Supposedly revenge is best served cold, but Georgetown’s red-hot win over Syracuse was about as good as revenge gets: Oranges were flying, students stormed the court first out of joy and then in order to swarm around a camera like the apes around the monolith in 2001.
Preston Shumpert was reduced to passing up open three pointers and Jim Boeheim reduced to saying that storming the court doesn’t mean “shit” anymore.
But the past is past, and it’s time to look to the future, aka the magic crystal ball of answers.
First we need to figure out which questions to ask:
There are a few questions we’ll keep in the back of our minds, but that aren’t worthy of the crystal ball. For example, will Lee Scruggs get more playing time? Is Demetrius Hunter really an awesome shooter? Is this Hunter achilles injury a myth?
The most immediate question on everyone’s mind should be, will the Hoyas make it three for three in revenge games? With Pittsburgh and Syracuse put back in their place, can the Hoyas get revenge on the road (as they did versus Pitt) against a top-quality opponent (as they did against Syracuse)? Will Georgetown win round II of the Great Schism: 2001?
(If you’re not following the soothsayer-crystal-ball dialogue: will Georgetown beat Notre Dame this Sunday?)
If you saw how badly Notre Dame played against UConn on “Big Monday” then you should have some confidence. If you consider that Notre Dame has already clinched its top seed in the Big East Tournament while Georgetown will probably need to win to get the second seed, you should get even more confident since Georgetown showed that it responds well when it needs games more than its opponents.
But if you saw either round 1 of the Great Schism 2001, the depressing Jan. 27 meeting or last season’s final-home-game thrashing against the Irish, you might want to reconsider.
Crystal ball says: Damn you for asking such a complex question, but the increase in Nat Burton’s health should decrease the impact of that Graves bozo and Boumtje-Boumtje will be better this time. Georgetown 75 Notre Dame 68.
Question No. 2: Since Georgetown will have the second seed and a bye, will it win its first Big East Title since the great 1980s?
Crystal ball says: It’s possible, but count on a semifinal loss to Boston College. Georgetown is 1-3 against the East this season, and Boston College is king of the East, so the karma is not good. On the other hand, Georgetown has the memory of last season’s Kevin-Braswell-last-second-heroics victory and Demetrius Hunter should hold Troy Bell in check, unless he hurts that achilles against St. John’s in the quarterfinals?bad karma.
As Head Coach Craig Esherick indicated after the Syracuse game, Georgetown is a dramatically different team when Hunter is around to take some of the pressure off of Kevin Braswell.
Response: Damn you crystal ball, how can you say Georgetown will lose? This is a matter of theological importance?not subject to something as silly as karma. (Don’t listen to the stupid ball, they’ll take down the Eagles if nothing weird happens in the quarterfinals and the revenge factor should get them past Providence in the finals.)
