Hoyas play game in China; no one bum-rushed

Image courtesy of IndiaTimes

Well, that happened on Friday.

I didn't feel the need to get into specifics of the incident, as HoyaTalk had a couple of first-hand accounts posted (link, link), the HoyaSaxa front page did the full Zapruder-treatment on the available video of the melee, and Casual Hoya had the salient media links.

But time moves on, and there was another game to be played today in Shanghai. And the Hoyas rolled easily today, whipping beating defeating the Liaoning Dinosaurs 91-69 in front of a packed house. I guess a little publicity brings them out.

Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.                 Visitor           Home   
.                 Georgetown        Liaoning        
 
Pace                 75

Score                91              69

Eff.               121.1            91.8

eFG%                59.7            45.7
TO%                 16.0            18.6
OR%                 38.2            18.2
FTA/FGA             15.3            85.1
FTM/FGA              6.9            55.3

Assist Rate         51.3            10.5
Block Rate           9.4             5.6
Steal Rate          17.3             2.7

2FG%                57.4            43.8
3FG%                44.4            33.3
FT%                 45.5            65.0

Attempts/Poss.
2FG                 0.72            0.43
3FG                 0.24            0.20
FT                  0.15            0.53

The box score indicates that this was a 40-minute game (four 10-minute quarters), unlike the first two games which were scheduled for 48 minutes.  So those 91 points the Hoyas put up were actually more impressive than the 98 they scored against the Brave Dragons.

The game was played at a fast pace again with the Hoyas forcing a ton of steals - hard to say if this is a preview for the upcoming season, but it's something worth watching.

Once again there was a big disparity in fouls and free throws [26 fouls / 11 FTs vs. 11 fouls / 40 FTs for the Hoyas and Dinosaurs, respectively], but this report on HoyaTalk indicates that the officiating was much more even-handed than last time out.

Some simple player stats after the jump . . .

Basketball in August?

Image courtesy of Georgetown.edu

Apparently so. 

Georgetown tipped off their extended "cultural exchange" trip to China with a 48(!) minute extravaganza against the Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons at Beijing’s Olympic Sports Center.  And the Hoyas started off their (exhibition) season right with a 98-81 thumping of the Dragons.

This was clearly an international spectacular, drawing such A-listers as Joe Biden, Gary Locke and Paul Tagliabue.

This is usually the point where I write "Let's run the numbers" but those numbers are a bit hard to come by for the game.  A simple box score is all that I can find in the interwebs, so there's not much for the HP Cray II^TM to process tonight (it remains idle but alert in my mom's basement).  And, after all, it was merely an exhibition.

Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.                 Visitor           Home   
.                 Georgetown        Shanxi Zhongyu         
 
Pace               79

Points             98                 81

Eff.             103.1               85.2

eFG%              49.4               47.6
TO%               21.0               23.2
OR%               36.0               25.5
FTA/FGA           16.7               55.6
FTM/FGA           10.0               33.3

Assist Rate       51.2               37.0
Block Rate        23.8                1.4
Steal Rate        13.7                1.1

2FG%              47.9               50.0
3FG%              36.8               28.6
FT%               60.0               60.0

Attempts/Poss.
2FG               0.90               0.53
3FG               0.24               0.27
FT                0.19               0.44

The score of the game would lead one to believe that this was either a defense-optional affair or a ridiculously-paced game, but neither is actually true.  The game went 48 minutes over 4 quarters rather than the standard 20-minute halves, so all the counting stats were naturally inflated.

Georgetown carried over the unusually defensive-minded Kenner League playoffs into this trip, by grabbing a ton of steals and blocking nearly 1/4 of all 2FG attempts during the game.  A strong effort on the defensive glass also helped.

Some simple player stats after the jump . . .

The Crossover on Display

Not the typical fare for us, but there is a nice video on the New York Times website right now discussing the art of the crossover.

It features Dwyane Wade, Allen Iverson, Tim Hardaway and Pearl Washington.  And Dean Berry.

Yes, that Dean Berry.

Enjoy.

Season review: Lineup stats

Hola amigos,

It's been a while since I've rapped with you all, but things have been pretty hairy here at Chez HP, what with another depressing end of the season for the Hoyas and real life and all.

But, I've dusted off the Cray II in my mom's basement and fired it up for the first time in a couple of months to take a look at last season, because those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

For today's episode, we'll take a look at lineup stats from last season.  I'm going to break the stats out two ways:  for all games played against Top 100 teams, and looking at the last ten games played (all games in Feb and March, as the Hoyas went 4-6).

Here we go:

vs. Top 100 Opponents (min. 15 poss both off and def)

.                                             Offense                 Defense
Lineup                                 # poss  OEff   Time     # poss  DEff   Time
Clark-Freeman-Thompson-Vaughn-Wright    288    126    17.4       277   103    19.5
Clark-Freeman-Lubick-Vaughn-Wright      221    103    17.1       221   103    18.6
Clark-Freeman-Lubick-Sims-Wright         88    101    18.2        90   121    19.3
Clark-Freeman-Sims-Thompson-Wright       88    123    17.0        86   107    17.3
Benimon-Clark-Freeman-Vaughn-Wright      63    114    17.7        64   123    19.7
Clark-Freeman-Lubick-Thompson-Vaughn     57     83    18.9        58   109    20.1
Freeman-Lubick-Thompson-Vaughn-Wright    47    132    18.5        44   100    20.5
Benimon-Clark-Freeman-Sims-Wright        38    111    16.4        42    88    18.3
Freeman-Lubick-Sims-Thompson-Wright      30     83    19.9        34    74    17.6
Clark-Lubick-Thompson-Vaughn-Wright      28    125    17.4        30    80    17.1
Clark-Freeman-Lubick-Starks-Thompson     22    100    16.6        17   100    16.1
Benimon-Clark-Freeman-Sims-Thompson      19    126    22.3        18   117    15.9
Freeman-Lubick-Starks-Thompson-Vaughn    18     61    23.5        16   138    15.7
Clark-Freeman-Lubick-Sims-Starks         16    100    20.4        18    56    22.3
Benimon-Freeman-Sims-Thompson-Wright     18    106    16.6        16    38    18.8
Benimon-Clark-Thompson-Vaughn-Wright     17     71    19.8        17   106    20.6
Freeman-Lubick-Sanford-Sims-Wright       18    100    20.3        16   163    18.1

For the season as a whole, Coach Thompson had two preferred lineups, with his four upperclassmen (Clark, Freeman, Vaughn and Wright) and either Hollis Thompson or Nate Lubick playing the "4".  These represent the main two starting lineups used, where Lubick replaced Thompson as a starter for the second St. John's game forward.

The immediate takeaway from the top two lines is that JT3's move to insert Lubick into a more prominent role by making him a starter didn't work.  I'm unaware of a direct quote as to why Coach Thompson swapped the two midway through conference play, although it was likely to improve a struggling defense.  However, the stats reveal that the team was equally efficient defensively with either player on the floor, but gave up a huge amount on the offensive end without Hollis on the floor.  In fact, effective offensive lineups for the Hoyas last season [120+ OEff] had only one constant:  Hollis Thompson.

More interestingly, of those lineups with at least 20 possessions played on both ends of the court, the two most effective last season had Lubick and Thompson on the court together [Freeman-Lubick-Thompson-Vaughn-Wright: +32 net efficiency; Clark-Lubick-Thompson-Vaughn-Wright: +45].  It's expected that Hollis will move to the "3" spot next season, so this bodes well.  Of course, neither Chris Wright nor Julian Vaughn will be around to help.


A look at the last ten games of the season after the jump

Recap: VCU 74, Georgetown 56

Image from here.

It turns out, Chris Wright wasn't the answer.

The Georgetown Hoyas succumbed to a barrage of open 3FGs by the VCU Rams while failing to do much of anything on the offensive end, losing in a rout, 74-56.

Storyline #1:
The Rams made 11 or their first 19 shots from behind the arc, including 5 of their first 7 to start the Vesper half, in moving out to a 18 point lead with 11:13 left in the game.  Meanwhile, outside of Hollis Thompson [4-6 3FG], the Hoyas managed to shoot 1 for 20 from 3FG for the game (inside of Hollis Thompson, it's too dark to shoot).

Storyline #2:
With less than a minute left in the first half, Georgetown trailed VCU by 6 points when Chris Wright missed the front end of a 1-and-1.  Over the next 21 possessions for each team (14+ minutes of game time), the Rams outscored the Hoyas 33-14 and had built an insurmountable 25 point lead with only 7 minutes left in the game.  Eight of the Hoyas' 21 possessions during that stretch resulted in a turnover.

Storyline #3:
The Hoyas ended the game with only three more field goals made [20] than turnovers committed [17].


But the stat of the night for Hoya fans is likely what time they turned the game off.


At this point, Coach John Thompson III has a public relations problem that he's going to have to deal with:  the reputation of having teams that either implode [2009, 2011] or suffer a bad upset in their final game of the season [2008, 2010].  One of those is a tough label to shake, but the combination can be - dare I say - professionally fatal.  How JT3 deals with tonight's embarrassing effort, and the implications it has for his career, will be interesting to say the least. 

As for the players, it should be noted that the four seniors - Austin Freeman, Chris Wright, Julian Vaughn and Ryan Dougherty - have all been outstanding representatives of the university both as players and as students.  At different times, they all brought excitement and joy to Hoya fans this season (remember Ryan's layup against Appalachian State?).

I do feel sorry for those guys, because the legacy of flaming out by the end of the season is likely the one that most fans will associate with them, rather than any successes that they had.  I'm quite certain that they are at least as upset about the way Georgetown's season (and their careers) ended as any fan.


With the graduation of the three senior starters, the Hoyas will enter next season with few expectations of success.  Hollis Thompson comported himself well tonight and it looks like it will be his team to lead for the next two years


For the last time this season, let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.            Home                            Visitor   
.            Georgetown                      Virginia Commonwealth         
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            30        33        62
 
Points          24        32        56          35        39        74   

Effic.         81.2      97.5      89.8       118.4     118.9     118.7  
 
eFG%           38.0      48.1      43.3        52.2      57.1      54.5  
TO%            30.5      24.4      27.3        10.2       9.1       9.6  
OR%            44.4      25.0      35.3        31.2      18.8      25.0  
FTA/FGA        28.0      22.2      25.0        73.9     104.8      88.6  

Assist Rate    77.8      45.5      60.0        66.7      88.9      77.8  
Block Rate      9.1       0.0       5.3        15.4      15.4      15.4  
Steal Rate      6.8       3.0       4.8        10.2      12.2      11.2  
 
2FG%           61.5      53.8      57.7        27.3      37.5      31.6  
3FG%            8.3      28.6      19.2        50.0      46.2      48.0  
FT%            71.4     100.0      84.6        64.7      68.2      66.7