All right, admit it. There was a point in this magical mystery ride of a basketball season when you thought your heralded Hoyas might not even make the NCAA Tournament. After losses to Oregon and Old Dominion, those who bled blue and gray were feeling blue and sporting some grayish facial hue wondering if the Sports Illustrated jinx had struck again. At that time, the Hoyas were about as likely to make a tourney run as Britney Spears is likely to do a shampoo ad any time in the near future.
Five months later, look how far they’ve come. Jeff Green went from lethargic to inspiring and the team went from unranked underachievers to Big East regular season and tournament champs. As a reward, they’ve been given a 2-seed in the East bracket and have been recognized as one of the best eight teams in the country—right where they were supposed to be back in November. There were talks of a possible 1-seed being offered to Georgetown, but even Hoya Blue with its mass e-mail list couldn’t elicit those kind of far-flung results from the tournament selection committee.
The suits have pitted Georgetown against the lesser of two Bruins (Belmont, not UCLA) in their first round match-up. These net rippers from Nashville had their opponents in the Atlantic Sun Conference singing the blues after their long-range assault carried them to the conference championship. Coach Rick Byrd’s group of silky smooth slingers are rarely scared to jack up a three, but they stay so far from the paint you’d think they were afraid of lead poisoning. Four of Belmont’s bombers have attempted 120 three pointers, with Andy Wicke the archetype of the team’s philosophy. He’s tried a whopping 33 shots inside the arc, compared to his 164 attempted beyond it. As long as the Hoyas’ wing players can defend the long ball with their length, round one should be as easy as it’s billed.
Now, without jinxing the sauce out of John Thompson III and his boys (feel free to be knocking on wood, crossing your fingers or petting your trusty troll doll for the remainder of the column), here’s how the rest of the tourney will stack up. Georgetown will glide into the round of 32 to face the Eagles of Boston College and the Hoyas will soon realize that Al Skinner’s squad is as overrated as a visit to Plymouth Rock. With Sean Williams, the most athletic big man in the country, the Eagles could have given Hoya Nation a legitimate scare. But now, after he’s been dismissed from the team for detrimental conduct, they stand about as much chance as a drippy castle surviving a typhoon. Plus, Green will find that ACC Player of the Year Jared Dudley plays defense like he’s stuck in the mud and exploit him for backdoor cuts, lifting his team to the Sweet Sixteen for a second straight year.
From there the Hoyas will march deeper into the Eastern Region, which many analysts are calling the toughest bracket in the tournament. Here they’ll squash the hopes of the Vanderbilt faithful, who thought their six-seeded Commodores had a chance against the Blue and Gray during their second match-up of the year. Hibbert will repeat his performance from earlier this year, hurting their swarm of undersized bigs for 18 points and 10 rebounds. Then, as an added bonus, after slaying two of Nashville’s tournament representatives, Coach Thompson will have a country song or two written about how his Princeton-style offense ruined spring down South.
While some will hope to see Texas’ raw talent Kevin Durant square off against the heady Green in the Elite Eight, they will instead get a battle of the college game’s two best 6’9” men. Green, steady as a surgeon, will rub noses (albeit through a mask) with UNC’s Tyler Hansbrough, who could be sufficiently described as a run-away train with a broken nose and good hands. One will be physical while the other will be elusive, and the better all-around player will emerge as the victor.
If everything falls into place, the Hoyas should wind up with a spot in the Promised Land: The Final Four. Right where us liars say we knew they would be all along.
