Hoyas hope to avenge last year’s 76-67 defeat
Greg Monroe has a vivid single memory of his first visit to Duke last January with Georgetown. And it isn’t the Cameron Crazies.
Instead, it was a suspected Hoya crazy, a Georgetown supporter who objected to a call from behind the Hoyas bench during the second half. Of course, when referee John Cahill thought it was Monroe, the then-freshman center was called for a technical foul — his fourth personal foul of the contest — which proved to be a turning point in the 76-67 loss.
Monroe still maintains his innocence, but took away a lesson anyway.
“People on the bench know it wasn’t me, but the coach said it was more or less a token of the things I was doing on the court,” said Monroe. “It may cause stuff like that, being too emotional after they made calls. It was more seeing that than anything. After that I started controlling my emotions more and I think it’s helped out.”
Last year’s defeat in Durham also was the first of five straight Hoyas losses, which ushered in an awful second half of the year.
“They kind of bullied us,” said Georgetown sophomore guard Jason Clark. “They played tougher than us, and I think if we would have played tougher than them and executed more on offense, we would’ve beaten them.”
The Hoyas (15-4, 6-3 Big East) are coming off an equally demoralizing defeat earlier this week at Syracuse as they prepare for the last of four games in five years against the Blue Devils (17-3, 5-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) on Saturday. But Hoyas head coach John Thompson III, whose first big win at Georgetown was a court-storming victory over then No. 1 Duke at Verizon Center in 2006, isn’t concerned that a slide similar to last year’s is in store.
“I don’t think we have to worry about that,” said Thompson, who isn’t sure if the series with Duke will be renewed, “That’s not to say we’re not going to lose games. This team is not last year’s team. It’s much different in every way, shape and form. Monday was not mental fatigue. They just beat us.”
