Three years ago then-No. 8 Georgetown played host to Old Dominion inside McDonough Gymnasium. The result was a 72-65 victory for the Monarchs over a Georgetown team that would go on to the Final Four and see two of its stars eventually drafted in the first round of the NBA draft. No. 11 Georgetown hosts Old Dominion on Saturday in its cozy on-campus gym, and once again the Monarchs will have upset on their minds.
“Our group has a long way to go, in spite of what people write about you, what people say about you,” Head Coach John Thompson III said after his team’s loss in 2006.
Once again, there is a lot of hype surrounding this Georgetown team which enters the game at 8-0.
The Hoyas came into the 2006 contest untested with wins over Hartford and a Vanderbilt team that had yet to come into its own. Questions still lingered about Georgetown’s rotation, like whether Tyler Crawford and Marc Egerson would play pivotal roles or how much of an impact that DaJuan Summers and Vernon Macklin would have.
This season Georgetown comes in having beaten back-to-back Top 25 teams in convincing fashion. The Hoyas opened up a 17-point lead against Butler and rolled to a 20-point second-half lead over Washington. In fact, the Hoyas’ tightest game of the season was a home-opening 46-45 nail biter over Temple, a game which looks better now that the Owls have stormed to an 8-2 record and beat their cross-town rival No. 3 Villanova.
As far as Georgetown’s roster is concerned, while depth is still a question, the starting five has proven that it is good. Sophomore center Greg Monroe, who won Big East Player of the Week honors this week, has shown no signs of a sophomore slump, averaging 15.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game this season. Junior guards Austin Freeman (12.1 ppg) and Chris Wright (12.1 ppg) have also carried their share of the load. Sophomore guard Jason Clark is averaging 12.1 points, but his high intensity has contributed the most to the Hoyas’ success, with the sophomore adding 2.4 steals and 4.9 rebounds per game.
Then there’s junior forward Julian Vaughn. Since coming in as the biggest question mark in the Hoyas’ starting five, he has shined, particularly in an 18-point, seven rebound performance against Washington. Vaughn is averaging 8.6 points and 5.8 rebounds per game.
“He’s done a really good job being a presence for us,” Thompson said of Vaughn after last week’s wins.
Old Dominion was picked to finish at the top of the CAA in its preseason poll, but it has not lived up to its billing in the early going this season. The Monarchs are 6-4, losing to Missouri, Mississippi State, and Atlantic 10 hopefuls Richmond and Dayton. The Monarch defense has kept them afloat, averaging 54.2 points allowed per game, never having given up more than 69 points. Offensively most of the workload goes to senior forward Gerald Lee, who is averaging 14.2 points and five rebounds per game.
The teams have one common opponent in Mount St. Mary’s. Georgetown rolled over the Mount last month 83-62 thanks to a high-powered offense, while Old Dominion knocked off the Mountaineers with defense in a 64-38 win.
With the District blanketed with over a foot of snow on Saturday, Georgetown’s focus will be on making sure that history does not repeat itself this time around in McDonough.
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