A gritty win, a missed opportunity, and an outclassing: assessing the last three Hoya games

It's been a couple of weeks since we've appropriately recapped a game so let's tackle the last three games: a home win over Xavier and matching 8-point losses to Marquette on the road and Connecticut at home that felt very different despite their matching margins. The Hoyas sit at 12-4 overall and 3-2 in Big East play. They are ranked 63rd in KenPom with the 23rd (!!!!) ranked defense.

Georgetown 69 - Xavier 63

Let's start just after the New Year with the Hoyas gritty home win over Xavier. The Musketeers came into the game ranked #6 in three point percentage nationally and play at a higher tempo than any of the Hoyas previous opponents. Creighton and West Virginia are both higher-ranked than Xavier in KenPom, but play significantly slower. This was going to be a much different test for the Hoyas.

The Hoyas controlled play for most of the first half, building a double digit lead early, but only managing to carry a 5 point lead into the half. Jayden Epps returned from his injury but only played briefly in the first half and did not return. He would later miss the entire Marquette game and come off the bench against UConn. At points in the first half, Xavier's pressure really seemed to expose Georgetown's offense a bit and really made it hard for the Hoyas to mount sustained offense, especially without Epps as a safety valve.

The Hoyas really jumped on Xavier in the early part of the second half building a 12 point lead with 12 minutes to go and holding a 9 point lead with 6 to go. Xavier did not go away however and managed to pull the game within a point with about 4 minutes to go. It was at this point, following an 8-0 run in that two minute span, that Hainesy called out that the Hoyas looked like a young team without its best offensive player. After a Hoya bucket and a subsequent stop, Micah Peavy committed an awful turnover and followed it with a terrible foul in transition and it looked like the Hoyas were going to let one slip away. But the Hoyas righted the ship. Xavier missed the and-1 free throw that would have tied the game and the Hoyas got two quick layups off of nifty assists to largely seal the game.

Being pushed like they were late, missing their best offensive player (or at least a very important one), against an experienced and tough opponent; this was a very gritty win for the Hoyas. They stood up when it looked like they might fold late and closed out a very good win.

Three main things that stood out:

1) Malik Mack. Mack was outstanding in this game, scoring 26 and hitting three big threes in the second half. The Hoyas needed someone to step up in the second half and he really did.

2) The Hoyas defense continued to be really impressive. They fouled a little too much in this one, but held Xavier to 26% from three point range and really held up in the half court. The Hoyas will be so much more competitive this season because the defense can keep them in games even when the offense struggles.

3) Xavier's speed. Xavier was easily the fastest team the Hoyas had played to this point in both pace and athleticism and they really held up well against it. This was a really good sign.

Two other quick notes on this game:

• Drew Fielder picked up his 4th foul with 16 minutes remaining in the game (on a truly terrible call) and Jordan Burks fouled out shortly after. Fielder needed to play really smart down the stretch to give the Hoyas a shot to win and he did that. He ended up with 7 rebounds including a couple of very big ones late and played great defense without fouling out. He wasn't near the most important guy on the floor, but him staying on the floor was huge in this one.
• Thomas Sorber looked good in spurts in this one, but definitely looked gassed in the second half. Missing Julius Halaifonua hasn't hurt the Hoyas hugely thus far, but Sorber definitely looked out of sorts for pretty long stretches of this one and not having any true center depth is something to monitor moving forward.

Marquette 74 - Georgetown 66

This was a game that the Hoyas dominated for long stretches of the first half and once again held up when the better team made a second half surge. The Hoyas had it at a two point game with under a minute to go. The 8-point margin was not reflective of the scare that the Hoyas put into a very good Marquette team on the road. The Hoyas were once again without Jayden Epps and Marquette controlled the game early in his absence. It looked from the start that Marquette was a different level of team from those the Hoyas had seen to this point. They are, but also, as Niv pointed out "we are not really far off their level."

During the first half, the WhatsApp thread was a mix of unbridled excitement and confusion. After a start that saw Marquette largely control the game, the Hoyas moved into a zone defense that stopped Marquette in their tracks and, on the backs of two (very surprising) Jordan Burks threes and a couple of very nice Curtis Williams plays, the offense was clicking. As Hainesy said at one point late in the half:

This team looks like a collection of fairly talented basketball players who are coached by someone with a plan and seem committed to executing that plan.

The trigger for this was a Hoya defensive possession in which they trapped the ball in the corner and created a turnover. At this point, Steve Lappas said on the broadcast, "Ed Cooley likes to trap in the corners when he's in this zone. Marquette has to be aware of that moving forward." This simple statement had us reeling. It shouldn't be but it's a pretty novel concept around these parts that the coach has a game plan, the players know what that game plan is, the announcer knows what the game plan is, and then the Hoyas go out and execute it.

The Hoyas carried a 9 point lead into the half. It was unquestionably one of the best halves of the season given the environment and the opponent. But everyone knew Marquette wouldn't just go away and there would be a big push early in the second half. There was. An early second half 10-2 run cut the Hoya lead to just one at the under 16 timeout and Marquette took the lead with under 14 minutes to play.

As in the Xavier game, it looked like the Hoyas might totally fold at this point and in past years they absolutely would have, but they managed to hang right with Marquette from this point on and even regained the lead on a few occasions, including as late as the three minute mark. This was a tie game with two minutes remaining. Curtis Williams just missed a three that would have given the Hoyas a 67-66 lead with 1:15 remaining and Malik Mack had a very unlucky turnover on the Hoyas next possession with them only down 2 points under a minute to go. The Hoyas were very much in this game with a chance to win right to the end.

In many ways, this game was an unmitigated success. The Hoyas lost a very competitive game on the road to a top 10 opponent. Marquette was favored by 12 and a half at the outset and the Hoyas had the lead deep in the game without Jayden Epps again. The Hoyas are a young and up and coming team and Marquette is one of the oldest teams in the country and has some truly incredible roster continuity. The Hoyas absolutely met the challenge of this game. And yet, it definitely still felt like a missed opportunity. One or two of four different things go differently in the last 90 or so seconds and the Hoyas steal this one. In and of itself, that is a positive takeaway for the Hoyas, but there is definitely still a lot of room to grow here.

Two additional quick notes:

• Steve Lappas was on the call for CBS Sports Network. Lappas has earned the ire of this group in the past, but he was actually very good this evening. Excitement in the right spots without being too over the top, sung the praises of both teams, brought genuine insight, questioned the refs in good spots. Just a strong night out.
• 19 turnovers is just too many. Marquette gets a lot of credit for their defense causing many of those, but the Hoyas need to be better about protecting the ball (the trend continued against UConn, unfortunately).

Connecticut 68 - Georgetown 60

This one was largely a game in which an experienced, very talented, extremely well-coached team just kinda outclassed their pretty-good-but-still-figuring-it-out opponent. The Hoyas jumped out to an early lead and looked very strong in the early part of the game. UConn took control about midway through the first half and threatened to really run away, but as they've done a few times this season, the Hoyas bounced back and kept it a 4 point game at half. This felt like a major win for the Hoyas at this point.

The second half did not go the Hoyas way. UConn went on an 11-1 run in the first three minutes of the half and never really looked back. It took the Hoyas 6 minutes to record their first made field goal and an additional three minutes to hit their second. By the time they made their third field goal of the half it was a 20 point game and there were only 7 minutes remaining. The Hoyas looked completely lost on offense during this 13 minute stretch of the game. The sets were slow and indecisive, the shot selection was poor and often late in the clock, and the Hoyas got blocked or turned the ball over several times. Uncle Dad accurately called the second half offense "catastrophic."

The defense didn't fair a whole lot better as UConn picked apart the defense for a bunch of assisted dunks and layups and Alex Karaban hit a couple of backbreaking three pointers. This screenshot is pretty indicative of how things went in the second half. Missed layups, turnovers, missed free throws, blocks, transition buckets. It was ugly.

From the 7 minute mark though the Hoyas showed some really good fight and did manage to cut the deficit to 8 in the end. The game was never really in doubt, but the fight and effort was a real testament to the team. Curtis Williams and Kayvaun Mulready in particular looked very sharp during this stretch. After leading 64-41, with 7 minutes to go, UConn only managed 4 points the rest of the way and the Hoyas ended up holding them under 70.

There are, of course, two ways of looking at this. On one hand, the game was never in doubt in the second half, the Hoyas were largely outclassed by UConn when the result was in question, and UConn's effort undoubtedly waned by the end of the game. Any positive defensive takeaways have to be taken with those grains of salt.

On the other hand, UConn didn't stop playing altogether. They still ran their sets and they didn't let the Hoyas simply walk to the basket. And the Hoyas held them under 70 points for the game and only yielded at 46% shooting day from the Huskies including just 34% from three despite all of those easy looks at the rim in the early portion of the second half. In previous years, the Hoyas would've lost this one 85-60 from that point in the second half. This game wasn't maybe as close as an 8-point margin would suggest, but it also was much closer than the 23-point margin it was at one point in the second half.

The group was largely split on the lens. Uncle Dad was particularly of the opinion that the Hoyas got their butt kicked and any shrinking of the margin was due to UConn's relaxed effort. Hainesy, as is his nature, was of the opinion that the closing of the gap and overall final result was more positive than most of the game felt and that the defense in particular continues to really stand out. The truth undoubtedly lies somewhere in the middle and even Uncle Dad posited that "it did feel weird to watch the Hoyas sort of climb back into the game." Overall, as to be expected when coming from the depths the Hoyas have been the past few years, progress isn't linear and there are positives and concerns to take away from each game. This game was no exception.

A few assorted notes and overall takeaways from this stretch:

• The arena was ROCKING on Saturday for the UConn game. The students absolutely showed up and showed out, filling the lower bowl student section (displacing the boys of 104 from their normal seats) and the energy was very high throughout most of the game. It was awesome to see.
• The arena operations did NOT match the turnout or energy. As has been the case for several years, the arena was understaffed and under-serviced. The re-ticketing process for your valiant Section 104 editors was...not great (stay tuned for an open letter?) and it really left a negative imprint on the boys in particular. It's largely very embarrassing that Ted Leonsis owns the building in which Georgetown plays and is a Georgetown alum and won't do anything to improve the gameday experience at Georgetown games. It wouldn't even be a rounding error for him to shell out to open more doors and concessions and max out staff for these games regardless of how many people show up, not to mention when the game is known to be packed weeks in advance.
• Throughout this pretty tough stretch of games, the Hoya defense has largely been very very good. Thomas Sorber and Micah Peavy continue to be the standouts on that end of the floor with Sorber's defense being particularly notable given that he's a freshman. The 74 points they yielded to Marquette are the most they've given up in conference play and that included a bunch of late free throws. Even in the UConn game when they jumped out to the big lead in the second half, a lot of their offense came in transition whether pure fast break, off live ball turnovers, or in a sort of delayed transition. In other words, when the Hoyas weren't able to truly get set on defense. This defense is going to continue to give the Hoyas chances in pretty much every Big East game and make them a threat in New York.
• The Hoyas definitely need to grow into better handling pressure defenses. The tape is out there that if you sit back on them a bit, they'll pick you apart. But if you play high pressure defense, the Hoyas get flustered and have a lot of trouble executing. They need to figure out ways to punish that pressure moving forward. They did enough of that against Xavier, but couldn't overcome against top tier competition.
• The Hoyas only two losses in conference play have come to top 10 teams by only 8 points each. There have been some red flags and frustrations along the way, but this is about as good a start as you could've reasonably expected from the Hoyas in conference play.
• That Notre Dame loss early in the season? Yuck. Would like that one back.

St. John's is next in another top 25 KenPom matchup for the Hoyas. This looks like a really stiff test for the Hoyas, but they've shown how competitive they can be against top opponents. Let's see if they can steal one.