When the final buzzer went off at the Carrier Dome, the excitement set in pretty quickly for me as it did for most Hoya fans. How couldn’t it? We had just handily beaten Cuse on their court in Nowheresville, N.Y. for our ninth straight victory. But then my natural state of Georgetown cynicism set in. Where had I seen this type of season before?
Then I remembered Georgetown’s eight-game winning streak during the 2010-11 season from mid-January to mid-February, in which, they beat teams such as then-No. 8 Villanova, No. 15 Louisville, and most importantly, No. 12 Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. I remembered the great team they had with Austin Freeman and Chris Wright acting as the senior leaders, and Hollis Thompson, Jason Clark, and Julian Vaughn all serving as key role players. They had been ranked as high as ninth in the country but began to come unglued right before March Madness, and then really fell apart during tourney time, losing to Virginia Commonwealth University in the second round. While VCU did make it to the final four, Georgetown still had no business losing by 18 points.
As a senior, the worry consumes me. Will I really never get to see a Georgetown team get to the Sweet Sixteen as an undergrad? The 2009-10 and 2010-11 teams had been exceptional at times and had still lost by more than 14 points in first-round games. The 2011-12 team was also quite good and had the potential to go at least to the Sweet 16, but instead they fell in the Round of 32.
I’m stuck wondering why Georgetown just can’t go on hot streaks in March as opposed to January and February. Even so, I take comfort in a few things that differentiate this season from the others, such as the especially great team defense of this squad. But beyond that, I take comfort in one thing, or should I say person: Otto Porter.
Porter’s career-high 33 point performance at the Carrier Dome this past Saturday alerted the nation as to who he is and what this Georgetown team is capable of. A favorite to win the Big East Player of the Year Award and a solid candidate for the Naismith Player of the Year Award, Porter Jr.’s ability to take over a game is unmatched by anyone in recent Georgetown history. And he does so more quietly than anyone in college basketball. He does not need to take a lot of shots to get going like Russ Smith does, and he does not always need the ball in his hands to be productive like Michael Carter-Williams or Trey Burke do.
Porter is the ultimate team player, and that’s why national sportswriters haven’t really noticed him until now. He not only creates his own shots, but is an adept passer and demonstrates incredible intelligence and grit moving off the ball. Porter sees holes in the defense and shooting locations on the floor before anyone else, and when he get’s there he rarely misses—he’s shooting 50.8 percent from the field and 45.3 percent from three-point range.
On top of that, Porter is averaging 2 steals and close to 1 block per game, showing that he is capable of playing any position from the 2 guard to the 4. His pace and size aren’t outstanding, but he’s better than anyone in college basketball at being at the right place at the right time—something indicative of a basketball IQ that’s off the charts. Taking all that into consideration, it’s not a stretch to say he may be Georgetown’s best player since Allen Iverson.
And just as Porter is usually in the right place at the right time, this Georgetown team as a whole may be in the right place at the right time. The competition in college basketball this year has been notably weaker than it has in past years, and there is not one team that stands out. In fact, there appear to be about 15 teams that can win it all, as opposed to the usual 7 or 8 at this point in the year. That means that Georgetown, even if it fails to get a No. 1 or 2 seed, will not have to fear going up against a seemingly unbeatable, invincible team.
They will, however, still have to get past those troubling first and second rounds—or as the NCAA now calls them, the second and third rounds. But if anyone can help lead a team through those rounds, and maybe even onto the Final Four, it’s Otto Porter.
