...and not just make the finals.
[CLICK HERE] to see the article from today's Washington Post.
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4 comments:
If we don't win the BE tournament outright and get the automatic bid, we are going to have to make a very strong statement in all of the other remaining games just to have a snowball's chance in hell of making it.
If I were on the selection committee, I wouldn't choose GU given the way we fell apart down the stretch.
Although there are positives to take away from our play early in the season, there is no denying or getting around the fact that we absolutely blew it coming down the stretch.
Chalk it up to fatigue, lack of talent, inexperience, bad coaching, or some combination of the above--it really doesn't matter at this point.
Once again it looks as though Georgetown, with its once proud tradition, is going to have its nose pressed against the glass of the tournament window.
Playboy, interesting image (jt3 literally standing against the window of the selection committee).
Agreed, a NY Giants' like collapse in the final 5 games certainly go a long way in partially discrediting early season success.
However, if if GU is snubbed for the Dance, a strong showing in the NIT is needed to show that the early season success was not a fluke.
First, we don't really NEED anything. This entire season has been gravy. Yes, the collapse is incredibly disappointing but nobody thought we'd do ANYTHING this year (me included!). I seriously thought we'd be looking at a 6 win season -- tops. Think about it. Last year we won 4 Big East games but two of those were against Miami when Gerald Riley set records for three-point shooting. There was no reason to believe we'd be much better this year, after losing Riley. We've notified the league that GU is back and everyone is impressed by JTIII -- who is the first Hoyas coach since we entered GU to be a Naismith finalist. We have a great recruiting class coming in. Everybody is talking about Georgetown again.
Second, to even hint that "bad coaching" could play a role in anything that bad that happens with this program is insane. The only bad coaching that has hurt us was performed by the Mustachioed One over the last couple of years. So, if you want to chalk up Brandon's mistakes to Clipboard Craig's past instructions be my guest, but to question JTIII, whose coaching this year has been nothing short of a miracle, is beyond the pale. Going into this season most commentators identified two legitimate Big East players on our squad -- Ashanti Cook and Brandon Bowman. Jeff Green was all-met but he was a rookie and Roy Hibbert was labled (and initially performed like) a project. We beat Pitt and Nova (teams absolutely stacked with top talent) on their home courts. Frankly, the only two teams in the Big East with less talent than GU are Rutgers and St. John's. That's why we were picked to finish next to last in the conference. The surprise of Jeff Green probably vaults us over Rutgers in terms of talent and maybe puts us on a par with Seton Hall but that is it. Coaching has gone a long way to restoring the program to respectability. Remember in 2001-2002 we were 9-7 in the Big East and that team had Mike Sweetney, Gerald Riley, Tony Bethel, Harvey Thomas, Welsey Wilson and Kevin Braswell -- all of whom were better at that stage in their careers than their repective counterparts on this year's team (and Mike Sweetney was waaaaay better than anyone who we have seen on the Hilltop since AI). If we had that kind of talent, this team would have lost very few, if any games, in the Big East this year. It was following that season I turned my back on Clipboard. Coaches have to always be judged by what they accomplish relative to the talent on their squads. That is why I'm more impressed with Al Skinner than Jim Boeheim for example. Other teams' fans have marveled at our offense this year -- check out some posts on other BE rivals sites. Has that happened since Ripley coached the Hoyas?!?!
Finally, to claim we have to win the BE tourney to get to the NCAA is absurd. In order to get to the finals we'd have to beat Seton Hall, UConn, and probably Cuse on three consecutive days. We'd have won three out of our last four games, two against the two best teams in the league. I don't think we'd have trouble making the tourney at that point! Of course there is no way in hell of that happening, but we would defintely get in if we did that. (Heck, how many 19 win teams from the Big East have ever been snubbed? Maybe 2 or 3.)
Look, I think we all are and should be disappointed with this team's collapse. However, we shouldn't get caught up in what coulda been and forget what a huge net positive this season has been. Now, if don't make the tourney NEXT season, then we can all get upset. However, to be realistic, very few coaches in their first seasons have any kind of success, let alone find themselves contending for an NCAA bid. Here's some fun facts to put this in perspective:
Record in first year of coaching at current program of four best current active college coaches:
Jim Calhoun(UConn): 9-19
Rick Pitino(Louisville): 19-13 (NIT)
Coach K(Duke): 17-13 (NIT)
Lute Olson(Arizona): 11-17
Here's Andy Katz's take:
Georgetown (16-11, 8-8) – The Hoyas might need two wins to get into the Dance but must beat Seton Hall at the very least in the first round of the Big East tourney on Wednesday.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/champweek2005/news/story?id=2008596
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