February 29, 2008 - As it's done around here, This and That is a multi-media presentation of observations and happenings in Georgetown's 64-52 win over St. Johns Wednesday night. To enjoy the exclusive audio, simply click the links.


Zone Report: St. Johns continued the trend Georgetown has faced for over a month - teams force the Hoyas to execute offensively against zone defenses. The Red Storm employed their 2-3 match up early in the ball game, only returning to a man-to-man scheme with about 2:26 minutes in regulation, down by nine and trying to produce turnovers.

Initially the Hoyas seemed somewhat hesitant against the Johnnies' zone, as it is capable of morphing into seemingly a 2-1-2 when attacked by a 'big' from the foul line, as well as other formations, depending on the offense presented.

Georgetown's head coach, John Thompson III commented afterward on that defense's amorphous nature, as well as shared the secret to defeating it. "At some point you just have to play" said the fourth year leader of G'Town's men's hoop program. "And stop trying to figure out what they are doing and do what we do".

His Red Storm counterpart, Norm Roberts, admitted "we thought we could slow them down a little bit by playing zone".


Banging with the Big Boys: From the outset it was clear this game would be physical - not only are both teams signature members of arguably the nation's roughest conference, the Big East, but given the embarrassing nature of their previous meeting, a 74-42 January 20th, Madison Square Garden pounding, the Johnnies were intent not to let a repeat occur. Hoya forward DaJuan Summers definitely felt the prior pasting contributed to this contest's physical nature.

Throughout the game, the Red Storm threw the 'kitchen sink' at G'Town center Roy Hibbert (17 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks, three steals), with good initial success, a point made by Roberts.

In addition to playing with force, a number of players were quite vocal, with the Johnnies' Anthony Mason, Jr. out front in that regard, as the junior from Memphis, TN expressed his thoughts to not only players, but courtside fans.

"It's St. Johns-Georgetown, and both groups understand what they represent. It's just kids competing" said Thompson of the physical and verbal jousting that occurred. He also found nothing malicious in the competition.

Roberts agreed, opining "it just got competitive like a Big East game is supposed to be", while also lauding Mason's overall play play: The forward provided 12 points, one rebound, three assists and three steals along the way to not only scoring, but playmaking for teammates.



Misc. Audio: JT3 on supressing the Johnnies offensively, during a second half 17-5 run.

Recruits in the House:

Talib Zanna ('09), Quinn Cook ('11), Grandy Glaze ('11), Kevin Thomas ('11), Matej Deliniac ('11), Rashad Whack ('09), Victor Olidapo ('10).


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