Three Points: WVU vs. Georgetown

 

I. No goaltending: I am surprised how much everyone wants to defend Da’sean Butler on the layup attempt at the end of the game. In real time watching the game, it definitely did not look like a goaltending. In slow-mo you can see the ball beginning to descend but I don’t fault any referee for not making that call, it’s just so close for a snap judgement and you have to be absolutely sure it’s a goaltending before you make that call. It was a great play by Patrick Ewing Jr. to come down and be in position to make the block. And Da’sean has to take it up strong! If the shot goes down, Georgetown fans have an honest beef with the screen set at half-court to spring Butler anyway.

II. Jessie Sapp: As I predicted in my last post, Roy Hibbert was not the main factor for the Hoyas. Hibbert ended with 12 points and 10 rebounds in 27 minutes, and he did eat up some lane space and discourage WVU from dribble-drive in some games, but he also allowed Jamie Smalligan to hit two open threes and another one that could have been right before the half. Jessie Sapp was the man for Georgetown though. Everyone will talk about the three with 6 seconds remaining, but he also was a catalyst for the Hoyas with defense and unfortunately he made Alex Ruoff disappear in the second half for WVU. Again, Georgetown doesn’t do it with turnovers as WVU had only six in the game, but they can deny passing lanes, deny the drive and just play solid on-ball defense. WVU had some great plays on offense but the Hoyas in matchup zone did the best job of stopping us on offense.

III. Foul Shooting: What a miserable display. I’ve seen a lot of teams that start shooting poorly at the lines and then it gets in your head and just snowballs. 12 of 23 tonight for the Mountaineers. WVU also hasn’t learned how to put anyone away, this was evident in earlier games as well like St. John’s. Once you get the big lead you have to have a killer instinct and that is just not the M.O. of this team. We will play close games, we will still win more often than not. This loss stings a little because of the manner of defeat, but Georgetown is by far the best team in the Big East (thanks for losing to Rutgers, Pitt.) We better get it going again and get ready for Cincinnati, I hope people won’t be too down on this team.

Saturday Rundown: Carey, Joseph, Georgetown

This is basically rambles from the last week or so and stuff that didn’t get it’s own post.

First up on the list is Jack Bogaczyk’s Monday article from the Charleston Gazette. Mike Carey is basically saying without saying it that WVU doesn’t do enough to promote women’s basketball. I have agreed for quite a while. WVU’s biggest crowd this season was when they played Tennessee at the CCC and half of those were orange-clad friends of Alexis Hornbuckle. Only on one occasion could 2,000 fans muster coming out to the Coliseum for a women’s game, and that was on January 14, a Sunday home game against Notre Dame. The lesson here is people hate Notre Dame.

This for (potentially) the most successful women’s basketball squad in school history. We’ve come a long way from the Alexis Basil days, when crowds some nights numbered in the thirties or forties, and we suffered losses to the likes of Wright State, James Madison or Liberty on a regular basis.

Crowd numbers actually have increased in the last few years. No Coliseum crowd has hit under 1,000 this year, while in the last six years under Carey they had seen that number 45 times. Of course crowd numbers aren’t the only indicator, but when you consider many other programs in the Big East draw crowds in excess of 5,000 then you can see where Carey wants to go.