Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
By JOHN PAVIASpecial to ZAGSBLOGNEW YORK –– After a five-game losing skid, a game against a top-10 opponent in Michigan State turned out to be just what Georgetown needed to try and right the ship.
In a stunning effort, the Hoyas defeated the No. 7 Spartans, 64-60, at Madison Square Garden, but Tom Izzo was not surprised by the result.
“I give [Hoyas coach] John [Thompson III] a lot of credit; he took his team, an 11-9 team that lost a lot of tough games, hopefully [this win] will get him going,” Izzo said. “I have a lot of respect for him and his program. I thought they manhandled us.”
Michigan State continued to play without Branden Dawson and Adreian Payne.
“I know John Thompson III, I know his teams, been the same for 20 years,” Izzo said. “Georgetown is tough, they play hard and they lost some games I don’t think they should have lost…They are a good team; I don’t care what their record is. I watched them be 12 up against Xavier and up against Kansas and they found ways to struggle too. Give them credit, they played harder than us and we got what we deserved.”
Georgetown was led by the strong play of Nate Lubick, Jabril Trawick and Markel Starks. Lubick finished with eight points and six rebounds while Trawick scored all eight of his points in the second half. Starks was the high scorer for Georgetown with 16 points; 10 of them came in the second half. Georgetown also outscored Michigan State 32-22 in the paint.
“You’re not going to beat Michigan State or any team in the Big East if you aren’t physically tough,” Thompson III said. “You need to be tough enough to make the hustle plays, run down the loose balls, run down the long rebounds and have communication on defense. Traditionally through the years, their team has been one of the more physical teams in the country and I thought we met the challenge today.”
Thompson also reflected on finally being at full strength or close to it for this game and going forward.
“It’s good to have numbers back and it makes a big difference, not to make any excuses for the last few weeks, but having Jabril [Trawick] close to 100 percent and obviously Moses [Ayegba] wasn’t at the last game,” he said. “Having numbers back allows us to do different things, our rotations are different and it just helps.”
While the help might have come a bit later than Thompson III would have liked, there is still the second half of Big East play coming up for his team.
Georgetown has three games in the next nine days: away at DePaul, home against Butler and home against Providence. A 3-0 record in those games, while optimistic, would bring them back to .500 in the Big East and 15-9 overall. A split of the remaining games would be ideal, but if they are fully in rhythm by the game against St. John’s on Feb. 16 at the Garden, there’s a chance the team coaches picked to finish second in the Big East could make cause a few more upsets over ranked teams like Creighton and Villanova. At the very least, they would be a very difficult out in the Big East tournament.
When asked if Georgetown could use this game as the springboard to go on a run and bolster their resume, or at least find a certain level of consistency in their play going forward, Thompson sounded “hopeful.”
“Like I said, we’re back as close to full strength as we’re probably going to be this year so now we can play,” He said. “We have to scrap and we have to fight. What’s the saying? How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. So we can’t start thinking ahead, we’ll go to Chicago right now and let’s play well against DePaul on Monday.”
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Adam Zagoria is a Basketball Insider who covers basketball at all levels. A contributor to The New York Times and SportsNet New York (SNY), he is also the author of two books and is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. His articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide. He also won an Emmy award for his work on the SNY mini-documentary on Syracuse guard Tyus Battle.
A veteran Ultimate Frisbee player, he has competed in numerous National and World Championships and, perhaps more importantly, his teams won the Westchester Summer League (WSL) championships in 2011 and 2013.
He lives in Manhattan with his wife and children.
By JOHN PAVIA
Special to ZAGSBLOG
NEW YORK –– After a five-game losing skid, a game against a top-10 opponent in Michigan State turned out to be just what Georgetown needed to try and right the ship.
In a stunning effort, the Hoyas defeated the No. 7 Spartans, 64-60, at Madison Square Garden, but Tom Izzo was not surprised by the result.
“I give [Hoyas coach] John [Thompson III] a lot of credit; he took his team, an 11-9 team that lost a lot of tough games, hopefully [this win] will get him going,” Izzo said. “I have a lot of respect for him and his program. I thought they manhandled us.”
Michigan State continued to play without Branden Dawson and Adreian Payne.
“I know John Thompson III, I know his teams, been the same for 20 years,” Izzo said. “Georgetown is tough, they play hard and they lost some games I don’t think they should have lost…They are a good team; I don’t care what their record is. I watched them be 12 up against Xavier and up against Kansas and they found ways to struggle too. Give them credit, they played harder than us and we got what we deserved.”
Georgetown was led by the strong play of Nate Lubick, Jabril Trawick and Markel Starks. Lubick finished with eight points and six rebounds while Trawick scored all eight of his points in the second half. Starks was the high scorer for Georgetown with 16 points; 10 of them came in the second half. Georgetown also outscored Michigan State 32-22 in the paint.
“You’re not going to beat Michigan State or any team in the Big East if you aren’t physically tough,” Thompson III said. “You need to be tough enough to make the hustle plays, run down the loose balls, run down the long rebounds and have communication on defense. Traditionally through the years, their team has been one of the more physical teams in the country and I thought we met the challenge today.”
Thompson also reflected on finally being at full strength or close to it for this game and going forward.
“It’s good to have numbers back and it makes a big difference, not to make any excuses for the last few weeks, but having Jabril [Trawick] close to 100 percent and obviously Moses [Ayegba] wasn’t at the last game,” he said. “Having numbers back allows us to do different things, our rotations are different and it just helps.”
While the help might have come a bit later than Thompson III would have liked, there is still the second half of Big East play coming up for his team.
Georgetown has three games in the next nine days: away at DePaul, home against Butler and home against Providence. A 3-0 record in those games, while optimistic, would bring them back to .500 in the Big East and 15-9 overall. A split of the remaining games would be ideal, but if they are fully in rhythm by the game against St. John’s on Feb. 16 at the Garden, there’s a chance the team coaches picked to finish second in the Big East could make cause a few more upsets over ranked teams like Creighton and Villanova. At the very least, they would be a very difficult out in the Big East tournament.
When asked if Georgetown could use this game as the springboard to go on a run and bolster their resume, or at least find a certain level of consistency in their play going forward, Thompson sounded “hopeful.”
“Like I said, we’re back as close to full strength as we’re probably going to be this year so now we can play,” He said. “We have to scrap and we have to fight. What’s the saying? How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. So we can’t start thinking ahead, we’ll go to Chicago right now and let’s play well against DePaul on Monday.”
Follow John on Twitter
