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Men's basketball - 2021 March Madness Selection Sunday (Selection show on CB beginning at 4:00 PM MT; #5 seed Buffs open up against Georgetown)

The name + momentum is scary, but as a few have noted, we play better as underdogs in big games.

Things are different this year, hell we only lost the last game by 2 after a six game winning streak. Buffs will be ready and fresh to Tad ball the Hoyas into the ground.
CU is favored in the game. People picking Georgetown because they need an upset in their bracket and Georgetown is that Cinderella story right now. You add Patrick Ewing to the mix and its really just that.
 
Pete Thamel has an article out where he spoke to 12 coaches and asked which teams are most likely to flop in the tourney. The results:

Tennessee
USC
Villanova
Georgetown

So at least there are some coaches out there not on the Georgetown hype train. The argument seems to be that this team was 9-12 going into the Big East tournament so while they had a nice run, this is still not a great team and when a team has to go on a magical run to accomplish something like this there can be a letdown. Hopefully they’re right.
 
Pete Thamel has an article out where he spoke to 12 coaches and asked which teams are most likely to flop in the tourney. The results:

Tennessee
USC
Villanova
Georgetown

So at least there are some coaches out there not on the Georgetown hype train. The argument seems to be that this team was 9-12 going into the Big East tournament so while they had a nice run, this is still not a great team and when a team has to go on a magical run to accomplish something like this there can be a letdown. Hopefully they’re right.
They have some size and will be able to affect shots at the rim. That's their biggest asset. They don't particular score well or play defense well outside of protection around the rim. They are a fun story right now and I would imagine most people will pick Georgetown because of that.
 
They have some size and will be able to affect shots at the rim. That's their biggest asset. They don't particular score well or play defense well outside of protection around the rim. They are a fun story right now and I would imagine most people will pick Georgetown because of that.
They’re a name brand in college basketball and in a year where a lot of traditional powers (Duke, UNC, Kentucky, the Rokit Mortgages) are down people will pick them over a team like CU with no real pedigree. I get it, but they’re still a pretty average team and have been for almost a decade.
 
Pete Thamel has an article out where he spoke to 12 coaches and asked which teams are most likely to flop in the tourney. The results:

Tennessee
USC
Villanova
Georgetown

So at least there are some coaches out there not on the Georgetown hype train. The argument seems to be that this team was 9-12 going into the Big East tournament so while they had a nice run, this is still not a great team and when a team has to go on a magical run to accomplish something like this there can be a letdown. Hopefully they’re right.
I get this, but the 2012 Buffs made a similar run and nearly made the Sweet 16. I wouldn’t dismiss this team purely based on last week’s run.

I think this will be a tough game, but should pull away in the last 10 minutes if we play like we can. If we’re missing shots (and more lately, FTs) then it’ll be close to the end.

Pickett, Blair, Harris and their C look pretty good. At least they don’t run zone defense!
 
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Reality check: The Buffs can beat almost anybody in the country when their shots are falling. They can and will beat teams like Georgetown with defense and rebounding, even when they are off offensively. They can also step on their dicks and lose to teams like . . . Cal.

TL/DR: Defend and rebound and move on in a tight game. Defend, rebound, and make shots and win going away.
 
The Buffs usually blow big leads and don't play well down the stretch. That has to be addressed. Rebounding is also a problem. An area Georgetown excels at. Georgetown big men are active. Georgetown play hard for 40 minutes. A team that has gone through adversary is dangerous, they have a chip on their shoulder, something to prove. I watched their game against Greighton. It was impressive how they took it to Creighton for 40 minutes, didn't let up. Reminded me of the Tony Delk, Walker Kentucky wildcat team. But CU can win the game. Must have a good plan to stop or contain their big men especially Biles. Got to play solid defense and hit their 3 point shots. Wright got to be aggressive.
I love "fans" who pull out shiit like this. Like the Buffs just stumbled their way in and will wander onto the court looking around like Travolta in Pulp Fiction.

The Buffs usually blow big leads and don't play well down the stretch. That has to be addressed.
Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Seems to me it isn't as much of a problem as you think it is given they won 22 games.

Rebounding is also a problem. An area Georgetown excels at. Georgetown big men are active.
This was addressed above, but I would agree this is something the Buffs need to focus on in this game. But, their big men are merely decent, and raw.
Not being able to stop Blair or him getting hot is what worries me the most, not the front court. And it's not even close.
Also, Georgetown plays shhit defense and their turnover margin was 2nd worst in their conference (-3.56). This is a problem for them. FTR - we were 4th in the Pac-12 (+2.1)

Georgetown play hard for 40 minutes.
It's Tourney Time. Everybody will be putting it all on the line.

A team that has gone through adversary is dangerous, they have a chip on their shoulder, something to prove.
What adversity? What do they have to prove? They're a .500 team at best. You could say they proved something in the Big Est tourney and the rest is gravy. So what do they have to prove exactly?

I watched their game against Greighton. It was impressive how they took it to Creighton for 40 minutes, didn't let up. Reminded me of the Tony Delk, Walker Kentucky wildcat team.
Yeah, they took it to Creighton. Creighton also didn't show up. Georgetown also matched up well against Creighton this year.

But CU can win the game. Must have a good plan to stop or contain their big men especially Biles.
Bile is decent. That's it. Probably the 4th best player in the starting 5. Not sure why you would be so hung up on him in particular? I will say again though, we can't get dominated on the boards.

Got to play solid defense and hit their 3 point shots.
Yep. But, so does every other team in the Tourney if they want to advance.

Wright got to be aggressive
Ummm, when is he not?

And the last thing I'll say is: Georgetown was 9-12 until 6 days ago. That wasn't a fluke. Can they beat us? Sure. But it will take us losing the game for it to happen.
 
I get this, but the 2012 Buffs made a similar run and nearly made the Sweet 16. I wouldn’t dismiss this team purely based on last week’s run.

I think this will be a tough game, but should pull away in the last 10 minutes if we play like we can. If we’re missing shots (and more lately, FTs) then it’ll be close to the end.

Pickett, Blair, Harris and their C look pretty good. At least they don’t run zone defense!
I’m not dismissing them, weird things happen in the tournament all the time, but on March 9th (just 6 days ago) Georgetown was a 9-12 team. They didn’t become world beaters in the span of a week. That 2012 CU team was 19-11 heading into the Pac12 tournament.
 
Hoya Fan here.

I thought I would stop by and offer some background on the Hoyas.

It was really a story of two seasons for the Hoyas. As deeper background, the Hoyas brought 9 newcomers in this year. Covid’s impact on campus really affected the team. There was no summer league on-campus or summer on-campus work-outs. The Hoyas were actually the last Big East team to physically return to campus. This appears to have put team-building way behind schedule.

Not much was expected from this team. The Big East coaches picked Georgetown to finish last in the league. At the time, Ewing didn’t argue with it. The Hoyas struggled mightily early. They lost to Navy which should never happen. They played WVU tough but eventually faded. They were 18 points ahead of Villanova at halftime in December but lost the game in the 2nd half. This was just one of several epic collapses. They showed some glimpses but could never put a full game together.

Eventually, Covid caught up to the program and put them on pause. They were shut down for 3 weeks between January 10th and January 30th. Four games were canceled. Unfortunately, they were against what turned out to be the bottom of the conference. At the time of the shutdown, the Hoyas were 3-8 overall (1-5 in conference) and really struggling to find their way. We finished the league 7-9 and ranked 8th of 11. We had a chance at finishing 5th in the league heading into the last game day. Those 4 missed games against the weakest teams in the conference may make us look worse than we probably were.

This shutdown was the turning point of the season. Apparently, they spent time reviewing film on Zoom and had some sort of meaningful players-only meeting. When the Hoyas returned, they changed the starting line-up and added 6’7” Chudier Bile who had been a confounding player to that point. He played hard and with an edge, but he was out of control and would force things too much at times. Chudier blossomed with his insertion into the line-up and arguably has been the Hoyas best player since.

Actually, it is really tough to tell you who Georgetown’s best player is. I just told you about Chudier Bile. Georgetown has two other seniors: 6’5” Javon Blair and 6’10” Jamorko Pickett. Both these guys are talented and you could argue are Georgetown’s best player but they never played with the needed consistency. If they did play with that consistency, they both could have been 1st team All-Big East. Blair has range from one step off of the bus. He doesn’t always shoot a high percentage but when he is feeling it, watch out. He leads the team in scoring for the season but he now comes off the bench, a change that started about 6 games ago for which we never got a full explanation.

Pickett is a long 6’10” forward who has a curse. That curse is that his ceiling, if and when he puts it all together, is basically Kevin Durant. He has struggled living up to that level of expectation. He is not Kevin Durant, but he has become an incredible defender both on the wing and in the paint. He also spent much of the season leading the conference in rebounding. He has absolutely shut down some of the best forwards in the conference. He is playing his best basketball in his final games.

Meanwhile, Georgetown has an unheralded, unranked freshman PG, Dante Harris, who was drafted into service in December when the starting PG took an indefinite hiatus from the program. Dante just killed it in the Big East tournament and was named Most Outstanding Player. He was an absolute menace defending some of the best guards of the conference including the 1st team all-conference PG completely disrupting him. He has become a star player over the last 10 games. We are excited to have him for hopefully 3 more years.

At this point, I haven’t even talked about our centers for which we are probably best known of which we have a collection of 6’11+ guys. Patrick Ewing collects 7’ center like kids collect Pokemon cards. We have a 4th 7’, Dikembe Mutombo’s son, arriving on campus in the fall. Not sure why any team needs four 7’. For the sake of brevity, I won’t breakdown our centers, but our starter Qudus can be quite disruptive offensively and defensively. So basically, Georgetown doesn’t have a 'best' player. Georgetown gets big contributions from six different players, and a different player has been stepping up recently every game.

Some of you see a 9-12 team. That’s one way of looking at it prior to the Hoyas winning the Big East tournament. Another way is that this team is 10-4 since Jan 30th when the lineup changed. So if you are thinking the Big East tournament was just 4 good games, you could be right, but you might be missing the trend. The Hoyas have really found themselves and right now they are playing incredible defense. Over the last 10 games, their defensive efficiency ranks #11 in the country. The committee had no choice but to put as a 12 seed as our overall body of work for the season is weak. For the second half of the season, in my opinion, we have played far better than a 12 seed. Colorado is the unlucky team that gets what is probably an under-seeded twelve seed (see more on that below).

The Big East tournament was a good combination of good play and a favorable draw that gave us winnable match-ups. We could have beaten Viillanova in both of our two prior match-ups even when they had Gillespie. I don’t think anyone expected to be playing in any tournament now given how the beginning of the season went. The Hoyas are playing with house money. Will they be fully satiated and play lethargically? Perhaps. Will they seize the opportunity in front them? We will see.

Another important part of the backstory is Hinkle Fieldhouse. In case you aren’t aware, this is the gymnasium in the movie Hoosiers. It is a spectacularly beautiful venue, and the Hoyas love it. If we could buy it, take it apart and move it to DC, we probably would. Except for Butler game pre-break, the Hoyas haven’t lost there. Typically, Butler is quite formidable at home. Going into Sunday night, many Hoya fans didn’t care about the opponent or our seed…..as long as we could play at Hinkle. I wish you guys could attend the game, because it is one of the best venues in college basketball.

More about our backstory, Georgetown has a tough recent history in the NCAA. When we used to be frequent participants, we have consistently drawn dramatically under-seeded teams. You may or many not recall an obscure player named Stephon Curry at Davidson who had a coming out party against us. Andy Enfield got his USC promotion in part due to his Florida Gulf Coast game against Georgetown. That Georgetown is not facing a double digit team this week is a relief to many long-time fans though I understand it is little consolation to Buff fans.

Now, I am not telling you this because I am here to tell you that the Hoyas are going to beat the Buffs. Colorado clearly has an excellent team that had an excellent season. The Hoyas have great 3pt FG% and free throw%, and the Buffs have even better numbers. Your PG, Wright, looks to be one of the best PGs in the country. Meanwhile, we have a kid who has played great for a few weeks. The Hoyas' strengths seemed to be mirrored by the Buffs. I hope we are going to see a competitive game.

Do Hoya fans think we have a chance? Yes, we think we have a reasonable chance if we keep playing like we have since January 30th. Could we lose? Absolutely.

If you want to check out our conversation about the game, you can find it here.


Looking forward to an entertaining game.

Hoya Saxa! (which means ‘What Rocks!”)
 
Why do 2 regionals have 2 play-in games and 2 have none?
Why call play-in teams #11 seeds (2 of the games)? If both are #11, kick out #16 and make one of them #12. (I'm guessing there's a sensible explanation)
 
Why do 2 regionals have 2 play-in games and 2 have none?
Why call play-in teams #11 seeds (2 of the games)? If both are #11, kick out #16 and make one of them #12. (I'm guessing there's a sensible explanation)
When more conferences were added, and more auto bids, the field was expanded so that there wouldn't be a loss of at-large bids.

The four lowest overall seeds of the auto-bid teams go to play in games (16v16) and the last 4 at-large teams go to play in games (11 v 11 or 12 v 12 every year).
 
I like our bracket.

Georgetown isn't all that good. Bad offense that doesn't take care of the ball with mediocre defense.

FSU is wildly inconsistent and doesn't play great defense.

Alabama is mediocre on offense and is great on defense - but fouls a lot. If we get them, the style of officiating will matter a lot.
 
FYI - Here is a thread about the game on a Georgetown board:

NCAA 2021: Georgetown - Colorado 3/20/21 12:15 Discussion | HoyaTalk

That’s what we do.
hoyatalk2.proboards.com
hoyatalk2.proboards.com

It's interesting to read their analysis. Their board is crap, but not as bad as CSU's. Anyone want to go troll?
 
I’m not dismissing them, weird things happen in the tournament all the time, but on March 9th (just 6 days ago) Georgetown was a 9-12 team. They didn’t become world beaters in the span of a week. That 2012 CU team was 19-11 heading into the Pac12 tournament.
That’s fair
 
I’m not dismissing them, weird things happen in the tournament all the time, but on March 9th (just 6 days ago) Georgetown was a 9-12 team. They didn’t become world beaters in the span of a week. That 2012 CU team was 19-11 heading into the Pac12 tournament.
They're like that Georgia team that came out of nowhere to earn a bid a little over a decade ago. Great for a week, but not very good. CU should win this game.
 
Hoya Fan here.

I thought I would stop by and offer some background on the Hoyas.

It was really a story of two seasons for the Hoyas. As deeper background, the Hoyas brought 9 newcomers in this year. Covid’s impact on campus really affected the team. There was no summer league on-campus or summer on-campus work-outs. The Hoyas were actually the last Big East team to physically return to campus. This appears to have put team-building way behind schedule.

Not much was expected from this team. The Big East coaches picked Georgetown to finish last in the league. At the time, Ewing didn’t argue with it. The Hoyas struggled mightily early. They lost to Navy which should never happen. They played WVU tough but eventually faded. They were 18 points ahead of Villanova at halftime in December but lost the game in the 2nd half. This was just one of several epic collapses. They showed some glimpses but could never put a full game together.

Eventually, Covid caught up to the program and put them on pause. They were shut down for 3 weeks between January 10th and January 30th. Four games were canceled. Unfortunately, they were against what turned out to be the bottom of the conference. At the time of the shutdown, the Hoyas were 3-8 overall (1-5 in conference) and really struggling to find their way. We finished the league 7-9 and ranked 8th of 11. We had a chance at finishing 5th in the league heading into the last game day. Those 4 missed games against the weakest teams in the conference may make us look worse than we probably were.

This shutdown was the turning point of the season. Apparently, they spent time reviewing film on Zoom and had some sort of meaningful players-only meeting. When the Hoyas returned, they changed the starting line-up and added 6’7” Chudier Bile who had been a confounding player to that point. He played hard and with an edge, but he was out of control and would force things too much at times. Chudier blossomed with his insertion into the line-up and arguably has been the Hoyas best player since.

Actually, it is really tough to tell you who Georgetown’s best player is. I just told you about Chudier Bile. Georgetown has two other seniors: 6’5” Javon Blair and 6’10” Jamorko Pickett. Both these guys are talented and you could argue are Georgetown’s best player but they never played with the needed consistency. If they did play with that consistency, they both could have been 1st team All-Big East. Blair has range from one step off of the bus. He doesn’t always shoot a high percentage but when he is feeling it, watch out. He leads the team in scoring for the season but he now comes off the bench, a change that started about 6 games ago for which we never got a full explanation.

Pickett is a long 6’10” forward who has a curse. That curse is that his ceiling, if and when he puts it all together, is basically Kevin Durant. He has struggled living up to that level of expectation. He is not Kevin Durant, but he has become an incredible defender both on the wing and in the paint. He also spent much of the season leading the conference in rebounding. He has absolutely shut down some of the best forwards in the conference. He is playing his best basketball in his final games.

Meanwhile, Georgetown has an unheralded, unranked freshman PG, Dante Harris, who was drafted into service in December when the starting PG took an indefinite hiatus from the program. Dante just killed it in the Big East tournament and was named Most Outstanding Player. He was an absolute menace defending some of the best guards of the conference including the 1st team all-conference PG completely disrupting him. He has become a star player over the last 10 games. We are excited to have him for hopefully 3 more years.

At this point, I haven’t even talked about our centers for which we are probably best known of which we have a collection of 6’11+ guys. Patrick Ewing collects 7’ center like kids collect Pokemon cards. We have a 4th 7’, Dikembe Mutombo’s son, arriving on campus in the fall. Not sure why any team needs four 7’. For the sake of brevity, I won’t breakdown our centers, but our starter Qudus can be quite disruptive offensively and defensively. So basically, Georgetown doesn’t have a 'best' player. Georgetown gets big contributions from six different players, and a different player has been stepping up recently every game.

Some of you see a 9-12 team. That’s one way of looking at it prior to the Hoyas winning the Big East tournament. Another way is that this team is 10-4 since Jan 30th when the lineup changed. So if you are thinking the Big East tournament was just 4 good games, you could be right, but you might be missing the trend. The Hoyas have really found themselves and right now they are playing incredible defense. Over the last 10 games, their defensive efficiency ranks #11 in the country. The committee had no choice but to put as a 12 seed as our overall body of work for the season is weak. For the second half of the season, in my opinion, we have played far better than a 12 seed. Colorado is the unlucky team that gets what is probably an under-seeded twelve seed (see more on that below).

The Big East tournament was a good combination of good play and a favorable draw that gave us winnable match-ups. We could have beaten Viillanova in both of our two prior match-ups even when they had Gillespie. I don’t think anyone expected to be playing in any tournament now given how the beginning of the season went. The Hoyas are playing with house money. Will they be fully satiated and play lethargically? Perhaps. Will they seize the opportunity in front them? We will see.

Another important part of the backstory is Hinkle Fieldhouse. In case you aren’t aware, this is the gymnasium in the movie Hoosiers. It is a spectacularly beautiful venue, and the Hoyas love it. If we could buy it, take it apart and move it to DC, we probably would. Except for Butler game pre-break, the Hoyas haven’t lost there. Typically, Butler is quite formidable at home. Going into Sunday night, many Hoya fans didn’t care about the opponent or our seed…..as long as we could play at Hinkle. I wish you guys could attend the game, because it is one of the best venues in college basketball.

More about our backstory, Georgetown has a tough recent history in the NCAA. When we used to be frequent participants, we have consistently drawn dramatically under-seeded teams. You may or many not recall an obscure player named Stephon Curry at Davidson who had a coming out party against us. Andy Enfield got his USC promotion in part due to his Florida Gulf Coast game against Georgetown. That Georgetown is not facing a double digit team this week is a relief to many long-time fans though I understand it is little consolation to Buff fans.

Now, I am not telling you this because I am here to tell you that the Hoyas are going to beat the Buffs. Colorado clearly has an excellent team that had an excellent season. The Hoyas have great 3pt FG% and free throw%, and the Buffs have even better numbers. Your PG, Wright, looks to be one of the best PGs in the country. Meanwhile, we have a kid who has played great for a few weeks. The Hoyas' strengths seemed to be mirrored by the Buffs. I hope we are going to see a competitive game.

Do Hoya fans think we have a chance? Yes, we think we have a reasonable chance if we keep playing like we have since January 30th. Could we lose? Absolutely.

If you want to check out our conversation about the game, you can find it here.


Looking forward to an entertaining game.

Hoya Saxa! (which means ‘What Rocks!”)
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