At 6-foot-11, it would be an understatement to say Greg Monroe stands tall. But in the semifinals of the Big East tournament against an undersized Marquette, Monroe wasn’t just bigger; he looked like a man amongst boys.
The sophomore center from New Orleans towered over the Golden Eagles literally and figuratively. He grabbed more rebounds than their center, passed out more assists than their point guard, and scored more points than anyone on the floor.
Monroe was just one element of Georgetown’s all-around dominance of Marquette. The Hoyas never trailed, beating the Golden Eagles 80-57 to advance to the Big East finals Saturday night.
“They absolutely annihilated us,” Marquette head coach Buzz Williams said. “Annihilated us inside. Got beat by 20 on the boards. It’s hard to beat a team when you score 50, 60 percent of your points in the paint. I thought they were great. I thought that every player that played was really good, was hard for us to guard.”
Marquette, which played no one taller than 6-foot-7, knew it was in for an uphill battle against a lengthy Georgetown squad. The Hoyas made good use of their size advantage, outrebounding the Golden Eagles 44-24 and scoring 46 of their points in the paint. But height alone can hardly explain how thoroughly Georgetown outclassed a team that had not lost a game by more than nine points all season.
“They have not had height all year, and they’ve done a very good job of not letting people expose that,” Georgetown head coach John Thompson III said. “They do a very good job of not letting you just take advantage of them in the paint. We were able to do that today. There’s no doubt about that. And I think we just got on a roll.”
That roll started with the opening tip, as the Hoyas started the game on a 7-0 run that forced Williams to call timeout barely a minute into play. Marquette remained competitive for a while, tying the game twice and cutting the lead to one point with 13 minutes remaining in the game, but Georgetown was ready to answer every Golden Eagle run with one of their own.
Monroe had a hand in every one of those runs. It showed in the box score: the big man had 13 rebounds, seven assists, and 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting. It didn’t surprise those who are familiar with the big man.
“We all know Greg is a phenomenal player,” junior guard Chris Wright said. “It’s not like he just started doing this in the Big East tournament. So we know he’s a great player. We know he can pass, he can score. And one thing that we really have come to notice is that he rebounds like anybody.”
Monroe put on a performance that had people making comparisons to the great Hoya big men of the past. The sophomore, of course, demurred.
“I’m honored to follow people that were so good here,” he said. “But I don’t compare myself to them. I just come out and try to do things for my team.”
Still, it was more than just Monroe driving the Georgetown blowout Friday night. Wright continued to shine under the lights of Madison Square Garden, scoring 15 points. That total was matched by sophomore guard Jason Clark. And junior guard Austin Freeman, who has yet to connect on a three-pointer in the tournament, nevertheless came up big, with 12 points and eight rebounds.
Junior forward Jimmy Butler led the Golden Eagles with 17 points and five boards.
After Marquette cut the Georgetown lead to one in the second half, the Hoyas kicked into high gear, tearing of a 22-5 run over the next eight minutes.
“They got the rhythm of the game after we went on a spurt,” Thompson said. “Then we just were able to slowly and methodically—as the second half went on—to pull away from them.”
The Hoyas separated themselves from the Golden Eagles however they could. They worked the glass and got offensive rebounds and putbacks. They attacked the rim and got to the foul line. They made defensive stops, got blocks, and scored in transition. Monroe even hit a three-pointer.
It was a consistent, wire-to-wire performance—the third from Georgetown in three days. The Hoyas, whose inconsistency in the regular season saddled them with the eighth seed in the tournament, have been their best in New York, fulfilling all the promise shown in wins over Duke and Villanova.
The final test comes tomorrow night at 9 p.m., when Georgetown will face West Virginia for the conference title. The Mountaineers, like the three teams who came before them, defeated the Hoyas in the regular season.
“At the end of the day, now it’s the championship game,” Monroe said. “I know as a team we came here to win this tournament, and, I mean, tomorrow the lights are going to be on. We have to be prepared to play.”
It makes me proud to be a Hoya, regardless of wins or losses, when people like Chris Wright and Greg Monroe(and the rest of the team) represent us on the court like they have been. Really great people.