Now, as a former columnist and editor at The Hoya, I don’t like to pick on what they write.  Despite all the pretenses we developed while looking down on campus from 421 Leavey, we were still kids.  God know I don’t want to be judged today by some of the drivel I published when I was editor.  Back then, well, everying seemed so important.  So I tend to let the kids play in the sandbox.

But then I read this piece on TheHoya.com today, saying that:

And yet, one thing stands in the way of Georgetown Basketball’s proper return to glory — a spot of tarnish on the program’s gleaming history. Maybe it was an inadvertent mistake, and it may be unpopular to bring up, but it’s about time that Georgetown apologizes to former Head Coach Craig Esherick (B ’78, L ’82) for the way we treated him.

Now, I admit - it ws stupid to give him an extension and then fire him a year later - Stupid FOR GEORGETOWN.  His coaching performance never justified his ridiculious extension - in many ways, that was a gift for his long-standing ties to the Hilltop.  It was a shame he was given a vote of confidence, then let go.  But you know what?  We live in a capitalist world, and college basketball is a competitive business.  He was not getting it done.

I wouldn’t cry for Esherick.  He was under contract when he was let go, and certainly keeps cashing those checks for the additional seasons he ended up not coaching.  For most of us, if we are fired, we don’t keep egtting paid for a few more years.

Ultimately, the money lost to Esherick’s contract has been made up - and then some - by the cash brought in by a more sucessful basketball program.  This is good.

People need to stop thinking of Georgetown as some benevolent entity.  It is, ultimately, a business (and one that has not had the best record maximizing its profits, if its constant solictiations for donations is an indiator).  Decisions need to be made based on what is best for the whole.  It may be mean to fire someone after giving them a contract extension, but it isn’t wrong - especially if they keep getting paid.

Besides, clearly the young writer has not had to suffer the barren wasteland that was Hoya Basketball, 1996-2000.  If he did, he may feel differently.

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You’d think that a tem with a “dominant” 7′2″ center could dictate play, yet the Hoyas keep getting out hustled it seems.  They keep trying to finesse games by taking one too many passes.  What they need to do is start going hard inside and throw some elbows.  That’s the Big East way.

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Ugly.  That’s all I can say about our play in the last week.  We were Wallace’s hot hand away from a third loss in four games before the senior guard started pushing the Hoyas over Providence Monday afternoon.  Luckily, I have a TV on my desk at work and was able to watch the game (with only minimal distraction to my coworkers).  We looked uninspired for 30 minutes yesterday, apparantly not realizing that we were losing, let alone playing basketball, until there were seven minutes left.  We may have won by 10, but the game was much closer.  We were outplayed.  Coming after an embarassing loss to Syracuse on Saturday - which upset me too much to even post about - this is a point of real concern with only a handful of regular seasons left.  We need to get on track in the next 4 games, so we can begin to peak as the tourney revvs up.  Even though Syracuse has been tough against talented teams (Hoyas, Louisville), their ability to knock Georegtown off its game has me worried this week.  Fingers crossed.

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We walked into the game after an embarrassing collapse against Louisville, decked 2 spots in the rankings, and blessed with a 13.5 point spread. What did we do? We needed a gift from the referees in the last second to pull out a win.

Thats not to say we wouldn’t have pulled it out in overtime - I think we would have. But, man, am I grateful we got that call.

Was Wallace hit? Yes. Definitely. But even a die-hard Hoya fan has to admit a call 70 fet from the hoop with .1 on the clock is ridiculious. Still, I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

Roy eventually got hot in the 2nd half and scored his customary 13 points, but I think the guys need to play with more consistency. We don’t have the luxury of having Jeff Green to step it up in crunch time. However, across the board, this team is more talented than last year’s model. The catch is we need to be consistent to make up for not having the go-to guy in the clutch. We have 5 starters capable of making that shot, but all five need to be more reliable in that role.

Next Up - Saturday at ‘Cuse.

• ESPN Covers the win

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Well, we have a chance tonight at home against Villanova to make up for Saturday’s loss to Louisville, and we better make a statement. Though the Hoyas are sitting as 13.5 point favorites against ‘Nova, there are a lot of question marks about this team as we make the final push into the Big East tournament and the NCAAs.

ESPN’s Andy Glockner sums it up in his numerical analysis of the most likely #1 seeds in the tourney (of which, at this point, I think we are a longshot for):

The Hoyas’ numbers might have been the most shocking thing in this exercise, but in thinking about them, they make sense. Georgetown beat UConn on a last-second 3, beat West Virginia on a last-second block and beat Syracuse by two in OT. Toss in the Memphis loss, and you have a team that’s 5-2 against the top 100 (actually the top 50) with a median performance on offense that’s actually worse than their defense. The Hoyas will have more chances down the stretch to improve, but right now these numbers suggest that they are indeed a vulnerable team against comparable opposition. That shouldn’t be totally surprising, since they were all but eliminated in the Sweet 16 last season by Vanderbilt. Right now, their numbers suggest that kind of ceiling this season, even though their overall field goal percentage differential is outstanding.

This is a long way from my undergrad days, when making the NIT was a big deal, but most Hoya fans were hoping for the team to challenge for the title. While we can certainly be competitive in that regard, I would love to see the team step it up a notch in the next 3 weeks to show we can really hang with the big boys.

In brighter news, it is always nice to see such flattering profiles of the Hoyas - in this case, Roy Hibbert and John Thompson III - in the papers of the opposing team. It is nice a sign of respect - especially coming from Philly, which is famous for not giving an inch when it comes to attacking their opponents in the press (see their recent coverage of the Mets acquisition of Johan Santana).

Later, we will take a look at the ‘Nova Matchup tonight.

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Well, I guess we played half a game of basketball Saturday night - but wow, did we look terrible in the second half. The minute Louisville started playing tight defense, we stopped being competitive. We couldn’t get the ball down low to Roy, we started taking bad shots, and our defense collapsed. It was uglier than Pitino’s white suit. We better step it up before Monday night’s matchup with Villanova. We have not been strong against tough competition this year, and we need to prove we can beat talented teams before March rolls around.

I really believe this team, across the board is just as talented as the Jeff Green model last year, but we need to start proving it,

• Pat Forde attributed the game’s outcome to Padgett’s play and Pitino’s wardrobe
• The Box Score wasn’t pretty.
• Louisville overcame a sloppy first half, says Camille Powell.

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Sure, we are halfway through the 2008 season, but that doesn’t mean we should wait 9 months to launch! This site started as a joke - a bunch of my fellow Georgetown alumns and I were sitting around and astonished that this url was available. I promptly registered it and had an idea - take all the daily emails my friends send each other about Hoya Basketball and turn it into a blog. Well, we are now off and running - our entertaining meditation on the Hoyas, JTIII, Big East Basketball, the power of physical hoops and dominating centers, life, the universe, and everything. And remember - Just Because You’re Paranoid, Don’t Mean We’re Not After You!

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