Tuesday night, the Georgetown men’s basketball team (9-3 overall, 1-1 Big East) completed its strangest week in recent memory, losing to the Seton Hall Pirates (6-7 overall, 1-3 Big East) 68-54 in Big East Conference play.
The week began Sunday with Georgetown winning in overtime against West Virginia, the Hoyas’ first win in their last five OT games, followed by a highly publicized tirade by usually mild-mannered Head Coach Craig Esherick over officiating. On Tuesday, the Hoyas were thoroughly dominated by the Pirates, a team Georgetown defeated by 26 points last season and one that had lost its previous nine Big East contests.
“We needed a win,” said Seton Hall Assistant Coach Billy Garrett. “Probably the only people that expected us to win was our players and coaching staff, but we needed it.”
Georgetown played sloppy throughout the Seton Hall game, especially in the first half, committing 12 turnovers. Despite the Hoyas’ overwhelming size advantage, the Pirates, led by first-year forward Kelly Whitney, controlled the paint. Most telling, junior power forward and reigning Big East Player of the Week Mike Sweetney, only took three shots in the half, demonstrating Georgetown’s inability to execute their game plan.
At the 10-minute mark of the first half, the Pirates cut down on mistakes of their own and outscored Georgetown 20-10 for the remainder of the half, including a 9-2 run to end it.
In the second half, Georgetown made occasional runs, but each time Seton Hall was able to counter them effectively. The closest the Georgetown came was five, at 51-46, with 6:26 remaining. At least in the second half Georgetown was able to feed Sweetney, who finished with 22 points and nine rebounds to lead the Hoyas.
Sophomore guard John Allen led the Pirates by breaking out of a terrible early season slump. He scored 27 points, including shooting 10 of 10 from the foul line and put Georgetown away by hitting eight straight foul shots in the final 2:20.
The game saw the worst of Georgetown’s two major, mid-season problems: the regression of senior center Wesley Wilson and poor shooting from the guards.
Wilson, who seemed to have turned the corner after a solid 11-point, 10-rebound effort in the Hoyas’ Dec. 28 loss at Virginia, has been invisible in Georgetown’s last three outings. He scored four points in only 13 minutes in the Duke loss, played only two minutes in the West Virginia game and had one point in 10 minutes of action against the Pirates. As a result, the Hoyas were out-rebounded by both the Blue Devils and the Pirates (35-34), a category the larger Hoyas should have dominated.
Even worse has been the guards’ outside shooting. Before the game, sophomore guard Drew Hall had been shooting just 31 percent from the floor and a heinous 16.7 percent from the three-point line. Even though he has not had shooting success this season, Hall took seven shots against the Pirates and only hit one, including a 1-6 effort from three-point range. Added to Hall’s pathetic output, fellow sophomore guard Tony Bethel shot 0-9 from the floor, junior swingman Gerald Riley 1-6 and junior guard RaMell Ross 1-5. Combined, the Hoyas shot an appalling 32 percent in the game, including 2-20 from behind the three-point line.
Despite Georgetown’s miserable game last night, the most notable Georgetown news of the week was Sunday’s post-game outburst by Esherick over a perceived lack of respect for Sweetney in the post by officials, who rarely call fouls against the oft-double-teamed star. Some highlights:
“[The lack of foul calls against Sweetney] is crap. That is crap. It is unfair and it’s gotta stop; it’s gotta stop; it’s gotta stop; it’s gotta stop right now.”
“I will pay a referee to sit in the post and let somebody beat the crap out of him and see how he likes it; see how his back likes it. See how his arms like it.”
Although Esherick said that he thought he would be suspended by the Big East for the Seton Hall game, he resolved the issue with Big East commissioner Michael Tranghese in a closed-door meeting Monday. The Big East has never suspended a coach for comments about officials.
“Mike usually deals with these things internally,” said conference spokesman John Paquette. “There is no suspension.”
Esherick’s unexpected tirade added an exclamation point to the Hoyas most exciting game all season, an 84-82 overtime victory over West Virginia. Despite holding a 63-52 advantage with 7:15 left, Georgetown was unable to hold off the Mountaineers, who battled back and took a 66-65 lead, with 3:10 remaining. West Virginia increased the lead to five with 1:02 left, but the Hoyas forced themselves back into the game. Senior forward Courtland Freeman hit a jumper to cut the lead to three, and two subsequent Mountaineer turnovers allowed Bethel to hit a three with 2.1 seconds left.
In overtime, Sweetney took over. He scored six of the Hoyas 10 points to cap his career-high-tying 35 points. He added 19 rebounds and forced a turnover on Mountaineer first-year center Kevin Pittsnogle at the end of OT to seal Georgetown’s victory.
“It was a pretty tough battle for us tonight,” said Sweetney. “We’re working on winning the dogfights this year.”
The Hoyas’ next game will be on Saturday at home against conference rival St. John’s at noon. With the loss to Seton Hall, the Hoyas badly need a victory against the Red Storm before the more difficult section of their Big East schedule (two games each against top-25 foes Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Notre Dame). But regardless of the outcome, it is improbable that Georgetown will top this past week in bizarreness.
