It was a case of postseason déjà vu for the Hoyas on Friday night, as they fell victim to a sharpshooting underdog in their opening NCAA Tournament game for the second year in a row. Virginia Commonwealth outplayed Georgetown from the opening tip, en route to a 74-56 victory.
The Hoyas ended the season losing five straight games, all by double-digit margins. It was a demoralizing end to a once promising season that saw Georgetown open with an 11-1 record and at one point win eight consecutive Big East games.
Georgetown’s misery was evident in the faces and voices of head coach John Thompson III and seniors Chris Wright and Austin Freeman as they addressed the media after the game.
“It’s hard when you get to this point and the season’s over,” Thompson said. “I end up thinking about players more so than the specific game right now. We’ve got a group of seniors—Chris, Austin, Julian, and Ryan Dougherty—four years goes fast, and they’ve given a lot and they’ve worked their behinds off. And that’s tough. A lot will be said about what this group did or didn’t do in their four years in the postseason, but they gave a lot to this school. And we just want to thank them.”
There’s not a lot to say about the group’s postseason accomplishments: they were few and far between. Wright and Freeman, the only of the four to spend all four years at Georgetown, joined the team following the 2007 Final Four season. They lost to lower-seeded teams on the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament three times, failing to make the tournament entirely in 2009.
Prior to the game, the players emphasized the importance of taking advantage of their one last chance at postseason glory. Instead, the Hoyas were taken advantage of by VCU squad motivated by a perceived lack of respect from the media. The Rams torched the Hoyas, hitting 12 threes on 48 percent shooting from deep, while simultaneously locking down Georgetown’s perimeter threats.
“They shot the ball better,” Wright said. “They beat us.”
With the exception of sophomore Hollis Thompson (a career-high 26 points on 8-for-10 shooting), the Hoyas were as cold as the Rams were hot. The vaunted backcourt trio of Wright, Freeman, and junior Jason Clark combined to go 0-for-16 from beyond the arc.
“Georgetown has a terrific backcourt, and three very talented guys,” Shaka Smart said. “I challenged our backcourt guys…to step up and be better. And they were much, much better tonight.”
The Rams’ backcourt players were led by senior Brandon Rozzell, who came off the bench to score 26 points, including six three-pointers.
“We clearly did not protect the three-point line as we needed too,” Thompson said. “We gave good shooters open shots and they made them.”
Defensive lapses were just one of many woes suffered by Georgetown on Friday. The Hoyas had no low post presence, with Julian Vaughn scoring the only two points for the Georgetown big men. And the Rams’ swarming defense and full court pressure suffocated the Hoyas. Besides making Georgetown take bad shots, VCU’s defense forced 17 turnovers.
Wright, who returned to the starting lineup after missing four games with a broken left hand, was supposed to help steady the Hoyas against the pressure. That wasn’t the case, as the point guard struggled, committing four turnovers and going 3-for-13 from the field. After the game, he said his hand had no effect on his play.
Wright and his classmates finish their careers with three 20-win season and a legacy of marquee wins over teams like Duke and conference rivals Syracuse and Connecticut. Both Freeman and Wright have garnered All-Big East accolades. But the dejection on their faces after the game showed that they know that at Georgetown, success is not judged by individual awards or regular season performances.
“I feel like me, Chris, Julian, and Ryan, we did what we can to try and help this program,” Freeman said. “We did the best we can while we were here.”
