The Big East: Too Big For The Georgetown Hoyas?

We all knew the Big East conference was going to be tough.

The Georgetown University Hoyas have had a tough start to their conference season. They won their conference opener on the road against then No. 1-ranked UConn.

Greg Monroe had a big performance in his Big East debut. They then had to take on new No. 1-ranked Pittsburgh, and ranked Notre Dame on the road consecutively.

The Hoyas suffered their first home loss in 28 games to the Panthers at the Verizon Center. Dajuan Blair once again killed the Hoyas on the glass in the blowout win.

The Hoyas then were ice cold against the Irish as they dropped their second straight, putting them at 1-2 in Big East play.

They were able to right the ship and beat Providence at home, then returned to dismantle rivals Syracuse by 14.

The Hoyas dropped a big non-conference match up against the surging Blue Devils of Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium by nine.

Then, in the most head-scratching loss thus far, the Hoyas lost to West Virginia at home by 16 last week. The Hoyas were ice cold again, and were outrebounded again.

That puts the Hoyas at 3-3 in the conference and 2-4 in the month of January. In all of Georgetown's losses, their weaknesses have been on full display.

The offense needs to go through Greg Monroe. When he sits on the bench, teams (such as Duke) clamp down on the guards, and nobody is able to jump start the offense.

Even if the Hoyas' ideal look is an outside shot, they need to get the ball to Monroe first, as backside help closes in on Monroe, resulting in open looks in the corner. I want to know what the plus/minus is on Greg Monroe, because they go ice cold when he is on the bench.

The Hoyas need to rebound. They are last in the Big East in rebounds per game, and have been outrebounded in all of their five losses.

The Hoyas have size in Monroe, Dajuan Summers, and bench players Julian Vaughn and Henry Sims, but have been unable to get inside position in the paint. The Georgetown-style offense puts players in positions away from the basket on offense, which puts them out of position on missed shots if they don't follow their miss.

When the Hoyas get good performance from their bench players, the Hoyas suceed.

Against Syracuse, Nikita Mescheriakov was 2-2 from three-point range off the bench, and Jason Clark had his second double-digit game of the year.

The Hoyas dont score lots of points, so if their starters arent all producing, the young bench players have to become more involved.

The Hoyas need to be control the turnonvers. Turnovers are one of the few ways teams can get back into games against the Hoya's lockdown defense. They let leads get chipped away by being careless with the ball. Their offense is suppose to be slow and cerebral, but turnovers negate this.

The good thing for the Hoyas is that they have gotten through their toughest portion of the always-tough Big East schedule.

Although they seem to be in a slump right now, they have easier competition this week, on the road against Seton Hall, on the road at Cincinnati, another road game against Marquette, before returning home against Rutgers and Cincinnati again.

Marquette is overrated and the Hoyas can control their guards and dominate down low.

They Hoyas should be able to put together a five-game win streak before heading to the Carrier Dome for a huge showdown against Syracuse on Valentines Day.

I initially predicted the Hoyas to finish third in the Big East, but now it is looking more like fourth or fifth. With this many good teams in one conference, teams are likely to trade victories, but by the end the conference should be able to sort itself out.