St. John's Ends Georgetown's Misery

I will be live-blogging the entire Big East Tournament from MSG on my blog Ballin is a Habit. Come by and join in the conversation!!

I have the utmost respect for John Thompson III.

He is a fantastic coach that has been able to win by recruiting kids that are true student-athletes and benefit the Georgetown community through more than just points per game.

But this season was not his finest at the helm.

The Hoyas disappointing run ended today at the hands of an upstart St. John's squad. The Johnnies won their first Big East tournament game on the strength of 23 points from Paris Horne. It was his three-point play with 3:42 left in the game that gave the Red Storm the lead for good at 53-52.

Georgetown's two biggest flaws were exposed this afternoon—their weakness on the offensive glass and their lack of a go-to scorer in crunch time.

When St. John's was making their final push, it was spurred on by a number of offensive boards on consecutive possessions. And it is a shame when your leading scorer, in this case DaJuan Summers, fails to show up for your last chance at making a run at the NCAA tournament.

Summers played just 28 foul plagued minutes, finishing with nine points on 2-8 shooting.

Never was the lack of a leader more evident than on the Hoya's last possession. JT3 drew something up in the huddle, but the play clearly did not work as time ticked away and Chris Wright was left alone to dribble the clock out at the top of the key.

What did he resort too?

Finding Nikita Mescheriakov, a guy who didn't even play at the start of the season, for a desperation three from the corner. As the shot ricocheted off the top of the back board and eight rows deep in the crowd, the ball carried with it the hopes of a team that was at one point ranked eighth in the country.

It was a fitting end for this Georgetown team. During their rigorous Big East schedule, when the Hoyas needed someone to step and lead their team, not a soul was too be found.

When the Hoyas need someone to step up and hit a big shot when they were down three in the closing seconds, no one wanted the ball.