In the first round of the NCAA tournament, the latter version of the Hoyas showed that it was never really gone.

The third-seeded Hoyas came out flat against the No. 14 seed Ohio Bobcats and never recovered, ending their season with a 97-83 loss.

“They were better today,” sophomore center Greg Monroe said. “They did everything they needed to win.”

It was true. The Bobcats, the Mid-American Conference champions, came into the NCAA tournament on fire and did not cool down. Often it
seemed like Ohio could not miss a shot as they converted 58.2 percent of their field goal attempts.

But while they played better, few would claim the Bobcats are more talented than the Hoyas.

“I try to tell my teammates, we may not be a better team, we’ve just got to be a better team on that given night,” Ohio junior Armon
Bassett said.

Nevertheless, Bassett looked like the best player on the floor Thursday night. The transfer from Indiana scored 32 points, both by connecting from long range and by slashing and driving.

Backcourtmate D.J. Cooper, only a freshman, similarly eviscerated the Hoyas, with 23 points in addition to eight assists.

Ohio had Georgetown’s number from the opening tip, never allowing the Hoyas to lead by more than two and taking a 12 point lead into halftime.

The Bobcats would hold a double digit lead for most of the second half, but the Hoyas tried to make a game of it, at one point cutting the margin to seven. Ohio elevated its game in face of its charging opponent, shooting 66.7 percent after halftime, including 71.4 percent from beyond the arc. It was not out of the ordinary for the Bobcats to be scorching the nets.

“We shot 36 plus percent from three last year and led our conference,” Ohio head coach John Groce said. “And this year we led our conference again in three point field goal percentage. We’ve broken our school record in back-to-back [years in] attempts and makes and percentages.”

Georgetown had prepared for Ohio; its playing style was not a surprise. In the most important game of their season, the Hoyas simply couldn’t keep up with the competition.

“I don’t think we were shocked,” junior guard Chris Wright said. “I just think they came out and played a heck of a game and that’s about it.”

Looking at the stat sheet it could appear that at least some of the Hoyas were on top of their game. Wright continued playing as he had in New York, taking the reins of the squad while shooting 50 percent to score 28 points. Freshman Hollis Thompson tied a career high with 16 points. And Monroe put up the kind of numbers that have him projected as a lottery pick in the NBA draft—19 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists.

But in actually watching the game, it was clear that no one wearing a Georgetown uniform was at their best.

“Our team, no one in that locker room I can look at and say they had a good game that was indicative of who that player is or what our team is,” head coach John Thompson III said.

When Monroe fouled out with 30 seconds to play, it was possibly his last time wearing a Hoya uniform on the court. But asked whether this was his last game in the postgame press conference, a hesitant Monroe gave the answer Georgetown fans want to hear.

“No, it wasn’t,” he said.

Monroe later clarified.

“I don’t know,” he said. “The season just finished. Basically, I’m not looking to the future right now. I’m ready to go back and see how I can help my team in the future.”

The big man is obviously not bound by his comments, and his coach reminded the media that the season had ended only half an hour earlier. Monroe will surely think more about his future before making a final decision.

If Monroe does return to school, it will be for good reason; he has unfinished business. This season’s Georgetown team showed that it could beat any team in the country when it was on. But that was the young team’s fatal flaw—it was off far too often.

“I think as a team we were inconsistent,” Monroe said, evaluating the season. “That’s probably the most glaring thing. We didn’t have the same focus and weren’t the same team every night. That’s basically it. Every night we had to come out and be the best team we could be and we didn’t do that.”

Photo by Jackson Perry

Seven popular Georgetown eating establishments received critical health code violations in 2009, according to health inspection reports obtained by the Voice. Of the violators, Epicurean and Company was the most egregious, with a total of 17 critical violations identified.

A February 2009 inspection report cited Epicurean for 13 critical and seven non-critical violations. The inspector observed raw and partially cooked food stored above vegetables and cooked food, hot and cold foods held at improper temperatures, and a sushi chef handling raw fish with bare hands.

Despite these violations, Epicurean remained open because employees were able to immediately correct all but four of the violations. The threshold for immediate closure is six critical violations that cannot be corrected while the inspector is present.

When Epicurean was inspected again in August 2009, the restaurant received four critical violations and five non-critical violations. Some of the critical violations were of the same type observed in February, such as eggs being stored above sushi and food lacking labels with eat-by dates. All of the violations were corrected at the time of the inspection.

The manager of Epicurean could not be reached for comment.

The other restaurants whose health inspection reports the Voice obtained had far fewer critical violations during 2009. Cosi received three critical violations in August, while The Tombs, Leo’s, Tuscany Cafe, and Midnight Mug all received one critical violation.

Not all of the critical violations received by other eating establishments were as serious as storing raw food above cooked food. Leo’s critical violation, for example, was due to a lack of a sneeze guard over bread in a self-serve area, while Midnight Mug was cited because an employee was not wearing a hair restraint.

D.C. restaurants have five days to correct critical violations. In the reports the Voice obtained, restaurants often corrected violations during the inspection. Non-critical violations, such as failure to post signs about proper hand washing and dirty floors, must be corrected within 45 days.

Vicki Griffith, the director of quality assurance for Clyde’s Restaurant Group, which owns the Tombs, explained that The Tombs deals with violations by reexamining training and working closely with the health department.

Griffith added that the Tombs welcomes the visits of the inspectors.

“Part of [the inspectors’] charge is to enforce the code but also to instruct,” Griffith said.

Thanis Hutuyana, a manager at Bangkok Bistro, agreed.

“If [the inspectors] come out, and let us know, and it’s going to be better,” Hutuyana said.

—Additional reporting by Molly Redden

Thomas was convicted of charges of sexual abuse and assault. Thomas pled not guilty to all charges.

Thomas was arrested on August 22, 2008 after a Georgetown student living four blocks away from campus awoke in the living room of his residence to find Thomas caressing his shoulders. After the student yelled, Thomas left the residence but later reentered it. A second Georgetown student at a different residence awoke and called 911 when Thomas caressed his calves. The Metropolitan Police Department arrested Thomas in a vehicle two blocks away from the incident.

In two other cases, victims testified that they had awoken to see Thomas sitting on their beds, in another two cases he had fondled the victims’ genitals, and in one case, he had touched the victims’ feet. The crimes Thomas was found guilty of all occurred between July 2007 and August 2008.

According to a court memorandum on March 12, one of Thomas’ main defense was an evaluation by Dr. Ronald Koshes, a psychiatrist hired by the defense authority, concluding that Thomas is “not dangerous, nor is he a sexual predator.” In a letter to the court, Koshes wrote that Thomas was a “victim of malt liquor.” Thomas testified that “when he drank, he felt more relaxed … and he obsessed less about others would think.”

However, the prosecution, lead by U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen, Jr., rejected this argument, noting in a Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing, that none of the victims had reported that Thomas was intoxicated when he assaulted them, and that “alcohol in and of itself does not cause a person to unlawfully enter a stranger’s home and try to force them to engage in sexual conduct.”

Although new employees will not be able to provide health benefits to their spouses, they will still be covered under the new policy and be able to provide benefits to their children. According to Catholic Charities spokesperson Eric Salmi, the less than 10 percent of Catholic Charities’ 850 employees in the District who currently take advantage of spousal health benefits will continue receiving those benefits.

In addition to the change in spousal benefits, Catholic Charities added language to its hiring letter requiring all new employees to promise “not to violate the principles or tenets of the Church,” though Salmi said that this policy is not a direct response to the same-sex marriage legislation.

Catholic Charities and the Archdiocese of Washington both testified before D.C. City Council prior to the same-sex marriage legislation’s passage, outlining their opposition and expressing their concern that the bill might limit their ability to continue to provide social services in the District.

“We had three goals,” Salmi said. “One was to stay true to Catholic teaching, the second one was to stay in compliance with D.C. law and thereby keep this excellent partnership with them, and the third was to continue to work in a community with the 16,000 people we served last year. We looked at a wide range of options and decided this was the best way forward for us.”

Gay rights organizations, like the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, however, are not satisfied with the policy change.

“This decision by the Archdiocese, and it really is the Archdiocese that’s really calling the shots here, it’s cold and heartless and arrogant and shows a continued willful denial of reality and it’s unnecessary,” GLAA Vice President for Political Affairs Rick Rosendall said.

According to Salmi, the policy change was necessary in order to continue to maintain the organization’s founding principles.

However, Rosendall said that Catholic Charities could have opted for a different approach in order to maintain their religious values while continuing to provide spousal health benefits. Rosendall highlighted benefit plans at Georgetown University and the Archdiocese of San Francisco, in which employees can designate any domestic partner as their recipient of health benefits.

Nancy Polikoff, Professor of Law at American University, agreed that Catholic Charities had other options besides eliminating all spousal health benefits.

Polikoff also argued that because federal law does not require same-sex partners to be covered, Catholic Charities could have changed their employee benefit plan in order to comply in that manner.

“They had the option of reorganizing their employee benefit plan in a way that would’ve been perfectly legal and allowed them to discriminate,” Polikoff said.

Catholic Charities’s new hiring clause also raises some legal concerns, because it requires all new employees to abide by the tenets of the Church.

Rosendall said that the clause might be subject to discrimination laws because Catholic Charities often operates outside a core religious function when the organization uses public funds to provide social services.

Salmi said Catholic Charities does not believe this is an issue.

“We don’t discriminate,” Salmi said. “We are an equal opportunity employer. When we’re considering candidates for a position, all we look is their qualifications to carry out the work.”

Polikoff, however, believes that there might be a legal case to be made against the new policy.

“I’m sure that if they actually were to refuse to hire somebody who crossed out that paragraph, I’m sure that will get tested in the courts about whether that’s something they can legally do,” Polikoff said.

Arthur Spitzer, legal director of ACLU in D.C., said that he was unsure whether his organization would support such a challenge.

“The Supreme Court has never said that the fact somebody receives public funds means that they have to pledge or act in a non-discriminatory way. And that’s been an ongoing debate for the last five to six years,” Spitzer said. “It’s a philosophical and legal argument that doesn’t have a clear answer at this point … Somebody might well bring a case, but I can’t say whether the ACLU would support that or not. If somebody wanted us to bring such a case, we would certainly think about it.”

Photo by Jackson Perry

The Student Activity Commission may decrease allocations to clubs next year, SAC Chair Ethel Amponsah (NHS ‘11) warned in an e-mail sent to SAC-funded groups Tuesday. Amponsah told clubs that the Georgetown University Student Association currently plans to cut SAC’s budget by approximately 15 percent, which will affect club funding unless SAC agrees to all six of GUSA’s advisory board recommendations.

While SAC has adopted three of GUSA’s reforms—lump sum funding, an appeals process, and the ability of groups to retain profits—GUSA Senator Colton Malkerson (COL ’13) said SAC has been resistant to holding open votes, redistributing its  reserves to clubs, and changing the way SAC commissioners are elected.

Since the e-mail went out, club leaders have been considering how proposed cuts may affect their organizations.

“My very first reaction [to Amponsah’s e-mail] was, ‘This is like a bad divorce,’” Erwin Knippenberg (SFS ’11), former president of Amnesty International, said. Knippenberg said he has worked with SAC for three years. “It sounds that SAC doesn’t need to make all those reforms, or immediately, it just needs to be a bit more conciliating. A little compromise both ways wouldn’t hurt, and holding student clubs hostage is shameful on both sides.”

In her e-mail, Amponsah wrote that SAC may need to decrease clubs’ standard operating budgets, which would potentially harm groups like the Georgetown University Grilling Society. GUGS President Greg Bohn (COL ’11) said he was not too concerned because GUGS recoups the money in profits and remains fairly self sufficient, but the dispute between GUSA and SAC “creates uncertainty,” since the group sometimes requires start up money at the beginning of the year.

Other organizations are considering scaling back programming or paying more out of pocket for events. International Relations Club Chair Michael Karno (SFS ’10) said that if its funding is cut, members may have to pay more to travel to Model UN conferences or SAC may decide to cut the number of trips. College Democrats President Bryan Woll (COL ‘12) said if SAC cuts allocations rather than cutting back on programming, College Democrats leaders will probably pay for events out of their own pockets.

“It’s just the wrong way for student groups to operate, and it sends the wrong message that to operate a student group you have to spend your own money,” Woll said. “It’s not fair or sustainable.”

Woll said that while College Democrats support GUSA’s six recommendations—especially lump sum funding and increased accountability—it has had a good relationship with its SAC commissioner this year. Woll said he would like to see the conflict resolved because it unfairly puts students in the middle.

“We don’t appreciate being put in this situation,” Woll said. “The burden of the standoff is now on our shoulders.”

Knippenberg said SAC’s plan to cut down on funding to clubs seems like political maneuvering to gain sympathy. On the other hand, he said he thinks GUSA is using the GUSA Fund to act as an alternative to SAC, which he does not think is a viable solution either.

“My one fear with that is that GUSA seems to be plagued with favoritism and nepotism,” Knippenberg said. “SAC is harsh, but SAC is harsh on everybody … [the GUSA Fund is] a brand new process. I don’t know how fully set up it is.”

Amponsah said she is disheartened that the disagreement is affecting student clubs, but that GUSA’s recommendations require more deliberation before they are implemented.

Amponsah said making SAC more accountable to student organizations is something SAC wants to look into, but she is unsure about how to create a system where all 87 SAC-funded clubs have a say.

According to Amponsah’s e-mail, SAC recently learned that the new recommendation for its reserve fund balance is $150,000, rather than the old figure of $215,000. Director of Student Programs Erika Cohen-Derr said that both the Office of Student Affairs and the Office of Financial Affairs reevaluate target reserve account balances and occasionally readjust the targets, as they did a few weeks ago.

In cutting their Student Activities Fee allocation, the Finance and Appropriations Committee hopes that SAC will use their excess reserves to fund clubs, but SAC is instead considering using the excess funds for capital improvements like increasing student space.

But Amponsah said she is “adamant” about the issue of closed votes. She said SAC has received a lot of negative feedback from both the student body and the University about its decisions, and she would not want individual commissioners to be attacked for their votes.

Amponsah said she sees the conflict as a power struggle, and she may “review whether engaging with GUSA is worthwhile.”

Malkerson said regardless of what GUSA allocates to SAC, clubs will be guaranteed adequate funding.

“If clubs feel as if they are being harmed, that is not the fault of GUSA,” Malkerson said. “That is a decision that SAC commissioners have made… to spend their reserves on something else … If [clubs] can’t get [funding] from SAC, they can get it from the GUSA Fund.”

Malkerson said he believes GUSA and SAC will reach a good outcome.

“We’re going to get it right,” Malkerson said.

SAC will meet with its Finance and Appropriations Committee liaison, Greg Laverriere (COL ’12), on Thursday.

Regardless of your views on healthcare reform, every Georgetown student should be pushing to have this legislation included in the reconciliation bill. The reform of the federal student loan system is long overdue and dearly needed for students struggling to pay for college in today’s weak economy.

Although the exact language of the legislation has not yet been determined, it is expected to increase the value of individual Pell Grants, or at least prevent cuts to the program using the money saved by ending subsidies to private lenders. Pell Grants are given by the federal government to students who demonstrate outstanding financial need.

This year, Georgetown has started to address its lack of socio-economic diversity by increasing available scholarship money through the 1789 Initiative. Increased federal aid will only boost these efforts.  More generous Pell Grants would provide money to students from the poorest backgrounds, students that often choose not attend or apply to Georgetown for financial reasons.

The legislation is expected to secure funds for middle class students as well, not just the poorest students.  About 55 percent of Georgetown students receive some form of financial aid, according to Andy Pino, Georgetown’s director of media relations. Much of this assistance comes from the Perkins Loan Program, which is expected to be extended for another year under the proposed legislation. The Perkins Loan program gives funds to participating universities, which then loan the money out at a low interest rate. The interest paid on the loans goes into the pool of money that universities can loan out in later years. Georgetown has used the Perkins Loan Program for several years and would benefit from its continuation.

The good news for Georgetown students is that many groups on campus have worked to get the legislation passed.

Georgetown’s Office of Federal Relations is working in support of the legislation, which it should be. Assistant Vice President of Federal Relations Scott Fleming (SFS ’72) said that he and his office had been in direct contact with congressmen and aides on the Hill about the bill, and that Georgetown-affiliated associations have written letters in support of the legislation. Although the University itself has not written an official letter in support of the legislation, Fleming said that his office has been advocating for the legislation informally.

Georgetown’s College Democrats have also pushed for the reform, calling senators to voice their support for the measure.

College Democrats President Bryan Woll (COL ’12) noted that the issue of student aid reform was of special importance to the College Democrats and to Georgetown students.

“It’s something that really brings politics home for students,” Woll said. “This is an issue students can really relate to and see how legislation on Capitol Hill can have an impact on their lives.”

The College Republicans criticized the decision to insert the student aid bill into the reconciliation bill, saying healthcare and student aid should be considered separately. The reality, though, is that neither the student reform bill nor the healthcare bill can reasonably expect to garner the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster in the Senate, and reconciliation is the only hope for both bills, which explains why they have been tacked together.

Whichever political strategy  is employed, every student should support the passage of this reconciliation bill, because all students will benefit from the diversity that comes when students from all backgrounds can afford to attend Georgetown.

Want to debate the process with Galen? E-mail him at gweber@georgetownvoice.com

Saxa Politica is a bi-weekly column on campus news and politics

ACROSS

1. Sparrow or Morgan (abbr.)
5. Practicer of Eastern religion
10. Attempt
14. Flu
15. Perpendicular to a keel
16. Zip
17. Uncool
18. Tiny
19. Spoken
20. Former Louvre entrance fee
22. Tournament success
ingredient
24. Formerly Guinea’s currency
26. Take to court
27. Chicago’s hrs.
30. They get cut down in
April
32. Rice Krispie
37. __ __ mode
38. Utopian
40. Farm measure
41. Keepsake
43. Lottery winnings, maybe
(abbr.)
44. Cobwebbed room
45. Computer company
46. Lean
48. The best (abbr.)
49. Workshop in space
52. Find in a dirty magazine
53. Some nouns (abbr.)
54. Tint
56. Dry
58. Bright
63. Plan
67. Tibetan teacher
68. Concur
70. Among
71. Always
72. Machinery’s noise
73. Pleasant
74. Cozy rooms
75. Rocklike
76. Crafts’ complement

DOWN

1. Leg muscle
2. Seaweed substance
3. Shoe brand
4. Adolescents
5. Bothered
6. Computer giant
7. Tidy
8. Hills’ complement
9. German letter topper
10. Winter weather
11. Tropical root
12. Jewish month
13. Hesitate
21. Jaded person
23. Mediterranean par example
25. Things
27. Poker player’s need
28. Smooth
29. Add up
31. Boat movers
33. Consume
34. Something a child might do
35. Sound a bird might make
36. Religious groups
39. South American animal
42. Sick
44. Top level of a house
47. Flower shop
50. Put together
51. Rules for a group
55. Octet
57. Capital of Bangladesh
58. Ran away
59. Wash
60. Prophesy
61. Boat movers
62. Group of three
64. Arabic commander
65. Make money
66. Totals
69. European sea bird

The Hoyas had just lost to the Mountaineers in the Big East Championship finals, in a game that came down to the final seconds. Chris Wright had been just inches away from tying the game as time expired, but his shot fell short and Georgetown’s week in New York ended with a 60-58 defeat.

Judging by the funereal atmosphere as they addressed the press, it may have seemed like the Hoyas season had just come to the end. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. If anything, Georgetown’s experience in the Big East tournament was a rebirth. After ending the regular season on something of a slide, losing four of their last six games, the Hoyas vanquished three opponents in three days, and came within a three-pointer of being crowned the best team in what many consider to be the best conference in college basketball.

Georgetown’s performance was impressive enough to earn a number three seed in the NCAA Tournament, up from projections as low as six before the conference tournament began. The Hoyas had convinced many people, including the selection committee, that they were a potential Final Four contender. But at that moment, there was no way they could look to the future.

“It’s hard to analyze that right now just because I’m extremely disappointed,” Georgetown head coach John Thompson III said. “We’ve got three guys up here with me that are extremely disappointed. We have a locker room back down the hall with a bunch of other guys that are disappointed.”

Seated alongside Thompson were Wright, Greg Monroe, and Austin Freeman. Their coach did not need to point out their disappointment—it was visible in their sullen expressions, in the way they hung their heads in their hands. Earlier in the season this group had said there was no such thing as a moral victory, and they backed up their talk on Saturday night. They had come to New York with one goal: to leave as Big East champions. And they had failed.

“Me and Austin, being the leaders of this team, we emphasize that we didn’t come out here to beat Syracuse or to beat one team,” Wright had said after the Hoyas’ quarterfinals upset of the Orange. “We want to win the whole thing.”

But even if the Hoyas would not acknowledge any moral victory, they could not ignore the three actual victories that they earned in the tournament. Georgetown accomplished something in New York. The young Hoyas, many of whom were playing on the biggest stage of their basketball careers, entered the crucible of the Big East tournament, and they thrived.

Few had expected Georgetown, the tournament’s eighth seed, to make a deep run in New York. Their season-ending woes, kicked off by a loss to lowly Rutgers, earned the Hoyas with the dreaded inconsistency label—they were talented, but couldn’t be trusted to come to play every game. Well aware of the doubters, this squad entered the postseason with something to prove.

“I think this team is playing with a chip on its shoulder,” Wright said during the tournament run. “We’re really coming out and being aggressive and attacking people, because we know what we can do and we know what we’re capable of.”

Now people know what the Hoyas are capable of. They’re capable of beating three tough teams in three days. They’re capable of taking down an NCAA tournament number one seed. And not only did Georgetown show its capabilities, it showed it can and will fulfill them.

Indeed, the Big East tournament seemed to be the Hoyas’ time to right the wrongs of the regular season and disprove any conclusions that were drawn from previous failures. Their trip to New York turned into a Tarantino-esque tour of revenge—albeit without a Hollywood ending. All four of Georgetown’s opponents had beaten the team earlier in the year, and at least in the case of the first three, the Hoyas emphatically exacted their vengeance.

The players quickly admitted that the opportunity for payback gave them some extra motivation. After they earned their berth in the finals, Wright, Monroe, and Freeman—Georgetown’s “Big Three”—were asked if revenge was a motivating factor, and they answered quickly, in unison: “Yes.”

“For the record, yes,” Monroe reiterated, making sure no one misunderstood what the Hoyas were playing for.

The first victim of the fired-up Georgetown squad was South Florida, who had dealt the Hoyas an embarrassing home loss in early February. There was no hope for an upset this time around. Georgetown took the lead early and never looked back, winning by a margin of 20 points.

The Bulls, however, were little more than a tune-up. Georgetown was the higher seeded team, and USF suffered the disadvantage of playing on one day’s rest. Twenty-four hours later, the Hoyas would have to play from that same position, against no less a team than Big East regular season champion Syracuse. And the Orange, of course, had already beaten the Hoyas twice.

It didn’t help matters that, after the elimination of St. John’s, Syracuse was the closest thing to a home team at the Big East tournament. The color orange was ubiquitous around Madison Square Garden that afternoon. It was unavoidable—an hour before tip-off, the Syracuse band took over the concourse outside Tower A of the arena, creating an impromptu pep rally and an intimidating sight for any Georgetown fans coming to the game.

But it was hardly as if the Hoyas were walking into the Carrier Dome. The all-inclusive set-up of the Big East tournament, and the aura of the Garden, prevent any matchup from becoming like just another home or away game.

“It’s crazy,” Freeman said. “It’s a lot of fun just to be playing in the Mecca of basketball, in Madison Square Garden, and in New York.”

Especially in the first days of competition, the arena is a mixture of the entire conference, with fans of every school taking in the other games while waiting for their team to play. Even a sizable fan contingent can be overwhelmed by the support of thousands of spectators whose allegiance is up for grabs.

And then there is the spectacle that naturally arises from a big-time sporting event in the heart of New York City. The media flocks to the games, the fans who have obtained the limited student section tickets are a little more boisterous, and celebrities, from President Bill Clinton (SFS ’68) to director Spike Lee (a fervent Georgetown supporter), look on from courtside.

“If you can’t get excited to play in this building, in this tournament, you should be doing something else,” Thompson said.

The Hoyas were certainly excited, but they needed no special motivation against Syracuse. The way their biggest rival had defeated them previously—first mounting a comeback en route to a blowout, and then withstanding a furious Georgetown rally—left the Hoyas with the knowledge that they could outplay the Orange.

And in their third attempt, Georgetown did. The Hoyas hung tight with the Orange all game, never lapsing and allowing the kind of run that allowed their previous matchups to get out of hand. Syracuse, however, did stumble, and Georgetown took full advantage, going on an 18-2 run in the middle of the second half that secured the lead and the victory. With a final score of 91-84, the Hoyas clinched their biggest win of the season.

The key to beating the Orange had to be Wright. Considering the competition, the junior guard unquestionably played his best all-around game of the season, scoring 27 points, grabbing six rebounds, and handing out six assists.

“He really had a great game,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “I thought when he plays like that, that’s when they beat people.”

It was no surprise then that Wright was on top of his game for the entire tourney. After being snubbed for every level of All-Big East honors earlier in the week, he earned a well-deserved spot on the All-Tournament team, posting per game averages of 19.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in New York.

But the numbers don’t tell the whole story with Wright—the most impressive aspect of his game didn’t show up on the stat sheet. The point guard found the delicate balance between his role as facilitator and scorer. He worked to make his teammates better, but he had the sense to know when he needed to take over and score a crucial basket.

As a player whose biggest criticisms had been inconsistency and poor decision-making, Wright’s play was a revelation. By the end of the tournament, the Hoyas could put the ball in Wright’s hands with the utmost confidence, trusting the junior to make the right play. In the Big East tournament, Georgetown’s most vocal leader only had to lead by example.

“I think it was time for me to step up a little bit,” Wright said. “We just needed plays to win the game and I tried to do whatever I could to help us.”

Wright’s teammates were no slouches either. The point guard was joined on the All-Tournament team by Monroe, who challenged Wright for best Hoya performance of the week in their semifinal beatdown of Marquette. The sophomore big man was a threat for a triple-double all tourney, and against the Golden Eagles he nearly got one, with 23 points, 13 rebounds, and seven assists.

Monroe’s display in Madison Square Garden showed why he is a likely NBA lottery pick, and inspired some to question whether he belonged in the same class as Ewing, Mourning, and the other great Hoya centers of yore. The sophomore was a dominant interior presence at points, but nearly as often he was showing off his highly-touted passing skills. He let the game come to him, and didn’t worry how the nature of his game jelled with his 6-foot-11-inch frame.

“My nature is to win,” Monroe said. “Hitting the open man, scoring myself—when those opportunities present themselves I’m trying to take advantage of them.”

The Hoyas all did what they needed to win. When Freeman’s three-pointers weren’t falling, the junior guard started going inside. Despite throwing up on the sideline in multiple games, junior forward Julian Vaughn persevered to give Georgetown valuable minutes in the frontcourt. Seldom-used freshman Vee Sanford made the most of his time on the court, hitting a teardrop floater to give the Hoyas the lead for good against Syracuse.

Sophomore guard Jason Clark was the Hoya role player who made the biggest splash, averaging 16 points in Georgetown’s three wins, and filling in gaps on offense and defense wherever he was needed.

“We call Jason ‘Loose Change,’ because you never think about him,” Thompson said. “But if you keep collecting that loose change all of a sudden it adds up. Jason makes the hustle plays. He usually guards the opposition’s best perimeter player. He’s an underrated offensive player. He does the little things that make teams win.”

Of course, Georgetown wasn’t perfect, as the loss to West Virginia made clear. Every Hoya couldn’t be on all the time. Clark only had two points against the Mountaineers, and Vaughn picked up three fouls and fouled out in a span of 20 seconds. Perhaps most egregiously, the Hoyas got destroyed on the boards, allowing West Virginia 38 rebounds to their 24, including 20 offensive boards.

In the end, Georgetown couldn’t stop the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, Da’Sean Butler. With ten seconds left in the game, the senior forward, guarded by Monroe and Freeman, somehow found his way to the basket and rattled home the winning shot.

That left Wright with four seconds to mount a frantic drive down the court, but his desperate shot clanged off the front of the rim. He could do nothing but break down in Clark’s arms as the Big East champion Mountaineers celebrated.

Less than 24 hours after that crushing moment, however, the Hoyas were ready to move on. They returned to campus and received heroes’ welcomes in Leo’s, where the team gathered to watch the NCAA tournament selection show.

“Everyone out there understands that we did play well in New York,” Thompson said after the show. “We came up short. I think everyone realizes to some disagree how disappointing it is—particularly for the coach—but I think they appreciate the effort the guys gave, and we appreciate the support.”

The selection committee appreciated Georgetown’s effort in New York as well, rewarding the Hoyas with the number three seed in the Midwest Region. They tip off their tournament tonight at 7:25 p.m. against 14-seed Ohio in Providence.

With the distance of time, the sting of the last-second loss to West Virginia lessened, and the Hoyas were able to appreciate what they accomplished in the conference tournament.

“We found a rhythm,” Monroe said. “We found exactly what we can do and what we have to do to win games in a tournament scenario, and on a big stage.”

It may not have been enough to win the Big East, but that rhythm could carry Georgetown far in the NCAA tournament. The Hoyas all said that they have always had confidence in their team, and in New York they made that confidence evident to everyone else, proving they could compete with the best in the country every night.

But the Hoyas did not come into Madison Square Garden as a team fully formed. They grew over the course of those four days, their bonds forged by shared triumphs and failures.

The morning after the championship loss, they had already begun to realize what had happened. Clark took to Twitter: “This last week I really realized how much I love my teammates and how much we stay together,” he wrote.

By the time Georgetown prepared to leave for the NCAA tournament, the pain and sorrow present Saturday night had apparently faded. And while the Hoyas could not forget the game that got away, they looked back with a hint of fondness.

“That week we learned so much about our team, so much about ourselves,” Monroe said. “We accomplished a lot of things in that one week that we couldn’t have over the season.”

IMDB

South Korean director Bong Joon-ho has been making critically-lauded films for over a decade, striking international box office gold in 2006 with The Host, the highest grossing South Korean film of all time. His latest movie, Mother, follows one woman’s struggle to prove her mentally-challenged son’s innocence after he is accused of murder. Through a translator, Bong discussed Western cinema, the role of sex in film, and the importance of actors’ input with the Voice’s Mark Stern.

In Mother, there’s a very strong Hitchcockian influence in terms of story and style. Are you inspired by Hitchcock, or other classic directors of suspense?

I do like Hitchcock quite a bit … With Mother, I wasn’t trying to be conscious of Hitchcock and his style, but as we were making the movie, I noticed that some elements were very similar to Hitchcock’s films. I watched Psycho quite a few times while working on Mother, and the mother-son relationship there really contributed to the connection between the mother and son in my film.

Mother has strong incestuous undertones, but the exact nature of the mother-son relationship is never made explicit. How did you decide where to draw the line between what is shown and what must be inferred?

I did want to make the audience guess whether or not the two were crossing the line, but more importantly, I wanted to focus on the fact that both the mother and the son are incapable of having normal sexual relations. You can divide all the characters in the film into two groups: those who are capable of having sex and the ones who are not. The mother and the son are both incapable … It’s not that they don’t desire sex; they just aren’t able to have it. Conversely, the murder victim has sex all the time, yet she is forced to do it for a living, as much as she despises it … and so her sexual relations are not normal, either … Much is revealed about the characters through their bedroom activities.

Although the tone of Mother is extremely dark, there’s a strong element of humor throughout the film. What do you think is the role of comedy in a dramatic film?

Having the comical scene break up sad or scary moments [is] as instinctive as putting one foot in front of the other while walking. I also think that unexpected humor makes movies much more realistic. In our daily lives, we all experience that combination of many distinctive feelings coming together at odd times. We may be tempted to giggle at a funeral, or find ourselves incredibly lonely at a party. It’s a phenomenon that I can’t help but include in my films.

The performances in Mother are extremely naturalistic. How much freedom do you give your actors to interpret their characters?

All actors are unique, and their styles are all quite different. It’s the job and responsibility of the director to bring them all together and harmonize the different styles. In the case of Mother … I had complete control over the acting. But in the case of The Host and Memories of Murder, I gave the actors more space.

Did you have Kim Hye-Ja in mind for the role of the mother as you were writing it?

Generally, a director writes a script [before working] on casting, but for Mother it was the reverse. That whole role was written for her … If Kim Hye-ja had refused the role, there would be no film.

How do you feel about the lingering rumors that your film The Host will be remade soon in America?

I hear they’re working on it right now, but honestly I don’t have anything to do with it. I won’t know anything about it until everybody else does.