[Cracked Sidewalks] Georgetown Preview

[brewcity77]

The Hoyas are eying their first NCAA bid under Patrick Ewing, but will need to reverse their trend of a declining efficiency ranking to get that done. Here's the Cracked Sidewalks preview of Georgetown:

http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2019/10/georgetown-preview.html?m=1

[brewcity77]

Afternoon bump.

[Nukem2]

TOs and wild play were big issues for the Hoyas last season.  If they can play under control like they mostly did in beating MU at the FF, they will finish higher than 7th.  Blue Ribbon has them at 5th.  Big key is for Akinjo to play under control.

[brewcity77]

TOs and wild play were big issues for the Hoyas last season.  If they can play under control like they mostly did in beating MU at the FF, they will finish higher than 7th.  Blue Ribbon has them at 5th.  Big key is for Akinjo to play under control.

If everyone is judged solely on their best performance, the entire league will make the NCAAs and we'll have the entire Final Four.

Georgetown also lost three of their last four games by an average of 17 points, with two coming to sub-100 kenpom teams. And I have a hard time trusting a team with two high usage, low efficiency guards in the back court. Hard to put them ahead of teams like Creighton, Xavier, and Seton Hall, in my opinion.

[Nukem2]

If everyone is judged solely on their best performance, the entire league will make the NCAAs and we'll have the entire Final Four.

Georgetown also lost three of their last four games by an average of 17 points, with two coming to sub-100 kenpom teams. And I have a hard time trusting a team with two high usage, low efficiency guards in the back court. Hard to put them ahead of teams like Creighton, Xavier, and Seton Hall, in my opinion.

Just using that game as an example, not a judgment by any means.  Playing under control is obviously a huge IF for the Hoyas.

[hoyasincebirth]

Freshmen make mistakes. I expect the mistakes to be cut down on compared to last year. The real question will be if we can shore up the defensive end. Govan was a poor defender. Partly because we didn't have a solid back up so if he went out for foul trouble we were screwed. As a result he played soft and tried to avoid fouls. We have more big bodies this year to back up yurtseven who's more athletic and a better shot blocker. Hopefully the freshmen can improve their defense as well.

Hoyas finished tied for third and I expect them to be improved this year. Should be around 3-5 in the standings again but on the right side of the NCAA bubble this year. If everything comes together perfectly could be competing for the top spot, but I think 3-5 is probably more realistic.

I think we're deeper than they give credit for: Only 2 of the freshmen are projects: Wilson and Igohfe. Wahab and Gardner should contribute from the jump.

Akinjo, mcclung, pickett, leblanc, yurtseven with a bench of Allen (steady PG grad transfer from UCF), Blair, Mosley, Alexander, Gardner, and Wahab gives us plenty of depth. May see some press this year now that we have more bodies.

Akinjo and McClung's efficiency actually improved in BE play even though the team's overall efficiency decreased. We also lose trey mourning who will be addition by subtraction as he was a really inefficient player who used a high % of possessions and was a poor defender. 

Also of note efficiency stats are not the end all be all. I think the two years of ewing's tenure show this. Hoyas had more wins against a harder schedule despite being "less efficient" than the year before against a joke schedule.

[brewcity77]

Wahab is the only top-280 recruit according to the 247 Composite. Wahab at 135 may play, but if it's more than spot minutes, the Hoyas will likely have problems. Their third place finish was actually 6th after tiebreakers and more a function of a down league with tons of parity than any quality from GT, whose #100 ranking in Pomeroy was lower than anyone except DePaul. I can see the direction Ewing wants to go, but they're still 1-2 years away, in my opinion.

[hoyasincebirth]

Wahab is the only top-280 recruit according to the 247 Composite. Wahab at 135 may play, but if it's more than spot minutes, the Hoyas will likely have problems. Their third place finish was actually 6th after tiebreakers and more a function of a down league with tons of parity than any quality from GT, whose #100 ranking in Pomeroy was lower than anyone except DePaul. I can see the direction Ewing wants to go, but they're still 1-2 years away, in my opinion.

Yurtseven will play the majority of the minutes, but I've seen Wahab a fair bit both in the bahamas, in open practice, and in high school he's ready to play from day 1. He'll be a fine back up and it will not be a problem if he sees extended time.

[brewcity77]

Brunch bump.

Just finished first drafts of the last four previews yesterday. Butler, St John's, DePaul, and our own Marquette team. If I'm right and those are the bottom three, the first six games for MU will be critical. All against teams expected to compete for NCAA berths, with 6 of the final 12 games against the bottom 3.