The State of a Program Epitomized in 6 Minutes - Georgetown Loses 80-73 to Villanova

My name is Patrick Crawford Jr. and I have been watching, rooting, and praying for the Georgetown Hoyas men’s basketball team for nearly 30 years.

Yesterday’s game at Capitol One Arena was symbolic of how I feel about the program in almost every single way—a rollercoaster of joy, frustration, hope, anger, pride, and, ultimately, disappointment.

Coming in to today, the Hoyas had won four straight—a miraculous come back at Providence; handling DePaul at home; beating Butler in Hinkle by 13; and getting the job done against Creighton in DC last Wednesday night. This winning stretch had swung my feelings of “We made the wrong hire…burn the whole thing down” to “If we can beat Nova, we really might have a chance to play in March.”

For the first 30 minutes, I felt the same way I did while watching the Clemson game. We looked like a real basketball team. Shots were *mostly* going in, we played very solid team defense (particularly against the 3), and we just seemed to want it more. Vince continued to look like a future pro, Malik hit some big shots, and we held Lindsay, their 2nd highest scorer, to 0 points.

Then, at around the 8 minutes mark, like clockwork, old habits reared their ugly heads when it mattered most. Turnovers. Turnovers, Turnovers, Turnovers. 14 total throughout the game, all of which led to the final outcome, but in my opinion, KJ’s bullet bounce pass to Malik that went out of bounds with 3 minutes to play was the straw that broke the camels back. Saying it was infuriating does not do it justice.

The Wildcats gifted us opportunity after opportunity with missed free throws down the stretch. Bad transition decisions and even worse shot attempts looked that gift horse right in the mouth. The Hoyas played hard and they fought, and that is something to be proud of. We proved that we can go toe to toe with a team that should be ranked in the top 25. Unfortunately, given how the last decade has gone, getting close doesn’t matter any more. They need to win these games and they need to do take consistently.

The season is not over yet—I do think that the talent and ability is there for this team to win more games than it loses over the next month. But yesterday was another example of the recurring nightmare we all have felt for what feels like an eternity. All the signs of moving in the right direction, but not for a full 40 minutes.

Perhaps Cupid is going to give the Hoyas a shot of redemption next Saturday in Storrs. One can only hope.

Hoya Saxa