Sunday, December 15, 2019

Classic addition by subtraction

Thee games ago the Georgetown Hoyas lost to Greensboro, and their season hit a new low. Then two of their top players left the team after an ugly off-court incident, with two other players having a cloud over them. Those other two players left before last night's game.

So what do the Hoyas do in that three-game stretch, when they were down two, and then four, of their roster? All they did was to win at Oklahoma State, at SMU and home against Syracuse. None of those teams were ranked, but OSU is now 7-2, SMU is now 8-1, and Syracuse is a traditional rival from their old Big East days, who happen to have a Hall of Fame coach.

So you lose four players, and you go 3-0? How do you do that? Well . . . Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who had nothing to lose (except a chance at some transfer players he didn't want anyway), summed it up: "They got rid of a guy that wouldn’t pass the ball to anybody and just shot it every time. That’s why they’re good now." Unusual candor for a coach, but probably right.

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