Georgetown suffered its first loss of the season over Thanksgiving weekend, falling in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., to No. 10 Tennessee, but in many ways, that contest was more valuable for the Hoyas than their 75-48 win over Maryland two days later.

Facing that particular Volunteers team may have been particularly instructive. Tennessee is an uber-athletic squad that plays full-court pressure defense, crashes the boards and goes 10-men deep. In many ways, it is the sort of team that can give this somewhat undersized, not especially deep Georgetown team the most trouble.

So while the Hoyas lost, the game was not without its teaching moments.

Lesson No. 1: Rebound

If surrendering 19 offensive boards to Jacksonville did not make that point, Tennessee’s 14 offensive rebounds should have done the trick.

With 9:11 remaining, Georgetown was sitting pretty. The Hoyas had erased a two-point halftime deficit and after a reverse layup by freshman center Greg Monroe, Georgetown led 65-57.

It all changed in 32 seconds.

Tennessee pushed the ball up the floor and junior guard Josh Tabb converted a layup over Monroe, drawing a foul from Georgetown’s center in the process. Tabb missed the ensuing free throw, but freshman forward Emmanuel Negedu fought for the rebound, missed the putback, grabbed a second offensive board, and drew a foul from sophomore forward Julian Vaughn.

Negedu missed his second free throw, but junior guard J.P. Prince grabbed the offensive board and 21 seconds later, junior guard Bobby Maze, wide open in the left corner, knocked down a trey to pull Tennessee within two with 8:39 left.

“I think we have to rebound,” sophomore guard Chris Wright said yesterday. “We have to rebound.”

“I take part of the blame for that because my rebounding numbers are way down from what they were before,” junior forward DaJuan Summers said. “From a transition from this season to last season we lost a lot of pieces. Me and Roy were down there banging, he would take a couple bodies, some possessions and I would take a couple bodies off him some possessions, so me and Greg being on the same page about how we’re going to attack rebounding [is important].

“This year I feel like I’m trying to box people and keep them from getting it versus myself getting it. I just need to go after the ball harder.”

Against Maryland, a team with rebounding woes of its own, Georgetown grabbed 39 boards to the Terrapins’ 26.

Lesson No. 2: Persevere

When the other team makes a run, the Hoyas need to persevere.

“We played [the Volunteers] pretty tough throughout the whole game. It was just a couple stretches where we needed to make a play or get a step or get a possession and we didn’t do that,” Summers said.

Indeed, the Tennessee game was the Hoyas’ for the taking. After leading by as many as eight points in the second half, Georgetown needed to weather Tennessee’s run, a streak that was fueled more by a series of remarkable plays by the Volunteers and less by lapses on the Hoyas’ end.

Redshirt freshman guard Cameron Tatum knocked down three of his five three-pointers in the game’s final 4:33. Tatum put Tennessee ahead 67-66 with a three-pointer off of an inbounds pass with 5:57 to play. A minute and a half later, after sophomore guard Austin Freeman scored a layup to pull Georgetown back within one, Tatum drilled another three, this time from the corner with a hand in his face.

“When we play against very good teams they are going to have runs,” Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III said. “When that happens we need to make sure we execute at the other end. You look at the Tennessee possessions: They made a lot of tough contested shots. That happens, but when that happens, you can’t lose, you can’t get frustrated and lose your focus because when they’re scoring you need to make sure we’re answering.”

Lesson No. 3: Take care of the basketball

Georgetown is not likely to morph into one of the best rebounding teams in the nation. What it can do, however, is improve enough in other areas so as to mask its glass deficiencies.

Chief among those areas are turnovers. Against the Volunteers, the Hoyas committed 20 of them. Georgetown coughed up the ball against the press, in the half court and on inbounds passes.

Asked for specific areas that need improvement, Freeman did not hesitate. “Basically not turn the ball over. That’s what happened at the end of the game, we turned the ball over,” he said.

“Austin hit it on the head,” Summers said. “Turning the ball over is probably the most important thing that I’ve seen.”

The Hoyas committed three turnovers down the stretch. Freeman lost the ball to Tatum with 4:18 left, Prince pickpocketed senior guard Jessie Sapp with 3:07 to go, and Sapp was called for a five-second violation with 2:29 remaining. Freeman and Sapp combined for 11 turnovers.

Indeed, cutting down on turnovers will require better decision making, whether the Hoyas are playing more up tempo, like they did against Tennessee, or in a grind-it-out affair like the Maryland game.

“It’s crazy in many ways, but you can play a game and make the right decision every possession,” Thompson said. “You can go through and say we didn’t make any wrong decisions. I want that from this group.”

Lesson No. 4: Increase bench production

After the Tennessee game, Volunteers’ Head Coach Bruce Pearl said, “Our five are good. But our 10 are what makes us better and different. We go to the bench and we don’t fall off and that really helps in tournament play.”

The Hoyas cannot yet say the same. Though freshman guard Jason Clark has shown glimpses of his potential and sophomore swingman Omar Wattad has played some good defense and knocked down a few big shots, the bench has largely been enigmatic. Vaughn has yet to demonstrate much of an offensive repertoire, and 6-foot-10 freshman center Henry Sims has thus far shown a stronger desire to roam the perimeter than to help the team inside.

Against Tennessee, Georgetown reserves were outscored 37-12 and outrebounded 16-6. The Hoyas seemed particularly disadvantaged when Monroe left the floor.

“We don’t want to fall off,” Wright said of the team’s bench play. “We want to either get better or maintain, so that’s our key. They’re very good and I think they’re just getting used to the atmosphere and, more so Jason and Henry, getting used to their roles and everything. Once they get into their comfort levels they’ll thrive. They’ll play better, not to say they’re playing bad, but they’re learning.”

All of that said, the trip to Florida did highlight many reasons for Georgetown to be thankful. Monroe, last week’s Big East rookie of the week, is a tremendous post presence, Wright is proving adept at running the team (23 assists to eight turnovers) and Summers (7-of his last-11) has regained his shooting stroke.

As much as the Hoyas weaknesses have been exposed, Georgetown has also shown how frighteningly good it can be when it puts everything together.

– Portions of this story appeared following each game on www.thehoya.com.

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