I haven’t been able to stand watching Georgetown play basketball lately. My roommates and I frequently curse at the television, and no player has been safe from our lashings. Even JTIII has been the recipient of a few unkind words. Every time I watch the highlights of top teams like UNC, Texas, Kansas and UCLA, I can’t help but think how scared I’d be to watch Georgetown play any team in the current top seven. It’s not that Georgetown can’t beat these teams, but with the way they are playing right now the Hoyas would get smacked, straight-up. Don’t let the recent blowout of Cincy fool you. If they want to play in April, the Hoyas have some things to fix, and quick.
FOUL SHOOTING: The Hoyas’ foul shooting has been abysmal. At 65 percent, it’s down six percentage points from last year. When a Hoya goes to the line, you can almost bet he’s going to miss one. Roy Hibbert, DaJuan Summers and Jonathan Wallace are all shooting below their marks from last season. Analysts warned that bad foul shooting would catch up with Memphis before it finally did Saturday night against Tennessee. In the Big East or NCAA Tournaments, a bad foul shooting night could mean the end for the Hoyas. Improving foul shooting is usually an off-season goal, but for Georgetown it’s not a matter of improvement, just getting back to where they were last year.
BREAKING THE PRESS: The Hoyas struggle against the full court press, and every one of their opponents have recognized this and employed it against them. The problem is that there is no one who seems able to break away off the dribble. Jeremiah Rivers has at least tried, but not consistently. Chris Wright would be the obvious solution if it weren’t for his foot injury. So instead, Georgetown has been employing a method that involves high risk passes between Wallace and Jessie Sapp and the forwards waiting at midcourt. The result is too many unacceptable turnovers. Wallace and Sapp need to work on the ability and confidence to dribble through the press. This isn’t to say that passes shouldn’t be used, but the fewer, the better.
ATTACKING THE ZONE: It looks like the Hoyas will be facing a lot of 2-3 zones from here on out. Against it, the successful Georgetown offense of the past two years has been replaced by something I would be embarrassed to call an offensive system at all. The back door cuts are few and far between this year. There is a lot of meaningless passing around the perimeter before settling for yet another three-point shot.
The Hoyas aren’t shooting the threes well enough to do that. Teams continuously dare them to do so with the 2-3 zone. Wallace’s numbers are down. After a fast start, freshman Austin Freeman has lost his touch. And Summers needs to stop shooting so many threes. He’s a decent shooter for his position, but if he’s to replace Jeff Green, he needs to start playing within the Georgetown offense like Green did. Summers is right up there with Wallace and Sapp in three-point attempts. In 12 less games than Green, he’s already shot 16 more threes than Green did last year at a worse percentage.
The Hoyas are better than they are currently showing from behind the arc, but they can’t rely on that. They need to do three things to attack the zone differently. One is cutting to the hoop, whether off the ball or driving with the ball. This will lead to either easy lay-ups or a collapse of the zone, both good things. Another is getting the ball to players in the soft part of the zone at the top of the key. Players like Summers, Freeman and Patrick Ewing, Jr. have been flashing to this spot, but they are not getting the ball often enough to disrupt the zone. The third thing is to get the ball to Hibbert down low on every offensive possession that he is in the game. He is too good to ignore. This will either lead to him getting a good look of his own or double and triple teams, leaving his teammates open. The three-pointers will come, but they need a real offensive system to complement them.
If Georgetown wants to win the Big East and make another run in the NCAA tournament, it needs to show that it has an offensive plan, which it hasn’t of late. In the past, Georgetown’s offense (coupled with its stellar defense) was capable of toppling no. 1 Duke and mounting an incredible comeback against UNC to reach the Final Four. In future games, the Hoyas need to get back to the offense of the good old days.
