Well, Georgetown finally had to come down from wonderland. The No. 5 Hoyas (23-5, 13-4 Big East), who hadn’t lost since January 19th in the disaster at South Florida, fell to the giant-killing Villanova Wildcats (19-12, 10-8 Big East) in a scarily exposing performance.  The game got the Wildcats off the tournament bubble, greatly solidifying their tournament resume. The Hoyas, on the other hand, fell off the line for a 1 seed, and will have a lot of work to do in order to make their way back. Pertaining to the more immediate future, the Hoyas went from controlling the Big East outright, to, in all likelihood, having to win on Saturday just to finish with a share of the Big East title.

In the 67-57 loss, the Hoyas committed 23 turnovers and only got to the free throw line 8 times while Villanova got to the stripe a whopping 42 times. With the officials blowing the whistle so often, junior center Moses Ayegba, junior guard Markel Starks, and sophomore guard Jabril Trawick all fouled out of the game, while junior forward Nate Lubick, who played all 40 minutes, had 4 fouls. With these factors going so strongly against the Hoyas, Villanova did not need to shut down sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr., who scored 17 points.

Head Coach John Thompson III said, “We’re playing for a championship. That’s something just as important. We were desperate coming into this game, also.”

For the Wildcats, Darrun Hilliard scored 14 points and Ryan Arcidiacono scored 11 while JayVaughn Pinkston had 20. At least half of each player’s points were scored at the free throw line.

This loss made the Hoyas look weak for the first time in almost two months, but will serve as a wake-up call for the team, who now have no more margin for error. Each of the upcoming games between now and the NCAA tournament will be critical in affecting both seeding and momentum for the Hoyas, who, after looking like the best team in the country, suddenly look lost. The Blue and Gray will face Syracuse on Saturday in their final Big East regular season grudge match with not only bragging rights, but also the Big East title on the line. Whether this loss was an isolated event or a turning point for the season is yet to be seen.

File Photo: Andres Rengifo/Georgetown Voice (Mar. 2, 2013, vs. Rutgers)

After an unbelievable escape at UConn and a close first half against Rutgers last week, the Hoyas (23-4, 13-3 Big East) have risen to the consensus No. 5 spot in the country. Despite their active 11-game winning streak, however, the Hoyas go into Villanova (18-12, 9-8 Big East) tonight as a 1-point underdog. This game, more than any in the season, epitomizes the phrase “trap game.”

With aspirations of winning the Big East title outright, this game may be overlooked, even though the Wildcats have been giant-killers this year, defeating Syracuse, Louisville, and Marquette.

Sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr. has been launched into the national spotlight since his jaw-dropping performance at Syracuse and has not faded since, scoring 22 points, including the game winning layup, at UConn and 28 points against Rutgers. Porter is now the clear favorite for Big East Player of the Year and is in the discussion along with Indiana’s Victor Oladipo and Michigan’s Trey Burke for National Player of the Year.

With this spotlight, Porter is clearly being guarded more closely by opponents, which has led to more foul calls; Porter shot 18 free throws against Rutgers. Freshman guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera and junior guard Markel Starks have been the other major offensive producers for the Hoyas, averaging 8.6 and 12.2 points per game, respectively. Since his big defensive performance at the Carrier Dome, junior center Moses Ayegba has been able to keep producing, scoring 4 points and pulling down 7 boards against Rutgers.

For the Wildcats, the key players will be leading scorers, freshman guard Ryan Arcidiacono, who is averaging 12.2 points per game and sophomore forward JayVaughn Pinkston, who is averaging 12.7 points per game. Arcidiacono has had the hot hand recently, averaging 17.8 points over the current five game stretch.

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When we last saw our Hoyas

Things got ugly in Newark. Georgetown experienced its worst loss of the season, losing by 18 points to a Seton Hall team that had lost seven of its last 10 games. The Hoyas were practically unrecognizable Tuesday night, allowing the Pirates to shoot 61 percent from the field.

“I think everybody in our locker room, everybody in this program knows that what happened in that game is not acceptable,” senior guard Jason Clark said Thursday. “That’s not Georgetown basketball. That’s not us.”

It’s hard to pinpoint where Georgetown went wrong, because it was basically everywhere. The only bright side to the loss might be that it didn’t seem to be the product of some intrinsic flaw. The Hoyas simply fell behind and then allowed their mistakes to compound to devastating effect.

“The biggest thing is when we weren’t scoring on offense we let it show up on defense, and when we weren’t playing defense we let it show up on offense,” Clark said. “Like coach said [after the game], we’ve just got to be better. We have to be better.”

Tomorrow’s villain

Normally, a late February game against Villanova would be a marquee matchup with major implications at the top of the Big East standings. This year, however, Jay Wright’s squad is suffering through a hellish season, and the Wildcats are amazingly tied for the worst overall record in the conference at 11-16.

Despite its struggles, Villanova could easily beat the Hoyas if they play like they did on Tuesday. Dysfunctional as they may be, the Wildcats still are talented. They nearly knocked off Notre Dame and UConn in their last two games, losing in overtime to both. Villanova was also without their best player, junior guard Maalik Wayns, for those games. On Thursday, Wright said that Wayns, who averages 17.8 points per game, was “hopeful” for Saturday’s game.

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Photography by Lynn Kirshbaum

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’ Big East opponents. In preparation for tomorrow’s game against Villanova, here are three reasons to hate the Wildcats:

Before we get to the Wildcats, make sure to reserve a little extra hate for the snow. No matter how much comes down over the next 24 hours, the game will go on. According to both Sports Information and JTIII, all the principals—the Wildcats, the refs, the TV crew, and possibly even the Hoyas—will be staying in a hotel near the Verizon Center.

Payback

I missed hating on ‘Nova the first time around, which may have been a good thing, because the Wildcats are even more deserving of your vitriol after last month’s 82-77 loss in Philadelphia. That was a winnable game for the Hoyas, and a waste of Greg Monroe’s career game. The big man will want payback after his 29 point, 16 rebound effort was squandered. Frontcourt mate Julian Vaughn will want payback after being held scoreless and fouling out in just 17 minutes. Chris Wright will want payback after a 1-for-7 shooting effort that limited him to just six points. Hollis Thompson will want payback after an 0-for-7 afternoon that made Wright look good. And Henry Sims will want payback after Villanova forced a turnover that ruined what was otherwise a perfect trillion.

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Tomorrow’s noon game against the Villanova Wildcats may be in Philadelphia, but that’s not going to keep Vox from being there. Starting at 11:30 a.m., Tim Shine will be on the sidelines with top-notch game coverage, so tune in!