Butler came into Saturday night’s game in dire need of a victory. The Bulldogs entered with an 0-3 Big East record and they had hit a low point Thursday night when they allowed lowly DePaul to leave Hinkle Fieldhouse with an overtime victory. Georgetown also entered the contest needing for a win. The Hoyas struggled mightily in their first road conference game on Wednesday, falling at Providence, 70-52. Georgetown also experienced some personnel issues in the past week with center Joshua Smith unavailable due to an academic issue and forward Jabril Trawick suffering a broken jaw in Wednesday’s loss. As it turned out, Georgetown was able to overcome its depth issues and hand Butler yet another overtime loss in a 70-67 Hoyas’ victory. The following are three thoughts from Saturday night’s game in Indy.

John Thompson III Has His Hoyas Playing At A High Level. (Getty)

1. Georgetown’s Perseverance Was Impressive: Already with Smith and Trawick unavailable, Georgetown’s frontcourt battled foul trouble all night long. Starting forwards Nate Lubick and Mikael Hopkins and reserve big man Moses Ayegba were all disqualified before the final buzzer sounded. The Hoyas refused to use that as a hindrance, though, as they were able to seamlessly shuffle in senior forward Aaron Bowen, freshman forward Reggie Cameron, and former walk-on John Caprio to pick up the slack left by their fouled-out veterans. The Hoyas also persevered in the final minute when it looked like Butler was going to escape with a victory, but senior guard Markel Starks nailed a clutch three-pointer with 14 seconds remaining to tie the game at 60 and ultimately send it to the extra period.
2. Georgetown’s Physicality Was On Display All Night: Even without Smith and Trawick and the foul trouble it experienced throughout the game, Georgetown was able to use its size advantage to throw Butler off. The Hoyas finished with a +7 rebounding advantage (including a +11 advantage in the first half); they blocked five shots; and they held Butler to just 33.3 percent shooting from the field. Georgetown’s physicality and relentlessness on the boards was illustrated by the fact that all eight players who answered the bell for John Thompson III finished the night with at least three rebounds.
3. Butler Is In Trouble In The Big East: After dropping its first two conference games to ranked Villanova and an always-tough Xavier in Cincinnati, Butler had a chance to grab two conference victories at home against DePaul and an undermanned Georgetown squad. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, they were unable to benefit from their home court advantage and dropped both games to move to 0-4 in conference play. Looking ahead, things may only get worse for Brandon Miller’s squad before they get any better. Next up on the schedule is a trip to Creighton, followed by a home game against Marquette and a trip to Providence. Considering how the season has gone thus far, the Bulldogs could conceivably fall to a horrific 0-7 in conference play. The only silver lining for Butler has to be that all six of its losses this season have been in fairly close games. One would assume that if the Bulldogs continue to play close games, they will soon wind up on the right end of a few of those hotly contested battles.

WCarey (318 Posts)

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 12th, 2014 at 8:01 am by Walker Carey and is filed under big east, microsites. Tagged: aaron bowen, brandon miller, butler, georgetown, Jabril Trawick, john caprio, john thompson III, joshua smith, mikael hopkins, moses ayegba, Nate Lubick, Reggie Cameron. 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.