Hoyas 74 - Belmont 59, 2012 NCAA 2nd Round

[sleepyjackson21]

Jason will step up. This is the type of team that i see Jason having a big game against. We will use our height to break the press and i see Jason getting into the lane and converting a bunch of layups.

[blueeagle]

A comment I have not heard from JT III this season is that our team can beat and lose to anyone in the country on any given night. This team is different.

[gtowndynasty]

FWIW, Vegas only has Hoyas as a 3-point favorite to beat Belmont, coincidentally, the lowest margin in the 3 v. 14 matchups. Van Pelt and Rasillo both think that Belmont is a good upset pick over the Hoyas. Gottlieb says we are way overseeded at #3.

Im not sure if III does this or not, but this is great locker room material to help get the juices flowing. The last two years we have come out flatter than the bottoms on the original 90210 and have summarily been puched in the mouth out the gate.

We need to come out with intensity, especially on D and not let those guards get too comfy. III should go to the book of the Zenmaster and use a jedimind trick on this squad to ensure we come out firing on all cylinders. Lets prove these doubters and naysayers wrong.

Ill be in Columbus Fri am, so if Fans are getting together somewhere to pregame, call it out.

[guru]

I was surprised by our seed, as I think nearly everyone was. We clearly got a ton of mileage from our OOC performance - I guess the Memphis wins and the Bama road win really stood out to the committee. I mean, we're 13-7 in Big East games, finished fourth in the conference and didn't make the tourney semis. I don't think it's a slight for pundits to point this out - it's when they all predict freaking Belmont to beat us that I get my back up.

Let's make a run and shut them all up - for at least a little while.

[DudeSlade]

The two most potent weapons for a long NCAA tourney run: a penetrating, get-to-the-basket type guard and a post-up dominant big man. 3 point shooters go cold -- they can pull an upset or two, but don't put together long runs very often (VCU excepted last year). The other two are consistent. Henry is beasting it and Otto is looking more and and more like a better rebounding, worse passing (for the time being) Jeff Green. The two are playing off each other in the High-Low Post as well as any of our 4/5 combos since Jeff & Roy. Of course I'm basing this off 3 games or so, so it definitely could be an overreaction, but that's why it's called MADNESS!

Henry looked like Greg freaking Monroe out there during the BET and has really come into his own. I was shocked at how fluid he was, how well he passed it, and how much he looked to really make something happen offensively, whether scoring it or getting an easy basket for his teammates. Outside of Thomas Robinson, Jared Sullinger and Anthony Davis, who's looked better as a big man recently than Henry? Am I overreacting to a few games? Definitely. Love the Hoya Saxa goggles.

Also our defense and especially our 3 point defense is the best it's been since that Final Four run. This year, we aren't as strong defensively in the post, but Henry is actually a decent shotblocker and he can hold his own against most big men. But far more important is that we are very long at the guards and wings and put a lot of pressure on shooters, plus when we trap or bring a double-team down on the post, that length makes passing out difficult, which at least slows ball rotation and allows us to get back out on our men. I don't care how good a shooter you are -- contested shots are harder to hit. And we do that more this year thanks to effort and the difference in the heights of our guards/wings -- Chris Wright, Austin Freeman, Jason Clark vs. Jason Clark, Hollis Thompson, Otto Porter, and sub in Greg Whittington or Markel Starks. Advantage this year. Not nearly as concerned about 3-point shooters this year.

This team really hasn't laid a stinky egg this year and lost to a team we should definitely beat besides possibly Seton Hall who was playing for their Tourney lives and was just a weird game for us - I don't see that poor effort happening in the NCAAs considering recent history for this team.

[yakuza389]

This team is capable making a deep run, everyone has to step up..no more excuses...

[Boz]

Mar 12, 2012 13:54:26 GMT -5 gtowndynasty said:

FWIW, Vegas only has Hoyas as a 3-point favorite to beat Belmont, coincidentally, the lowest margin in the 3 v. 14 matchups. Van Pelt and Rasillo both think that Belmont is a good upset pick over the Hoyas. Gottlieb says we are way overseeded at #3.

Im not sure if III does this or not, but this is great locker room material to help get the juices flowing. The last two years we have come out flatter than the bottoms on the original 90210 and have summarily been puched in the mouth out the gate.

We need to come out with intensity, especially on D and not let those guards get too comfy. III should go to the book of the Zenmaster and use a jedimind trick on this squad to ensure we come out firing on all cylinders. Lets prove these doubters and naysayers wrong.

Ill be in Columbus Fri am, so if Fans are getting together somewhere to pregame, call it out.

You don't know what you're talkin' about, dude!


....Jenny Garth had a smokin' hot caboose.

;D ;D ;D

[FrazierFanatic]

Mar 12, 2012 14:47:44 GMT -5 Boz said:

Mar 12, 2012 13:54:26 GMT -5 gtowndynasty said:

FWIW, Vegas only has Hoyas as a 3-point favorite to beat Belmont, coincidentally, the lowest margin in the 3 v. 14 matchups. Van Pelt and Rasillo both think that Belmont is a good upset pick over the Hoyas. Gottlieb says we are way overseeded at #3.

Im not sure if III does this or not, but this is great locker room material to help get the juices flowing. The last two years we have come out flatter than the bottoms on the original 90210 and have summarily been puched in the mouth out the gate.

We need to come out with intensity, especially on D and not let those guards get too comfy. III should go to the book of the Zenmaster and use a jedimind trick on this squad to ensure we come out firing on all cylinders. Lets prove these doubters and naysayers wrong.

Ill be in Columbus Fri am, so if Fans are getting together somewhere to pregame, call it out.

You don't know what you're talkin' about, dude!


....Jenny Garth had a smokin' hot caboose.

;D ;D ;D

Still does, my friend, still does.

[gtowndynasty]

Mar 12, 2012 14:56:20 GMT -5 FrazierFanatic said:

Mar 12, 2012 14:47:44 GMT -5 Boz said:

You don't know what you're talkin' about, dude!


....Jenny Garth had a smokin' hot caboose.

;D ;D ;D

Still does, my friend, still does.

You know I totally overlooked her. I was thinking about Brenda and the nerdy girl that was in the honors classes with Brandon.

I stand corrected. ;D ;D

[hoyasaxa2003]

For what it's worth, I think a lot of people are still underestimating Georgetown too. We are fans and have been following this team every day since the beginning of the season. We have watched our players develop and falter over the season, and experience the many highs and few lows that this team has experienced.

If you are somebody who doesn't follow Georgetown or the Big East, you could very easily underestimate the team. We have no big-name players, no McDonalds' All-Stars and we had absolutely no buzz coming into this season. I guarantee that a lot of people were shocked that we were a 3 seed at all (and this would have probably been true if we were a 4 seed too).

I am not trying to look at this through rose-colored glasses, but I think there are two sides to every coin and many people here tend to look mostly at the negative. It's very possible (likely, even), that a lot of people are underestimating our guys. Keep in mind, Brey stated only a few weeks ago that we were the best defense he saw all season.

[Deleted]

It's clear that a lot of these clowns were ready to call Belmont as an upset pick no matter who they played. The fact that they got a first-round opponent that has been knocked off way too early in the past couple of tournaments just makes it easier. Seth Davis was giddy - he had a Belmont upset teed up in his head, and seeing the draw just sent him over the top. He had them in the Sweet 16 within 20 seconds.

[hoyasaxa2003]

The other nice thing to remember is that every year, a ton of these predictions end up being completely wrong, so they are really nothing more than fodder for discussion in newspapers and on ESPN. Every year, really unlikely results happen and I am sure they will happen again this year, but it's impossible to predict with any level of certainty. Really, the NCAA tournament is a crap shoot to a large degree. On average, the better teams will go farther, but it's only an average. Keep in mind, you start with 64 (or 68) mostly good teams - only 16 can make it past the first weekend and only 4 can make it to the Final Four. That means a lot of talented teams lose in a pretty short period of time.

[FrazierFanatic]

When one of the talking heads picks an upset correctly, they can crow about it for days, even weeks; if they are wrong, it never gets mentioned again as the tournament quickly moves on. They all need things to talk about for the next 4 days. Hopefully they all downplay the Hoyas, will be that much sweeter when we play on and on and on.

[GUJook97]

Please keep talking, Drew Hanlen, keep talking....

www.tennessean.com/article/20120312/SPORTS06/303120028/Belmont-gets-familiar-higher-seeds

“Obviously momentum is big in basketball, but I don’t think Georgetown really cares how many games we’ve won in a row,” Hanlen said. “They’re going to look at our schedule and they’re going to see Atlantic Sun opponents and they’re not going to respect our win streak because they’re in the Big East.”

That smacks of Georgetown possibly overlooking Belmont and that would be fine with Hanlen, who said simply getting in the NCAA Tournament is no longer enough to satisfy the Bruins.

“Every year you feel like that’s going to be the team that wins an NCAA Tournament game, but I think that we’ve really focused this year, not only on making the NCAA Tournament, but actually winning games,” Hanlen said. “We had a great couple of days of practice after the A-Sun tournament, and we’ve gotten better in things we need to get better at to give ourselves a chance.”

[professorhoya]

Mar 12, 2012 14:11:02 GMT -5 DudeSlade said:

The two most potent weapons for a long NCAA tourney run: a penetrating, get-to-the-basket type guard and a post-up dominant big man. 3 point shooters go cold -- they can pull an upset or two, but don't put together long runs very often (VCU excepted last year).

They had a penetrating point guard in Joey Rodriguez and also had a big man who had a hot tournament in Jamie Skeen.

They also played a full court press defense and rebounded very well.

So they were not just a 3pt shooting team.

[CaliHoya]

Does anyone feel that with all these people picking Belmont over us, and with small betting spread, pressure is starting to transfer from us to Belmont? Seriously, it seems like half of experts are picking Belmont.

[drjimcooper]

A point re: the vegas spread that I haven't seen discussed is that the job of Vegas oddsmakers isn't to predict winners, it's to try to entice roughly equal amounts of money on both sides of the betting ledger. The fact that our margin has been shrinking simply means that lots of people were picking Belmont (as it became a de rigeur selection). Now if you believe in the wisdom of crowds, this could be a troubling sign that people know something we don't. But it can just as easily mean that people are making a popular upset wager (that likely isn't costing that much to make) because they keep hearing about it in the sports media.

[DudeSlade]

Mar 12, 2012 16:05:32 GMT -5 professorhoya said:

Mar 12, 2012 14:11:02 GMT -5 DudeSlade said:

The two most potent weapons for a long NCAA tourney run: a penetrating, get-to-the-basket type guard and a post-up dominant big man. 3 point shooters go cold -- they can pull an upset or two, but don't put together long runs very often (VCU excepted last year).

They had a penetrating point guard in Joey Rodriguez and also had a big man who had a hot tournament in Jamie Skeen.

They also played a full court press defense and rebounded very well.

So they were not just a 3pt shooting team.

Great point, professor. I had unfortunately forgotten that part. I guess it goes back to my point. I think we have the possible surprise big men (Henry & Otto) to make a run. We don't have a penetrating/slashing/scoring guard, but if teams let us backdoor cut and run some of the Princeton stuff, it makes up for it -- we still get to the basket. We'll see if we can put it together. But I think we can make some noise!

[westendhoya]

Mar 12, 2012 16:18:57 GMT -5 drjimcooper said:

A point re: the vegas spread that I haven't seen discussed is that the job of Vegas oddsmakers isn't to predict winners, it's to try to entice roughly equal amounts of money on both sides of the betting ledger. The fact that our margin has been shrinking simply means that lots of people were picking Belmont (as it became a de rigeur selection). Now if you believe in the wisdom of crowds, this could be a troubling sign that people know something we don't. But it can just as easily mean that people are making a popular upset wager (that likely isn't costing that much to make) because they keep hearing about it in the sports media.

True...the line actually opened up at 6

[FrazierFanatic]

Mar 12, 2012 16:08:51 GMT -5 CaliHoya said:

Does anyone feel that with all these people picking Belmont over us, and with small betting spread, pressure is starting to transfer from us to Belmont? Seriously, it seems like half of experts are picking Belmont.

As long as it does not introduce doubt into the Hoyas(ought not to after the last 2 years), the most important thing will be a strong start, make Belmont question their confidence. Do not let them believe for too many minutes.