The fear is coming, and it’s coming quickly.
If beating Duke put the No. 15 Hoyas back on the nation’s mind, and winning against Notre Dame and Cincinnati kept us there, then downing No. 14 Pittsburgh should show that Georgetown (16-4, 7-2 Big East) is for real. Now, in order to continue moving toward the top, the Hoyas need to defeat St. John’s for the second time this season.
The Red Storm enter the game 10-10 (3-6 Big East) and losers of four straight. Their most recent matchup was an 81-73 loss to the Providence Friars on Saturday. The three other losses in their slide came against three of the league’s best: No. 1 Connecticut, No. 9 West Virginia and Marquette.
St. John’s and Georgetown first squared off on Jan. 8 at adison Square Garden, with the Hoyas coming out on top, 79-65. Senior guard Darrel Owens led the way for the Hoyas with 24 points, but the Storm were without leading scorer Daryll Hill.
Though the junior guard’s scoring is down from the last two years, Hill has been St. John’s most consistent offensive threat. He averages 12.7 points per contest and chips in 3.9 assists and 3.7 rebounds. After shooting 42 percent a year ago, Hill’s shooting is down to 35.3 percent. Perhaps an explanation for his poor shooting is the nagging knee injury that has kept him out of six of the Red Storm’s games.
Junior forward Lamont Hamilton has been St. John’s second-leading scorer and, by far, its most consistent post player. Hamilton contributes 12.3 points and 7.5 rebounds nightly.
Sophomore guard Eugene Lawrence has been the Red Storm’s third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder. Though just 6-foot-1, the speedy guard has averaged 9.5 points and 5.2 rebounds on the year. Freshman forward Anthony Mason Jr., son of the former NBA star of the same name, has also logged solid minutes for St. John’s, posting averages of nine points and five boards.
In their earlier matchup, Georgetown led 43-34 at the half, but a spirited start to the second half by St. John’s allowed the Red Storm to tie the game at 52 with 11:43 to play. It was then that Owens took over, hitting a three-pointer to start a 16-0 Hoya run. Owens scored 10 of his 24 points in that run.
Helping Owens to carry the scoring load was senior forward Brandon Bowman. Bowman scored 16 points on 4-6 shooting, including 4-of-5 from beyond the three-point arch. Sophomore forward Jeff Green had 11 for Georgetown.
For St. John’s, Mason Jr. and junior forward/center Aaron Spears (7.5 points, 3.1 rebounds) did their best to make up for Hill’s absence but weren’t quite able to do enough. Each scored 14 in the loss, and Hamilton chipped in 10 points and five rebounds.
St. John’s should not present as strong a challenge as Pittsburgh did last weekend, nor are they likely to be as tough a foe as West Virginia promises to be this Sunday. Still, the very fact that the St. John’s game lies between two more important ones makes it the proverbial “trap game” and a contest not to be taken lightly.
In the January match-up, the Hoyas allowed the poor-shooting Red Storm (42 percent from the field on the year) to shoot 59.6 percent from the field. While Georgetown won handily, allowing a team to shoot so well from the field is risky business.
Rebounding, which the Hoyas have struggled with recently (they were outrebounded by Pittsburgh 35-23), was also a problem the last time Georgetown squared off with St. John’s. The Red Storm only grabbed two more boards than the Hoyas, but Georgetown can ill afford to surrender too many second-chance opportunities to a team that struggles to put points on the board (St. John’s ranks 15th in the Big East in points per game).
On the offensive end of the court, Georgetown just needs to play its style of basketball: Use the clock, get open looks from the perimeter and don’t force anything.
If it sounds simple, that’s because it is. Though the Red Storm has limited its opponents to 39 percent shooting from the field, the fact remains that when the Hoyas dictate the tempo and play the game the way they’d like to play it, they are met by great offensive success.
Defensively, it seems as if the question is not whether Georgetown can stop its opponent, but how long it will take. In the first half against Pittsburgh, the Hoyas and sophomore center Roy Hibbert were being worked – to the tune of 15 points – by junior center Aaron Gray. Once Head Coach John Thompson III switched to a zone defense and made Jeff Green the primary defender on Gray, however, the seven-footer’s offensive threat was nullified. Gray didn’t score in the second half.
That ability to adjust will be necessary should the Red Storm’s big men prove too quick and athletic for Hibbert.
Alone in fourth place in the Big East, the Hoyas, whether consciously or subconsciously, must be starting to consider the post-season. Whether it is Big East Tournament seedings or March adness pairings, Georgetown can begin to look ahead. And unlike in years past, expectations do not necessarily need to be tempered by the cautious optimism with which the Hoya faithful have become familiar.
Still, with seven games remaining, nothing is clinched and nothing is guaranteed. While wins against Duke and Pittsburgh have their resume looking better and better, and their recent play suggests that they could be unbeatable, a Georgetown loss to St. John’s would begin to negate many of the Hoyas’ recent gains.
In the eyes of a national media slow to give Georgetown its due, a loss to the Red Storm on Thursday may be more harmful than a win against West Virginia on Sunday would be beneficial.
Playing West Virginia should give Georgetown another chance at proving to the nation that they are a legitimate threat, not to mention an opportunity to exact revenge on one of the four teams to which the Hoyas have lost. But, if they are unable to first win at home against St. John’s, the chance may not even be on the table. Thursday, at 9 p.m. at MCI Center, the Hoyas will look to weather the Red Storm and move one step closer to the top.
