Georgetown DePaul Recap: Has The Real Roy Just Stood Up?

The story of last night’s 76-60 win against the DePaul Blue Demons is the reemergence of Roy Hibbert. Big Roy scored a game high 17 points on 7 of 9 shooting, and had 11 rebounds and 5 assists. Roy has been criticized for his soft play over the last several games; including a comment on national TV during the Memphis game that he would not be an All-American if voting were held today (a fact that is undoubtedly true). But last night he played with assertiveness. Roy aggressively went after rebounds and made quick decision when he got the ball in a position to score. Roy’s hesitation when he has the ball in the paint has been, in my opinion, one of his greatest problems this year. Too often Roy gets the ball, pauses for a moment, and then starts his move. This gives the Hoyas’ opponents time to send a second defender to double team Hibbert. This is not always bad, as Roy is a good passer and often finds the open man in such situations. But we need balance, which means that we need to establish an inside game. If that is going to happen Roy must realize that there are times that he can and should score when he gets the ball. Last night it looks like Roy got the message.

The question still remains in my mind whether Roy can bring this type of “A” game when he has to contend against bigger post players. So far this season Roy’s best games have come against smaller teams. Last night the primary defender against Roy was DePaul’s Wesley Green, who is 6’ 9” tall and weight around 300 lbs. Hibbert dominated him. Obviously, Roy had significant size on Green and this domination should have been expected. Yet these type of physical, burly post players have given Big Roy problems in the past, so his strong performance give us reason to hope that Roy is beginning to rediscover the strong form he demonstrated towards the end of last season. It also gives me reason to believe that Roy will play well against other, more talented, “beefy” post players – Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody comes to mind.

All in all, this is a game that Georgetown should have won and did win. But they won it in a manner that makes me more confident going forward. Let’s hope the Hoyas carry this momentum into Saturday’s game against UConn and then onto their trip to Pitt and their home game against ND.

OTHER NOTES:

It is no secret that the Hoyas have, for whatever reason, been poor on the glass this season. Not only did Roy Hibbert have 11 boards against DePaul, but Pat Ewing Jr. added another 10 boards off the bench. This is key. PE2 stated before the season started that he wanted to focus more on rebounding, but he hasn’t delivered. So far he has only averaged 4.1 a game. Still I was worried that Ewing’s new status as the Hoyas’ Sixth Man may hurt his chances to contribute as a rebounder. Last night showed that he can find a way to help on the glass when he’s in the game.

For the second game in a row freshman Chris Wright sat out with an ankle injury. Early reports indicated that Chris had simply rolled his ankle. Does anyone have any updates about Wright’s status?