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Georgetown Basketball: May 2012 News Archive

Tournament Week? 5/24/12 

What began as a three day, eight team tournament is on the verge of becoming one of the longest tournaments in collegiate sports.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal is reporting that the Big East is moving forward with an 18 team configuration for the 2014 men's conference tournament, which will extend the tournament to six consecutive days, with a doubleheader beginning on Monday, Mar. 10, 2014. The proposed brackets (below) will move the top four seeds to the Tuesday round from Thursday, offering a one day break for each team should it advance.

The six day tournament would nearly match that of the NAIA Basketball Tournament, where 32 teams compete in a single elimination tournament over seven days at Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium, with eight games each of the first three days and a one day break before the semifinals.

The Big East doesn't have to invite all teams, of course, and routinely invited only the top 12 from 1995-2006 for logistical as well as competitive reasons: no team seeded lower than a #9 seed has ever made the tournament semifinals. Coaches opposed it, however, arguing that it would impede the growth of teams (and presumably, endanger coaching jobs) if schools that were out of the top 12 were not invited annually to New York. Had a 12 team limit been put in play over the last four years, DePaul would have had no tournament appearances, Rutgers one, Providence one, and South Florida just two visits each.

The location of the proposed Monday games are in question, as Madison Square Garden may not be available to host six consecutive nights of college action amidst NBA and NHL commitments. Carnesecca Arena (nee Alumni Hall) on the St. John's campus may be an eventual compromise site given the small attendance such a group of schools may draw.

Proposed 2014 Big East Tournament Configuration
Monday
Mar. 10		 Tuesday
Mar. 11		 Wednesday
Mar. 12		 Thursday
Mar 13		 Friday
Mar 14		 Saturday
Mar 15
16 vs. 17
7:00 pm		 1 vs.16/17 winner
12:00 pm		 8 vs. 9
12:00 pm		 Tue. winner vs
Wed. winner
12:00 pm		 Semifinals, 7pm Finals, 9pm
  4 vs. 13
2:00 pm		 5 vs. 12
2:00 pm		 Tue. winner vs
Wed. winner
2:00 pm
15 vs. 18
9:00 pm		 2 vs. 15/18 winner
7:00 pm		 7 vs. 10
7:00 pm		 Tue. winner vs
Wed. winner
7:00 pm		 Semifinals, 9pm
  3 vs. 14
12:00 pm		 6 vs. 11
9:00 pm		 Tue. winner vs
Wed. winner
9:00 pm
 

How has the tournament changed over the years? A lot:

Evolution of The Big East Tournament
Years Teams Network Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
1980-82 8 ESPN       Quarters Semis Finals  
1983-86 9 ESPN     1st Rd Quarters Semis Finals  
1987-94 9-10 CBS       1st Rd Quarters Semis Finals
1995-06 12 ESPN     1st Rd Quarters Semis Finals  
2007-13 16 ESPN   1st Rd 2nd Rd Quarters Semis Finals  
2014- 18 (TBD) 1st Rd 2nd Rd 3rd Rd Quarters Semis Finals  
 

The 2013 tournament is expected to be only 14 teams, due to West Virginia's early exit and NCAA sanctions currently pending with Connecticut. That format will be as follows:

Tue. Mar. 12 Wed., Mar. 13 Thurs., Mar 14 Fri., Mar 15 Sat.,Mar 16

#9  vs. #8
12 pm
 Winner vs. #1
12 pm
 Semifinals, 7pm Finals, 9pm
 #12 vs.#13
7 pm
 Winner vs. #5
2 pm
 Winner vs. #4
2 pm
  #10 vs. #7
7 pm
 Winner vs. #2
7 pm
 Semifinals, 9pm
#11vs.#14
9 pm
 Winner vs. #6
9 pm
 Winner vs. #3
9 pm
 
All Or Nothing 5/23/12 

It's been 15 years since Victor Page played his last college game, and six years since a New York Times article was famously titled "Without Bad Luck, He'd Have No Luck At All." Recovering from a gunshot wound that cost him sight in one eye, Page told the Times that he was working on a documentary film of his life.

The documentary did not come to pass, but noted DC journalist Bruce Johnson picks up the Page story in a new e-book titled "All Or Nothing", and recently spoke to WDCW-TV about the book and its protagonist.

"There was a self-destruct button with Victor Page," said Johnson. The author speaks in the video excerpt of Page's difficult upbringing, his eligibility at Washington's McKinley Tech HS (Page actually lived in Maryland during his high school years, according to the book), and the circumstances which ultimately got Page dropped as a potential NBA free agent. Page is now 37, and lives in a D.C. suburb.

The e-book is available on Kindle through Amazon.com.

Georgetown Secures 2013 Verbal 5/22/12 

Georgetown's one open scholarship for the 2012-13 recruiting season appears to have been filled, as rising high school senior Stephen Domingo announced a verbal commitment to join the Georgetown Class of 2017.

The 6-7 Domingo averaged 13.3 points a game as a junior at St. Ignatius HS in San Francisco, selecting Georgetown over offers from Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Louisville, and Washington.

“We are proud of Stephen’s accomplishments and pleased that he will be playing at another Jesuit school,” said St, Ignatius principal Patrick Ruff (SLL '91). “Stephen is a fine young man, who will carry his Ignatian values with him wherever he goes.”

Georgetown cannot comment on the status of recruits before the signing of a National Letter of Intent, which would be no sooner than November of this year.

“I was very honored to have been recruited by many outstanding coaches and programs,” said Domingo, ranked among the top 30 juniors this past season. “In the end, I felt Georgetown was by far the best fit for me and what I hope to accomplish in college."

"Georgetown will help me develop into an outstanding basketball player and an outstanding young man.”

Additional coverage follows below:

Big East Meetings 5/21/12

A year ago, the annual Big East athletic director meetings in Ponte Vedra, FL went along almost unnoticed. In 2012, the cast of characters has certainly changed.

Out: Syracuse, Pitt, West Virginia, and former commissioner John Marinatto. In: Boise State, Central Florida, Houston, Memphis, Navy, San Diego State, Southern Methodist, and interim commissioner Joe Bailey. Atop the agenda: negotiating the league's new TV package.

"From our perspective, we'll probably have a number of interested [TV] parties, just simply because of what the Big East represents," said Bailey, in this link to the Memphis Commercial Appeal. "I would expect that on balance, whatever the results are going to be, are going to be awfully positive for the entire conference."

Meanwhile, the Big 12 conference continues to rattle sabers for adding schools. Various sources report the Big 12 would like to add Florida State (yes, we know, it makes about as much sense as West Virginia) and some choice of Clemson, Miami, BYU, Louisville, or even Notre Dame. ND remains uninterested to such offers but is always guaranteed to stir up press just by being in the conversation. Florida State appears interested after the Atlantic Coast Conference was left out of a bowl agreement with the Big 12 and SEC that could relegate the ACC and the Big East out of the top conferences for a Division I-A football playoff.

As to Big 12 expansion, the Tulsa World suggests an impasse among the schools, with one school clearly opposed and that figures to drive the conversation for now: Texas.

The Graduate Updated 5/19/12

Four years ago this weekend, Jeff Green joined classmates Roy Hibbert, Tyler Crawford, Jonathan Wallace, and Patrick Ewing, Jr. on campus to celebrate receiving their college degrees, but for Green, who left for the NBA a year earlier, there would still be work to do to join them someday. That day came Saturday, when Green received his degree at the College's commencement.

"The reason I made the decision to come back was because I played three years here and was so close to graduating," Green told GUHoyas.com. "Coming back and watching the guys I played with all graduate - Roy, Tyler, Jon, and Pat - when I was watching them, I was upset that I left at the moment. But I was happy for those guys. We formed such a great bond that for me to come back and get my degree, it will be something that we all did together.

"They pushed me to come back and finish. It was a no-brainer, especially for my mom and dad. It was important to them for me to keep coming back for the last four years to get my degree. It's a wonderful feeling to come back and finish. It's a weight lifted off my shoulders, so I'm happy I came back."

Green took summer classes over the intervening years to fulfill his remaining requirements, with extra classes this spring after being sidelined for the 2011-12 NBA season due to heart surgery.

"When I walk across that stage, it's going to be all smiles because I accomplished a goal that I set out years ago," Green said. "It's tough to put into words how I'm going to feel, but to finally be able to say I'm done and have a degree with my name on it from Georgetown will be breathtaking. I'm going to be speechless. I'm the first in my family to graduate from college and it will be memorable."

More on Jeff Green's big day follows from the Washington Post. Recommended reading.

Looking Back 5/18/12

With the 2011-12 academic year at an end, head coach John Thompson III talked to The HOYA about a long and eventful year for the team.

"I think the China trip was key for the obvious reasons, incident aside," Thompson said. "We haven’t taken a foreign trip since I’ve been here, and I realized this past summer was the year to do it. Because of the high number of freshmen and sophomores … we needed to hit the ground running, and for them to be able to … understand the concepts enabled us in September to jump right in as if they weren’t six freshmen and four sophomores."

"I think this year’s team — obviously, relative to expectations — accomplished a lot, really understood the notion of team, understood sacrifice. One of the fun parts about my job and probably any coach’s job … every year, you take a whole new group [and try to] get them to understand commitment … and this group did that pretty quickly, which then allowed us to grow, to get better and to exceed expectations.”

2013 NCAA Regional To Verizon Center 5/17/12

The NCAA has announced that the 2013 East Regional will be held at Verizon Center from March 28-30, 2013.

"The decision to delay the announcement of the East Regional site was made because the committee wanted to explore several options,” said Mark Lewis, NCAA executive vice president for championships. “In the end, we think celebrating 75 years of one of the country’s favorite sporting events in our nation’s capital is fitting.” The East regional was the last site selected among regionals in Arlington, TX, Los Angeles, and Indianapolis, and Washington was chosen over Syracuse, Newark, and New York City for the games.

As a result, Georgetown will not be placed in the East regional brackets if selected for the 2013 tournament.

Additional coverage follows below:

Keith Brown Named Women's BB Coach Updated 5/10/12  

Georgetown University has announced the promotion of assistant women's basketball coach Keith Brown to become its new head coach. A press conference introducing Brown was held Wednesday.

"I am excited to be promoting Keith to head women's basketball coach," said athletic director Lee Reed. "He has been an integral part of our success over the past few seasons and I am confident he can sustain the program's momentum. Keith is a proven recruiter and motivator, he has the ability to push these student-athletes both on the court and in the classroom and I look forward to what he will bring to the program."

Brown was an assistant for five years under Terri Williams-Flournoy, during which the Hoyas appeared in three consecutive NCAA tournaments.

The 2012-13 Hoyas return one starter and eight letterwomen from the 2011-12 squad, but lose 54% of the team scoring and 40% of the team rebounding with the loss of seven seniors. To date, four freshmen recruits have been announced.

Media Sowing Big East Doubt...Again? 5/8/12  

With John Marinatto's forced exit from the commissioner's office, some voices in the media are again beating the drums that the Big East cannot survive with so-called "basketball" schools and others are pointing a finger at Georgetown for its instability.

"At its structural base, the Big East is doomed," writes the Hartford Courant. "It is the Austrian-Hungarian Empire of college sports, something built for antiquity, not the future, and one day — some day — it will split." Why so encouraging (or discouraging, depending on your view)? Because a split opens the door for the home-state team to catch the attention of the ACC, which has no interest in the Huskies at this time.

"It screamed volumes that the Big East presidents voted down the $1.4 billion ESPN deal that he brought to them last spring," writes the Courant. Pittsburgh and Georgetown reportedly led the charge on a 12-4 vote against." Why? Because ESPN's bid was artificially low, and other networks might up the ante. This ESPN simply did not want, and following the vote, the network soon began the dialogue with Pitt and Syracuse about moving south and ultimately watering down the amount ESPN (or others) would pay for Big East's rights fees.

According to the COurant article, UConn was one of just four Big East schools willing to sign with the Bristol-based network at the lower amount.

New York Times reporter and occasional provocateur Pete Thamel asks: "Could the core of Catholic universities — Villanova, St. John’s and Georgetown — [leave and] lure a few like-minded basketball-centric partners — Xavier, Dayton, Richmond, St. Joseph’s or Butler?" Answer? No. (For those who want to relive this financially suicidal argument, see this link.

"I think if they stay together and negotiate as a single unit, I think they can come away with a reasonably favorable result, even more than what ESPN offered a year and a half ago.” said media consultant Neil Pilson. “I think the competition will drive it.”

Marinatto Resigns As Big East Commissioner 5/7/12  

Hours after a CBS Sports.com report, Big East commissioner John Marinatto announced his resignation.

"Our recent expansion efforts have stabilized the Conference for the long term, and we are likewise well positioned for our very important upcoming television negotiations. As a result, I felt this was the right time to step aside and to let someone else lead us through the next chapter of our evolution," said Marinatto in a formal statement.

Marinatto, 55, was the third and likely last in a line of Big East commissioners hired from Providence College, having succeeded Michael Tranghese in 2009. Marinatto was a frequent target of fans and media (particularly ESPN) for the departure of Syracuse, Pitt, and West Virginia in 2011, and the unsuccessful outreach to Texas Christian to join the league in the past year. Despite a successful expansion arrangement with four all-sports schools and three football-only members, Marinatto often found himself at odds between both wings of the Big East family.

Marinatto's exit opens the door to a number of experienced candidates to apply for the position. Joseph Bailey, a retired NFL executive, will assume the role of interim commissioner.

The Roy Hibbert Project 5/3/12 

Long form sports journalism is an anachronism in the 140-character universe, but the ESPN-owned Grantland.com continues to provide a home for more extended sports features--among them, the story of Roy Hibbert's determination to become what had seemed wholly unlikely nearly a decade ago: to become an NBA All-Star.

Hibbert arrived at Georgetown in 2004 very much a "project" player--according to the article, he could not complete a single push-up, had trouble running on the court, and was better suited to PlayStation games than running a Big East offense. With a commitment on and off the court, Hibbert grew into his role at Georgetown, and has continued that progress with the NBA's Indiana Pacers.

"He's always asking, 'How can I do this better?'" says Pacers teammate David West. "Roy embraces his size. Too many big guys want to be guards. He knows who he is."

Monroe Not Expected For Olympic Team Trials 5/3/12 

A brief flurry of media attention was halted when it was learned that Detroit Pistons center Greg Monroe (degree in progress) will not be added to a call-up list for the U.S. Olympic Team, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The Olympic team is expected to add one or two more players to its initial roster following injuries to at least five NBA players expected at the trials later this spring.

Jimmy V Classic 5/2/12 

From ESPN.com, confirmation that Georgetown will play in the Jimmy V Classic Dec. 4 vs. Texas, with NC State and Connecticut in the other half of the doubleheader.

Georgetown and Texas have met only once before, a 78-70 win by Texas on Jan. 8, 1972 during the nine game road trip that eventually sunk Jack Magee's coaching tenure at the Hilltop.

Post: Kevin Broadus Back To Coaching Staff 5/1/12 

The Washington Post is reporting that Kevin Broadus will rejoin the Georgetown staff following the expected departure of Robert Kirby to Louisiana State.

Broadus was an assistant coach at Georgetown from 2004-07 and served a non-coaching role on the staff last season.

 

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