Georgetown 74 Cincinnati 47

(AP/Nick Waas)

Cincinnati was hammered by Georgetown (20-9,10-8), and ended the regular season with 14 losses against 16 wins. UC finished the regular season 7-11 in the Big East, a step down from last year. UC finished up by losing 3 in a row, and 5 of 6. It has been a really horrible collapse. UC has a chance to go to the NCAA tournament if they win 5 games in 5 days in the Big East Tournament. Action tips off tomorrow at 9:30ish against Rutgers. Tip off time isn't set because the game won't start until 20 or 30 minutes after the previous game is finished. Before we get into the Big East Tournament preview (post coming later), let's relive the horrible second half that was the Georgetown game.

Cincinnati started things off well, as Lance Stephenson hit a jumper for the first bucket of the game. The teams played even going into the first media timeout, as the score was 9-9. There were buckets by Austin Freeman, a free throw by Ibrahima Thomas, a pull up j by Lance, a Greg Monroe lay up off an offensive rebound, a Jason Clark lay up off a Julian Vaughn offensive rebound, a Freeman 3, a Stephenson shot that rolled home, and Lance got to the rim, drew contact, and scored. He missed the free throw, and the teams continued the missing theme. The only bucket from the 13:53 to 11:59 mark was a Chris Wright triple. UC would get a 6-0 spurt to take the lead off a Ibrahima Thomas jumper, a Gates lay up, and a Thomas lay up. The Hoyas fired back with a 7-0 run to take a 19-15 lead after Jason Clark made a pair of free throws, and the great on this day, Austin Freeman made a 3 and a lay up. The rest of the half stayed pretty tight. An Ibby Thomas steal lead to a Steve Toyloy lay up. After Chris Wright nailed a pair of jump shots to run to the lead to 4, Rashad Bishop hit a pair of free throws. Greg Monroe hit a jump shot that was followed by back to back blown lay ups by Toyloy, who ducked as a defender jumped by and for some reason didn't dunk, and Lance Stephenson blew one off a Hoya turnover. Monroe scored with a lay up of his own though. Yancy Gates got involved by making a strong move to the basket for 2, before Chris Wright blew past Cashmere Wright for a lay up. Down 6 in the closing seconds, Cash drilled a 3 pointer to make the score at intermission 29-26 Hoyas.

I wasn't able to catch the halftime stats in full, but UC shot 11-30, 1 of 5 from 3. Georgetown shot 40%, and outrebounded UC 22-16. You can tell by the recap that Freeman, Monroe and Wright had a nice half for Georgetown, and Stephenson played well for the Bearcats. As did Ibrahima Thomas. His performance didn't translate on the box score, but he played hard, which is all we ask for.

Georgetown wasted no time in the second half showing UC that they were taking over. On the first possession, Jason Clark netted his only 3 of the contest. Lance Stephenson counted with a jumper for the Cats. In a sign of how this season has gone, Deonta Vaughn hit Rashad Bishop in the hands with a greater than half court pass that would have been sure points, but Bishop dropped it. Then, Bishop fouled Austin Freeman, who made both free throws. Yancy Gates scored inside with a foul, but UC committed a lane violation on his free throw. Adding to the frustration, Georgetown turned the ball over, but Ibrahima gave it right back with a travel. Thomas followed that up by getting called for fouls 3 and 4 in about 20 seconds at the 17:53 mark. The fourth was against Greg Monroe, who had scored. Monroe made the free throw. Down 37-30, Deonta Vaughn drew a foul and made both free throws for his only points. Deonta took 3 shots, not good enough. You are the senior leader, you have to show up buddy. Freeman continued his hot shooting by making a 3 pointer. UC got one of those back when Rashad Bishop blocked a Clark lay up, and Lance Stephenson fired an outlet pass to a cherry picking Yancy Gates who was fouled, and made 1. Gates returned that point however, as he fouled Greg Monroe, who made 1 of 2, and missed the first Hoya free throw, and got a double double with said made free throw. Lance Stephenson took us to the 15:53 under 16 media timeout with a lay up, and UC trailed 41-35. 

As you can tell by looking at the headline, this is where things went off the rails. Georgetown outscored UC 33-12 down the home stretch. In fact, it deserves it's own paragraph. Things got started when Chris Wright went hard to the rim, scored, was fouled, and made the free throw. The lead hit 11 after Monroe made a hook shot, after Rashad Bishop missed 2 free throws. Gates and Stephenson both turned the ball over, and Freeman made a lay up for point 17. Gates wanted Freeman to score more, so he threw a lazy crosscourt pass that Austin plucked, and was able to draw a foul on the breakaway attempt. That was Cincinnati's 7th turnover of the half, and we were only at the 11:18  mark. Freeman made both free throws out of the media break, and the lead was 15, 51-35. Lance Stephenson broke up that 10-0 run with a lay up, the Bearcats first bucket in 5 minutes. Georgetown got their 14th offensive rebound of the game the next trip, and re-established the 16 point lead when Monroe got an open lay up off a screen and roll. Ibrahima Thomas checked back in, and missed 2 free throws, leading to Monroe driving down the lane, getting reached in on by Cashmere Wright, and scoring. Monroe converted the free throw. Lance drove hard to the tin again and scored for UC, scoring 8 of the 13 UC points of the half so far. Chris Wright took Cash to the rim right after that, drew a foul on Gates, and scored. Wright missed the free throw, but it didn't matter. Hollis Thompson, who is 4 inches shorter than Ibrahima Thomas, blocked a Thomas shot, which lead to a run out and a ridiculous Freeman lay up for a 20 point lead, 59-39. Lance Stephenson traveled taking us in to the under 8 timeout, with the Hoyas on an 18-4 run from the 15:13 mark to 8:16, and a 30-13 run in the half. It wasn't over, because of the timeout, Freeman hit a 3 as the shot clock was winding down. It was the last of Freeman's 24. Stephenson made another lay up for the Bearcats, but Chris Wright made another for the Hoyas on a brilliant back cut and great pass from Monroe. Yancy Gates had another inept UC possession, where he threw a shot off the side of the backboard, got it back, and was blocked by Hollis Thompson, leading to a Clark lay up. Lance Stephenson tried to save a loose ball on the next UC possession, but threw it right to Wright, who passed up ahead to Monroe, who slammed it down. Hollis Thompson made a pair of free throws, and the score was 70-41 when I stopped watching to make this post. Since I'm diligent, I found how the last 11 points were scored. Jason Clark made a jumper, Rashad Bishop a lay up from Cash, Clark got a steal from Thomas, passed to Wright, who passed to Julian Vaughn for a lay up, Lance Stephenson made a 3 from Cash at the 2:23 mark, and with 22 seconds left, Cash made 1 of 2 at the stripe. 

Austin Freeman had a tremendous game back in his first outing since his diabetes diagnosis. Freeman had 24 points, Greg Monore 19-15, Chris Wright 16-4 assists, Jason Clark 11-5, Hollis Thompson 2-4-2 blocks, Julian Vaughn 2-5. Georgetown was 28-60 46.7%, 6-22 from deep, and 12-14 at the stripe, with 37 rebounds, 13 offensive, but maybe that's not right. Georgetown also had 15 assists. For Cincinnati, Lance Stephenson played very well yet again. Stephenson had 23-7, Yancy Gates 7-6 (yes that was the drop off), Ibrahima Thomas 5-4-4 steals-3 blocks, Cashmere Wright 4-3 assists, Rashad Bishop 4, Deonta Vaughn 2-4 assists, Steve Toyloy 2. UC shot 19-49 38.8%, 2-10, 7-17 horribly from the stripe, and had 26 rebounds, 10 offensive. UC also had 16 turnovers to 12 assists. 

After the game, Mick Cronin said something along the lines of that this team wasn't collapsing, they just had a lot of bad breaks. They were in the Nova game, they had WVU taken from them, Marquette was close, South Florida was blah blah blah. Mick just needs to buck up and say that UC lost. I'm tired of his excuses of, 'we haven't had this happened.' Oh really, what about the abysmal effort against USF? What about the domination by Syracuse? Just admit that your team wasn't as good as the other one for a change. There is no shame in saying that the other team played better. Just throw in that our team will play that well in the next game. Don't say 'it's not my fault.' Take some responsibility Mick. I like you, but you are really making it hard to sometimes. 

Here we come CBI

Cincinnati was destroyed today against Georgetown. You should be lucky the game wasn't on tv. It's not over as I type this, but it's 72-41, so I don't think I'm jumping the gun. What a pathetic effort in the second half. Georgetown played great. Austin Freeman had 24 in his first game back from being diagnosed with diabetes. Greg Monore had 17-15-2 steals. Lance Stephenson has 23 for UC, a new career high. Who's ready to play at 2:30 on Tuesday?

Know Your Opponent: Georgetown Hoyas edition

The Bearcats play their last regular season game tomorrow at noon against Georgetown. I don't have any idea what tv coverage it has, but we'll find a way to watch. If we want to watch, that's another matter. Cincinnati and Georgetown have gone down the tubes as of late. Cincinnati has lost 7 of 10, and Mick Cronin still hasn't won a game in March while at UC. Georgetown has lost 4 of 5, and lost Austin Freeman to diabetes. It's not known if Freeman will be back for the game Saturday, but I doubt it. We got tied up today, so I'm just going to get right to the numbers so this post gets up tonight. Remember, visit our friends at Casual Hoya. They have sent some traffic our way today, and we thank them, and I hope you do the same.

Questions and Answers: Starring Causal Hoya

For the second time today, we here at Bearcats Blog bring you a guest. This time, it's with the great Georgetown blog, and global phenomenon, Casual Hoya. Their site is one I hit up every day, and I think that you should as well. Will you see that type of ringing endorsement later on in the Know Your Opponent post? Yes. As tends to be the thing with most of these questions, I answered some on their great site. Sleeping with the enemy is a much cooler name than questions and answers. I wish I wasn't lame in titling things. If there were a slew of Cincinnati blogs, this one would be called something like UCincinBearcatBlog or something weird like that. Enough of this. Let's get on to the interview shall we? We shall. The font is different for some reason. I just copied it from G Mail, don't judge too harshly.

The Big East was stunned with the news of Austin Freeman's diabetes. Has Georgetown announced any news about a possible return?

I think everyone was stunned.  There hasn’t been any official announcement out of the school, but our guess based on our crack research of diabetes is that Freeman could probably give it a go Saturday, but may sit out so that docs can monitor his various bodily functions to get him on a proper treatment plan so he’ll be good to go for the Big East Tournament.   Clearly the first priority is making sure he’s healthy, and then the basketball stuff will figure itself out. That being said, if he doesn’t play the Hoyas are screwed.  That much is undeniable.

What's gone wrong for the Hoyas as they've lost 4 of 5?

This is a flawed team but the one thing that has stood out in recent years when they’ve had similar skids is the lack of a player who can get a score when needed. In contrast to the Jeff Green teams (where Green could put the ball on the floor to get a shot), the best players in recent years have been big guys, such as Hibbert and Monroe, and each of them need to get the ball in the post to really be effective (Hibbert’s shot against UConn aside). Wright and Freeman have shown flashes where they can score in bunches but the team usually hits a lull and falls into a long stretch without a bucket. Couple that with a more deliberate offense and once they get down, it’s difficult to dig back out.

 Of course, losing breeds losing, and to this point (and it’s pretty late in the season), there isn’t a true leader on the team. Both Monroe and Freeman have moments of dominance but each seems to be pretty quiet and unassuming on the court. Wright also dominates at times but like many of us in the stands, I think the team believes he’s often gunning for himself rather than for them.

Greg Monroe is great. Would you like to tell the readers how special he is?

I’m glad you think Monroe is great, I haven’t been convinced.  Monroe’s clearly a special talent, but he can use another year in school to develop his body in the weight room and needs to improve his ability to score with his right hand.   He can certainly dominate games against less physical opponents, but put a beast on him and he becomes a bit timid. Monroe came to Georgetown with a lot of hype as the #1 high school recruit in the country.  Other #1 recruits out of high school included Lebron James, Michael Beasley, Kevin Durant, and Derrick Rose.  Monroe is nowhere near at that level right now.  Could he be?  Perhaps. 

There is a traitor list on your site. How big an issue are the people who buy season tickets and flip them?

A huge momma issue.  Look, we are a small, Catholic school playing in an NBA arena in a major commuter city.  As much as we would like the Hoyas to be the main attraction in DC, they are not and will never be.  The Terps get more press coverage than Georgetown in the local media.  The only thing we have going for us is the lower bowl of the Verizon Center, which is supposed to be a safe-haven for Hoya fans.  Tickets to the lower bowl are mostly sold as season packages to Georgetown students, alums and fans.  But there have been certain games this year where even the lower bowl wasn't gray, against Cuse it was 50% orange.  Fans are selling their tickets to other teams' fans.  I hope that most of them do not realize what they are doing, but there needs to be a better solution for getting Georgetown tickets in the hands of Georgetown fans.  That is how the traitor list was born, it is really just a brutal reminder that you should be accountable for distributing your tickets responsibly.  Georgetown also has a problem with scalpers buying season ticket packages and putting everything on StubHub - the traitor list helps identify repeat offenders or problem sections. We are working on more "positive" ideas with Georgetown organizations as well but for those fans that show up every game only to be out-cheered by opposing fans with better seats, a solution cannot come quickly enough

What do you see happening with Georgetown if Pittsburgh leaves and the league disbands?

I think that if we lose a football school, especially one as important to Big East football as Pitt, the Big East will disband.  At the end of the day, as much as I hate it, football decides what happens in college athletics; it is where all the money is.  The Big 10, Big 12 and ACC will swallow the other seven football schools, leaving Georgetown, Villanova, St. John's, Providence, Seton Hall, Marquette, DePaul and Notre Dame to fend for themselves.  Notre Dame will be forced to join a conference after NBC drops them and the remaining schools bring on St. Joe's, Xavier, and Dayton to form a basketball-only conference.  They get no TV exposure, lose all recruits and are forced to take part in an experimental underwater basketball league run by Vince McMahon.

Only one thing I said above is unlikely, and sadly it has to do with ND.

The last 2 Georgetown home wins were attended by President Obama and Joe Biden for Duke, and Nancy Pelosi for Villanova. Are any more cabinet members attending the game Saturday?

Not sure about the cabinet, but the guy who installed my California closets will be there.   If you’d like I can get you an autograph. (Ed Note: YES)

Bill Kock, er Koch, really asked for money to answer questions for your site? Feel free to rip him some here.

Ahh yeah, that happened. We thought he was joking initially, and we offered him a sweet casual headband, which he declined. Apparently he hasn't realized that the old newspaper model is dead and that our blog will be around a lot longer than his job. Was that too much? Well here's some compensation for you, Koch. (Insert a picture of a middle finger).

What do you see going down Saturday? Final score prediction?

Big game for both teams, no doubt. I’d expect a pretty strong home court for Gtown that will power them to victory – particularly with a turbulent week as Freeman received some awful news – Gtown by 8: 72-64.

Finally, what the hell is a Hoya?

A Hoya is what’s going to kick your ass on Saturday. 

Yeah, I walked right into that one. Thanks a thousand times to our friends at Casual Hoya. They do a great job, and we wish them a ton of luck after Saturday, and if we meet them in the Big East Tournament.