Observations from someone at the game

[Norm]

I was at the game at the Verizon Center tonight, thought I'd share my observations:

** This was a road game Marquette could have won. There were about 200 Georgetown students there at the start of the game, and it may have swelled to about 400 before the game was over. Before those of us on here criticize the Marquette students for their effort at games, there were more MU students at games under the Bob Dukiet era than showed up for the Hoyas tonight. And the rest of the lower bowl was 1/2 to 3/4 full most of the game, with the upper bowl about 7/8 empty. This was a road game where MU could have taken the crowd out of the game very easily.

** The refs blew chunks. I think one ref called 4/5 of all the fouls in the first half, totally disrupting the play on the court. The refs sucked both ways too. Although, in the 2nd half, we got called for a foul every time they went under the basket and they never called Georgetown for a foul under the same circumstances. The refs also protected Porter all game long - they could have called him for over-the-back about 4-5 times, yet they always called a foul on MU on the play. I still don't know why they called a foul on Blue in the midst of shooting a 3-point shot in the first half. And for everyone talking about Buzz yapping to the refs or being on the court, JTIII was on the court every possession we had in the first half, alongside the GU bench. We thought Cadougan should have just dribbled the ball into JTIII on a couple plays just to pick up a technical on him. As bad as we played, that was one of the worst reffed games I have ever seen in person.

** I know he has played well at times this year, but at the game tonight Cadougan looked really bad. He made bad decisions all night long, took bad shots, and had terrible turnovers. Don't know why Buzz played him as much as he did.

** Was surprised how long Buzz kept the starters in tonight, especially Anderson and Otule. Both of them seemed to play more than 3/4 of the first half, and although Otule had 8 quick points, he cooled off considerably and he started missing some bunnies. Gardner did not play much in the first half and never seemed to get in a rhythm.

** Not sure what Buzz got called a T for, but it was a huge momentum shifter for Georgetown. 4 quick points turned a 3 point margin into a 7 point margin and then a 10 point lead within 40 seconds. The refs sucked, so I'll give Buzz some benefit of the doubt, but at that point I would have kept my mouth shut.

** This year Marquette has to bust ass each game in order to have any chance of winning. Most teams in the Big East have more talent than MU but few teams play with the energy MU brings. But that did not happen tonight. MU got out hustled most of the game and it showed on the scoreboard.

** MU better show up against Pitt on Saturday. The margin for error gets smaller for each game going forward.

[Dawson Rental]

I was at the game at the Verizon Center tonight, thought I'd share my observations:

** This was a road game Marquette could have won. There were about 200 Georgetown students there at the start of the game, and it may have swelled to about 400 before the game was over. Before those of us on here criticize the Marquette students for their effort at games, there were more MU students at games under the Bob Dukiet era than showed up for the Hoyas tonight. And the rest of the lower bowl was 1/2 to 3/4 full most of the game, with the upper bowl about 7/8 empty. This was a road game where MU could have taken the crowd out of the game very easily.

** The refs blew chunks. I think one ref called 4/5 of all the fouls in the first half, totally disrupting the play on the court. The refs sucked both ways too. Although, in the 2nd half, we got called for a foul every time they went under the basket and they never called Georgetown for a foul under the same circumstances. The refs also protected Porter all game long - they could have called him for over-the-back about 4-5 times, yet they always called a foul on MU on the play. I still don't know why they called a foul on Blue in the midst of shooting a 3-point shot in the first half. And for everyone talking about Buzz yapping to the refs or being on the court, JTIII was on the court every possession we had in the first half, alongside the GU bench. We thought Cadougan should have just dribbled the ball into JTIII on a couple plays just to pick up a technical on him. As bad as we played, that was one of the worst reffed games I have ever seen in person.

** I know he has played well at times this year, but at the game tonight Cadougan looked really bad. He made bad decisions all night long, took bad shots, and had terrible turnovers. Don't know why Buzz played him as much as he did.

** Was surprised how long Buzz kept the starters in tonight, especially Anderson and Otule. Both of them seemed to play more than 3/4 of the first half, and although Otule had 8 quick points, he cooled off considerably and he started missing some bunnies. Gardner did not play much in the first half and never seemed to get in a rhythm.

** Not sure what Buzz got called a T for, but it was a huge momentum shifter for Georgetown. 4 quick points turned a 3 point margin into a 7 point margin and then a 10 point lead within 40 seconds. The refs sucked, so I'll give Buzz some benefit of the doubt, but at that point I would have kept my mouth shut.

** This year Marquette has to bust ass each game in order to have any chance of winning. Most teams in the Big East have more talent than MU but few teams play with the energy MU brings. But that did not happen tonight. MU got out hustled most of the game and it showed on the scoreboard.

** MU better show up against Pitt on Saturday. The margin for error gets smaller for each game going forward.

Davante got a bounce pass low, and a GT player slapped it away out of bounds.  Refs called GT ball out of bounds, probably because DG reached for it as it headed out of bounds.  I believe that Buzz was upset because the call was made by an official from behind the play, and Buzz wanted him to check with the official closer to the play.

[Hards Alumni]

Davante got a bounce pass low, and a GT player slapped it away out of bounds.  Refs called GT ball out of bounds, probably because DG reached for it as it headed out of bounds.  I believe that Buzz was upset because the call was made by an official from behind the play, and Buzz wanted him to check with the official closer to the play.

Correct.  Also from the replay it looked like the player who hit the ball hacked DG's wrist pretty hard.  The officials last night were making calls that don't get made in middle school basketball.

[WarriorInNYC]

I was at the game at the Verizon Center tonight, thought I'd share my observations:

** This was a road game Marquette could have won. There were about 200 Georgetown students there at the start of the game, and it may have swelled to about 400 before the game was over. Before those of us on here criticize the Marquette students for their effort at games, there were more MU students at games under the Bob Dukiet era than showed up for the Hoyas tonight. And the rest of the lower bowl was 1/2 to 3/4 full most of the game, with the upper bowl about 7/8 empty. This was a road game where MU could have taken the crowd out of the game very easily.

This was actually quite disappointing.  ESPN.com is reporting the attendance was 11,821, if that happened at the BC in a matchup of the 2 and 3 BEast teams ranked 15 and 18, this board would have a complete meltdown. 

The student section was loud, but very very small.  I was very surprised at the lack of students at the game.  Now I do know that Georgetown is actually a bit of a distance from Chinatown, so not too sure what the exact logistics are of getting to the game.  It could be quite difficult as G'Town does not have a metro stop.  Not sure if G'Town provides bus shuttle services to/from campus as they do at MU.

[MUMonster03]

This was actually quite disappointing.  ESPN.com is reporting the attendance was 11,821, if that happened at the BC in a matchup of the 2 and 3 BEast teams ranked 15 and 18, this board would have a complete meltdown. 

The student section was loud, but very very small.  I was very surprised at the lack of students at the game.  Now I do know that Georgetown is actually a bit of a distance from Chinatown, so not too sure what the exact logistics are of getting to the game.  It could be quite difficult as G'Town does not have a metro stop.  Not sure if G'Town provides bus shuttle services to/from campus as they do at MU.

Place is never full, have been there for 5 games. The weekend games you have a better turnout by the students but the place is never sold out, at least for Marquette. Weekend games Marquette has at least 3000 fans at the game and in our win in 2009 "We Are Marquette!" could be clearly heard on the TV broadcast.

Georgetown is just a hard place to get to. Traffic up there is a nightmare and it is a decent walk to a metro stop. If they have a bus/shuttle I've never seen it. And unlike our quick walk down Well's/across the courthouse lawn to the BC, the Campus itself is over 3 miles from the Verizon Center. Even with these excuses for them I have never been impressed by their turnouts.

[mu_hilltopper]

I found that play odd .. IIRC, there was a ref right there, facing DG, in perfect position to call who it went OOB on.  

But that ref didn't make a call, he kinda looked around, like help, I wasn't watching that, anyone else know what I should call?

[shoothoops]

The way I've done it is bus to and from Georgetown to Nearby Foggy Bottom, and the short metro ride to and from there to the Arena.

[WarriorInNYC]

I found that play odd .. IIRC, there was a ref right there, facing DG, in perfect position to call who it went OOB on.  

But that ref didn't make a call, he kinda looked around, like help, I wasn't watching that, anyone else know what I should call?

I'm not too sure what they showed on tv, but the ref on the baseline signaled MU ball right away.  Then the ref on the far sideline signaled G'Town ball.  Immediately after that, the baseline ref reversed his call.

I think that was what Buzz was so upset about, the immediate reversal of the call without any discussion, especially since the original call was made by the baseline ref, who should have had the clearer view.

[frozena pizza]

I've been to 3-4 MU / Georgetown games at Verizon and the Georgetown crowd is always weak.  On at least one occasion I'm pretty sure there were more Marquette fans there.  Also saw Syracuse play at Georgetown when both teams were in the top 10.  My friend was a grad student and got uppers for $5.  No doubt there were more 'Cuse fans there.

[hoyasincebirth]

I graduated in 2009 and our crowds were fairly good while I was in school, but have been pretty poor since. Fans like me hate it, but there's not much we can do about it. But as bad as we are we're still 4th or 5th in the BE in attendance every year. SO it's not where I would like it, but it's not horrible. The truth is the Verizon center is just too big for our purposes so it looks worse than it is. There just isn't demand for 20,000 seats. Kids today suck. I really wish they would bring the shuttle busses back but it really isn't feasible. Ironically they stopped running them partly because they could not support the demand. Too many students needed to be bussed into down town DC in rush out traffic. The other problem is how developed the area around the verizon center has become. There used to be a big open parking lot where busses could wait that's now a hotel. There's no where for busses to wait to pick up students too much traffic. So instead they have to take a shuttle to the metro then take the metro to the game. It takes about 30 minutes one way probably. Not an excuse to a hardcore fan like myself, but to a casual fan it's an impediment. I think another problem for these spoiled kids is that we haven't had recent march success. Other people scoff at having to pay $125 for season tickets. Of course having to pay 5x that much for season tickets once your no longer a student makes that seem like a huge bargain.

[Norm]

Yeah, you're right about the Verizon Center and the development around it - nowhere for any buses to park. But. maybe there is space by the Building Museum?

With all the development on Georgetown's campus, was there ever any discussion about building a 10,000 to 12,000 seat arena? You could use that for most home games and maybe use the Verizon Center for 2-3 games per year like Villanova does?

[hoyasincebirth]

Yeah, you're right about the Verizon Center and the development around it - nowhere for any buses to park. But. maybe there is space by the Building Museum?

With all the development on Georgetown's campus, was there ever any discussion about building a 10,000 to 12,000 seat arena? You could use that for most home games and maybe use the Verizon Center for 2-3 games per year like Villanova does?

The neighbors block our attempt to do anything. We struggled to get approval for even a new practice facility which hopefully we will break ground on next year. The neighbors hate us and are unreasonable. We cannot build an on campus arena as much as that would be the perfect solution. It sucks.

[Aughnanure]

I graduated in 2009 and our crowds were fairly good while I was in school, but have been pretty poor since. Fans like me hate it, but there's not much we can do about it. But as bad as we are we're still 4th or 5th in the BE in attendance every year. SO it's not where I would like it, but it's not horrible. The truth is the Verizon center is just too big for our purposes so it looks worse than it is. There just isn't demand for 20,000 seats. Kids today suck. I really wish they would bring the shuttle busses back but it really isn't feasible. Ironically they stopped running them partly because they could not support the demand. Too many students needed to be bussed into down town DC in rush out traffic. The other problem is how developed the area around the verizon center has become. There used to be a big open parking lot where busses could wait that's now a hotel. There's no where for busses to wait to pick up students too much traffic. So instead they have to take a shuttle to the metro then take the metro to the game. It takes about 30 minutes one way probably. Not an excuse to a hardcore fan like myself, but to a casual fan it's an impediment. I think another problem for these spoiled kids is that we haven't had recent march success. Other people scoff at having to pay $125 for season tickets. Of course having to pay 5x that much for season tickets once your no longer a student makes that seem like a huge bargain.

Yeah, Georgetown is on this weird island. They need a Metro stop. Half the reason why I'm literally never in Georgetown except for 2-3 times a year.... and I live in Adams Morgan.

[kchoya]

Yeah, you're right about the Verizon Center and the development around it - nowhere for any buses to park. But. maybe there is space by the Building Museum?

With all the development on Georgetown's campus, was there ever any discussion about building a 10,000 to 12,000 seat arena? You could use that for most home games and maybe use the Verizon Center for 2-3 games per year like Villanova does?

I'll echo what the other poster said - there is zero chance of Georgetown getting a on-campus arena (at least one with at least 8,000 to 10,000 seats). The University has to get a long range development plan approved by the surrounding neighborhood associations (essentially) and the city every ten years. The neighbors hate the University and its students and use this opportunity to put the screws to the school. In the last go around, they tried to force Georgetown to house 100% of its students on campus. They also spend time creating websites like this: http://www.drunkengeorgetownstudents.com/

Additionally, the traffic and parking and logistics of getting people to/from a big on campus arena are another big hurdle.

[warriorchick]

Well, I suppose that is one advantage to Marquette not being in a hoity-toity neighborhood. Any building they put up is almost always a vast improvement to whatever was there before.  And no uppity rich neighbors to complain!

[Hards Alumni]

I'll echo what the other poster said - there is zero chance of Georgetown getting a on-campus arena (at least one with at least 8,000 to 10,000 seats). The University has to get a long range development plan approved by the surrounding neighborhood associations (essentially) and the city every ten years. The neighbors hate the University and its students and use this opportunity to put the screws to the school. In the last go around, they tried to force Georgetown to house 100% of its students on campus. They also spend time creating websites like this: http://www.drunkengeorgetownstudents.com/

Additionally, the traffic and parking and logistics of getting people to/from a big on campus arena are another big hurdle.

Those people need to know that they CHOOSE to live near Georgetown.  They can CHOOSE to move if they don't like the neighborhood.  If I was a group of Gtown students, I would find a way (within the law of course) to really stick it to the people who complain all the time.  A great analogy for these people is someone who moves to Seattle and complains about all the damn rain.

[MUMonster03]

Additionally, the traffic and parking and logistics of getting people to/from a big on campus arena are another big hurdle.

I was thinking the same thing. I have only been on your campus a couple of times. Is there any other way on to the campus besides the M St. entrance? I can only imagine aluimni/rival fans trying to get to the game since M St. until you get to the Key Bridge becomes a freaking nightmare. The only time I have ever had any success is cutting down 34th St. but I imagine that gets bad during rush hour as well.

[LloydMooresLegs]

I was thinking the same thing. I have only been on your campus a couple of times. Is there any other way on to the campus besides the M St. entrance? I can only imagine aluimni/rival fans trying to get to the game since M St. until you get to the Key Bridge becomes a freaking nightmare. The only time I have ever had any success is cutting down 34th St. but I imagine that gets bad during rush hour as well.

Metro!

[MUMonster03]

Metro!

But if I remember correctly metro wanted a station in Georgetown but the community vetoed it. The original maps show a Georgetown station. They wanted to keep their "elitist" neighborhood. Now the people that they wanted to keep out drive there anyways and the place is a crap show on the weekends.

[TJ]

I'll echo what the other poster said - there is zero chance of Georgetown getting a on-campus arena (at least one with at least 8,000 to 10,000 seats). The University has to get a long range development plan approved by the surrounding neighborhood associations (essentially) and the city every ten years. The neighbors hate the University and its students and use this opportunity to put the screws to the school. In the last go around, they tried to force Georgetown to house 100% of its students on campus. They also spend time creating websites like this: http://www.drunkengeorgetownstudents.com/

Additionally, the traffic and parking and logistics of getting people to/from a big on campus arena are another big hurdle.

Holy shoot that website is amazing.  What a colossal (and creepy) waste of time.  The videos on the main page aren't even loud - I had to turn up the volume to hear a peep.  Page 2 at least had one that was actually loud, but it was the middle of the day.  I can't imagine what that guy would have said about the noise we made at all hours of the night when I was at MU.

[🏀]

I'll echo what the other poster said - there is zero chance of Georgetown getting a on-campus arena (at least one with at least 8,000 to 10,000 seats). The University has to get a long range development plan approved by the surrounding neighborhood associations (essentially) and the city every ten years. The neighbors hate the University and its students and use this opportunity to put the screws to the school. In the last go around, they tried to force Georgetown to house 100% of its students on campus. They also spend time creating websites like this: http://www.drunkengeorgetownstudents.com/

Additionally, the traffic and parking and logistics of getting people to/from a big on campus arena are another big hurdle.

Holy crap this site is ridiculous.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Metro!

No Metro in the Georgetown area.  Either Rosslyn or DuPont Circle both of which are really a hike.

[JoBo2756]

Holy crap this site is ridiculous.

watched the video too. What a bunch of freaks in the neighborhood.

[muhoosier260]

So this guy hides in the bushes and films barely audible "partiers" at reasonable hours on a college campus? I don't think I heard any music in any of those clips. No wonder the neighborhood is so unwilling to accommodate anything for the university.

[warriorchick]

So this guy hides in the bushes and films barely audible "partiers" at reasonable hours on a college campus? I don't think I heard any music in any of those clips. No wonder the neighborhood is so unwilling to accommodate anything for the university.

I declare them guilty of being typical Georgetown Neighborhood snobs.  The sentence: 90 days in Wrigleyvillle - June through August.