Hoyas Can Dish It Out; Now, They Can Take It, Too

Year after year, the Georgetown Hoyas have been known as the bad guys of college basketball. Like the Raiders, they are villains dressed in dark, poised to dish out intimidation and fear.

Hoyas haters around the country loved it when Villanova stomped out evil and won the national championship last season. They reveled when Patrick Ewing graduated. They giggled when the Hoyas lost two straight games recently.

And guess what? None of it bothers the Hoyas one bit. They can dish it out, but they can take it, too.

“We’re capable of going to the Final Four,” Georgetown point guard Michael Jackson said Tuesday when asked how good this Hoya team can be. “We’re capable of winning it, too.”

You can take away the big guy, but it’s a little harder to strip away the confidence Ewing contributed to this basketball program.

When the University of Connecticut Huskies take the floor at the Capital Centre Wednesday night, they aren’t going to find much difference between the No. 13 Hoyas (10-2 overall, 1-1 in the Big East) and the Georgetown teams of the last four years. Sure, the Huskies (8-2, 0-1) won’t have Ewing to contend with this time. But don’t toss the Hoyas on the scrapheap.

“We have to do different things this year,” Jackson said after emerging from a Hoyas practice behind the bolted doors at McDonough Gym on the Georgetown campus. “We’re stressing things in different areas. Any basketball team will try to play to its strengths -- not to its weaknesses. Our strength is outside.”

Now that’s obviously different. The last four seasons, no one accused the Hoyas of being weak inside.

These days, with Ralph Dalton, Grady Mateen and Johnathan Edwards, the Hoyas aren’t exactly the Little Sisters of the Poor. But teams can approach the Hoyas differently now that Ewing isn’t there.

The hallmark of Coach John Thompson’s Georgetown teams always has been pressure defense. It’s baseline-to-baseline, gambling, cheating, grabbing, body-checking defense for 40 minutes. The Hoyas could take chances no other team could take because if they got beat, Ewing was waiting behind them with his awesome wingspan and defensive skills.

Ewing was a savior in Nike shoes.

“Our defense isn’t as good -- not at this point,” Georgetown forward Reggie Williams said. “The big fellow isn’t there. We could gamble and he was always there. Patrick was so great on defense, not only as a shot blocker but because of his great foot work.”

That hasn’t stopped the Hoyas from taking chances, though.

“We take the same amount of gambles,” Jackson said.

Even though the Pittsburgh Panthers shot 62% against the Hoyas in the second half of their 80-76 victory over Georgetown last week, Thompson doesn’t subscribe to the theory that the Hoyas are still adjusting to defensive life without Ewing.

Thompson points out that the majority of Pitt’s shots came from the perimeter and that Georgetown outrebounded the Panthers, 47-36.

But teams can come at the Hoyas now, instead of backing off. Williams has noticed teams approaching Georgetown in a different manner.

“They play more pressing offense,” Williams said. “They’re not timid. They push the ball inside now.”

Ewing’s absence may be most noticable on defense, but the Hoyas have been forced to make offensive adjustments as well. Ewing averaged 14.6 points a game last season. That load has been distributed among all the Hoyas.

Williams, shooting 54%, is the top scorer, averaging 16.8 points. David Wingate is next at 15.6, followed by Jackson at 11.2. All five starters -- including Dalton and Horace Broadnax -- have averaged double figures in the Hoyas’ two Big East Conference games.

Jackson, who took 234 shots in 38 games last season, already has taken 110 in 12 games this season.

“I felt I had to take up some slack,” Jackson said. “Patrick and Billy (Martin) scored a lot of points for us and now they’re gone. My first two years here I used to score. I’ve always looked to score.

“I still hit people inside (with passes). Ralph, Grady and Johnathan are capable of making a layup just like Patrick was. We have an inside game, it’s just not as dominant as it was. Patrick was the best player in college basketball history.

“I don’t mind hearing about him but I think we should talk about this year’s team. We knew Patrick was going to be gone. We can’t keep dwelling on things.”