2 Upsides

[robbyt]

A perspective on the future:

a) Monroe is 19. Hard to believe all the drama of his two seasons happened before his 20th birthdhay. Now, he has absolutely massive upside in the NBA, not just the usual 3 or 4 year physical growth-based upside but long term upside, as in he will be a much better player at 24 and a much better player at 30, due to his brains and feel for the team game. He will assimilate every trick of the trade.

b) the Hoyas may actually be better next year because:

First, though Monroe is out they should have fixed the glaring rebounding problem that has existed since PEII and Hibbert left. More big, beefy bodies in the paint to take care of rebounding with Moses, Lubick adding to Benimon and Sims up front. Plus, Hollis can only get bigger and stronger.

Second, there will not be any confusion as to where scoring "should" come from as there has been the last two years with Austin, Greg, and Chris at times. Everbody knows its the upperclassmen in the backcourt first.

Third, Austin has his diabetes under control.

Fourth, the team made giant strides last year with Freeman, Wright, and Clark showing they can light it up on any night, which should carry over, and retains good chemistry.

Having said that, this team could be really nasty in two years when Clark is senior.

[kghoya]

i wish i cared about what monroe did in the pros...maybe in a couple years but right now its sorta whatever

[skyhoya]

KG agree, perhaps we will have addition by subtraction this year, As good as Monroe is and was, perhaps the guards can now perform the way they always had potential to perform. The big question mark is of course, my favorite, Julian, is he going to perform as a true beast or just a mid-major talent ? Looking back, with a 20/20 perspective, he might have been only an un-athletic Vernon Mack's replacement, which is what we got.

[bigelephant]

IMO - No fear about Julian - Lubick, by all accounts is a tough cookie and he will be playing against him in practice. Nate will push both Julian, Jerrelle and Henry and make them much better and tougher as they get ready for the season.

[smittydakid]

I hope were better but I don't see it. Losing a lottery pick can't be good. When we played good are team was top 5 in the nation last year. We had more quality wins this year than the final four year. Next year will be counting on freshman and that's always difficult. How can you see the rebounding getting better without Greg?

[nashvillehoyas]

If the team is not better next season even with Monroe gone, something wrong. Good players come and go. Good programs re-load. Just look around at some of the elite programs.
Go Hoyas!!!

[MCIGuy]

The good news for the Hoyas is that they may have the leading candidates for both best Big East shooting guard and best Big East point guard in Freeman and Wright respectively. Yes, I realize Freeman plays the three position technically but he is a shooting guard and if he regains the form he had up to that game against Louisville (or maybe Cincinnati), and I think he will, then there isn’t a better off guard in the conference. He was 2nd Team All Big East last season (and had a legit shot at being chosen 1st Team until his health problems occurred) and can easily move up to First Team. Wright in the meantime deservedly made All Tournament Team for his impressive four game run at MSG. Starting from the second to last regular season game at West Virginia and up through the lone NCAA Tournament game against Ohio, Wright was the Hoyas’ best player. I think this season he made himself into a very good player and the last two and a half weeks of play may indicate that he has turned a corner into becoming a great college player. We saw examples of it spread throughout the season (such as at Pitt), but in the final stretch he started to put together a string of fantastic performances for the first time. I think he is a great passer and under III’s tutelage has actually learned how to be a point guard. Now however he will need to get more in an attack-scoring mode to compliment his ability to run the team and again he displayed this ability in the lat 7 games. If he is like that for most of next season then watch out!

When you have two guards the caliber of Freeman and Wright and they are both seniors you have a chance to have a team that is special. College basketball is still a guard’s game.


And I haven’t yet mentioned Jason Clark whose upside is still marvelous. That was an impressive soph season for Jason; he got noticeably better. He is a legit three point threat but he is starting to show he can drive to the hole. He needs to show more of a midrange game but if that comes and if eh continues to work on his handle (which was good overall) he could be really something pretty soon.

I must point out how impressive I am that all three are good at dribbling with both hands. For Wright that is to be expected. But looking back at the clips of the finished season I’m amazed how natural Freeman looks when going with his left hand (dribbling, passing and shooting). Most encouraging during the latter part of the season Jason was demonstrating that ability to as he started to use his left to blow by defenders. As with Wright I thin Clark turned somewhat of a corner during the BET . Clark did this by driving to the basket rather than settling only on the three-pointer. He was mostly quiet against WVU in the championship and against Ohio in the tourney but I still think he is on the verge to becoming a star.

Hollis Thompson can be special. He is already a legit three-point threat. His length makes him probably the best shooting threat on the team. The guy is more willing to go inside and fight for rebounds then I thought he would be at this point. He still needs to get much, much stronger. It would allow him to finish more explosively and to be less weary of going to the hole and taking the contact. His handle still needs some work but its not bad for a guy his size. He also has some ability to go left and he is very capable at passing the ball. I would love to see him show more of a midrange game, a pullup jumpshot would be nice. I would also love to see him put his jumping ability to good use and dunk the ball. This should all come with more strength and confidence. In a couple of years he could be a heck of a pro prospect at the two guard if he adds strength and improved dribbling skills to his advantageous length and shooting ability.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

And throw in Vee and Markel in reserve and we have to be in the conversation for best back court in the nation.

[skyhoya]

Let's see what Hollis looks like in Kenner. He was supposed to spend this month with a strength coach out west. He could be exactly what we need to go with Chris and Austin.

[hoya73]

I'm on board with looking for reasons the team can be good next year without Greg. It's just silly, though, to see any kind of addition by subtraction, the way there undeniably was last year via Summers going pro. The thought that having a balance between perimeter and paint scoring is "confusion about where scoring should come from" is nonsensical.
On a really good team, scoring has to have that balance.
The thought that Greg's talent somehow detracted from the guards "playing their game" makes me wonder if people are already forgetting how many of Wright's and Clark's buckets were on an assist from Greg, not to mention Julian's scoring also depending on Greg's presence in terms of assists and opponents' interior defenders concentrating on Greg. Fewer of Austin's points were on direct assists from Greg, but, since Austin led the team in scoring, I fail to see how Greg's presence diminished him.
To me, the big factors for next year will be how much Hollis improves and how good Lubick is from day one. We need at least 15 points per game from the combined frontcourt. I don't think it's realistic to expect more than 50-55 points per game even from the best backcourt in the BE, if we have that.
Hollis and Lubick are probably going to be the keys to having a decent rebounding team, as well. I especially look to see more offensive boards from those 2 than we've been used to these past couple years. I'm skeptical until shown otherwise that Moses is ready for significant minutes or that Henry will finally make that leap into being a consistent performer. If one or both prove me wrong, and I pray that they do, we could be a monster team. Otherwise, we should be good, but will find it hard to improve on last year's BE standing.

[TBird41]

The big factor next year is going to be whether or not the team can play better defense and do so consistently.

[bmartin]

Monroe will be missed. Remember Georgetown beat both Duke and Butler primarily because Greg dominated the paint against both. He had a very good season but he had to carry too heavy a load. Greg was the primary scorer, playmaker, defender, and rebounder inside and needed someone else to fill at least one of those roles on a regular basis. That is why the team was so much better when Vaughn had a good game.

With Greg gone, it does clear up the uncertainty about who should have the ball. There were times when Chris, Austin, and Greg were not in sync. Now we can play at Chris' pace and style and everyone else can play off him.

The biggest problem defensively was that the team was beaten by slashers with jumpers: Jones of USF, Butler, Mitchell of Rutgers, Wes Johnson, the Ohio guards. Somebody needs to step up and be the defensive stopper.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

It's going to be another down year for basketball. I think we can easily improve on our standing in the big east from last year. I know it didn't feel like, at least to me, but we finished 8th last year. I doubt we finish that low this year, although if you had told me we'd finish 8th last year i'd have thought you were crazy, so anything is possible.

We will greatly miss greg, but as long as we play defense and rebound there's no reason we can't get better results than last year. From following their twitters everyone seems to be working really hard this off season, so let's hope it yields results. Can't wait till kenner.

[hoyaalf]

I think we'll be just fine without Greg.

Can we all say. 'bye,-bye, Greg. See you at your graduation.'?

[MCIGuy]

May 31, 2010 9:14:21 GMT -5 bmartin said:

Monroe will be missed. Remember Georgetown beat both Duke and Butler primarily because Greg dominated the paint against both.

True. But ironically it was Duke and Butler that played for a national title despite not having great interior players.

[RDF]

Duke and Butler also played DEFENSE. I am sick and tired of the half ass defensive effort from the current group and it's really that end of the court that will decide their fate.

[rustyshackleford]

May 31, 2010 11:57:55 GMT -5 RDF said:

Duke and Butler also played DEFENSE. I am sick and tired of the half ass defensive effort from the current group and it's really that end of the court that will decide their fate.

Gtown Adj. Def. Efficiency Nat'l Rank for the last 5 yrs from kenpom:

2006 - 38
2007 - 20
2008 - 6
2009 - 22
2010 - 47

So yeah, worst defense we've played since Roy and Jeff's 1st year. We need to consistently have a top 25 d again to be an elite team.

[GIGAFAN99]

May 31, 2010 15:00:59 GMT -5 rustyshackleford said:

May 31, 2010 11:57:55 GMT -5 RDF said:

Duke and Butler also played DEFENSE. I am sick and tired of the half ass defensive effort from the current group and it's really that end of the court that will decide their fate.

Gtown Adj. Def. Efficiency Nat'l Rank for the last 5 yrs from kenpom:

2006 - 38
2007 - 20
2008 - 6
2009 - 22
2010 - 47

So yeah, worst defense we've played since Roy and Jeff's 1st year. We need to consistently have a top 25 d again to be an elite team.

Or as I like to say:

2004 - 39

Seven players, no center, nobody taller than 6'8...better D than this team.

While there's no addition by subtraction with Greg leaving, this team has so far to go on defense, they can improve as a team just by changing their defensive mindset regardless of personnel changes.

But speaking of personnel, we also have a real "second string" for the first time in awhile. This is addition by addition. It allows anyone who does not play defense to have a seat beside III until such a time as they seem to have learned how to play defense. To me this is as valuable as the practice bodies and injury insurance they provide. We need to be as serious about defense as we are about offense.

Think about that moment III read the team the riot act when we were trying to turn the Syracuse game in the Garden into an offensive ping-pong match at 21-19. That's what I want to see every game. And now there's another tool to use to motivate everyone to play defense; actual lost playing time.

[the_way]

Greg leaving hurts in terms of points.

Greg leaving helps in terms of removing a mindset of passive play, toughness, complacency, and lack of defense. He was part of the problem.

Its really hard to judge where we are.

We can only go by "on paper". And what does that mean, really?

Lubick, Moses, Starks, Bowen are all incoming freshman and don't know if they can or can't contribute at this level. We have seen this movie before with freshman in the JTIII era. We just have to wait and see.

Henry? Hasn't done anything the last 2 years. Will it change for the next 2 years?

Hollis and Clark have shown promise, but still need to improve, and have to step up now that Greg's points are gone.

Vaughn, looked to have improved in the 1st half of the season and then disappeared in the 2nd half of the season. He will need to improve his stamina big time for us to be a factor.

Wright has yet to arrive or come into his own here at Georgetown. We have seen flashes of brilliance from him. But only flashes. I still think he is trying to find his way despite the fact he is going into his senior year.

Freeman is Mr. reliable. His leadership, his toughness, and his ability to put the ball in the bucket is necessary. The only question with him is not a basketball related issue, but his overall health.


Also, too much is made about the Princeton offense. We can put points on the board. We don't have trouble doing that. I'm worried about the Georgetown defense or lack thereof. We need a paradigm shift and drastic change of thinking of what wins ballgames and makes us contenders instead of pretenders.

We have talked defense and rebounding the last 2 years. And we have no NCAA tournament victories to show for it, the last 2 years. Coincidence? I think not.

The onus is on JTIII to get this thing turned around. Its a shame that a less talented Maryland team has 2 NCAA tournament victories playing small ball with Grevis and the smurfs the last 2 years, and we have none with all of the all-americans we had.

Its sink or swim time. Another repeat performance of the last 2 years this upcoming season, and....well....we will have to do some serious soul-searching.

[kchoya]

Hmm, maybe if the team does better this year without Monroe, we could come up with a name for the phenomenon where a team does better when it's star player is injured or leaves. Something like "The Monroe Theory." Whatcha think?