Two things are clear about Georgetown entering the final week of the regular season.
First, the Hoyas’ top four players, led by Austin Freeman and Greg Monroe, make up what could be the most talented starting five in the nation.
Second, they’ve developed a pattern of playing as if their talent alone will lift them, an alarming trend at a point in the season when college basketball feeds much more on heart and determination.
Georgetown’s most consistent characteristic during its last five contests, including three losses, is that its opponents have led at halftime every game.
“We don’t do it on purpose,” Monroe said after Saturday’s upset loss to Notre Dame. “We’re not trying to have a tendency to come back. That’s not what we’re trying to do at all.”
But the Hoyas (19-8, 9-7 Big East) have been doing it for the last month. They allowed Providence and Rutgers to go ahead by at least eight points in the second half — a deficit they overcame only against the Friars.
After trailing all 40 minutes against Syracuse, Georgetown asserted control at Louisville after the break with a 21-2 run. Expecting the same against the Fighting Irish, the Hoyas instead were overwhelmed by Ben Hansbrough, who broke the game open by himself in the second half.
“You can’t play from behind all the time,” Hoyas coach John Thompson III said. “We’ve come from behind in several games. That’s not necessarily a script we want to follow, so we have to do a better job early. I think Hansbrough’s plays at the start of the second half, in many ways, were deflating because we came out excited, ready to play, and they got two layups and two or three [3-pointers], and so that’s what I said. That’s what good players do.”
Right now, those good players aren’t his.
