Post Article on GW

[JohnJacquesLayup]

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32482-2005Mar13.html

The quote about G'town and MD having to give them respect made me sick. Respect? Why, because you won your first A10 championship ever? Because your conference was so strong you only got an auto-bid? Because you sent a total of 3 teams to postseason play including the NIT?

[hoyahoyasaxa]

Well, they won the A-10. I'll give them the respect I'd give any mid-major conference winner. And those GW kids have to have something to be happy about every once in awhile, right? ;D

[stafford72]

Why the venom? I applaud the success of GW. I think they deserved a 10 seed rather than a 12. It is a good thing to see at least one team from the area in the tourney. They have a very athletic experienced team and will not necessarily be an easy out for Georgia Tech.
I think the first 10 minutes will be critical. If GW can get out to a lead, they can convince themselves and Tech that they can win. Don't be amazed if it happens.

Remember that those that live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

I also think that Syracuse has a right to be surprised by being seeded 4th while UConn is a 2. The committee weighed conference tourney results elsewhere, why not the Big East?

[JohnJacquesLayup]

stafford72 said:

Why the venom? I applaud the success of GW. I think they deserved a 10 seed rather than a 12. It is a good thing to see at least one team from the area in the tourney. They have a very athletic experienced team and will not necessarily be an easy out for Georgia Tech.
I think the first 10 minutes will be critical. If GW can get out to a lead, they can convince themselves and Tech that they can win. Don't be amazed if it happens.

Remember that those that live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

I also think that Syracuse has a right to be surprised by being seeded 4th while UConn is a 2. The committee weighed conference tourney results elsewhere, why not the Big East?

Would you also applaud the success of MD if they had made the tourney and GW hadn't simply because they're "from the area?" I doubt it. Why the double standard when discussing mid-major teams? I dislike all other teams equally.

[HoyaSox04]

JohnJacquesLayup said:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32482-2005Mar13.html

The quote about G'town and MD having to give them respect made me sick. Respect? Why, because you won your first A10 championship ever? Because your conference was so strong you only got an auto-bid? Because you sent a total of 3 teams to postseason play including the NIT?

Well, the quote was from a GW student, and as we know about pretty much EVERY GW student, they're first choice was GTown... so it was probably just a way for the kid to release some pent-up anger from a safety-school perspective...

[SFHoya99]

If they hadn't won their conference tournament, they'd have been in the NIT, also.

I congratulate them, but I'm not sure what "respect" gets doled out. Aside from being the most annoying thing about my generation, I respect the GW players' athleticism and basketball skill, since I have little, but as for GW the institution and its non-basketball playing folk, I hav exactly the same amount of respect for them as I did before they beat St. Joe's.

[ColumbiaHeightsHoya]

They'll be back to the middle of the A-10 pack next year. It is the MD crowd that I really like to get going. I really wish we played them in the NIT opener.

[SoCalHoya]

Congrats to GW. They deserve it.

Anyway, I felt the article actually promoted Georgetown. What I gleaned from the article is that people associate DC with Georgetown, GW = G'town Waitlist, etc. That's a good thing!

I am happy that the Post wrote an article praising GW and promoting us at the same time!

However, I firmly believe in the double standard of being totally happy that MD did not make the tourney. I hope Gary Williams cried a little yesterday.

[hoyarooter]

Totally agree with SoCal. I'm very happy for GW, and wish them success. I would like to see us play them every year, as we did back in the day.

As for Maryland, they got what they deserve. The more they lose, the better I like it.

[JohnJacquesLayup]

A local rival is a local rival. How can you pick and choose which rival you like? I hope GW gets blown out by about 4,000 points to Tech's second string. Feeling demoralized, they then choose to pack it in and become a club team.

The same goes for MD.

[hoyahoyasaxa]

JohnJacquesLayup said:

A local rival is a local rival. How can you pick and choose which rival you like? I hope GW gets blown out by about 4,000 points to Tech's second string. Feeling demoralized, they then choose to pack it in and become a club team.

The same goes for MD.

Actually, I'd like GW to lose by 8,000 points to GT's third string, but now we're just talking numbers. If Maryland would lose by 16,000 points to ORU's trainers, I'd be fairly pleased.

[JohnJacquesLayup]

hoyahoyasaxa said:

Actually, I'd like GW to lose by 8,000 points to GT's third string, but now we're just talking numbers. If Maryland would lose by 16,000 points to ORU's trainers, I'd be fairly pleased.

Now we're talking! The ideal situation would be GW and MD's squads uniting as one force and still losing to Mini Ditka! OK, I'm done.

[FLHoya]

Well okay, THE George Washington University, how about I meet you halfway on the offer?

I will give maximum respect to the GW basketball team for making the NCAA Tournament and having a good season. I watched a lot of GW games on TV this year, in fact I live pretty close to the Smith Center, so I pass by when games are going on as well sometimes on my way to MCI. I find the GW team to be one of the more likeable teams I have seen in college basketball, excepting Scott Van Pelt's annoying obsession with the name "Pops Mensah-Bonsu". Great group of players, even better coach...of course I can't ever root for you guys, but that's life.

While it's true GW may have benefitted from the A-10's down year (last time I checked they were the 17th rated conference in the RPI) in terms of racking up a few more conference wins, there was also another side to the balance. Because of the weak conference schedule, even with a non-con that included decent opponents like Wake Forest, Michigan State, Maryland, and West Virginia, GW was still going to have to parlay their Division Title into a Conference Tourney title to not end up in the NIT.

So full credit for taking care of business--no close wins--in the A-10's one-bid extravaganza. Particularly the second half of the game against St. Joseph's, who had handed GW a tough double digit home loss in the 2nd to last game of the season to clinch the overall A-10 Number 1 seed. And good luck in the tournament, forgive me for not making you the #12 seed I'm taking.

On the other hand, I cannot dole out any further "respect" to the Colonials fans. Not because I'm not happy for the team--in fact, it's BECAUSE I'm happy for the team.

I think the subtext of the article is pretty clear: GW fans don't want "respect" for the team making the tournament. They want to score points in their ongoing Sisyphus-like struggle against their own perception of the GW-GU academic rivalry. And I'm not going there--because the AP Poll and the USNews Rankings have a restraining order against each other as far as I'm concerned. And honestly, because GU students spend about zero seconds of their lives worrying about it, and GW students spend so much of their lives worrying about it they fail to realize they go to a GOOD SCHOOL that they're constantly selling short with the whining for "respect".

On the subject of basketball, as someone who spent a lot of time writing about the GTown student fans and GU's last tournament appearance, I hope this run puts a little spark in the Colonials Nation/Army.

I couldn't help but notice two quotes in the article from GW students:

"When I got here the team wasn't that good and people weren't as excited about going to games but this season really changed that,"

"I have friends who go to schools with good sports teams and they are always bragging about it,"..."Now, I guess I'll get to brag a little even though I don't even care about basketball."

You don't have to read between the lines much to get that those two quotes don't exactly paint the picture of a fanbase deserving of our "respect".

This is the same place that closed off H Street right after the World Series for the Rally with all the Red Sox fans. Don't have to have lived in the neighborhood for several months to realize...there aren't that many real Sox fans at GW...

If you're still riding the (band)wagon train wearing the yellow foam pointy hats next March to the NCAA Tournament, then I'll talk about some "respect" for the student fans.

Maybe we'll be in the same Regional.

[Cambridge]

Where is BM-GW for the retort?

[BM-GW]

As a loooong-time GW hoops fan, and having talked to many other local hoops fans, I can categorically tell you that the vitriol (#1 word used only in message boards) towards G'town is totally due to their refusal to play local teams. Period. You guys just have to look in the mirror one day and realize that JTII decided that he doesn't want to lose to local teams and he quit playing 'em. It's not Feinstein, Gary Williams, Mike Jarvis or a CIA conspiracy. It's you.

I also realize that as stand-up hoops fans, you can't accept that it's Georgetown's fault so you IMMEDIATELY bring up US News & World report whenever someone calls you on it.

Deal with it and talk to your administration. This is totally unsatisfying to talk trash over common opponents or some statistical ranking.

[SFHoya99]

BM-GW said:

As a loooong-time GW hoops fan, and having talked to many other local hoops fans, I can categorically tell you that the vitriol (#1 word used only in message boards) towards G'town is totally due to their refusal to play local teams. Period. You guys just have to look in the mirror one day and realize that JTII decided that he doesn't want to lose to local teams and he quit playing 'em. It's not Feinstein, Gary Williams, Mike Jarvis or a CIA conspiracy. It's you.

I also realize that as stand-up hoops fans, you can't accept that it's Georgetown's fault so you IMMEDIATELY bring up US News & World report whenever someone calls you on it.

Deal with it and talk to your administration. This is totally unsatisfying to talk trash over common opponents or some statistical ranking.

I'm sorry, BM, but I know quite a few people that went to GW, and none of them cared about hoops. They all readily admit a huge inferiority complex re: academics. I'm not going to argue which is a better school. The fact is is that most of the people I knew at GW had an issue with it, and I've never brought up school rankings with anyone.

GW Hoops fans may not like GU for that reason, but you're a small, small %.

As for "the rest of DC" well, I figure most of DC doesn't care. Feinstein doesn't give a damn about GW hoops -- he just wanted his access. And the UMD-Gtown split is mutual -- Gary doesn't want to play us, either.

I'd also venture to say that if GW were to pass Gtown on a permanent basis in basketball, your coach wouldn't play us either. I don't like it, but I don't particularly care either. Much more important to me is getting our program back in order.

You seem to posit this idea that DC is just screaming for a Gtown-GW matchup. Somehow I doubt that.

[Cambridge]

SFHoya99 said:

I'd also venture to say that if GW were to pass Gtown on a permanent basis in basketball, your coach wouldn't play us either. I don't like it, but I don't particularly care either. Much more important to me is getting our program back in order.

Funnily enough, I spend a fair amount of time on the gwhoops board and this thought comes up fairly regularly. "Why would we want to play Gtown? They are a so beneath us now." etc.

Now I'm not going to get in the middle of this (what a lie...), as I have a brother at GW and another at AU, but I'll be the first to defend the academic and athletic emmergence of GW. Is it something fairly recent? Yes, I would track it to the last 5 to 10 years. But, does that make it any less valid? Not at all.

Look at a school like GU, it was an definitely not an Academic Powerhouse before the 1960s. Was it a bad school? Not at all, but it was viewed primarily as a Catholic trade school that produced effective professionals and high number of merchant marines. Only since the 1960s has that reputation changed dramatically. Similarly NYU was just a commuter school along the lines of CUNY only 25 years ago...and has managed to change its image considerably into one of the premier institutions in the country. Does this lessen their acheivements?

GW has pumped millions of dollars into developing facilities and resources for its students and going out and getting top flight faculty. They have done many of the things Gtown students have been begging for for years. They have new dorms, new academic buildings, they have an on campus arena we would kill for, and are much more in the thick of the city. Hell, they even managed to get the Mount Vernon campus...a real SNAFU on our part. Plus, having seen living conditions for both student populations...GW has GU beat hands down.

However, this is not to say that I don't cherish my Georgetown experience greatly...or that I don't trash talk my brother at GW...it's just to say that GW has come a long long way since many of you attended University, both in academics and athletics and its something to be admired...at least for five minutes or so, before taking a verbal sledgehammer to.

[nychoya3]

GW has some very good academic programs. I think the liine that many or most students at GW would like to be at Georgetown is a fair one, but GW has it's charms too.

One thing they are doing is aggressively trying to get better in pretty much every phase of campus life. Can we say that about Georgetown? If the admin doesn't watch out, GW will be competing for the DC limelight someday. Not yet, and not for a while to come, but someday. Their campus situation, and aggresiveness resemble NYU a couple decades ago, and NYU has risen to be as good or better in many areas as the more prestigious Columbia.

As for basketball, I hope we play them and soon. If they think they're above us...well, they better play us NOW, because in a couple years we will blow them right off the floor,

[SFHoya99]

Cambridge, you're missing the point.

I just don't care. You've got a brother there, FLHoya goes there for grad school. Me? I have a few friends I don't keep in touch much with who went there.

I care about GU's academic rep. I care about GU's basketball team. GW? Why would I care anymore than say, Cal's? Or USFs? At least I can walk to their gym.

When a GW fan bitches about lack of respect about academics or basketball, I don't even know how to respond. The fact that they come to us for validation is enough.

I don't know. Maybe it is because I'm not a DC kid. I knew a few people from GW, and I liked all of them. Once in a while you had a drunk jerk at a bar, but what school doesn't have those? But a rivalry?

Should we play them? Sure. It'd be neat to have a Big 5 in DC, even if it is only the Big 3 or 4. I'm not opposed.

Do I need to "look in the mirror" and call on my administration to do so? That's laughable. GW is an excellent program with a team that is somewhat but not dramatically better than ours (and next year, I'll take us). It'd be nice to get the revenue from playing them as well. But do I feel a need to play them? No.

If I'm going to petition our AD for something, it is an on-campus arena, or a better schedule in general, or to pay III enough to ensure he never leaves.

I don't mean to be a jerk about it. I really don't. The people I know from GW are plenty smart and successful. Their basketball team is good. I just don't feel the need to play them (or Maryland).

[hoyarooter]

JohnJacquesLayup said:

A local rival is a local rival. How can you pick and choose which rival you like? I hope GW gets blown out by about 4,000 points to Tech's second string. Feeling demoralized, they then choose to pack it in and become a club team.

The same goes for MD.

Well, for me it's easy (the instigation of the above post by BM-GW notwithstanding). GW was GU's biggest rival when I attended GU, but I felt no animosity toward the school, other than wanting to beat the pants off them when we played. And I think that was pretty much the resident attitude at the time. Yeah, we used to tease our friends there about their having Hoya Envy, but it was good natured kidding. This wasn't USC-UCLA, Auburn-Alabama or Michigan-Ohio St (or Duke-North Carolina).

As for Maryland, well, that's just a different story. The hatred there stemmed from the basketball program being totally classless. You think Gary Williams is bad? On his worst day, he couldn't hold a candle to Lefty.

To conclude, I would just say go GW, beat Georgia Tech. And go ORU, beat the $&@*& out of Maryland.