Otto Porter commits to Georgetown. Hell yeah. PG Jason Clark SG Hollis Thompson (SF) SF Otto Porter PF Nate Lubick C Mikael Hopkins Bench: G Vee Sanford SG Jabril Trawick PG Markel Starks PF Greg Whittington C Moses Ayegba C Tyler Adams How quickly I swing from cynical to delusional.
Damn thats gonna make it even more impressive when you lose to a double digit seed again in the first round next year....I kid I kid. But more importantly, aren't you guys oversigned by at least 2? Good luck working that out Calipari style.
Depends, I've heard one of the recruits may be able to attend for free without a scholarship, owing to his parents having worked for the University for years. But yeah, awaiting transfers. My money's on Jerrelle bailing on us.
You realize only two of those players are proven scoring threats, right? And that both of them have been mind-bogglingly inconsistent? This squad might struggle to score 65 points a game. It's a good class of freshmen, but none are Greg Monroe, you-know-he-can-play-from-Day-1 types. As of right now, Lubick's offense is so bad that it's like playing with 4.5 men on the court. You know I love our team and all, but yes, you're entirely delusional. Also, Vee Sanford announced that he is leaving. Fixed the roster problem. Five players in, four graduating (Wright, Freeman, Vaughn, Dougherty), and one transfer.
I'm not saying we're going to be good, but compared to the crash-and-burn year I thought we were going to have next year, there are some glimmers of hope there. And I am genuinely pumped about our recruits, and the possibility of Hollis developing further. Just looking into the future here, but I'm excited to see Porter and Trawick, especially, in Georgetown jerseys. And it's too bad about Vee, but the kid never got enough playing time anyways... it does make me worried about our guard situation, though.
The favorite comment I saw was "I wonder if the PA announcer was playing Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting."
I gotta say JTIII did a great job getting his guys off the court as quickly as possible and remaining diplomatic in the aftermath. The show of alumni support was nice to see too. Some people even think it could turn out to help the Hoyas build team spirit. I guess the upshot is, it was pretty bad, but it could have been worse, and thankfully no one was hurt too badly.
Aaaaaaand the Big East is dying. Pittsburgh and Syracuse just jumped ship to the ACC. What does this mean for Georgetown fans? We're fucked.
Yeah, the Big East is done. I am a UConn alum and I am sad that this is happening. I am glad that UConn is in contact with ACC (Rutgers is too). This is football driven and it sucks that Georgetown doesn't have a team. This is probably the last year there will be a BE tournament. I know that BE schools are supposed to give 27 months notice but they can negotiate that.
Georgetown does have a football team, but it's in the Patriot League. This is a crock of shit. I'm down with the "Island of Misfit Toys" idea. Keeping the talent of our competition high is more important to me than our "rivalry" with Syracuse. If I never have to see those no-neck monsters in bright orange at our home games again, it'll be too soon.
And usually the bottom of the Patriot League at that... I mean, shit, we were literally winless a few years ago. And we play on a field smaller than my 900-person high school. And all this coming off of one of the best seasons in conference history. Go fuck yourselves, Pitt and Syracuse. Go fuck yourselves.
As a Marquette fan, I feel your pain. At this point, I just pray Villanova doesn't get an invite. A conference with a base of Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, an up and coming St. Johns, and maybe Xavier could be an acceptable outcome from this shitfest. Ive always hated Cuse and Pitt's fanbase are annoying assholes, so this is just another reason to hate those fuckers. Pitt's president is such a hypocritical douche.
I honestly don't understand how breaking up one of the most competitive and solid conferences in college sports will make MORE money for Syracuse and Pitt. Big East games are huge money makers and are geographically settled in an area where there is generally a lot of money to be spent. I mean, the Big East is a basketball powerhouse. I firmly believe that the reason why we send the most teams consecutively each year and the reason why many of those teams don't even see the Elite 8 is because we've beaten each other up all season and there's just no juice left. Just look at two years ago...6 overtimes? Come on. In what other conference does each team hang on every single shot and call? The whole thing seriously confuses me. I'm following this whole thing pretty closely for a plethora of reasons and haven't found one good argument for this move. If someone could explain the money part or why this is a positive thing, I'd greatly appreciate it. I love college hoops...it's going to be a tough year and a really difficult adjustment, especially since now the opportunity to travel an hour or two to see my boys in Philly/NJ/NY will be lost. I'm an Orangeman through and through but Jesus, I'm pretty pissed about this whole deal. It just doesn't make any sense to me at all. The only silver lining is now I can go back to hating BC with a passion instead of Nova, G'Town, St. John's, Seton Hall...wait...is everyone in the Big East our rival?
It's because you're looking at it as a basketball move. It is all about football. Last year the ACC signed a very lucrative 12 year TV contract with ESPN. It averages $155 million per year. The Big East on the other hand has their current deal expiring and needs to negotiate a new one this year. The Big East had very little leverage in its negotiations. Its teams aren't as good nor are its TV markets, and it would have been the only BSC automatic qualifying conference that did not have a conference championship game. The Big East has also been dragging its feet, refusing to be proactive in the changing landscape. I have heard that AD's and presidents of several schools wanted expansion. This would have given them a better TV deal. Also, the current BCS contract expires in 2013 or 2014 (I can't remember which). At that point, some might want to write out the Big East conference champion as an automatic BCS bowl qualifier. This would be devastating as this money is divided among the entire conference and would amount to a loss of about $1.5mil to $2 million per school. Additionally, the ACC divides this money evenly to every school whereas I believe the Big East tiers it (1st gets $2mil, 2nd get $1.7mil, and so on). This would especially benefit a school like Syracuse who is generally in the lower half of the football standings. Syracuse is one of the most profitable basketball programs in the country ($19mil gross, $9-10mil net), and still their football program generates slightly more money in the already crappy TV deal operated by the Big East. Now imagine how much more they will make with the ACC's deal. Most schools that are above average in both sports (like Pitt) have more like a $2:$1 generated ratio football to basketball. The only argument one could say is that basketball revenue would be reduced by this move, but (1) that won't be the case and (2) should any loss occur, it would be more than offset by the increased football revenue. I don't think it would occur because the ACC is a very strong basketball conference with lots of prestige and media appeal. Duke, UNC, NC state, Wake, Maryland, etc. It may not be as deep as the Big East (though that it very, very debatable), I think you can agree that when it comes to making money, it will get the job done.
So the Pac-12 will not be expanding. Which means Texas, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State will be staying in the now-9-team Big 12 (Texas Tech is off to the SEC, pending some rights agreements). Which means that a Big 12-Big East merger just got a lot less likely. In fact, the Big 12 might poach some more teams off of the Big East. So Big East diagnosis: still boned. East Carolina, Air Force, and Navy are all options for the Big East. East Carolina already applied, and the Big East was considering the other two before Cuse and Pitt bolted. This is so weird.
Interesting article on conference re-alignment from NYT. In particular, the second page discussed the Big East's future. It also references this Boston Globe article, where Boston College's athletic director admitted (1) they actively sought to keep UConn from joining the ACC simply b/c they wanted the New England market all to themselves and (2) ESPN encouraged Pitt and Syracuse to join the ACC.