        07:45  - 7  3 /5  0 -0  1 -2  0 -0  2 /9  0 /1  0 /9  1 /9  0 /4  1 /7  1 /4   2  
 Ewing, Patrick         15:32  - 14 7 /17 1 -4  1 -1  2 -2  5 /15 1 /4  0 /25 3 /20 0 /7  1 /10 2 /9   3  
 TOTALS                 40:00       66    17-37 8 -19 8 -14    56 14/25 3 /57 11/57 3 /24 16/34 24/32  18 
                                          0.459 0.421 0.571       0.560 0.053 0.193 0.125 0.471 0.750     
   
 Efficiency: Georgetown 1.158, Vanderbilt 1.140
 eFG%: Georgetown 0.518, Vanderbilt 0.500
 Substitutions: Georgetown 27, Vanderbilt 14
   
 2-pt Shot Selection: 
 Dunks: Georgetown 3-3, Vanderbilt 1-1
 Layups/Tips: Georgetown 9-23, Vanderbilt 6-11
 Jumpers: Georgetown 5-11, Vanderbilt 5-12

Check this post on Yet Another Basketball Blog for a nice breakdown of the game.