As one reporter said afterward, sometimes you do get to write a storybook game story. Okay, not me, but here are some postgame thoughts after the Hoyas’ pummeling of Cincinnati:
What an afternoon for Austin Freeman. Could it have been more fitting that he was honored for surpassing 1,000 points beforehand, that he scored Georgetown’s first bucket, that he led the Hoyas with 24 points, that he even started the game five days after learning he had diabetes?
“Just in general our team is healthy, and we’ve haven’t been in while,” said Hoyas head coach John Thompson III. “Now, Austin, what’s going on this week has been for him personally, and for us, emotional, trying, but at the same time. I think, and we’ll see, and he still, and we’re still learning his body and how it reacts, but I think – and I’m making this statement, and I don’t know if it’s an accurate statement because I haven’t been through it, But as long as, with anyone, as long as his levels are managed, we should not see any change in his performance. I think that’s accurate, and as you saw today, between [traniner] Ms. [Lorry] Michel and Dr. [Stephen] Clement, every time he came out they were checking and monitoring him. As long as we limit the sways in his levels, we don’t anticipate – we’re going to see a lot more games this year like that.”
The jury is out on how much emotion JTIII conveyed in that statement, but he did give Freeman a hug when his star junior guard came out of the game with 4 minutes, 9 seconds remaining.
And he was accurate in his description of the Hoyas, who didn’t look anything like the team that lost twice last week.
“But is it good to get back on the court, it’s good to be healthy again,” said Thompson. “I think that second half may have been our best half of the year. It’s one of our better halves of the year, if not the best, just in terms of our execution at both ends of the floor.”
Georgetown scored 33 of the game’s final 45 points, that should sum up how dominant they were. Lance Stephenson led the Bearcats with 23 points and 7 rebounds. Their next highest scorer had 7 points, and besides Stephenson, who was 11 for 17 from the field, Cincinnati was 8 for 32 (25 percent).
Meanwhile, Greg Monroe finished with 19 points and 15 boards — JTIII was convinced the second stat wasn’t nearly high enough.
“I felt like he got every rebound,” said Thompson. “He got the ones we needed, there’s no doubt about that, and then at the offensive end. I thought our guys did a very good job of just playing. It wasn’t about calling a bunch of plays. They came down and made the right reads. We brought him up to the high post, as we do, to get him back down after one or two cuts, and I think he made the right decisions.”
Chris Wright also had 16 points and 4 assists, and one could possibly feel that the fog of uncertainty and illness that had shrouded the Hoyas recently might be lifting. Are they once again a conference and national contender? Let’s not get hasty. But the ceiling is much higher when Freeman is on the court. We’ll know later today when they’ll play on Wednesday in the second round of the Big East Tournament.
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