WASHINGTON – Georgetown’s historically been successful with towering front lines. As Syracuse learned in Saturday’s 68-53 loss to Georgetown, this season’s Hoyas frontcourt is no exception.

Sophomores Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert are two of the top post players in the Big East. Senior Brandon Bowman plays the wing, but is able to play an inside-outside game. Together, the frontline has the Hoyas on the top half of the Big East standings. It left the Orange in foul trouble and eventually on the losing side of the score.

‘Green was very good in the post. They did a good job of that,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘They’re a year older. But they’re the same guys. We barely got by them last year. They were close to a tournament team last year, really close. They’re all still here. They’re sophomores, they have three seniors. They’re the same guys who were pretty good last year.’

The Hoyas were able to feed their post players against the Orange’s 2-3 zone. Georgetown head coach John Thompson III said handling the zone was a big emphasis during the game’s preparations. Particularly against SU’s zone, which Thompson praised because of the way Boeheim teaches it and the Orange’s players executing it well, Georgetown knew its frontcourt was going to be a ticket.

‘You have two seconds less against them than against other zones and they’re so

long and so athletic,’ Thompson III said. ‘You’re not open for long so we thought we just had to throw it inside.

‘They’ve had that for years. They’ve been so good and so tough when you get it in there and you have no one to pass to. You have to put yourself in a dangerous situation just to get off a good pass.’

Controversial call

The jacket came off. Boeheim was mad. There was a gaffe with the shot clock where the buzzer sounded prematurely for Georgetown, allowing the Hoyas another chance to extend their 30-29 lead.

With two seconds remaining on the shot clock and 44.6 seconds remaining, Georgetown inbounded the ball to senior Brandon Bowman, who bobbled the pass. But as the ball was being bobbled, the buzzer sounded prematurely. The officials had a conference at midcourt and determined to replay the entire sequence.

On the second chance, Georgetown guard Jessie Sapp missed a 3-pointer but center Roy Hibbert grabbed the offensive rebound, attempted the shot again, and converted a field goal while being fouled by Terrence Roberts – the Syracuse forward’s third foul. Hibbert made the ensuing free throw to finish a swing that crippled the Orange.

Boeheim waved his arms frantically, ripped off his jacket and hollered at the officials even as the Orange was entering the locker room for halftime.

Although the Orange lost the game by more than the three points that Georgetown received on the second chance, it was a play that irritated Boeheim.

‘It’s not hard to count to two. One. Two. It’s our ball out of bounds,’ Boeheim said. ‘The shot clock went off early, the ball went down. The guy had probably three seconds when the ball was in play. The officials just stopped the game and gave them the ball because the shot clock went off.’

Rowdy crowd

While there was an impressive amount of Orange sprinkled around the MCI Center, the sections behind both baskets were reserved for Georgetown students. The Georgetown student section handed out a sheet before the game with different chants and insults that the students figured would throw the Orange off its game.

The sheet peddled the cloudy line between clich and originality, urging the Hoyas fans to chant ‘N-B-D-L’ when Gerry McNamara caught the ball – in reference to the NBA’s developmental league – and call Eric Devendorf ugly. Some fans tried comparing Devendorf’s appearance to West Virginia’s tattooed center Kevin Pittsnogle.

The insults were similar to seemingly every student section at big schools and didn’t appear to rattle the Orange. But the Hoyas fans perhaps had the last laugh when they chanted ‘N-I-T’ when SU left the court.

Published on February 26, 2006 at 12:00 pm