With the regular season soon wrapping up and the commencement of some conference tournaments as early as next week, college basketball fans will soon welcome the beginning of March Madness. The question, however, remains whether the Georgetown men’s basketball team (16-11, 7-8 Big East) will or will not partake in the madness. After yet another week of inconsistent play, including an 82-67 road loss to Seton Hall (14-13, 5-9 Big East) and a 74-52 home win against Xavier (18-9, 8-6 Big East), that question appears far from resolved with three games remaining in the Hoyas’ regular season.
Against Seton Hall this past Thursday, Georgetown struggled right from the tip-off. The Pirates dictated the pace and the tempo early on in the first half, using their hot shooting to jump out to a 37-28 halftime lead they never turned back from. The Hoyas failed to muster much of anything on the offensive end as they shot 42 percent from the field, compared to the Pirates’ 55 percent. With the win, the perennial cellar-dwelling Pirates swept the Hoyas in the regular season for the first time since the 2002-03 season, an ominous sign for Georgetown fans as the Hoyas did not make the NCAA Tournament that year.
Sophomore guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera provided the only bright spot for the Blue and Gray, scoring a team-high 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting while dishing out three assists. Smith-Rivera converted all three of his three-point attempts as well. In contrast, senior guard Markel Starks could not find his form from the outside, as he went 0-for-3 from three-point range. For the game, Starks scored 13 points, a total much lower than where the Hoyas need him in order to remain competitive.
Just a little over 36 hours after the deflating loss to Seton Hall, the Hoyas regained their form against Xavier in a wire-to-wire victory. In an effort to stem the tide of slow starts for the Hoyas at beginning of games, Head Coach John Thompson III inserted junior guard Jabril Trawick into the starting lineup to replace freshman forward Reggie Cameron. The move certainly paid tremendous dividends for the Hoyas, as Trawick scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, distributed four assists, and brought a much-needed defensive intensity to the floor.
“Just when he is on the court, we are a better team,” Thompson said of his decision. “I liked bringing him off the bench because we were getting a fusion off the bench. But we were just getting too many slow starts. We risk not having as much coming off the bench, but it turned out okay today and we are probably going to stick with it.”
After his prior disappointing performance, senior guard Markel Starks rediscovered his shooting touch, scoring a game-high 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting. Starks, who was named to Big East Weekly Honor Roll for his play, also handed out four assists while only turning the ball over once. During the contest, the Hoyas only had three turnovers, their lowest total of the season.
“I think we just took great care of the basketball today. I also think our attention to detail was there,” Starks said. “We’ve missed that at times through the year, but it was a joy to play today. If we can sustain that effort and level of competitiveness every day, then we are going to do big things.”
After a disappointing past few games, the Georgetown frontcourt unit provided much-needed production on both ends of the floor. Senior forward Nate Lubick scored nine points and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds, junior forward Mikael Hopkins added eight points, and senior forward Aaron Bowen contributed seven points. Senior center Moses Ayegba also produced four points and three rebounds, before a second-half ankle injury limited him to only 16 minutes of playing times.
“[The frontcourt] had constant effort and they were a presence on the defensive end—on the boards, blocking shots. If our frontcourt shows up, we usually play well as a group,” Thompson said.
The Hoyas’ hope to bring the same effort into their next game on Thursday night, when they travel to face Marquette (16-11, 8-6 Big East) at 9:00 p.m. The Blue and Gray will look to avenge their earlier loss to the Golden Eagles, who defeated them 80-72 at Verizon Center on Jan. 20. While Thompson and his players say they only approach one game at a time, they realize that the Blue and Gray’s closing stretch will determine their postseason fate, both for seeding in the Big East Tournament and most importantly, the NCAA Tournament.
“Is this the time of the year you start picking your head up and looking around and saying, ‘Where do we stand?’ Yes,” Thompson said prior to the Xavier game. “But we know we’ve just got to get wins.”
