“Sadly, your man doesn’t look like me”

Cosmopolitan magazine, the world leader in water-sex-position reporting, decided to weigh in on the NCAA tournament this year—in ways you would pretty much expect. The editors at Cosmo ranked Georgetown’s Markel Starks the 12th hottest player in the competition: “Markel is great at protecting the ball. With arms like that, he can protect us all day and night.”

A 6-foot-10 imposing figure, John Thompson Jr. does not blend into crowds all that easily. But during his son’s reign over Georgetown’s basketball program, the legendary Thompson has done just that, disappearing in the back-right corner of the press room.

Except on this day, there was a little too much emotion seeping out of Thompson. For the man who essentially started the Georgetown-Syracuse rivalry by declaring the Orange’s former home, Manley Field House, closed in 1980, this final iteration of the team’s Big East rivalry meant a little too much.

And so after his son’s Hoyas dominated the Orange for 40 minutes—with a 61-39 final—he had to interject at the postgame press conference.

“Kiss Syracuse goodbye,” he said with a smile.

“Oh, excuse me,” he added after the laughter died down.

In the storied history of the rivalry, no team had held Jim Boeheim’s Orange to fewer than 40 points. That is, until John Thompson III took a page out of his father’s book and rode his vaunted Georgetown defense to a historic performance—holding Syracuse to just 39 points two weeks after holding them to 46 in a victory at the Carrier Dome.

On that day, Hoya sophomore Otto Porter Jr. burst on the national scene and dominated the Orange with a 33-point performance in front of 35,012 orange-clad fans.

The Verizon Center crowd did their best to counter that effort on Saturday, filing in to the tune of 20,972 people—good for the largest turnout for an indoor sporting event in DC metro area history.

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While Hoya fans are probably still hung up on Georgetown’s most impressive win of the season over Louisville, the Blue and Gray (14-4, 4-3 Big East) will look to keep rolling against Seton Hall (13-7, 2-5 Big East) on Wednesday night in a potential trap game.  The Louisville win capped off a week in which the Hoyas also handily trounced then no. 24 Notre Dame 63-47 in South Bend.

On Saturday, the Blue and Gray pulled off a 53-51 upset of then no. 5 Louisville on the back of 17-point performances from junior guard Markel Starks and sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr.  Starks climbed out of his recent slump as he shot 43.8% and reached double-digits for the first time in three games.  With 12 rebounds in the contest, Porter Jr. posted his fourth double-double of the season and has averaged 19.2 points per game since sophomore forward Greg Whittington was ruled ineligible to play. Without Whittington in the line-up, the Hoyas are now 4-1.

Although Georgetown survived to defeat the Cardinals, the Hoya offense has remained a concern. Sophomore forward Aaron Bowen’s acrobatic shot was Georgetown’s only field goal in the final 4:17 minutes of the game.  The Blue and Gray essentially relied on the two-man offense of Starks and Porter Jr.

Key to Georgetown’s victory was a gritty defensive effort.  The Cardinals failed to score a field goal in the final four minutes of the game.  Senior guard and national player of the year candidate Peyton Siva was held scoreless and forward Chane Behanan only scored seven points.

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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.

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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.”

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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 »

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.”

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Markel Starks told me I looked “killin” #dreamscometrue#gusadebate

— Maggie Cleary (@mcleary819) February 16, 2012

Between complimenting one of his competitors on her looks, charismatically condemning Leo’s food as “nasty”, and saying he doesn’t think Hollis Thompson will declare for the NBA draft this year, GUSA vice presidential candidate Markel Starks (COL ’14) took some notes during the vice presidential debate last night. Click the photo to more closely examine how Markel was able to tie himself in tic-tac-toe twice.

On a night when twelfth-ranked Georgetown’s upperclassmen shot a combined 8-26 from the field, beating the fourth-ranked, undefeated Louisville Cardinals on their home floor would require an extraordinary effort from the Hoyas’ youngsters.

And they did not disappoint.

Sophomore Markel Starks was perfect from beyond the arc, knocking down four threes in the second half on his way to a career-high 20 points. Freshman Otto Porter‘s spectacular arrival on the national scene, recording 14 points and grabbing 14 rebounds, was heard round the world. Fellow freshman Jabril Trawick played 21 of the fiercest minutes a Hoya has played so far this season, roughing up the Cardinals in their own house.

The stellar win in Louisville improves Georgetown’s record to 11-1, and extends their winning streak to nine games, a stretch of victories unmatched since the 2006-07 season.

Otto-matic

The freshman from Sikeston, Missouri already made a name (and a nickname) for himself in non-conference play, but playing on his biggest stage yet, Porter showed why he’s the clear standout among a crowd of overachieving youngsters on the Hoyas’ roster. The 6-foot-8 forward posted his first career double-double and helped ice the game for Georgetown, scoring six of the Hoyas’ final eight points.

With the Hoyas up just four with 40 seconds to go, Porter calmly stepped to the line and hit two free throws. Twenty seconds later, after a Louisville trey (and a missed free throw by senior captain Jason Clark) reduced the Georgetown lead to three, Porter was fouled again and drained his free throws to make it a two-possession game. Porter did go the line again with nine seconds left and missed both free throws, but we’ll forgive him since the game was essentially out of reach by that point.

Otto-matic’s performance made it clear why Georgetown coach John Thompson III has called him the most prepared freshman he’s ever coached. His cool in crunch time notwithstanding, Porter is able to make his mark on the game with ruthless efficiency. His 14 points came on 5-for-6 shooting, and he seems to have a preternatural ability to be in the right place at the right time—like when he broke a 63-63 tie with an offensive board and putback with less than two minutes remaining.

Even Louisville head coach Rick Pitino gave Porter his due after the 71-68 Hoyas victory: “Otto Porter is really a good freshman. He had 14 rebounds in the game and he took over the game rebounding-wise.”

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The Georgetown Hoyas won their seventh straight game today (9-1), taking down American University 81-55 at the Verizon Center.  The Eagles stayed within five points of the Hoyas at halftime, but Georgetown outscored them by 20 in the second half to blow the game open.  Markel Starks scored a career-high 18 points in the effort.  Henry Sims added 17 points and 6 assists, Otto Porter contributed 10 rebounds, and Hollis Thompson scored 15 points to go along with 8 rebounds of his own.

Tale of Two Halves

Sims started out fairly slowly in the first half, as did the Georgetown offense.  Starks paced the Hoyas with his three-point shooting in the first half, hitting three straight to keep the Hoyas above water at halftime.  In the second half, however, the Hoyas blew the game wide open, a growing trend over the past few games.  Coach John Thompson III credited a half-time adjustment by Hollis Thompson, who noted that the Hoyas were not being patient enough with their cuts.

“I think in the first half, offensively we were going side-to-side too much”, the coach said of his stagnant offense.  “We talked at halftime that we needed to cut more, we were settling for threes. At halftime we decided to start cutting more and it was open late, so that was basically it.”

Sims benefited most from the adjustments, contributing 13 points and all 6 of his assists after the break.  Time and time again, he found his teammates cutting to the basket for easy layups, opening up opportunities for himself later on in the game.  Thompson acknowledged the effort, but thought Sims’ greater contribution was on the defensive end, where they produced ten turnovers.

“He was best today at his communication on defense”, Thompson noted of his senior.  “He was outstanding – I think that’s what he did better than anything else.”

More on the Hoyas’ improvements and Jeff Green after the jump..

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