Team Efficiency splits 2012 Wisconsin Georgetown Baylor

 As of games played on Tuesday Jan 10, only four teams are at the 30+ level: Ohio State (34.37), Syracuse (32.34), Kentucky (31.16), and Wisconsin (30.48).

I’d say that makes the Buckeyes, Orange, and Wildcats pretty good bets for an Elite Eight run or better, but you can’t trust Wisconsin no matter what the stats say. Twice in the past five tournaments the Badgers have gone into the tournament with a 30+ efficiency split. Two other times they were over 25. They have yet to make it out of the Sweet 16, and didn’t even get there twice. Until Bo Ryan shows his style can actually get the job done in the Tourney setting, I’m viewing their potential with a heavy dose of skepticism.

I said you can’t trust Wisconsin. Same goes with Georgetown. In 2007, their efficiency split was 35+ and they made the Final Four. In 2008, it was 30+ and they lost in the second round. The past two years, it was 25+ and 18+ and they got bounced in round 1. This year the 11th-ranked Hoyas are at just past 21. So even if they end up a 3- or 4-seed, beware of some serious upset potential.

Baylor is on course for a possible one seed, but their 23.83 efficiency split would be by far the lowest of any top seed in the past five years. In fact, only one two seed has had a lower split, and that was the 2010 Villanova team that got upset in the second round.

2012 Georgetown

December: Coach said that this team will be VERY good in November he just didn’t know when. They have all the athletes, all the skills you need to win deep in the tournament. They are just young. When I watched them, they did seem to have some issues in the 1/2 court and as the announcer said, you can not let them get into a rhythm. Pressing, switching defenses can really throw them for a minute. They do have solid outside shooters. Teams will have to stop both shooting and back cuts or hope they are not hot.

 

Georgetown (21-6, 11-5 Big East) has become a little sensitive about its employ of the Princeton offense. In its game notes, Georgetown refers to its offense as “the system” and seems to recoil when Princeton is mentioned with regard to its offense. The notes mention Northwestern and the Sacramento Kings and suggest notable differences in the ways each team operates its offense.

 

 

Honestly, I don’t know why they worry about it. It is the Princeton offense, not some slow-down, burn-the-clock offense. Georgetown makes hard cuts and has really skilled players at every single position, and the Hoyas read and react to the defense as well as any other offense in college basketball. Plus, the Hoyas’ Princeton offense can score in the 80s and win, or score in the 50s and win. Georgetown can run with you, or the Hoyas can slug it out with you. The truth is, these skilled players can play any way it takes to win.

The best passers on this team are its big men. Henry Sims leads the Hoyas in assists, andNate Lubick (a true team player who seems to have taken the Hippocratic oath of “do no harm”) doesn’t score much, but if you make a good cut and get open, he will find you. The top rebounder is freshman Otto Porter; few of us had ever heard of Porter before Georgetown signed him out of Missouri, and he is just one of 10 freshmen and sophomores on this roster. The elder statesmen of Jason Clark, Sims and Hollis Thompson have been very good leaders and are taking up the scoring load.

 

 

The truly impressive thing about this group is that the players really work and guard you on the defensive end. Long, athletic and versatile, the young Hoyas are leading the Big East (in league play) in field goal percentage defense and are second in rebound margin. For such a young team, in a cerebral system that takes such skill and togetherness to play the right way, that is remarkable.

The Hoyas can get better offensively and can certainly improve with age. But, given where this team started and the expectations, Georgetown is having a wonderful season by any objective measure. The trip to China, and the way the team stayed together in tough conditions, may prove to be the galvanizing effect the Hoyas needed. After a run through the Big East regular season and tournament, this team will be ready to play in the NCAA tournament.

 

In November, ESPN broadcasters Bill Raftery, Sean McDonough and I were sitting courtside at the Lahaina Civic Center waiting for Georgetown to begin its first practice in Hawaii for the Maui Invitational. The Hoyas were young, not much was expected of this group, and the only real publicity the team had was (through no fault of their own) for a fight in China over the summer. Coach John Thompson III walked over to us and said, “We’re going to be good. I don’t know when, but we are going to be good.” And, it turns out, JTIII undersold his team’s prospects.

Instead of getting to work, which Georgetown has done from Day 1, the Hoyas need to be smart and make sure they’re efficient with practice time, while getting proper rest, so they’re at their best when March Madness rolls around. For such a young team, a free mind and fresh legs are worth much more than some extra practice time and additional work.

Georgetown without Wright, but will he be back Round 1 (and will it matter)

WARDO COMMENT:  What will this mean, a combination of a possible bad seeding, combined with dude returning too early could spell an upset special round 1.  Then again, if he returns full strength the point spread may be valuable.  Gtown merits careful consideration during the conf tourney to see how they do without him.

ARTICLE:

It’s time to see if Georgetown can adjust to life without Chris Wright—at least until the start of the NCAA tournament.

Wright had surgery Thursday morning to repair the third metacarpal in his non-shooting hand, which he broke in the second half of the Hoyas’ loss to Cincinnati on Wednesday night.

A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that Georgetown expects Wright to return in time for the Hoyas’ first NCAA tournament game in mid-March. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the school did not want to publicly commit to a specific timetable.

“Our medical staff is optimistic, and although we do not have an exact timetable, we expect to have Chris back before the end of the season,” coach John Thompson III said in a statement released by the school.

Thompson and his players were not made available to the media on Thursday.

While Wright’s college career apparently isn’t over, his injury represents a serious challenge as the Hoyas wrap up their grueling Big East schedule and prepare for the conference tournament. He is the team’s emotional leader and second-leading scorer, and his play is often a barometer of Georgetown’s success.

Wright is averaging 13.1 points and 5.4 assists and leads the team with 41 steals. He was playing especially well in the three games before his injury, averaging 21.7 points and shooting 50 percent from the field. He struggled against Cincinnati, however, missing all six of his field goal attempts before getting hurt.

Wright was injured when he lost possession of the ball, went to the floor and committed a foul as he reached to try to get the ball back early in the second half of the 58-46 loss. He had the hand wrapped and stayed in the game but soon had to leave to have it wrapped again. He tried to return one more time, but officials stopped play when they saw him wincing in pain, and he sat down for good.

The loss dropped Georgetown (21-7, 10-6) into a tie for fifth in the Big East. Without Wright, it will be difficult to move back into the top four and receive a double-bye in the conference tournament.

The Hoyas host Syracuse on Saturday and wrap up regular season play with a game at Cincinnati a week later. Then comes the Big East tournament March 8-12 in New York.

Wright plays heavy minutes, averaging 32.8 per game. His backup is freshman Markel Starks, who averages 8.2 minutes and has just 32 points and 16 assists for the entire season. Until Wright returns, the Hoyas will have to rely on Austin Freeman, the Big East preseason player of the year, and Jason Clark to carry more of the scoring and leadership roles.

Jason King’s answer to “which team is building momo in Feb for a deep Mar run”

One team I wouldn’t want to face right now – in conference play or the NCAA tournament – is Georgetown. A lot of people (myself included) wrote off the Hoyas when they lost four of five games during the early portion of Big East play. But lately John Thompson III’s squad is reminding us why many were so high on Georgetown at the beginning of the season. Saturday’s victory over an underrated Providence team marked the sixth straight win for the Hoyas, who are 18-5 overall and 7-4 in league play. Their march includes triumphs over ranked schools such as Villanova and Louisville, as well as the St. John’s team it lost to earlier in the year. Austin Freeman is beginning to remind people why he was chosen as the Big East’s Preseason Player of the Year. He’s averaging 20.3 points during Georgetown’s win streak and, more important, he’s providing the leadership and setting the tone for a squad that now appears capable of beating just about any team it faces. In Freeman, Chris Wright and Jason Clark, Georgetown not only touts one of the most talented backcourts in the country, but also one of the most experienced. All three players are seniors. The loss of Greg Monroe left a void in the Hoyas’ frontcourt. Still, even though it isn’t as imposing as it was a year ago, this is still a deep unit with a group of underappreciated big men such as Julian Vaughn, Hollis Thompson, Henry Sims, Nate Lubick and Jerrelle Benimon. Pittsburgh has established itself as the top team in the Big East. After the Panthers, Georgetown is as good as anyone when the Hoyas are on top of their game, which they currently seem to be. As well as things are going, they could certainly change in a hurry. Thompson’s squad faces a mammoth task Wednesday when it hits the road to play No. 17 Syracuse. Then, after a hosting a dangerous Marquette team Sunday, the Hoyas travel to Storrs for a game against sixth-ranked Connecticut. We’ll know a lot more about Georgetown after that trio of games, but I like the direction this team is headed, and something tells me Thompson does, too.

Georgetown

2010 Tournament Summary: Stats had them as better than even their spread said they were against lowly OU. Since I hated OU it made it worse. They were very thin at bench and OU beat them from the jump ball. “We really thought we could make some noise in this tournament,” Georgetown guard Austin Freeman said. “We really didn’t imagine we would be one-and-done.”

Outlook: Team returns everyone but Monroe. Interestingly enough.. Kirk point here.. .I thought Georgetown seemed unable to get offensive mojo going with Monroe. This year they run out a smaller lineup and one void of stars in the front court. This team will rely on backcourt of Wright and Clark and the scoring of Austin Freeman. Beyond that its a scrap heap of “maybes” in the post/forward area. Also, last yeat the guards averaged 33 minutes a game – wayyy too much. This year they are 2 months in and average 32 and 31 so not much has changed. Not great.

Game Notes Utah State: Could of been the unique nature or Utah State, but Georgetown did not dominate. Guards were very solid but didnt crush them and their bigs were neutralized. It was like they were not super athletic down low. I may have just come to be used to super athletic forwards at GTown but they were only good.

Temple: Same story as Utah State. This team just isnt really all that great on offense. They feel clunk unless they get in transition where they excel. Their bigs could not create on their own verse the size of Temple.  Defensively they are solid but Temple guard Ramon Moore was able le to beat their defense again and again.

Franschilla:  I Like their efficiency. Because of one of the best backcourt trios in the country (Austin Freeman, Chris Wright and Jason Clark), the Hoyas are shooting 42 percent from deep, and even without Greg Monroe, almost 57 percent inside the arc. What I don’t like about the Hoyas: Unproven frontcourt – In the paint, Georgetown has been spoiled in recent years with the likes of Roy Hibbert, Jeff Green and Greg Monroe, all of whom are in the NBA. While senior Julian Vaughn has certainly stepped up his game, and big center Henry Sims has improved, the frontcourt still remains a soft spot in the Hoyas’ lineup. Remember, JT3 is going with small forward Hollis Thompson at the power forward spot at the moment. That might present some offensive mismatches, but it could also be problematic defensively in the long run.

Vs Memphis: Close game until a technical allowed Georgetown to run away. This game was about exposure… as the senior laden Hoyas would not let the game get away from them in a hostile environment.

Vs NotreDame: Notre Dame packed it in on them and didnt allow anything inside. They Hoyas just kept creeping out further and further launching 3′s. I think the key.. THE key .. to beating this team is help defense.

Gottlieb Notes: They are overdependent on the jump shot, but when they shoot it well, they are nearly impossible to stop.

ESPN Notes… Gtown is so efficient on offense, but who cares with this… “West Virginia also had big margins in offensive rebounds (15-4), field goal attempts (52-42) and free throw attempts (24-11) to offset a deficiency in shooting percentage (40-50). It was a much-needed result after a conference start that included losses to St. John’s and Marquette and a narrow win over lowly DePaul.” If the other team takes more shots, get more rebounds… they will win. Georgetown is an enigma and their win/loss is very dependant on them… Their guards got completely shut down in this game.

Vs St Johns… Kirk Question – will they play with an edge in the tournament after last years debacle? Use the Big East Tournament as a gauge for this. ”We know we didn’t play well at St. John’s, offensively and defensively,” said Georgetown’s Chris Wright, reflecting on the 61-58 outcome in New York on Jan. 3. ”We just were off. We wanted to really come out here and beat them, and beat them on the boards, and beat them defensively and get a lot of stops and get out and run. Yeah, it was definitely a payback game.” … ”They played with a hard edge, an aggressiveness, a payback kind of mentality,” Lavin said. ”Kids have a lot of pride at this level, and I’m sure Freeman, Clark and Wright had a mindset that they wanted to get back at the Johnnies.’

Vs Villanova: ‘It was the third time this season Freeman has scored at least 30 points, and he finished with six assists and four rebounds. He also did an outstanding job defending Villanova’s Corey Stokes, who finished 4 of 10 from the field and had 13 points.

The Hoyas were 10-0 when they hit at least eight 3s and 15-0 when they shot at least 33 percent from long range. On this night, they kept that streak alive, hitting 9 of 21 (42.9 percent)