January 12th, 2013: Georgetown at St. John's

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Georgetown won 76-61. And it was kind of shitty.


Time for the annual doubleheader at the Garden! The new Garden looks very shiny. I'm still hoping to find traces of the Liberty in it- not a lot of luck yet.

At least this time we're not completely surrounded by Georgetown fans, which might be because we got the tickets through Dig for a Cure, the Red Storm volleyball team's BHA event. The husband's currently chatting up a St. John's men's fan and using his knowledge of the men's team to win him over. We haven't had a chance to bring up the women's team yet, though. :/

We're so far away from our homies in the band. This makes me sad. They sound much tinnier in the Garden, though that might be because the Garden is mostly empty so far. Our seats had vendors in them before we arrived. But there are tickets sold everywhere but the new blue seats (which are more of a powder blue than the old blue-green).

No scorecards make me sad. I think it's Bri's turn. We'll see come the Pitt game.

At halftime, it's 36-19 in favor of Georgetown, and for a while it was a lot worse. St. John's actually found some offense for a stretch between the under-eight and the under-four, and made some great defensive plays. But the offense has, for the most part, been a hot mess. These guys don't seem to actually know each other. It took to the under-twelve media timeout before I saw screens being set with any regularity. So far, Chris Obekpa's blocks and D'Angelo Harrison's quick hands have been the only highlights for this hot mess for St. John's. They don't know how to stay out of each other's way on defense and don't communicate on offense. Joe, I swear I'll lay off your coaching for at least one game after seeing this debacle.

The bright white sneakers with the black suits: is this a thing I should not be mocking because I don't know the backstory of it? Because from where I was sitting, it looked like a really unfortunate fashion choice. At least wear black sneakers! Black goes with everything!

The team I really came here to see is on the other side of the arena. Hi, guys! At this rate, we'll have people staying so they can see a St. John's team win.

At least we started off with the dulcet tones of the Metropolitones. And the Garden, unlike the Prudential Center, is a Coke arena. I've missed having my caffeine at a game.

Well, that was a hot mess if ever I saw one. St. John's put together a flurry in the second half, including their first threes of the game, to make it look respectable and interesting, but when you can't hit threes until the last four minutes of the game and you go 6-16 from the line, you're going to get your butt handed to you repeatedly and painfully. If you want me to become a men's fan, this is not how you go about it.

But the intro video is way better than the one they did this year for the women. I'll give the guys that. It's tied to New York and works better with the song they chose than the women's video does with the theme and video they chose.

D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera is a lot of name (more than I realized when the game was on; I thought his name was just Dante) and he played a lot of minutes. He always seemed to be in the middle of something or another with the St. John's players, whether it was a confrontation or a defensive play. Moses Ayegba also seemed to be in the middle of a lot of things, though that's just a function of the center position. Aaron Bowen always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's the only reason I can think of for how he got so many fouls in such a short time. I don't remember much else about the Georgetown bench.

There's something I like about Nate Lubick in a basketball sense, though I can't completely put my finger on it. I mean, I'm always going to like a guy who dives full length for a ball after hitting a basket, because that's the kind of fan I am, so maybe that's it. I just always remember seeing him in the right place at the right time; he does stick out with that thick build and bright blonde hair, so that might also be it. (Actually, he looks like a guy I knew in high school, but his name's not Thomas and he didn't go to NYU, so I know that's not him.) Mikael Hopkins got into it with Jakarr Sampson in the second half, which was the fifth foul for both of them, and thus may not have been the best decision either of them ever made in their lives. Markel Starks threw me off because I'm used to Markel being a woman's name, but I like his shot. Otto Porter worked the paint well for a guard, forcing a lot of fouls from an unprepared St. John's defense. Jabril Trawick didn't play much; I think JTIII liked what he saw out of Smith-Rivera and rode the hot hand.

I have no real vested interest in the St. John's men, but I do want to be at a game where Marco Bourgault scores, if only to do a call and response with his name. Jamal Branch came off the bench with the most deceptive 16 points you will ever see. I think all those points came in the second half, and most of them came in true garbage time, when Georgetown was up more than twenty and no longer really cared about defending a shot that St. John's had shown no previous propensity for hitting in this game. My lingering impression of him is his long dribbling, including one series where he dribbled in and around the lane like the Georgetown defenders were cones and he was just lazily running a drill. Felix Balamou committed stupid fouls that made me sad. Sir'Dominic Pointer played well off the bench, turning in one of the more well-rounded performances I saw, though he didn't always exercise the best judgment; don't swipe at the ball if you already have four fouls and the officials seem determined to make the game last as long as possible.

Amir Garrett did not play the brightest game I've ever seen him play. Stupid shots, stupid fouls, just generally not in the right place at the right time, which is a phrase I feel like I've been using too much in these notes, but fuck it, these aren't getting posted anywhere but my personal archive. I did like the centerfield play he almost made on one rebound. Nice ups. Phil Greene IV did not play well, though I commend him for staying for the women's game. Pointer played most of his minutes in the second half, and deserved it, believe me. D'Angelo Harrison played well in short sharp bursts of intensity, but couldn't get his shot going, like most of the Johnnies. In the first half, he, Pointer, and Chris Obekpa looked like the only guys who wanted to compete. Obekpa blocked everything that came near him and worked incredibly hard on the boards. Couldn't get anything to drop, but I will forever have a soft spot for defensive-minded posts who can't score to save their lives. At least he was making things happen that kept the crowd somewhat into the game. Somewhat. Jakarr Sampson put up the numbers and made the offensive plays that kept the score from being a complete embarrassment, but somehow he didn't keep my attention the way Harrison and Obekpa did. I don't know what it is either.

It got a little rough and it got a little chippy, and I think the double foul near the end of the game that knocked Sampson and Hopkins out kept things from getting any uglier than they could have.

It was such a blowout that even the Georgetown fans really didn't get into it until the end. We only heard “Hoya Saxa” once or twice, and once was at the end. Of course, this might have been because this time we weren't in the opposing student section, we were in a section with Red Storm season ticket people, where the women's team apparently sometimes sits at men's games. I swear, that's probably not why we sat there. (But if it is, it's because St. John's hooked us up well.)

My general impressions: disappointment. Georgetown didn't even play all that well, and they still won going away. St. John's looked like they were still in November and hadn't had an opportunity to get to know each other yet. I'm not sure what Steve Lavin is doing with this team, but it's not coaching. They were making fundamental mistakes that any coach worth his salt would have knocked out of them by now.