On Thursday night the Georgetown Hoyas traveled to Memphis to take on the Tigers in a matchup of two top 20 teams. Both teams had previously lost one game on the season, with Georgetown dropping a recent game to Temple and Memphis losing a home game to Kansas. The Tigers’ entire schedule leading up to Thursday had consisted of home games (they actually won’t have an away game until January 5th), and a win over the Hoyas would be another feather in their cap prior to commencing their yearly domination of Conference USA. For Georgetown, the future presented the complete opposite, as they would be battling night after night in the challenging Big East. A win over Memphis would just be a primer for the start of real competition.
Georgetown, ranked at #9 coming into the game, had picked up an overtime win at Missouri on November 30th, and could therefore already be seen as a top team, especially in light of Missouri’s victory over Illinois this past Wednesday night. The Tigers, carrying a #17 ranking, could also lay claim to at least one quality win, as they had defeated Miami (FL) in only their second outing of the season. Georgetown was the more known entity with three key players returning for their senior years after last season’s first round exit in the NCAA Tournament. Many fans will recall the classic upset pulled by 14-seed Ohio University over the 3-seed Hoyas. In contrast, Memphis was noted on several occasions by the commentators to be leading the country in minutes played by freshmen (an interesting statistic), and only featured one senior on the entire roster. Memphis did not appear in the NCAA Tournament last season, instead participating in the NIT, where they lost in the second round.
Most college basketball fans are familiar with the Memphis program and have a clear picture of the team’s style from the past few seasons. The common stereotype of a Memphis team is that they are extremely athletic, even for a college basketball team, they love to fast break, and they don’t play a lot of defense. Well, stereotypes exist for a reason, and this season’s Memphis team fits the profile pretty well. Indeed, while Georgetown has the returning players, the average fan would probably be more capable of describing the Memphis team without ever having seen the current Tigers lineup in action. Therefore, it was no surprise to see Memphis come roaring out of the gate, making it look like Georgetown was going to struggle to keep up on Thursday night.
I’ll only make a few brief comments on Memphis here, because truly, you could probably write most of it yourself. They have superior athletes. They are streaky. They start the game dunking on you, fast-breaking on every possession, and looking like the best team in the country. When you watch Memphis in the early going, the players make the game look effortless, giving the impression that they are floating as they run the court. But then the initial excitement and adrenaline fades, the game settles in, and suddenly the shots are clanging and the turnovers begin. Oh yea, and they don’t play great defense.
It’s this last point that was especially apparent against a crisp, experienced Georgetown team. Make no mistake – Georgetown is tough. They are disciplined, smart, and consistent. While Memphis seemed to have everything going for them in the first 10 minutes of the game, Georgetown had a palpable calm about them. They never got caught up in the fast-break style that would have played into the Tigers’ hands, and very methodically got into their offensive sets each time down the floor. It was clear that this was a team that knew what it would take to win the game, and they were not going to deviate from the plan. They bided their time, got good shots, and eventually the tide turned.
The rest of the way the Hoyas really controlled the game, and the outcome was never in doubt. To Memphis’ credit, they played hard the whole 40 minutes and kept it reasonably close until the end. But their inexperience and lack of defense showed. Georgetown absolutely abused them time and time again on back-door cuts for easy layups. Georgetown’s players give the impression that they spend a lot of time in the weight room, and they ended up bullying Memphis around the court, playing a physical style that wore down the Tigers. The three big Hoya seniors – Chris Wright, Julian Vaughn, and Austin Freeman – led the way for their team, scoring 19, 15, and 24 points, respectively.
When looking at how these two teams might match up against the Buckeyes, it’s clear which opponent would be the greater challenge. With Memphis you would need to slow the game down, exercise patience on the offensive end, and execute. Do those things and you win if you’re Ohio State. With Georgetown, it would be a war. They aren’t the type of team to beat themselves with silly errors, so the main key for Ohio State would be to steel their minds for a full 40 minutes. Austin Freeman is almost a David Lighty-like player in terms of his demeanor, but unlike Lighty, Freeman has two co-seniors to share the leadership role. Say what you want about Jon Diebler, but he simply doesn’t have the same leadership presence as Lighty, at least as far as I can tell. In contrast, Freeman, Wright, and Vaughn all seem to exercise control over the team and be in tune with each other. I think that Wright’s combination of strength and quickness could pose problems for Aaron Craft, and Vaughn is a good enough big man to prevent Sullinger from single-handedly taking down the Hoyas like he has done with other opponents.
Now, if it seems like I’m saying that we’d fall to the Hoyas if we were to face them in the Tournament, then here is the redemptive point: Ohio State is the more talented team. Significantly more talented in fact. While Memphis has talent but little discipline, Ohio State has both talent and discipline. 9 times out of 10, a team will not beat Georgetown on talent alone. But a team with serious talent like the Buckeyes will have the edge when factors such as defense and ball control are also present.
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