Conference teams just beating each other up
It’s a good thing Georgetown’s players don’t look at the Big East standings. This season, they have turned into a violent, R-rated movie.
The carnage is widespread. First-place Pittsburgh lost at home to Notre Dame on Monday. Syracuse, after winning its first five league games, has lost three straight, including a 22-point defeat in the Carrier Dome to Seton Hall that caused Orange coach Jim Boeheim to bail on his trademark 2-3 zone for man-to-man. And Providence, after starting 0-6 in the Big East, has upset back-to-back ranked teams, Louisville and Villanova (17-3, 5-2 Big East), the latter which will host the Hoyas (15-5, 4-4) on Saturday.
Georgetown senior guard Chris Wright was told about the Wildcats’ loss after his team trounced St. John’s on Wednesday.
“I don’t care, you know what I’m saying,” Wright said. “I really don’t. I could care less about Syracuse losing. I want them to lose. I want everybody to lose, so I really don’t care about anybody. As long as we take care of what we gotta do, then we’ll be all right.”
| Up Next | |
| No. 21 Georgetown at No. 8 Villanova |
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| Where » Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia | |
| When » Saturday, noon | |
| TV » ESPN | |
At nearly the conference schedule’s halfway point, the Hoyas are in ninth place among 16 teams but ranked 21st in the country — one of eight Big East teams in the national top 25. The conference is lobbying hard for a record nine or 10 berths in this year’s NCAA tournament, but with teams pummeling one another from top to bottom, coaches are concerned their Big East bruises will outweigh their overall strength.
“It probably does affect us,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “But I think over time, I think the selection committee will understand how good the league is and change their perception on what a ninth-place or 10th-place team is in this league.”
Thanks in part to its strong nonconference schedule, the Hoyas’ NCAA berth is unlikely to fall into peril unless they struggle badly down the stretch. Either way, Georgetown coach John Thompson III didn’t look at where his team was after it lost four of its first five league games, and he’s unlikely to do the same after winning three in a row.
“There is no good thing in losing those games early, but it happens that it’s a long year,” Thompson said. “As everyone has seen, the teams in this league are going to beat each other up. Guys are going to have losses, so we just have to climb out and keep fighting.”
