Georgetown-Pitt: Hoyas Slay Last of 2008-09 Demons with Road Win

At approximately 9:00 p.m. on Jan. 20, Georgetown put the ghosts of last year's collapse to rest for good.

Tied 56-all with 6:36 remaining in the second half, in one of the most hostile road environments in the country, last year's Georgetown squad would have wilted down the stretch and lost this game by double digits.

Tied 56-all, less than seven minutes away from snapping the nation's second longest home winning streak (Pitt had won 31 straight games at home before Wednesday night), this year's squad went on a game-clinching 7-0 run, never allowed Pitt to get closer than within five points for the rest of the game, and walked out of the Oakland Zoo with their best win of the season.

And with that, Chris Wright and the Hoyas announced to the rest of the NCAA that there would be no late-season swoon for this year's Georgetown squad.

While the roster hasn't undergone a one-year overhaul as dramatic as the likes of UNC, Syracuse, or Marquette, the feeling around this year's Hoya team couldn't be more different than last season.

Last year, as commentator Tim Welch mentioned during the Pitt game, the Hoyas were unsure of themselves and of the Princeton offense, especially in late-game situations. Much to their detriment, they didn't have a late-game identity and didn't have a go-to scorer in crunch time.

This year they have three.

Junior guards Austin Freeman and Chris Wright and sophomore forward/center Greg Monroe have each demonstrated an ability to take over a game on any given night this year.  

Freeman and Wright have each dropped 30-plus points in a single game this year. Wright scored 34 against Harvard back on Dec. 23, and had a game-high 27 against Pitt; Freeman scored 33 against UConn two weeks ago, with a 28-point second half that ranks second all-time in single-half performances in Georgetown's record books.

In John Thompson III's first five years of being the coach of Georgetown, only Jeff Green had scored 30 or more points in a single game (30 against Notre Dame in the 2007 Big East Tournament semifinals).

Meanwhile, Monroe has willingly stepped into his role as a team leader as a sophomore, as he dropped an absurdly efficient 29 and 16 against Villanova this past Sunday (along with four blocks, three steals, two assists, and a partridge in a pear tree).  Perhaps he heard the whispers about him not having enough of a "motor" to be a top five pick in the NBA Draft.

As a testament to these three players, in JT III's first five years as Georgetown coach, only one player had ever averaged 15 points per game over the course of a season (Brandon Bowman in 2005-06).  

Right now, Freeman leads the team in scoring average with 15.7 ppg, followed by Wright's 15.0 ppg and Monroe's 14.8 ppg.

Is the Princeton offense still holding these Hoyas back?  (I couldn't be rolling my eyes any harder.)

But the true sign of this team's evolution on-and-off-court is ball movement.

For a team that (theoretically) ran the Princeton offense last year, the Hoyas would frequently stand around the three-point line and watch their offensive system break down firsthand.  Four guys would stand in place around the arc, pass back and forth to each other (and typically ignore Monroe), then one of those players would jack up an ill-advised three-pointer towards the end of the shot clock, which he'd usually miss.

This year the team is moving on every offensive possession.  Every player is moving, cutting, driving to the rim, rotating, and generally making life tough on defenses.  On top of all that they aren't jacking up threes when all else fails.  

What do they have to show for it?  Four wins over ranked teams (Butler, Washington, UConn, Pitt), a gritty early-season win over Temple before they were ranked, and a five-point road loss to the No. 4 team in the country.

But most importantly, these Hoyas have heart.  

They were down 15 at halftime to UConn before Freeman's second-half bonanza gave them a three-point win.  

They were down 15 to Villanova and they tied the game at 69 before losing by five points.

Pitt rolled out to an early 6-0 lead at home on Wednesday.  Wright responded, scoring eight of the Hoyas' first 15 points to give Georgetown a 15-10 lead.

No lead is insurmountable for this year's Georgetown team and these players aren't laying down for anybody.  

While "heart" is difficult to quantify for a team, it's visibly evident watching this year's Georgetown team that whatever wasn't clicking last year has finally clicked.

That could be a dangerous combination come March.

If the Hoyas can find any bench whatsoever (Georgetown ranks third from last in the country in bench scoring with 7.6 ppg), don't be surprised to see these Hoyas back making noise in the NCAA Tournament.  (Then again, as Mike DeCourcy notes, "bench scoring is an overrated statistic.")  

Rest in peace, 2008-09.  You won't be missed.