Georgetown vs. Duke?

[Saratoga2]

Interesting, 2 seed Duke loses to the 7 seed WVU (a tough team from a power conference) and the world is falling apart (according to the media, Duke fans, Duke haters, etc.).

2 seed Georgetown loses to the 10 seed Davidson (from the Southern Conference) and not a wimper? Did they not seriously underperform? What is wrong with them? They went to the final four last year, have been an up and coming program, have greater talent than Davidson, the best senior big man around, etc. Clearly they must be in serious decline! The coach stinks and should revamp the staff. I wonder if their recruiting will slow down (Monroe to back out?) due to this flame out.

A bit of jest, but you get my drift.

Georgetown has a very large inside presence, other powerful guys and a reasonably good point guard. All these are recommended by our board for Duke. Yet Georgetown fell apart and turned the ball over 20 times. Maybe the recommendations for us are not the only way to win or lose.

[JasonEvans]

Georgetown has a very large inside presence, other powerful guys and a reasonably good point guard. All these are recommended by our board for Duke. Yet Georgetown fell apart and turned the ball over 20 times. Maybe the recommendations for us are not the only way to win or lose.

Hey, what about Pitt? They have exactly what everyone here cries about in DeJaun Blair. Pitt lost in the second round too.

There is no perfect formula and nothing works every time. The best team wins maybe 1/3rd of the time, at the most.

Like Jumbo said in the randomness thread a lot of it is just luck.

Duke was super-lucky for a long time in the big dance. Lately, not so much.

--Jason "Karma is a b**ch, ain't it?" Evans

[mapei]

I love both teams, so I'm not going to get into whether this year's Duke team was more or less likely to beat this year's Georgetown team. I will say that this has been the worst weekend I've had in sports in a long time, maybe ever. I feel like crap today over both my teams' losses to lower seeds.

The reason that the media aren't saying Gtown is a program in decline, etc., after getting upset is because they aren't. Now, the media *did* say that about Gtown in the 1990s, and they were right. The truth is that the program was pretty mediocre for at least a decade. But it was very old news already by 2000 or so.

It's only since the arrival of JT3, who just finished his fourth year, that Gtown has been good again, and it's only been the last three years that Gtown even made the NCAAs. They don't have nearly as high a place to fall from as Duke, unless you go back to the 1980s and maybe early 90s. They are on the way up, not down.

As for next year's Hoyas, it will be a very different team without Wallace, Hibbert, Ewing (and Green from the year before). Those were the guys who defined the program under JT3. But Jumbo is right, they have talented underclassmen now and talented recruits coming in. Can they fluorish and become a team? If so, the program will be quite competitive.

[merry]

Interesting, 2 seed Duke loses to the 7 seed WVU (a tough team from a power conference) and the world is falling apart (according to the media, Duke fans, Duke haters, etc.).

2 seed Georgetown loses to the 10 seed Davidson (from the Southern Conference) and not a wimper? Did they not seriously underperform? What is wrong with them?

Read the DC papers and you'll know - the Hoyas were robbed. According to the Washington Times (column by T.Knott) Georgetown lost to the refs. According to the Post (Boswell) the NCAA gave Davidson a huge undeserved homecourt advantage (and also the refs were whistle happy).

Just to be clear that's not what I think it's what those columnists actually said, although to be fair at least Boswell gives final credit to Curry/Davidson.

[mapei]

Perhaps Merry will be comforted by Feinstein's column, which heaps praise on Davidson and Curry (who earned it IMO), lauds the underdog story in the NCAA, says that Hibbert should have fouled out three times in yesterday's game before he actually did, and generally bashes the Gtown program for all sorts of faults:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032401514.html

[Duvall]

Perhaps Merry will be comforted by Feinstein's column, which heaps praise on Davidson and Curry (who earned it IMO), lauds the underdog story in the NCAA, says that Hibbert should have fouled out three times in yesterday's game before he actually did, and generally bashes the Gtown program for all sorts of faults:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032401514.html

Wow. Has Feinstein's writing always been that terrible, or is he just phoning it in these days?

[merry]

Perhaps Merry will be comforted by Feinstein's column, which heaps praise on Davidson and Curry (who earned it IMO), lauds the underdog story in the NCAA, says that Hibbert should have fouled out three times in yesterday's game before he actually did, and generally bashes the Gtown program for all sorts of faults:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032401514.html

LOL! Imagine what he would have said if it had been American University!

[Duvall]

Read the DC papers and you'll know - the Hoyas were robbed. According to the Washington Times (column by T.Knott) Georgetown lost to the refs.

Nice of Knott to obscure Hibbert ending his career in a dignified and mature manner after what must have been a devastating loss by drowning it out with his own screeching and whining. You stay classy, Moonies.

[77devil]

Wow. Has Feinstein's writing always been that terrible, or is he just phoning it in these days?

I have found his writing to be fine, even better, at times. It is no surprise, though, that he used the opportunity to take a few choice shots at his Alma mater that were gratuitous and superfluous to the story.

[dukie8]

Hey, what about Pitt? They have exactly what everyone here cries about in DeJaun Blair. Pitt lost in the second round too.

There is no perfect formula and nothing works every time. The best team wins maybe 1/3rd of the time, at the most.

what about pitt? nobody has argued that a strong post player guarantees success in the ncaat. 49 teams were sent home last week and a lot of them have strong post players. the better question is how many of the 16 remaining teams DON'T have, at the very least, a dependable post player? here are the combined stats of zoubek, mcclure and thomas:

37 minutes, 2 points, 6 rebounds, 4 turnovers and 0 blocks

bear in mind that west virginia has one of the smaller front lines in the tournament so this wasn't a case of facing the trees of a stanford or unc. that kind of production (or lack thereof) down low almost guarantees post season failure.

[Cameron]

Where is the Georgetown game next season? In Cameron or in DC? I would assume in DC since we last played the Hoyas in Cameron in 2006-07, but I wasn't sure since this year's game was not renewed.

(P.S. What do you think, JUMBO? )

[IStillHateJimBain]

This isn't a slam at John Thompson III, just an observation from watching Georgetown vs. Davidson in Raleigh:
Georgetown ran the worst inbounds plays I have ever seen. Not once did I see any Hoya set a screen for a teammate to get someone open. All they ever did -- under the basket, at midcourt and at the far baseline -- was simply try to have a man shake free by running away from his defender. At one point in the second half, it cost Georgetown a timeout. After reading Alex Wolff's story in SI on Thompson, it really shocked me to see Georgetown so unprepared in this aspect of an NCAA Tournament game.