Brian Otskey is an RTC contributor. He filed this report from Indiana’s overtime victory over Georgetown on Tuesday night at the Barclays Center. Follow him on Twitter @botskey.

Three thoughts on Indiana’s thrilling overtime victory over Georgetown, the best college basketball game we’ve seen so far this season.

1. Indiana’s defense down the stretch was terrific. The Hoosiers held Georgetown without a point for a five minute stretch late in the second half, a stretch that ultimately allowed them to win the game despite Georgetown’s comeback. Indiana led by eight with four minutes remaining in the game but the Hoyas chipped that away in the final few minutes. If it wasn’t for that scoreless stretch, Georgetown wins this game in regulation and Indiana is left questioning what went wrong. The Hoosiers have work to do defensively but coming up with extended stops like that in crunch time against a quality opponent has to give Tom Crean a lot of confidence going forward.
2. Georgetown’s help defense allowed it to go toe to toe with Indiana. All night long, Georgetown’s front line defensive helpers made a huge difference against Cody Zeller and any Indiana guard who drove the lane. Georgetown had two or three guys blocking shots and it was hard for Indiana to operate in the lane. Despite all of that, Indiana was able to win the game which speaks volumes about its offensive ability. Jordan Hulls was able to drive and dish or score while Zeller made some nifty moves to evade the Hoya defenders. Georgetown wins with tight defense and for a while I thought they were going to knock off the #1 Hoosiers. The Hoyas defense gave them every chance to win, they just needed a little bit more on offense. 
3. Both of these teams are going to make a lot of noise. We knew Indiana was good and it will contend for a Big Ten title but Georgetown proved tonight it could contend with the top teams in the nation. The Hoyas were every bit as good as Indiana tonight but ran out of gas in the extra session. Truth be told, it was a very good matchup for Georgetown. The Hoyas will take valuable experience from this one as they move towards Big East play in January. I did not have Georgetown ranked in the RTC Top 25 but that has to change after what I saw tonight even in a loss. John Thompson III gets a ton of credit for developing his players and keeping this program among the best in the nation year after year.

Brian Otskey (269 Posts)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 20th, 2012 at 11:03 pm by Brian Otskey and is filed under Regular Features, rushed reactions. Tagged: cody zeller, georgetown, indiana, legends classic, otto porter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.