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.”
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.
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.”
“We’ve always been better than them. We’ll always be better than them.” – Syracuse guard and noted shoplifterMichael 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.
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.”
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.”
In their final game of the season and on Senior Day, the Georgetown football team (5-6, 2-3 Patriot League) failed in their attempt for consecutive winning seasons, as they lost in blowout fashion to Jesuit rival Holy Cross (2-9, 2-3 Patriot League) 24-0.
The Crusaders dominated the Hoyas throughout the game, especially on defense, as they held the Hoyas to just 196 yards of total offense. The Hoyas punted on 11 of their 13 possessions and never crossed the Crusaders’ 35-yard line.
“It’s kind of an understatement to say that they took it to us,” said Head Coach Kevin Kelly. “It wasn’t a very good day for the Hoyas.”
Once again the Hoyas played musical chairs at quarterback, giving junior Aaron Aiken, sophomore Stephen Skon, and freshman Cameron MacPherson snaps under the center in an effort to provide a spark to a struggling offense that only gained 96 yards through the air.
In contrast, the Holy Cross quarterback platoon of Ryan Laughlin and Steven Elder was very effective for the methodical Crusader offense, which possessed the ball for 34:14 of the game. Laughlin completed 12-of-15 passes with 1 touchdown pass, while Elder matched the touchdown output, completing 7-of 10 passes in the process. Holy Cross wide receiver Gerald Mistretta also had three touchdowns on the day, two receiving and one rushing.
Today, University Information Services officially removed the HOYAS wireless network. Voxy Gurl can’t help but notice; SaxaNet still fails her. Are you experiencing the same problem? Did HOYAS ever work for you in the first place? Share your thoughts in the comment section.
Georgetown’s University Information Services announced the full removal of the HOYAS WiFi network on Wednesday due to its lack of proper security controls, according to Chief Information Officer Lisa Davis. SaxaNet and GuestNet, which are both safer from “compromised computers,” are now the primary WiFi services for students.
“HOYAS was an unsecured wireless network that the whole school used to use,” said Tech Center Special Projects Coordinator Kevin Perlow. “Basically, the biggest issue was that you could intercept wireless traffic using Firesheep or Wireshark and that just isn’t good.” These two “packet-sniffing” programs can capture information, such as logins and passwords.
Davis said the removal is part of the Fast Deployment Wireless project, which replaced over 300 “first-generation wireless radios” in 19 buildings this summer to improve wireless security and performance. SaxaNet encrypts all traffic (meaning it conceals data). GuestNet, while it is unsecure, is not open like HOYAS, which permitted “outbound access,” which allows compromised computers to “attack” others, Davis said.
Vox Populi is the staff blog of the Georgetown Voice, Georgetown University's weekly newsmagazine. Opinions expressed in posts are those of their author alone unless otherwise stated.
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.
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