According to multiple reports, Georgetown forward Otto Porter Jr. will announce his intention to leave school early and enter his name for the 2013 NBA Draft this afternoon at McDonough Gymnasium.

“I mean it was hard,” Porter said in his opening statement. “It was a tough decision. I love Georgetown.  I love my coaches.  I love my teammates.  I would like to come back and finish my degree [at some point].”

With head coach John Thompson III by his side, the sophomore is expected to announce what many draft experts have been speculating for some time now, as the versatile forward is projected to fall in the top-10 of the draft. If he decides to sign with an agent, he automatically forgoes his final two years of collegiate eligibility. CBS Sports’s Jeff Goodman was the first to report his decision.

“I think he is ready as much mentally, emotionally, as it relates to basketball,” Thompson said. “I thought he went about the process in an educated manner.  He didn’t make a rushed decision one way or the other.  He had two good choices.  It is a process.  He is prepared.”

Porter’s stock escalated rapidly this past season, since he started off as a probable lottery pick and is now firmly entrenched near the top five selections this June.  He raised his play over the course of the year and has been deemed an ideal NBA small forward for his versatility.

“A lot of people come into this, young players, with the attitude that they will leave as soon as possible,” Thompson said. “They walk in the door thinking about walking out the door.  That has never been the case with him.”

“What has been consistent with him and what he will take with him to the NBA, and once those days are over, is his caring, his work ethic, his commitment to what he is a part of,” Thompson said. “He is completely committed to this institution, to our program, to our team.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Davidson, Baylor (NIT), Ohio, Virginia Commonwealth, North Carolina State, and now, Florida Gulf Coast. The list is damning, an indisputable condemnation of John Thompson III’s postseason failures since that astounding run to the 2007 Final Four.

Just one week after taking home Big East Coach of the Year honors for leading his young Hoyas to a share of the Big East regular season title, Thompson’s team crumbled when it mattered most, as they were summarily undressed by No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast 78-68.

All of a sudden, Georgetown’s stalwart leader was a shell-shocked version of himself. “More than anyone on this earth I’ve tried to analyze it, think about it, look at it, think about what we should do differently, and I don’t know,” he said of the recent postseason failure.

Thompson won the award for instilling a sense of toughness unparalleled in the Big East this year. The old school Hoya defense of his father’s day was on full display this season. Until Friday.

A team composed mainly of sophomores and freshmen, with just two juniors and no seniors, played beyond their years. A great deal of the time, we forgot there was a supposed youth void on this team. Until Friday.

A national player of the year candidate in sophomore Otto Porter Jr. looked close to unstoppable and the pieces around him looked to be perfect complements to his all-around game. Until Friday.

Read the rest of this entry »

A No. 2 seed, while a significant honor, does not mean all that much for these Georgetown Hoyas. Their unceremonious exits to double-digit seeds over the past three seasons have made sure of that.

But rather than discouraging the Hoyas, the past results have lit a fire under them, indicating just how difficult it is to get past that first weekend.

“We on a mission,” sophomore guard Jabril Trawick said. “We definitely thought we should have won the Big East but now we trying to make a deep run in the tournament, starting with Florida Gulf Coast. We got to handle business.”

Needless to say, they will not be taking this evening’s opponent—Florida Gulf Coast—lightly, despite their limited résumé. The Fort Myers school is entering just its second year of postseason eligibility and won the Atlantic Sun conference to qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

They’re so small that their media contingent for the tournament featured just one beat reporter on Thursday: Naples Daily News’s Adam Fisher. “This is a huge deal for this school that didn’t exist 17 years ago,” Fisher told Vox.

The majority of Georgetown’s attention will be on senior forward Sherwood Brown, this season’s Atlantic Sun Player of the Year. In some respects, he is similar to Otto Porter Jr. with his do-everything style. But Brown, of course, is nowhere near the talent level of Georgetown’s Wooden Award candidate.

According to Fisher, the Eagles are balanced, with a number of players leading a balanced scoring attack. They do most of their damage in transition, as head coach Andy Enfield (married to a supermodel) throws a number of defensive sets at opponents to force steals.

“They don’t have a traditional big man in the middle,” Fisher said. “But they like to shoot the three and they love to run.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III was named Big East Coach of the Year yesterday afternoon. Otto Porter Jr., his sophomore star, was named the Big East Player of the Year in a unanimous vote by league coaches.

The vote comes in Thompson’s most impressive job on the Hilltop since his arrival from Princeton University nine years ago. Thompson overcame the losses of his three top scorers from a season ago in Jason Clark, Henry Sims, and Hollis Thompson. His team also recovered from the academic suspension of second-leading scorer Greg Whittington in early January.

After a torrid start to the season that saw the Hoyas defeat national powerhouses like UCLA and take then No. 1 Indiana to overtime, Thompson’s group struggled through the beginning of the Big East slate, dropping their first two with the wheels falling completely off in a 28-point drubbing to Pittsburgh.

After a couple of more blips in the schedule, though, the Hoyas reeled off 11-straight wins and rose from an unranked afterthought to No. 5 in the nation. On Saturday, Georgetown clinched the No. 1 seed in this week’s Big East Tournament, as well as a share of the regular season title with a thorough 61-39 victory over Syracuse.

Porter has been the catalyst for much of Thompson’s success, taking on a bigger offensive role after Whittington’s untimely exodus. He led the Hoyas in points (16.4), rebounds (7.5), and steals (2.0) per game while gaining traction for national player of the year honors later in the season.

The sophomore do-everything forward’s season culminated with three Big East Player of the Week honors. He was also the only unanimous selection to the All-Big East First Team. Porter has posted 25 games this season with double figures in scoring, with 8 of those games at 20 points or higher.

Porter pulled away from other possible contenders for the Big East Player of the Year honor when he willed the Hoyas to a victory against Syracuse in front of a record-breaking crowd of over 35,000 by scoring a career-high 33 points. This performance also greatly contributed to his selection as one of 25 finalists for the Wooden Award. He would be the first Georgetown player to win the award and only the third Big East player to do so.

Porter along with the rest of Thompson’s squad will be back on the court at Madison Square Garden tomorrow at noon to take on the winner of Cincinnati and Providence, who play at noon today, in the Hoyas’ first game of the Big East Championship.

Photo: Miles Gavin Meng/Georgetown Voice

“We’ve always been better than them. We’ll always be better than them.” – Syracuse guard and noted shoplifter Michael Carter-Williams on the No 11. Hoyas.

Tipoff is at 4 p.m. on Saturday from the Carrier Dome in decrepit Syracuse, NY. Kevin Joseph and Keith Levinsky will be covering it live—follow along on Twitter. We will update this post with quotes from the Hoyas later on today.

Seven days after the sky was falling in a loss to South Florida, the Georgetown Hoyas (14-4, 4-3 Big East) have their swagger back. Behind virtuoso performances from Otto Porter Jr. and Markel Starks, they put away No. 5 Louisville (16-4, 4-3 Big East) 53-51 in a thriller at the Verizon Center this afternoon.

Despite the standout efforts from their usual stars, it was the less-heralded junior Aaron Bowen who saved the game for Georgetown. With 3:38 remaining in the game, Bowen tipped in a missed D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera layup with an acrobatic, behind-the-back finish.

I was almost towards half court, I have never seen anything like it,” Starks said of the play. “I tell him he’s one of the most athletic people on this planet. When the shot went up, he just came out of nowhere, and it was unbelievable.”

“Literally, the dead ball before his basket, he says ‘I’m going to get one [putback] coach, I’m going to get one’ and then he goes out and does it. That’s pretty good,” added Head Coach John Thompson III.

For the Hoyas, it marked the go-ahead basket in a seesaw affair. For Bowen, it marked his only points, although the junior has seen increased playing time since sophomore Greg Whittington was declared academically ineligible.

Porter, who contributed 17 points and 12 rebounds, also came up clutch for Georgetown with three timely rebounds in the final seconds. With the final rebound, he was fouled with two seconds left. After missing the second free throw, Louisville’s Russ Smith threw up a desperation heave at the buzzer – the miss sent the Hoyas to their second straight win, sending the crowd of 17,474 into a frenzy.

Read the rest of this entry »

After the Hoyas’ win over Western Carolina this afternoon, Georgetown University informed media of their decision to leave the Big East Conference, in unanimity with the other six, basketball-centric schools of the league.

“I think after a lot of consideration, keeping a careful eye on the national landscape as it relates to conference realignment, what our history has been, I think we were wanting to get to a place where there was a focus on where we are and what we are philosophically in terms of our model of intercollegiate athletics,” Georgetown Athletic Director Lee Reed said.

The writing had been on the wall for months, as constant conference realignment saw the Big East pillaged of many of its crucial members, starting with Syracuse and Pittsburgh’s departures for the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and culminating with Rutgers’ defection to the Big Ten and Louisville’s move to the ACC last month.

Over the past week, talks heated up among the presidents of the “Catholic Seven” schools—Georgetown, Villanova, Providence, DePaul, Marquette, St. John’s, and Seton Hall—and conference commissioner Mike Aresco. After a reported conference call between the parties on Thursday, the move became inevitable, though the swift announcement came as a bit of a surprise considering reports of University President John DeGioia’s initial reluctance to leave the conference. Reed denied that story, though, taking exception to the report.

“I think we will always be very thoughtful and deliberate in any decision that we make that has an impact on Georgetown University, so we’ve done that,” he said. “I wouldn’t characterize it on us being slow to the table.”

For Georgetown, the move affects the entire Athletic Department, save for football which will remain in the Patriot League for the time being. All other sports will compete in the new conference.

There are a great deal of legal ramifications to work out with Aresco and the conference in order to officially split from the Big East, meaning there are still some significant hurdles before the schools can move forward with forming their new conference. Many options are still on the table; taking the Big East brand with them is not out of the question.

The move marks a significant step forward for Georgetown, as they officially take the reins on their own destiny and escape a quickly-fading Big East Conference. Despite a feeling of panic among within its fan base, leadership at Georgetown—men’s basketball head coach John Thompson III included—never panicked because of their belief in the Georgetown brand.

“Georgetown was an outstanding program for the Big East,” Thompson said. “We have been an outstanding program during our time in the Big East. And we will be an outstanding program in whatever tomorrow holds. The stability is within our institution. Whoever wants to be with us can be with us.”

Here’s the initial statement from the presidents of the seven schools:

Earlier today we voted unanimously to pursue an orderly evolution to a foundation of basketball schools that honors the history and tradition on which the Big East was established. Under the current context of conference realignment, we believe pursuing a new basketball framework that builds on this tradition of excellence and competition is the best way forward.

We are grateful to our Commissioner, Michael Aresco, for his exceptional leadership of the Big East Conference. We have been honored to be associated with the outstanding group of institutions that have made up the Big East. While we pursue this opportunity for our institutions, we believe the efforts of the past two years have established the foundation for an enduring national football conference.

We look forward to building this new foundation with an emphasis on elite competition and a commitment to the development of our students engaged in intercollegiate athletics. That is where we will now spend our energy as we move forward.

Further analysis on the move after the jump, along with statements from DeGioia, and Aresco. We will be updating this post with any further developments. 

Read the rest of this entry »

One day after knocking off No. 11 UCLA, the Georgetown Hoyas (3-1, 0-0 Big East) gave No. 1 Indiana (5-0) all they could handle for 40 minutes. After the contest hit overtime on Otto Porter Jr.’s layup with 4.6 seconds left, though, it was all Hoosiers in an 82-72 win for the Legends Classic championship .

The Hoyas certainly gained a lot of attention over their two days at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, some of which came from the coach on the opposing sideline. “They have a great system and a team of basketball players that are extremely athletic,” said Indiana Head Coach Tom Crean. “You are not going to keep them from doing too many things; they put too many guys on the court that can make plays. I think they will keep improving.”

For Crean, Tuesday night’s contest marked a return to form for his star player, sophomore Cody Zeller. Although the center was battling what he described as asthmatic bronchitis, he recovered from a slow start to pace the Hoosiers with 17 points and 8 rebounds. The Hoosiers complemented their star’s efforts with a balanced attack from tournament MVP Jordan Hulls, who posted 17 points and Yogi Ferrell, who contributed 14 points on the night.

The Hoyas, meanwhile, were led by Porter, who led the charge with 15 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists in a wild contest that saw the lead change 11 times. None of those points mattered more than five the end of regulation, when the sophomore put Georgetown on its back with two clutch buckets – a three-pointer with 29 seconds left and the driving layup on their next possession – to send the game into overtime.

“The design was to get the ball and go to the hole, that’s what the plan was,” Porter said of the last play. “I just saw a little opening and I took it.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Before the Georgetown Hoyas (3-0, 0-0 Big East) tipped off on Friday night, the buzz was squarely on UCLA star freshman Shabazz Muhammad’s collegiate debut. A couple of hours later, Markel Starks, Otto Porter Jr., and the rest of the Hoyas stole the show with a 78-70 upset victory over the No. 11 Bruins (3-1) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Starks, who struggled in the first two games of the season, shined with a career-high 23 points in the Legends Classic semifinal. Porter Jr., meanwhile, stuffed the stat sheet in his return from concussion-like symptoms a week ago, scoring 18 points to complement his 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 blocks, and 3 steals.

“I just let the game come to me, trust the offense and if we stay with it we get open shots all day,” Porter Jr. said of his performance. “I just tried to stay within the offense.”

“Otto’s first full game, if you look at the stat sheet, which I normally don’t focus on, was a full game,” his coach, John Thompson III said. “Then there was a lot of other stuff he did that doesn’t show up on this piece of paper. We’re a better team with him on the court and it was good to have him back.”

The Hoyas overcame 15 points from Muhammad and 22 from freshman guard Jordan Adams, as they opened both halves with a sense of urgency, jumping out to a 10-2 lead 3 minutes into the contest. The Bruins eventually found their way back into the game, though Georgetown stayed with them and led by two points at the break. But the manner in which UCLA scored – easy layups and transition buckets – didn’t sit well with Thompson. It’s nothing a few halftime adjustments didn’t fix.

“Absolutely,” Thompson deadpanned when asked if his second half strategy changed the flow of the game. “I know my team has been pretty good when I come into halftime and they have thoughts and ideas.”

Read the rest of this entry »

This time, they got to play two halves. Two nights after their canceled matchup with Florida on the USS Bataan, the Georgetown Hoyas (1-0) beat an overmatched Duquesne (0-2) indoors in front of their home fans at the Verizon Center. The 61-55 margin in the regional round of the Legends Classic was a lot closer than anticipated. The Hoyas were led by freshman guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera’s 19 points and sophomore guard Greg Whittington’s 15 rebounds.

There was plenty of reason for concern, though, chief among them a head injury to sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr. Porter went down early in the game and headed to the bench, where he showed visible signs of pain, shaken up from what initially looked to be a poke in the eye. He reentered the game shortly thereafter but was taken out with lingering symptoms and did not return.  

“He’s being monitored,” Head Coach John Thompson III said. “He got hit in the head and just as a precaution, we said ‘Let’s not put him back in.’”

Porter’s status for Georgetown’s next game is uncertain, as is his status for the near future. Concussion-like symptoms have rightly been treated with greater precaution over recent years, making Georgetown’s decision to allow him to reenter the game after the initial blow to the head a questionable one.

Without Porter, Georgetown’s offense looked to be out of sorts, something junior forward Nate Lubick admitted to after the contest. “I think that might have been part of why we looked a little sloppy is that we started thinking about Otto not being in the game too much and people started to look for their own offense a little too much. Even without Otto, we need to be willing to stick to our stuff and run everything through.”

Read the rest of this entry »