Post by FLHoya on Feb 24, 2008 16:16:58 GMT -5
HOYAS vs. Cincinnati (2/23/08, 73-53W)
Today’s episode was brought to you by the letter D.
18 Cincinnati turnovers, 10 on Georgetown steals.
Six blocked shots, including five for Roy Hibbert alone.
36.4 percent Bearcat shooting.
And finally, aside from a five minute stretch at the end of the first half, a complete shutdown of Cincinnati’s leading scorer Deonta Vaughn.
It is readily apparent in mid-February what is going to get the Georgetown Hoyas deep into March.
Nowhere on the roster is the do-everything equivalent of Jeff Green, the one-man slump buster and matchup nightmare that opened up so many offensive options for the Hoyas last season, and was the man of the hour against Villanova, Notre Dame, and finally Vanderbilt, propelling GTown to the BET regular season and tournament titles, then the Final Four.
It’s not as if Georgetown lacks a crunch time presence this season; in fact, the Hoyas have been taking turns hitting the big shot, from Roy Hibbert’s three pointer against UConn to Jessie Sapp’s pull-up in Morgantown to Jon Wallace’s free throws to oust Villanova.
It’s just that behind every big shot is an even bigger play on the defensive end.
Roy Hibbert isn’t in position to beat UConn if not for a furious seven-point comeback in the final minutes highlighted by defensive stop after stop.
The Hoyas are possibly in for a sweep by the Orange if not for Jeremiah Rivers’ lockdown of the perimeter.
Impressive as Jessie Sapp’s three was against the ‘Eers, Patrick Ewing’s block at the final gun sealed the deal, and preserved another fine defense-led comeback.
Finally, Jon Wallace isn’t shooting free throws if not for…sorry Nova fans and Donato haters…Jeremiah Rivers forcing Scottie Reynolds to the baseline and forcing him to chuck the ball into three gray-clad defenders.
Now, Saturday’s game against the Bearcats was never truly close, so no defensive heroics were required. At least in the clutch. In truth, the entire game was filled with standout defense, from Hibbert’s blocks to Rivers’ swoop and stuff to every single time Patrick Ewing messed up a pick and roll.
Make no mistake, the Hoyas have found their identity, and while it may not be as flashy as a Jeff Green bank shot, it’s a hell of a lot more…MEANERY.
Let’s just hope MEANERY works in March.
You can look at the Hoyas’ defensive effort on Saturday two ways: how they shut down Cincy’s leading scorer Deonta Vaughn and how they made life difficult overall for the Bearcats.
On the former, Jessie Sapp and Jeremiah Rivers did an exceptional job sticking to Vaughn in a man-to-man defense. The Hoyas switch a lot on screens, and Vaughn certainly gets the benefit of a lot of off-ball picks and runs all over the court. Very seldom though did you see Sapp (in the first half) or Rivers (in the second half) leave Vaughn in the halfcourt offense.
Over the first 14 minutes of the game, Sapp held Vaughn scoreless on 0-2 shooting from the field with 2 turnovers. He simply wasn’t getting the kind of open perimeter looks he’d need in order to make an impact (in the end all four of his FGs were threes). For the entire second half, Vaughn was 1-6 from the field, his only make being a three pointer with less than 10 minutes to go and the Bearcats down 16.
Now Vaughn isn’t exactly a penetrating guard, and seemed somewhat limited to perimeter shooting, so that is probably half the battle from a defensive standpoint. But it’s nonetheless encouraging to see two of our backcourt players really getting after it and shutting down an opponent’s number one.
When it comes to team defense, again the Hoyas excelled. Here was an example of the switching man to man at its best—Roy Hibbert making smart decision on whether to recover or stay out on a guard. When Hibbert did stay out, he handled penetration well and when it comes to jump shooting, he’s got such a built in advantage that life will always be difficult for an opposing guard giving up a foot of height.
Speaking of height advantage…
Cincinnati does a lot of drive and dump down, occasionally throwing a baseline backdoor pass into the mix. That offense was totally ineffective on Saturday because of Hibbert’s interior presence. At one point early in the first half the Big Man had three blocks in under a minute—and as the tendency is with Georgetown basketball, this led to results on the offensive end, namely a 10-0 run that finished off with three pointers from Austin Freeman and Jonathan Wallace.
Post-game remarks from the Bearcats speak to the importance of having an interior defender like Hibbert. Five blocks aside, the sheer number of attempts Hibbert alters, from penetrating guards or limited post players, probably saves the Hoyas several baskets a game.
As if you needed proof, as soon as Hibbert went to the bench with 12:56 to go in the half, Cincy went on a quick 5-0 run over the next 90 seconds through John Williamson, who used the very same interior cuts and attempts Hibbert had snuffed out earlier to get four free throw attempts and an easy reverse layup.
Overall though, it was fancy cooking for the Hoyas all afternoon on the defensive end. They set the tone in the early going, forcing two shot clock violations and two airballs before the first media timeout. Even as the margin grew in the second half, the Hoyas were fundamentally solid, even in subtle ways, like Patrick Ewing showing against a pass to a Cincy guard in the corner when they came off a screen, just enough to disrupt the play and keep the Bearcats searching for an open look.
What’s more, we saw an extended run from the Hibbert-Ewing-Summers front line, which looked as imposing as ever, a tremendous sign going forward.
And then there were the steals—10 overall for the Hoyas. Georgetown was very adept Saturday at getting into passing lanes when Cincy would try to screen high for a guard at the perimeter and dump the ball into the posts. The bulk of GU’s steals were loose balls grabbed when perimeter players messed up some kind of pass.
The (somewhat) outlier was the most spectacular—Jeremiah Rivers swooped in to steal a lazy perimeter bounce pass in the second half (he baited it just like an NFL cornerback would) and drove the length of the court for a two handed jam. It was an appropriate capper to a superb defensive effort across all areas for Georgetown on Saturday.
Offensively, the Hoyas showed some greater maturity as well against Cincinnati’s multiple zone looks. Missing in recent games were the kind of probing plays that exploit gaps in a 2-3 zone defense (which apparently EVERYONE is playing against Georgetown now) and can lead through secondary passing either to dump downs for Hibbert or wide open three point looks.
Well the Hoyas went right on the attack against the zone early on—Dajuan Summers received a nice backdoor pass along the baseline behind the zone and converted an early layup. Austin Freeman exploited the edge of the zone with a pump fake and pull-up jumper. Then the coup de grace—Roy Hibbert flashed to the foul line, received the pass and turned, gave just enough of a fake to draw the interior defender out from under the basket, and dropped a dime inside to Summers for a reverse layup plus-one. The textbook high-low play.
Hibbert followed that up with a second assist to Austin Freeman on the give and go play that served those two so well early in the season. You could give the “Best Movement” award Saturday to either Summers or Freeman, as both excelled against the zone.
Freeman’s performance is probably most encouraging. Early in the season, I used the “Rich Man’s Egerson” to describe how Freeman could find gaps behind zone defense and score easy baskets. It’s more than that though—Freeman has an incredible grasp of the game on the court. When he’s playing well, he always makes the right cut, finds the right spot, takes the right shot Early in the second half, Freeman did something I don’t think we’ve seen since the Hoyas took their first Big East loss and GU got into the 2-3 Zone portion of their schedule—he (and Sapp) executed a backdoor cut play against a 2-3 zone.
If you’re looking at the play from center court, Freeman cut just to the left of the high defender on the left of the zone, who was standing a shade in front of the elbow. Sapp was holding up high and had drawn his defender just past the three point line. What keyed the play was that Sapp ball faked up high as Hibbert was trying to establish post position, so the center Hrycaniuk was posted up and had vacated the lane. The left defender down low was pointing something out to his teammate and napping just enough that Freeman slid into the open space, received an overhead pass and laid the ball in. Such a perfect play, from set up to recognition to execution.
It wasn’t a perfect day offensively for the Hoyas—for all the work that has clearly gone into running plays that solve a 2-3 zone, Georgetown still runs the same tired old stuff against full court pressure and commits too many turnovers as a result.
But in the end, it was never a close game. A long game to be sure—perhaps the most significant “play” occurred just before the first media timeout of the second half, when Jessie Sapp and John Williamson drew double technicals for a scuffle in front of the Cincy bench. Thereafter, the officials appeared to clamp down in a big way, and the rest of the game turned into a stop and start farce at times—the same number of fouls were called (48) as the Georgetown-Villanova game that drew so much ire, and GU and Cincy shot 10 more free throws than the Hoyas and Wildcats. The actual game last two hours and fifteen minutes, which is far beyond what a 20 point win normally takes.
But what a 135 minutes it was if you’re a fan of defense. Georgetown will no doubt play more exciting games this season (a certain game on March 8 comes to mind), but this one may have long term implications that match even the sexier matchups.
We shall see.
(AHEAD: Let’s Get Wattaded…Jeremiah Rivers: Dunkasaurus…Sapp and Wallace quietly returning to form…and Patrick Ewing not so quietly fouling out of another game…in the PLAYER EVALUATIONS)
Today’s episode was brought to you by the letter D.
18 Cincinnati turnovers, 10 on Georgetown steals.
Six blocked shots, including five for Roy Hibbert alone.
36.4 percent Bearcat shooting.
And finally, aside from a five minute stretch at the end of the first half, a complete shutdown of Cincinnati’s leading scorer Deonta Vaughn.
It is readily apparent in mid-February what is going to get the Georgetown Hoyas deep into March.
Nowhere on the roster is the do-everything equivalent of Jeff Green, the one-man slump buster and matchup nightmare that opened up so many offensive options for the Hoyas last season, and was the man of the hour against Villanova, Notre Dame, and finally Vanderbilt, propelling GTown to the BET regular season and tournament titles, then the Final Four.
It’s not as if Georgetown lacks a crunch time presence this season; in fact, the Hoyas have been taking turns hitting the big shot, from Roy Hibbert’s three pointer against UConn to Jessie Sapp’s pull-up in Morgantown to Jon Wallace’s free throws to oust Villanova.
It’s just that behind every big shot is an even bigger play on the defensive end.
Roy Hibbert isn’t in position to beat UConn if not for a furious seven-point comeback in the final minutes highlighted by defensive stop after stop.
The Hoyas are possibly in for a sweep by the Orange if not for Jeremiah Rivers’ lockdown of the perimeter.
Impressive as Jessie Sapp’s three was against the ‘Eers, Patrick Ewing’s block at the final gun sealed the deal, and preserved another fine defense-led comeback.
Finally, Jon Wallace isn’t shooting free throws if not for…sorry Nova fans and Donato haters…Jeremiah Rivers forcing Scottie Reynolds to the baseline and forcing him to chuck the ball into three gray-clad defenders.
Now, Saturday’s game against the Bearcats was never truly close, so no defensive heroics were required. At least in the clutch. In truth, the entire game was filled with standout defense, from Hibbert’s blocks to Rivers’ swoop and stuff to every single time Patrick Ewing messed up a pick and roll.
Make no mistake, the Hoyas have found their identity, and while it may not be as flashy as a Jeff Green bank shot, it’s a hell of a lot more…MEANERY.
Let’s just hope MEANERY works in March.
You can look at the Hoyas’ defensive effort on Saturday two ways: how they shut down Cincy’s leading scorer Deonta Vaughn and how they made life difficult overall for the Bearcats.
On the former, Jessie Sapp and Jeremiah Rivers did an exceptional job sticking to Vaughn in a man-to-man defense. The Hoyas switch a lot on screens, and Vaughn certainly gets the benefit of a lot of off-ball picks and runs all over the court. Very seldom though did you see Sapp (in the first half) or Rivers (in the second half) leave Vaughn in the halfcourt offense.
Over the first 14 minutes of the game, Sapp held Vaughn scoreless on 0-2 shooting from the field with 2 turnovers. He simply wasn’t getting the kind of open perimeter looks he’d need in order to make an impact (in the end all four of his FGs were threes). For the entire second half, Vaughn was 1-6 from the field, his only make being a three pointer with less than 10 minutes to go and the Bearcats down 16.
Now Vaughn isn’t exactly a penetrating guard, and seemed somewhat limited to perimeter shooting, so that is probably half the battle from a defensive standpoint. But it’s nonetheless encouraging to see two of our backcourt players really getting after it and shutting down an opponent’s number one.
When it comes to team defense, again the Hoyas excelled. Here was an example of the switching man to man at its best—Roy Hibbert making smart decision on whether to recover or stay out on a guard. When Hibbert did stay out, he handled penetration well and when it comes to jump shooting, he’s got such a built in advantage that life will always be difficult for an opposing guard giving up a foot of height.
Speaking of height advantage…
Cincinnati does a lot of drive and dump down, occasionally throwing a baseline backdoor pass into the mix. That offense was totally ineffective on Saturday because of Hibbert’s interior presence. At one point early in the first half the Big Man had three blocks in under a minute—and as the tendency is with Georgetown basketball, this led to results on the offensive end, namely a 10-0 run that finished off with three pointers from Austin Freeman and Jonathan Wallace.
Post-game remarks from the Bearcats speak to the importance of having an interior defender like Hibbert. Five blocks aside, the sheer number of attempts Hibbert alters, from penetrating guards or limited post players, probably saves the Hoyas several baskets a game.
As if you needed proof, as soon as Hibbert went to the bench with 12:56 to go in the half, Cincy went on a quick 5-0 run over the next 90 seconds through John Williamson, who used the very same interior cuts and attempts Hibbert had snuffed out earlier to get four free throw attempts and an easy reverse layup.
Overall though, it was fancy cooking for the Hoyas all afternoon on the defensive end. They set the tone in the early going, forcing two shot clock violations and two airballs before the first media timeout. Even as the margin grew in the second half, the Hoyas were fundamentally solid, even in subtle ways, like Patrick Ewing showing against a pass to a Cincy guard in the corner when they came off a screen, just enough to disrupt the play and keep the Bearcats searching for an open look.
What’s more, we saw an extended run from the Hibbert-Ewing-Summers front line, which looked as imposing as ever, a tremendous sign going forward.
And then there were the steals—10 overall for the Hoyas. Georgetown was very adept Saturday at getting into passing lanes when Cincy would try to screen high for a guard at the perimeter and dump the ball into the posts. The bulk of GU’s steals were loose balls grabbed when perimeter players messed up some kind of pass.
The (somewhat) outlier was the most spectacular—Jeremiah Rivers swooped in to steal a lazy perimeter bounce pass in the second half (he baited it just like an NFL cornerback would) and drove the length of the court for a two handed jam. It was an appropriate capper to a superb defensive effort across all areas for Georgetown on Saturday.
Offensively, the Hoyas showed some greater maturity as well against Cincinnati’s multiple zone looks. Missing in recent games were the kind of probing plays that exploit gaps in a 2-3 zone defense (which apparently EVERYONE is playing against Georgetown now) and can lead through secondary passing either to dump downs for Hibbert or wide open three point looks.
Well the Hoyas went right on the attack against the zone early on—Dajuan Summers received a nice backdoor pass along the baseline behind the zone and converted an early layup. Austin Freeman exploited the edge of the zone with a pump fake and pull-up jumper. Then the coup de grace—Roy Hibbert flashed to the foul line, received the pass and turned, gave just enough of a fake to draw the interior defender out from under the basket, and dropped a dime inside to Summers for a reverse layup plus-one. The textbook high-low play.
Hibbert followed that up with a second assist to Austin Freeman on the give and go play that served those two so well early in the season. You could give the “Best Movement” award Saturday to either Summers or Freeman, as both excelled against the zone.
Freeman’s performance is probably most encouraging. Early in the season, I used the “Rich Man’s Egerson” to describe how Freeman could find gaps behind zone defense and score easy baskets. It’s more than that though—Freeman has an incredible grasp of the game on the court. When he’s playing well, he always makes the right cut, finds the right spot, takes the right shot Early in the second half, Freeman did something I don’t think we’ve seen since the Hoyas took their first Big East loss and GU got into the 2-3 Zone portion of their schedule—he (and Sapp) executed a backdoor cut play against a 2-3 zone.
If you’re looking at the play from center court, Freeman cut just to the left of the high defender on the left of the zone, who was standing a shade in front of the elbow. Sapp was holding up high and had drawn his defender just past the three point line. What keyed the play was that Sapp ball faked up high as Hibbert was trying to establish post position, so the center Hrycaniuk was posted up and had vacated the lane. The left defender down low was pointing something out to his teammate and napping just enough that Freeman slid into the open space, received an overhead pass and laid the ball in. Such a perfect play, from set up to recognition to execution.
It wasn’t a perfect day offensively for the Hoyas—for all the work that has clearly gone into running plays that solve a 2-3 zone, Georgetown still runs the same tired old stuff against full court pressure and commits too many turnovers as a result.
But in the end, it was never a close game. A long game to be sure—perhaps the most significant “play” occurred just before the first media timeout of the second half, when Jessie Sapp and John Williamson drew double technicals for a scuffle in front of the Cincy bench. Thereafter, the officials appeared to clamp down in a big way, and the rest of the game turned into a stop and start farce at times—the same number of fouls were called (48) as the Georgetown-Villanova game that drew so much ire, and GU and Cincy shot 10 more free throws than the Hoyas and Wildcats. The actual game last two hours and fifteen minutes, which is far beyond what a 20 point win normally takes.
But what a 135 minutes it was if you’re a fan of defense. Georgetown will no doubt play more exciting games this season (a certain game on March 8 comes to mind), but this one may have long term implications that match even the sexier matchups.
We shall see.
(AHEAD: Let’s Get Wattaded…Jeremiah Rivers: Dunkasaurus…Sapp and Wallace quietly returning to form…and Patrick Ewing not so quietly fouling out of another game…in the PLAYER EVALUATIONS)
