Seriously, what the actual f***? Where do I start with this game? How do you even begin to cover a blowout loss at home to Penn State?
Once again, the Hoyas were slow out of the gate. More than just slow. Penn State opened the game on a 7-0 run, and three consecutive Myreon Jones three-pointers brought the advantage to 11 just five minutes into the contest. This would be a big hole to dig out of, and Georgetown was certainly not up to the task tonight. The closest the Hoyas got was five, but the Nittany Lions exploited Georgetown’s defensive lapses to cruise to a comfortable 81-66 victory. Now, we’ll look at some specifics of what went wrong (hint: a lot).
Let’s start with the turnovers. You gave up 22 points off turnovers. Yurtseven, Pickett and McClung were the main culprits, as each accounted for three turnovers. If I wanted to see this number of turnovers , I would watch Georgetown basketball 2017-2018 season highlights. It’s like Pat Ewing and staff instructed the players to dip their hands in a big ol’ tub of Crisco before the game. It’s the only plausible explanation.
Defensively, you hold Lamar Stevens to just 14 points, great! But then you let motherf***ing Myreon Jones drop 21? What in the actual f***? The dude stinks. These 21 points were a career high for him.
A Jagan Mosely turnover leads to a transition three from Myreon Jones.
Any guess who was guarding him for much of Jones’ 16-point first-half outburst? You got it, Mac McClung.
Speaking of McClung, that man needs to figure it out, and fast. After shooting one of 10 from the field against Central Arkansas, Mac followed it up with another clunker, once again just tallying one field goal, this time on seven attempts. “He’s just gotta play better,” Ewing said in reference to McClung. No s**t, sherlock.
And sure, let’s keep LeBlanc in the doghouse and not start him. Let’s not give Akinjo and Yurtseven starter-type minutes. Let’s keep trotting out Jahvon Blair for extended periods of time. These are all great ideas, Pat.
I’m just kidding. These are all f***ing horrible ideas, and yet he committed to each one of them, and then doubled down on them.
Was Yurtseven perfect? Hell no, he had three turnovers alone. But he put up his third double-double in as many games for the Hoyas, and looked to actually have a pulse out there on the court.
Thanks a lot for wasting this beautiful play, Georgetown.
This isn’t Georgia State; this is Penn State. You can’t just be putting Myron Gardner, Jahvon Blair, and Qudus Wahab out there for extended periods of time while our starters sit. Wake up, Pat. WAKE UP.
I don’t blame the students for leaving early. You have to give them something to watch, and that isn’t done by letting Penn State hit back-to-back threes off of you. You need momentum, something the Hoyas were sorely lacking. You need to get stops, not just trade baskets. Every time the Hoyas would look like they might make a run of their own, Penn State would hit a three to silence the crowd of 8,000 plus. Penn State hit a whopping 13 threes on the night, a season high for them. Yeah, the crowd went silent a lot. Here’s a hint; momentum isn’t attained by turning over the ball every single goddamn possession.
Let’s be clear; this wasn’t just a loss. This was a drubbing. Losing at home to Penn f***ing State, by fifteen points, is just basketball malpractice. I’m pretty sure if you gave a horse some speed, it would still be more effective on the court than like nine of the Hoyas we saw tonight. The Hoyas have single handedly saved Pat Chambers’ job for another season. I repeat, we lost at home to Penn State by FIFTEEN points. This is the kind of loss you want to have if you want to kill any positive momentum the program had made with its fans, students, and nationally. I cannot stress it enough, we lost at home to Penn State by FIFTEEN F***ING POINTS.
Penn State wanted to give us the game. No, they were begging for us to take the game. Penn State was just about as bad as the Hoyas with turnovers, turning it over 20 times. The difference? We could not execute. We scored just 12 points off of Penn State’s 20 turnovers, while they scored 22 points off our our 21 turnovers.
This game raises a lot of fundamental questions about the team. How the hell did we let Penn State rout us in our own house? What is our identity as a team? Did we overestimate the team heading into the season?
I’m not giving up on this team just yet, but do I have any reason to be confident after that garbage?
