Originally Posted by
mapei
Damn - get away from the board for a few days because of time conflicts, and look what happens. Fortunately someone pointed me to the thread.
Bob, you have absolutely no reason to despise Georgetown - maybe when the gruff pops was coaching, I can understand that. But JT3 is a classy, understated guy who runs a program in his image. His players are polite and soft-spoken almost to a man, certainly his stars (Green, Hibbert, and Wallace) have been.
I go to all their home games, watch the away games that I can on TV. And, while I agree the Hoyas may be a little overrated at #5, I have no doubt they can be very good, good enough to compete with the Dukes of the world. (A loss in the sweet 16? I hope for more, but I see no disgrace in that. How many times has Duke gotten out of the sweet 16 - or even into it - since 2001?)
Mainly I'm glad that my two favorite teams, Duke and Georgetown, don't play each other this year, which inevitably sends my stomach into knots.
The schedule has been incredibly soft so far. But everyone was expecting Alabama to be better when that game was scheduled, and no one expected Michigan to be quite so awful as they apparently are. ODU *beat* the Hoyas last year. Memphis will be a beast and probably a loss this year. I hope the softness is an aberration this year, since they actually had been scheduling better the last few years in the pre-conference run. I've heard that Duke is back on for next year (confirm?).
Greybread's assessment of the individual players is mostly accurate. They will definitely miss Jeff Green in the high post and in any number of other pivotal (heh) roles. But the others, especially Jeremiah Rivers, have improved, and they do indeed have stud freshmen (if a notch behind Duke's). Greybeard's "kid from DeMatha," whose name is Austin Freeman, already is really, really good. Hibbs, Wallace, Summers, and Sapp will all be fine. Macklin still has a way to go, but he has gotten better and, as GB points out, he has great athleticism. The only one I have been disappointed in so far is Ewing Jr., who seems to have reverted to his mistake-prone ways of early last season.
I can't defend the high rankings, or the rankings of any team, really. But they are going to be a good team, I hope a very good one.