Two of the Big East’s hottest teams will come face-to-face this afternoon at the Verizon Center.  St. John’s (14-7, 6-3 Big East) has not lost since the Hoyas beat them at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 12. Georgetown (15-4, 5-3 Big East) has won five of its last six games, including three straight.

The Johnnies are undefeated in five games with their most impressive win coming over Notre Dame on Jan. 15.  Their other four wins were against teams in the bottom half the Big East.  On Wednesday, St. John’s squeaked out a win against DePaul 79-74 in overtime.

“They are playing as well as anyone in our league right now,” Head Coach John Thompson III said.  “They are playing smaller which makes them more dangerous offensively.”

Besides forward Jakarr Sampson, who is 6-8, the Red Storm does not start another player who is over 6-5.  When the Hoyas played the Johnnies on Jan. 12, St. John’s started 6-9 freshman center Chris Obekpa and 6-6 sophomore forward Amir Garrett.  Unfortunately for the Hoyas, they do not have a dominant inside scorer.

“They have stepped up,” Thompson III said.  “They are playing much differently and much better than the first time we played them.”

St. John’s did have all starters finish in double figures against DePaul.  The Johnnies, however, are still primarily a two-man attack.  Sampson averages 14.2 points per game and 6.6 rebounds per game.  Sophomore guard D’Angelo Harrison continues to be one of the top scorers in the Big East.  He averages 19.7 points per game, 4.6 rebounds per game, and 2.1 assists per game. 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 »

Photos: Abby Greene

The Georgetown men’s basketball team rebounded nicely from Wednesday’s devastating overtime loss to Syracuse with a 71-61 win at the Verizon Center over Big East rival St. Johns. The youthful and unranked Red Storm gave the No. 11 Hoyas quite a scare though, playing a tight first half before narrowing the lead to as little as two points in the second half. Nevertheless, the heavily favored Hoyas pulled away in the final five minutes thanks to a career day defensively from sophomore Nate Lubick and some balanced scoring from the Hoyas’ offense.

Unlikely Leaders

The Hoyas needed a balanced attack to scrape past the Red Storm, as the usual suspects struggled to leave their mark on the game. With Henry Sims restricted to just 20 minutes on the court due to foul trouble and Jason Clark shooting a dismal 4-13 on the afternoon, the Hoyas were fueled by the surprisingly assertive and confident play of Greg Whittington, who’s smooth jumper spurred him to a team-high 12 points. Clark, Otto Porter, Hollis Thompson and Markel Starks all scored in double figures to give the Hoyas just enough firepower. Meanwhile, Nate Lubick gobbled up eight boards, dished out five assists and added a career-high 4 blocks on the defensive end, to energize the Hoyas as the Red Storm tried to battle back into the game.

Two-Man Team

While the promising play of Lubick and Whittington ignited the Hoyas on both ends of the floor, the Red Storm lingered within striking distance of the Hoyas thanks to their own dynamic duo of freshmen De’Angelo Harrison and Moe Harkless. Harkless was everywhere for the Johnnies, using his rare combination of length and quickness to slice his way through the lauded Hoyas’ defense for 20 points. Harrison added a game-high 24 points, including five three pointers which threatened to shift momentum away from the Hoyas. However, St. Johns’ six-man rotation exhausted the fabulous freshmen and subsequently, their shooting tailed off as the game went on. With just 17 points contributed by the rest of the team, the Red Storm had little chance of a comeback against the Hoyas’ balance and depth.

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Just like last year, we’re giving you three reasons to hate each of Georgetown’s Big East opponents. Today: the St. John’s Red Storm.

Who are these guys?

Georgetown fans know something about inconsistency after the past few seasons. Nothing is more frustrating than watching your team trounce Duke and then lose to someone like Rutgers. And while inconsistency ultimately leads to disappointment, the top-ranked upsets and blowout victories along the way still count. That’s why the Dukes and Syracuses of the world have to be afraid of you no matter how many points you lose to Ohio by.

In that case, the Hoyas have a lot to fear with the Red Storm. It’s a transitional year in Queens, with a new coach, a roster full of old players, and some top recruits still a year or two away. St. John’s was one of the Big East’s biggest question marks at the start of the season, and after two months, that’s still the case. Last month, the Red Storm lost back-to-back games to Atlantic 10 also-rans St. Bonaventure and Fordham. Fordham won all of two games last season, and the loss to St. Bonaventure was even at home.

Of course, those losses mean little now that St. John’s stands ahead of Georgetown in the Big East standings with a 2-0 record. The Red Storm have opened up conference play with victories over West Virginia and Providence, following a convincing victory against Northwestern. Who knows which St. John’s team will show up tonight, but no matter what the Hoyas better be ready for a fight.

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As Georgetown prepares to take on St. John’s Thursday night at 8 p.m. the Big East basketball season is officially upon us. This year, Vox is taking a page from Deadspin and New York‘s books and giving you a guide for rooting against each of the Hoyas’ opponents. Here are three reasons to hate the St. John’s Red Storm:

3-3-09 / 3-18-09

Those are two dates that should live in Georgetown infamy. Coming into March last season, everyone in the country knew the Hoyas had fallen apart, but I don’t think anyone thought they had sunk to these depths: losing twice to a 16-18 St. John’s team in just over two weeks.

Unbelievably, after upsetting Villanova the weekend before the first St. John’s game, the Hoyas had an outside shot at clawing their way back into the NCAA tournament. Then they went to New York and lost 59-56 in overtime because they couldn’t stop some guy named Paris and the frontman from Matchbox Twenty.

It might have been the most disappointing loss of an extremely disappointing season if the Red Storm hadn’t knocked the Hoyas out in the first round of the Big East tournament two weeks later. I know everyone wants to forget last season, but the only way to move past what happened last March is to beat the Johnnies on New Year’s Eve.

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