The men’s basketball team isn’t undefeated anymore. As Head Coach Craig Esherick said after the team’s loss to Pittsburgh, going undefeated in the Big East would be next to impossible. Eventually, the Hoyas were going to have one of those nights. It happened Saturday.
Does this loss suggest that more losses are on the way? The answer to this question is far more important than assessing which Hoyas played bad on Saturday.
Will Notre Dame be able to slow down the tempo of the game like Pittsburgh did Saturday? Will Syracuse hit 60 percent of its second-half shots and 10 three pointers like Pittsburgh did?
In all likelihood, the answer to both questions is no, but that doesn’t mean Georgetown will run the table in the Big East.
The Hoyas have now played 17 games. It’s no coincidence that two of Georgetown’s worst outings were also games when junior point guard Kevin Braswell had some issues with fouls. Against Louisville, sophomore Demetrius Hunter and senior Anthony Perry held things together. Against Pittsburgh, the Hoyas lost their chance to put the game out of reach early when Braswell went to the bench with two fouls in the first six minutes.
In short, the maxim “When Braswell goes down, so do the Hoyas” doesn’t just apply to injuries, it applies to 90 percent of the minutes the Hoyas will play this season.
Esherick was right on taking Braswell out of the game. The problems were that Hunter had just gone to the bench tired and Perry didn’t have his shooting radar locked on target.
Braswell plays a ton of minutes, so there are going to be a few games when he picks up silly fouls. The Hoyas are going to have problems when this happens. And there’s not much Esherick can do about it. Perry and Hunter are the only ones that can.
Braswell’s importance isn’t the only lesson from the Pitt loss. Contrary to the evidence form the team’s first 16 games, it is possible for all three of the team’s star big men to have a bad game at the same time. Esherick can do something about this: Give youngsters Wesley Wilson, Victor Samnick and, if necessary, Courtland Freeman more playing time when the big three all play badly.
Against Pittsburgh, Wilson was one of few Hoyas that had a solid first half. Hitting his only two shots, blocking a shot, passing for an assist and grabbing a rebound in only six minutes. He didn’t play in the second half. Samnick, for his part, wasn’t great in his eight minutes; but he was the only Hoya to score in the final four minutes, possibly because he was well rested. Freeman, who has been battling injuries all season, didn’t play.
The Hoyas have some great stars, but they also have depth. Esherick knows this. Most of the time, he takes advantage of it. Saturday, Esherick gave in to the fact that the Hoyas weren’t blowing their opponents away and relied a bit too heavily on the players that delivered wins over Seton Hall. Against Pittsburgh, it wasn’t their night.
Count on Esherick to get the balance between his stars and his depth most of the time, but keep in mind, he has his bad nights too. The Hoyas aren’t going to finish the year 35-1, but they still look ready to rock along.
