No avoiding memories of upsets in 2010, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Georgetown isn’t interested in ignoring or rewriting history.
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The Hoyas are happy to face it head on, knowing that the only surefire way it will ever get easier to stomach opening-game exits each of the past two years in the NCAA tournament is by winning Friday’s second-round game against Belmont.
Until then, the discussion will center around upset losses to VCU last year and Ohio in 2010, not when Georgetown went to the 2007 Final Four or the Sweet 16 in 2006.
“We’ve had the whole gamut,” Hoyas coach John Thompson III said. “There’s no need to hide from that. Those guys, they haven’t had a postseason win, and they know that, and that’s something that we strive for. So it’s not something that we’re excited or happy about, but we’re not running from it either.”
Against both the Bobcats and Rams, the Hoyas ran into veteran teams that were peaking at just the right time and shot the ball well from the perimeter. The Bruins (27-7), who own a 14-game winning streak, love to shoot the 3-pointer and have been hardened by the disappointment of not playing their best in last year’s second-round loss to Wisconsin, fit that mold.
“This year will be five [Belmont appearances in seven years],” Bruins junior guard Ian Clark said. “Every year I think that the team that got to the tournament has gotten better. … I think a lot of us are ready to take that next step.”
Georgetown (23-8), meanwhile, ascended from being picked to finish squarely in the middle of the Big East to spending much of the season on the fringe of the national top 10. But it’s not the accolades or the scouting report — the Hoyas have four starters 6-foot-8 or taller, while the Bruins have one — that have given a team with only three upperclassmen the confidence that they will reverse the program’s ignominious trend. Hoyas senior guard Jason Clark said it’s the defensive effort and urgency that are better than in previous seasons.
“I don’t think it’s a talent thing,” Clark said. “I think this team just plays harder. I think this team is a lot hungrier than teams in the past.”
That has made life easier for Thompson, who said his freshmen, led by Otto Porter, have a natural competitiveness and desire to win. The coach has left it to his seniors to make sure they know what it feels like when they don’t.
“I think that Jason and Henry [Sims] are going to be sure, above and beyond the coaches, to make sure that they understand the sting and how hard and how devastating that is,” Thompson said. “And that is the right word: devastating.”
