The team and season

[hoyacrazy]

I was at a loss for a couple of weeks, about what happened with this team. After reading Mike Wise's article and listening to the Barker Davis interview everything became very clear. I have to admit I was very disapointed when I heard of the infighting in this program. I have been a HOYA fan since the 70's. I am sure this is not the first time it happened, but I am pretty sure it is the first time it has spilled over reflect its' self on the court for all to see.

This team has loads of talent! Apparently whatever happened after the Duke game carried over for a while. Guys chose the wrong avenues to show their frustrations and it cost this team dearly. Think back to a couple of instances, Summers ankle injury? When I saw they lost that game I was very upset, then I found out that DaJuan played only about 6 minutes before leaving the game with a injury. When I saw the highlights and saw him sitting on the bench it did not look that serious he looked fine. When you read the articles the next day they said he tried to play the second half and said he could not. Then came the report that he may require season ending surgery. Then he was day to day, but not playing the next game. He did play the next game, and had a very good game I may add. How do you go from season ending surgery to not even missing a game? In my opinion, he quit on this team for that one game. For whatever the reason He chose the wrong Ave.

Jessie apparently took issue with Chris becoming the guard leader of this team. According to the article he failed to follow coaches orders to pound the ball inside thus leading to his benching. Again for whatever reason he chose the wrong Ave.

Chris just let the Duke incident get into his head and it effected his game and scoring for a period of time. When Chris is playing well we are terrific. He opens things up for everyone. Austin gets more wide open looks. Teams can not double down on Greg. The game is just easier to play for everyone when you have a guard who can break down the defense, get into the lane and score or find the open man either inside or outside.

We have a very young team, when your upper classmen are not acting as leaders and role models the younger players are going to struggle. If the players had chosen the correct way to deal with whatever issues effected this team we would have never been aware of the issues because we would have been winning games. If a couple of guys don't allow their egos to get in the way we easily have 5 more wins right now and all is right with the HOYAS!

This team is playing at a high level again now that things have been worked out. It is unfortunate that we have the schedule we do but it will work out for us in the future. What other team can say they play with as many Fresh and Soph players as we do, and compete against top 25 opponents night in and night out. NONE I CAN THINK OF.

We are lacking some key ingredidents mainly a strong defensive player and a very strong rebounder. I am POSITIVE coach will address those needs and someone whether he is on this team now or someone coming in will fill those spots.

This is a very good team that simply allowed jealously and ego to get in the way of the TEAM goal and agenda. KEEP YOUR HEADS IN THE RIGHT PLACE! GO HOYAS!

[sleepy]

I'm not buying the Summers quitting thing. He played very well in the Marquette game, but since then his level of play has seriously decreased since the injury. I personally think its still hurting him, and affecting his play. I know a lot of his mistakes have been of the mental variety, but he is also driving a lot less successfully than he was before the injury and thats not all because of his handle. I don't think he is 100% right now.

[lurkerhoya]

A lot of the issues in your post sum up, to me, the state of the program in some ways. Without looking into it too deep, the JT3 "program" isn't just a continuation of Georgetown's traditional success. It's been 10 years since we were that program. This is, in many ways, a new program finding a new identity.

With that comes the growing pains we've seen this season. For the most part, the success of the last 4 years was built on talented players, but they were not of the highly-recruited, coming in with expectations of what people thought they should be or what they thought they should be. I don't think Jeff or Jon or Roy or Tyler or any of the guys that JT3 inherited ever really thought of themselves as lottery picks or BE POY or leads to Sportscenter highlights. They were good basketball players happy to have a shot at major D-I ball, and they were determined as a team to take advantage of the opportunity.

Their success has given this "program" a whole new wealth of options. We get McD's AAs, Rivals Top 10 guys, All-Met POYs, etc. Our Big East peers are used to that, and they always have the players to easily bring in a top freshman recruit and let him know his time will come. They also have coaches who are not strangers to having exceptional prep talent. As awesome as JT3 is, this is really his first season bringing in that kind of talent, and in some ways it shows.

This season has been a true learning experience replete with growing pains. It's not over yet though, and if we're headed where it seems we are it may just be the ultimate lesson this team can learn. 4 years ago, a young coach and a young team played their way out of the NCAAs and into the NIT. 2 years later they played in the Final 4. With the talent we have, this coach and this team are more than capable of making that leap. I'm confident that this season, and the seemingly inevitable sting of sitting through Selection Sunday without hearing the Georgetown name, will be a wake-up call to this entire program that nothing is earned on paper.

[DanMcQ]

Saying Summers quit on his team is not supported by the evidence nor is it fair to the payer - at all.

[hoyacrazy]

My opinion was that Summers quit on the team for that 1 game and 1 game only!

[NCHoya]

Other than the Summers thing, what you write makes sense to me.

Lurker hits the nail on the head, JT3 is new at managing this type of team. A team of egos and talented players needs a psychologist approach more than anything else. I have written a few times last month that one area I thought JT3 was deficient in (due to his past teams not needing it) is understanding the psychology of an 18 year old prep star. His past teams at Princeton and the first 4 years at GU did not have players that needed to be taught hard work and the TEAM first philosophy. So many of those past players were not the superstars in High School or AAU and knew what it meant to work as a team and to improve.

JT3 is learning how to instill this in a new type of player. Patience is needed but I think the team is definitely showing us they have turned it around. JT3 is having an adjustment year and luck was not on his side that he lost his senior and junior classes t transfer. Next year should be a much improved outcome.

[DanMcQ]

Feb 22, 2009 11:18:23 GMT -5 hoyacrazy said:

My opinion was that Summers quit on the team for that 1 game and 1 game only!

Disagree. You have no basis to slam the player like that other than your personal opinion. Do not post it again.

[FLHoya]

Look, I wrote this in my game recap but I'll repeat it here:

Marquette starts four seniors.

Georgetown has four active players on the entire roster who are NOT playing their first full season for the Hoyas--and that's only if you count Wattad and he almost never played last season. I don't count Wright because he missed so much of the year, and for his position, you need the experience.

We can talk all we want about psychology and whether certain players are doing X, Y, and Z to help the team. But we're missing the larger point: you can't win consistently in college basketball today with this kind of inexperience. Nobody can.

We just have too many flaws present on the team because of inexperience that cannot be corrected immediately. It's one thing to wonder why Dajuan Summers is taking matters into his own hands too often, or why players aren't cutting hard enough. But the larger problem is our ENTIRE BENCH at the start of the season hadn't run this offense before. Goodness, for about the first 5-6 games Henry Sims had no freaking clue where he was supposed to be on the court.

All of our good players made mistakes early in their careers--Roy Hibbert didn't start, Jon Wallace was inconsistent, etc. The "veteran" players on the 2004-2005 squad had their moments of infamy as well--Brandon Bowman anyone?

It goes in cycles...and ours happens to be rather dramatic because (a) the transfers at the end of the Esherick era opened up scholarships and gave JT3 a quality four person class for 04-05 that was gonna be gone after 07-08, leaving a gap for this season; (b) transfers in the past two seasons + the loss of Chris Braswell meant our roster would be thin this year.

Not that there was a precedent--folks do realize we were playing Rayshawn Reed, Amadou Kilkenny-Diaw, Ramell Ross, and Sead Dizdarevic minutes similar to what Jason, Nikita, Omar, Julian, and Henry get this season right? In fact Reed often got more minutes than any of our current reserves ever do.

Now, eventually by 06-08 we recruited some more talented players and grew them in the system, so that from top to bottom we had a more solid TEAM (big emphasis there) that understood their responsibilities. I think the hope now is slightly different--that we'll keep Jason, Nikita, Omar, Julian, and Henry around for -2-3 more seasons and they'll grow into better players. We'll round out the roster with more of these highly-ranked H.S. prospects (who apparently you have to be Sigmund Freud to deal with--no wonder Gary Williams is so angry all the time).

Just think for a thread that talks about the future we're focusing too much on the "who did what" and assigning blame for stuff in the past. Gotta move forward.

[SirSaxa]

Had everything broken just right for this team, and had there been no "incident" in Durham, we could be an NCAA lock at this point.

But as others have pointed out, this is a really talented -- and YOUNG -- team. Yesterday showed that clearly. We were right in that game. Even at the end. A couple of plays that could have gone differently (e.g. Greg's TOO unselfish dump down in the last couple minutes) were the difference. To me, those plays were about poise and experience, or the lack thereof.

As nuts as this is driving us, I can't imagine how nutty it is making JT3.

One thing that hasn't been pointed out much, we seem to be rebounding much better than we were earlier in the season.

When I read that JT3 is going to rethink EVERYTHING... I thought... great, that includes recruiting and some big guys who like to bang down low. Clearly JT3 has seen guys like Blair abusing our front line (along with every other BE Frontline).

3 has Pops and Pete to draw on for advice. And a HOST of great GU basketball alumni.

Just as curious as I am to see if he can pull in anyone else who might help next year, and who we can hang on to, I am also curious to see if there will be any changes in the coaching ranks. Not predicting or suggesting, just wondering.

Considering how young this team is and how good the conference is, the team has performed OK for most of the year and is playing pretty good basketball right now. Not perfect. But pretty good. They are building a foundation for the next couple years -- if everyone stays and they can add a couple more pieces.

[Dhall]

The "young team" story is a lame excuse. It's certainly true, but are the 65 teams that are going to make the NCAA tournament all loaded with upperclassmen? No, they are not. I understand how we lose yesterday because of youth and inexperience relative to Marquette in the last 4 minutes, but that doesn't explain this team's record by a longshot. I understand how youth of this team would cause us and them to set expectations lower than the past 2 years, but not as low as they are now.

[lurkerhoya]

The Cincy and SHU games are what really mark this season right now in terms of success. Win those chippies and we're 8-6, on the way to what is likely 10-8/11-7, NCAAs, and we say, "Hey, maybe we didn't do as good as we hoped, but we did as good as we were supposed to."

[Dhall]

Feb 22, 2009 13:35:32 GMT -5 lurkerhoya said:

The Cincy and SHU games are what really mark this season right now in terms of success. Win those chippies and we're 8-6, on the way to what is likely 10-8/11-7, NCAAs, and we say, "Hey, maybe we didn't do as good as we hoped, but we did as good as we were supposed to."

Losing all of the games at home has been a real sore spot as well. If we're going to lose, I'd rather not pay out the nose to observe it.

[sleepy]

Feb 22, 2009 13:32:36 GMT -5 Dhall said:

The "young team" story is a lame excuse. It's certainly true, but are the 65 teams that are going to make the NCAA tournament all loaded with upperclassmen? No, they are not. I understand how we lose yesterday because of youth and inexperience relative to Marquette in the last 4 minutes, but that doesn't explain this team's record by a longshot. I understand how youth of this team would cause us and them to set expectations lower than the past 2 years, but not as low as they are now.

It doesn't really matter how loaded or unloaded those 65 teams are with upperclassmen, they aren't all playing against teams that are absolutly loaded with upperclassmen. Pitt, Duke, Cuse, Cinci, Marquette, Notre Dame are all loaded with upperclassmen. Thats eight of our 10 losses in 2009. So while other teams with little expierence may make the tourny, they didn't have to face such an expierence loaded schedule.

[grokamok]

One might think that, given the very young nature of the team, the coach would realize that more assertive and instructional in-game adjustments and direction are needed, until these talented but not-fully-integrated individuals truly understand and adopt the style of team play they are taught in practice and are able, independently, to recognize and adjust intelligently to in-game situations in which they find themselves. Just because the team will be better able to do so without such in-game coaching next year is not a reason to fail to provide the necessary coaching this year.

[DanMcQ]

grokamok - good point. However, sometimes you can provide the coaching but the execution still fails.

[sleepy]

Feb 22, 2009 15:50:46 GMT -5 grokamok said:

One might think that, given the very young nature of the team, the coach would realize that more assertive and instructional in-game adjustments and direction are needed, until these talented but not-fully-integrated individuals truly understand and adopt the style of team play they are taught in practice and are able, independently, to recognize and adjust intelligently to in-game situations in which they find themselves. Just because the team will be better able to do so without such in-game coaching next year is not a reason to fail to provide the necessary coaching this year.

Thats a very valid point, but to be fair this team the whole season, well outside those three games after Duke, has always played very well and intelligently without the need of in-game guidence until the last 5-8 minutes of the game. So I am not really sure what the coaches can do to prevent that, as the team obviously knows exactly what they need to to and proves they can do. They always just hit a wall with 8 minutes or so left to go, its all mental, and roots from inexpirience.

[grokamok]

Feb 22, 2009 15:56:53 GMT -5 sleepy said:

Feb 22, 2009 15:50:46 GMT -5 grokamok said:

One might think that, given the very young nature of the team, the coach would realize that more assertive and instructional in-game adjustments and direction are needed, until these talented but not-fully-integrated individuals truly understand and adopt the style of team play they are taught in practice and are able, independently, to recognize and adjust intelligently to in-game situations in which they find themselves. Just because the team will be better able to do so without such in-game coaching next year is not a reason to fail to provide the necessary coaching this year.

Thats a very valid point, but to be fair this team the whole season, well outside those three games after Duke, has always played very well and intelligently without the need of in-game guidence until the last 5-8 minutes of the game. So I am not really sure what the coaches can do to prevent that, as the team obviously knows exactly what they need to to and proves they can do. They always just hit a wall with 8 minutes or so left to go, its all mental, and roots from inexpirience.

Well, I'd say that, although we have had a great deal of difficulty towards the end of the game, there have been plenty of opportunities in games (Seton Hall, both Cincinnati's, Notre Dame, the home Marquette game, at Syracuse, even as far back as Tennessee) where more involved in-game coaching and situational adjustment would have set us up considerably better for these final stretches (i.e., going into the final 5-8 minutes with a fair lead instead of a tie or deficit), giving us much better chances to pull such games out despite the expectation that our young team might struggle down the stretch.

I disagree with the assertion that the team knows exactly what it is supposed to do. There is a great gap between demonstrating such understanding in practice and implementing it as part of one's natural game in competition; there are games where, due to a high level of focus and hot shooting (e.g., Maryland, UConn, Syracuse at home), the young players have been able to do so, but one cannot expect that this will uniformly be the case, and it certainly has not.

[paranoia2]

Being a "young" team is one thing but this hoya team loses the rebounding battle most nights and even loose balls tend not to end up in hoya hands. I personally cannot stand watching teams play volleyball at our goal with 2nd and even 3rd chance attempts. During the halftime celebration I was hoping Michael Graham would throw on a uni and grab a board and viciously defend the basket. While we play a cerebral offensive game (I guess because I haven't seen a backdoor layup since december) i think defense and intensity could be there every night whereas hot shooting and ball movement tend to waver with college kids. I mentioned in December that this would be a challenging year for JT3 because this team's talent was more suited to JT2 brand of basketball. Press and fast break and use fouls with Vaughn and Sims in the middle. I was of course slammed. With all the battles this year I do absolutely love Clark's game and think he will be an all-time Hoya before he is done.

[the_way]

Its hard to point to one thing with this team.

I don't think this is a bad team.

Given our strength of schedule and the issues we have, you are gonna have the record we have right now.

YOu can understand why JTIII said this is his most frustrating season as a coach ever.

I'm not buying the bogus JTIII doesn't understand the psyche of an 18 year old. He understands the psyche of players completely. Of all types,and from all background.

JTIII has a lot on his plate in terms of:

1). Everybody on this roster, except for Austin Freeman, is playing a new role this year. Even with Summers and Sapp as underclassman. Summers is asked to be the man and step up this year for the first time in his career. His erractic play in the past wasn't as bad because we had other players with talent and experience to step up. This year is not the case. Sapp has played with somebody more experience and understanding of the offense in the backcourt for most of his career who he could play off of (Cook and Wallace). And when he played with Rivers, Rivers understood his role on the team completely and Sapp could play off of that. This year is not the case. He is playing with a guy in Chris Wright who is practically a freshman this year.

2). Monroe is not the savior or most talented or a go-to-guy on this team. He is a one-and-done player off of hype and default. He has uncanny passing ability and will be a perfect fit in this offense ONCE he develops. At this point, Vaughn know how and has the ability to establish position in the paint better than Monroe.

3) Our other freshman and 1st year players: Clark and Sims and Vaughn. Clark is raw with great potential. Sims seems more like a project. Vaughn is a big man who can play spot minutes. But has awkward mobility at times, and is a non-factor on and within the princeton offense.

4) we play in the Big East. The gimme games aren't many. And we won those.

5). The transfers and graduations have affected this team more than anything. We lost a lot of players from last year, 7 altogether. Thats major turnover. Its hard to be a contending team the following year, with new players and guys in new roles.

We just have to wait and see how guys develop. An NIT bid is not the end of the world. It could be worse.

This core group are the guys we got. We lose Sapp this year and bring in Hollis. So the guys we have must develop other parts of their game to go along with experience earned after this year.

[bmartin]

We don't have the squad that allows JTIII to make the kinds of adjustments he has made in the past. We can't bring in PEJr for Freeman or Summers and instantly become a better defensive and rebounding team. Now Thompson subs or changes defenses to change the look and the luck, not to dictate the matchups.