After substantially defeating two future Catholic 7 members, Georgetown (12-3, 2-2 Big East) will look to pick up a third straight win against South Florida (9-7, 0-4 Big East) tonight in Tampa, Florida. The Hoyas will look to claim a winning record in Big East play while the Bulls will try to pick up their first Big East win of the year.

On Wednesday, Georgetown surged to a 38-19 lead over Providence by halftime but Providence came back in the second half to reduce the lead to seven points. The Blue and Gray would go on to win, though, 74-65.

The Hoyas have shown more offensive firepower over the past two games even though they have been playing without their second leading scorer, sophomore forward Greg Whittington. They have averaged 70.5 points per game in that span – an improvement from averaging 46.5 points per game in their losses to Marquette and Pittsburgh.

“We are playing at a much faster pace than we had at the beginning of the season,” junior guard Markel Starks said on Wednesday night. “That is us playing as a unit playing and more together. As long as we keep sharing the ball and playing together, we will be fine.”

One of the reasons for this offensive explosion has been the increased scoring of sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr. Porter Jr. has tallied 39 points over the past two games, 20 against Providence and 19 against St. Johns. In addition, Starks has upped his scoring over the past two games, posting 16 points against Providence and 17 points against St. John’s.

“[Porter and Starks] are back in to that rhythm,” Head Coach John Thompson III said after the win over Providence. “Both of these guys were very good today.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The #19 Georgetown men’s basketball team (11-3, 1-2) traveled to New York City to face Big East rival St. John’s (9-7, 1-3) yesterday morning. The team was without their second leading scorer in sophomore forward Greg Whittington as it was announced before the game that he had violated a team rule and would be left off the roster. The Hoyas did not seem fazed though as they ran the Red Storm for 67 points while holding their opponent to a mere 51.

“As a team, we just had to come together and certain people had to step up to carry the load. It’s a team effort,” said sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr. of playing without Whittington.

Sophomore guard Jabril Trawick got the start in Whittington’s absence and started the game’s scoring off with a dunk. The Hoyas did not stop there as superb passing from Porter and junior forward Nate Lubick as well as strong transition efforts from junior guard Markel Starks led the team to take an early lead at 19-8.

Georgetown was seemingly able to shake off the rust that had hung with them after the break and came out with purpose from the get-go. St. John’s could not handle the smothering defense bearing down on them as they were either forced to run down the shot clock or choose more difficult shots. Georgetown pulled away with much help from Porter to make the score 33-10 with only five minutes left in the half. Read the rest of this entry »

With all the speculation and questions surrounding Georgetown’s departure from the Big East, one thing does remain constant: the No. 15 Hoyas (9-1, 0-0 Big East) will take on one of their crosstown rivals American University (4-7, 0-0 Patriot League) at noon today at the Verizon Center, in their last game before conference play begins in January.

News of the “Catholic seven” defection from the Big East overshadowed a dominant performance by Georgetown against Western Carolina in an 81-68 win this past Saturday. The Hoyas led by double digits for most of the way against the Catamounts and it was their second straight game scoring 80 or more points. Although the Hoyas have recently broken out offensively against inferior teams like Longwood and Western Carolina, it should be something that pleases head coach John Thompson III with Big East play looming. Georgetown’s offensive struggles early on have been very notable, especially in a 46-40 win against Towson and a 37-36 win against Tennessee.

Sophomore forward Greg Whittington will look to replicate his performance against Western Carolina, where he scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. Sophomore forward Otto Porter, sophomore guard Jabril Trawick, and junior guard Markel Starks also scored in double figures for the Hoyas.
Georgetown’s focus now turns to the American University Eagles. Coming into their matchup with the Hoyas, the Eagles have recorded wins in narrow fashion against Quinnipiac, St. Francis (PA), UMBC, and Mount St. Mary’s, a team the Hoyas defeated handily earlier this year. Their notable losses have come at the hands of Minnesota, San Francisco, Saint Joseph’s, and Columbia, losing by double-digit margins in each.

Read the rest of this entry »

The #15 Georgetown men’s basketball team (9-1, 0-0) prevailed 81-68 this afternoon over the Catamounts of Western Carolina (4-7, 2-0) as sophomore Greg Whittington scored a career-high 25 points to go along with 12 rebounds, with sophomore Otto Porter, sophomore Jabril Trawick, and junior Markel Starks all scoring in double figures.

After a hot start by the Catamounts who connected on their first four three point attempts, including three from the game’s leading scorer Tom Tankelewicz, the Hoyas clawed back from the early deficit, taking a 42 to 30 lead into halftime.

“Going into the game, you probably couldn’t tell by our performance, we wanted to limit their three point attempts,” head coach John Thompson III said, “we told them going into the game, he’s [Tankelewicz] probably the best shooter we’ve faced all year. I think these guys sometimes just think we’re joking around, but after he banged four or five of them we were a lot more attentive.”

This game, however, was a tale of two halves. The Hoyas started the second period on a 14 to 6 run, eventually extending the lead to 24 with just over 11 minutes remaining in the game. Georgetown overwhelmed the Catamounts with their patented high-pressure defense and some timely shooting, most notably from Whittington. In the half, the Hoyas connected on 14 of 24 field goals, good for a shooting average of 58.3% for the half and 49.1% for the game. This string of dominance garnered the appreciation of Western Carolina head coach Larry Hunter, who had nothing but good things to say about Georgetown’s performance. 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 »

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 »

Greg Whittington, a 6 foot 7 inch forward from Oakland Mills High School in Columbia, Maryland, gave a verbal commitment to Coach John Thompson III on Sunday.

Whittington is the fourth prospect in the 2011 recruiting class to verbally commit to Georgetown this year. Whittington is a two star recruit who averaged 23.5 points and 11.6 rebounds a game his senior year. He also lead his high school with a three-point percentage of 40.2.

Oakland Mills had a perfect regular season, and were 25-0 when they lost in the quarterfinals of the Maryland Division 2A South regional final.

Georgetown’s location was a key factor in Whittington’s recruitment. He was also receiving attention from Texas, Maryland, DePaul, and Clemson.

“I didn’t want to go to far away,” he said. “I’m close to home and my family and friends can come see me play.”

Whittington joins 4-star recruits Tyler Adams and Mikael Hopkins, and 3-star recruit Jabril Trawick.

h/t: Scout.com, ColumbiaPatch