This one from the old news department. I hadn’t been aware of the story until now, so forgive me if you’ve seen this already.

In March of last year, the New York Times did a feature on former Georgetown jump-out-of-the-gym guard, Victor Page. Most of you remember Page as the prolific scorer with bad teeth who was the heir apparent to Iverson. Like Iverson, he had a big nose for trouble. Unlike Iverson, the lefty went undrafted when he left college after his sophomore year.

After a 4-year stint in the CBA with Sioux City and another stint in Europe, he found himself back on the streets of D.C. in 2003…

…where he was shot. Three bullets. One in his leg. One in his chest. And one in his right eye.

As of the article’s publishing, Page seems to have started to turn things around, despite having been shot again in the leg in the summer of 2005. He’s giving motivational speeches through the Urban League, presumably stressing the importance of staying out of trouble. Sadly, had he been given this advice 11 years ago when he was the Big East Tournament’s MVP, things might have turned out differently for Page.

Categories: Nostalgia, Mister D, NewsWatch, Georgetown
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I’m not sure how it happened, as I wasn’t able to see the game last night. But it sure seems like Villanova was down by 15 points with 3 minutes remaining in the game, and still beat LSU…in regulation. The bloggers at LetsGoNova have a good account of the action.

It seems as though LSU decided to employ the ever-popular “foul your opponent when he’s attempting a 3-pointer” strategy to ensure Villanova could get within striking distance.

Categories: Mister D, Villanova, Game Banter
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…shallow-benched bunch that doesn’t care much for defense.

One of the beauties of the 2-3 zone is that you don’t have to work as hard as you do in a man-to-man. Rather than chase shooters all over the court, you stay in a particular area, cover who’s there, switch off when necessary, react in certain ways to certain types of ball movement around the perimeter, and converge around the hoop when a shot goes up. Of course it’s more complicated than that, but it’s indisputably an energy saver.

Perhaps they should expend a bit more energy on the defensive end.

Two nights ago, against a mediocre UMass squad, Syracuse gave up the most points at home since 1980. Most of the bloggers on this site were infants at the time.

I don’t mean to take anything away from UMass. They played a gutsy game and made shots when they needed to. But there’s the rub: if Syracuse is going to keep a lead in the second half, they’re going to have to play more intense, smarter defense.

To me, Andy Rautins’ season-ending knee injury was a tipping point with this team. They were at least 7 deep with Rautins.

Now? They play with 5…maybe 6 if Josh Wright is having a good week, mentally.

These young players are spending too much time on the court to expect them to play great defense for 40 minutes. Period. Good teams will exploit their lack of depth…actually, so will mediocre teams.

The silver lining in all of this is that the young core (Green, Harris, and Flynn) are getting invaluable experience by being on the court so much. They’ll be amazing next year and the year after.

For now, we have a shallow team with growing pains. Promise and upside abound.

But this is not their year. This blogger will be pleasantly surprised if they make the field of 64…

Categories: Commentary, Mister D, Syracuse
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So it’s been in the news for a while, but ever slow on the uptake, we here at Big East Hoops hadn’t seen it until just recently.

It turns out that former ‘Cuse sharp-shooter Jason Cipolla has been dating Soprano’s star Lorraine Bracco for over, like, 5 years now. Cipolla was a behind-the-scenes driver for the show; Bracco was on screen, playing the mob-boss’s psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi. Psychoanalyze this, though: Bracco is 52 compared to Cipolla’s 31.

Cradle robber or Sugar Momma? (not that the two are mutually exclusive)

We congratulate Jason. Though he couldn’t make the NBA, he chose the next best thing…the AARP.

Kidding, of course. Best to both. Love the show.

Categories: Nostalgia, Mister D, NewsWatch, BlogWatch, Syracuse
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Watching the overtime session of the G’town/UNC matchup, I was giddy, literally on the edge of my seat, cheering and gesturing at every missed UNC shot, every clutch G’town rebound, every cutaway to a bewildered Roy Williams.  Up two…four…six…seven…  Georgetown was putting the finishing touches on an astounding and improbable comback, and I felt privilaged to have borne witness to this display of top-notch basketball, especially after having witnessed the first 34 minutes of pure agony.  My stomach had started at “unsettled,” crescendoed to “churning,” and after the third minute of overtime, was suddenly feeling relieved.  Final buzzer.

And then I thought: “What the HELL am I doing!?”

You see, I was brought up as a Syracuse fan.  Throughout my childhood, I was taught the same principles every young fan of the Orange(men) was taught:

• Rooting for Georgetown under any circumstances is unacceptable (even against Pitt).
• John Thompson is an evil, horrible person who abuses current players and recruits kids from prison–which, by the way, is where he belongs.
• Georgetown plays dirty while their coach intimidates the refs, who actually don’t need to be intimidated, because JT pays them off.

For goodness’ sakes, I almost used all of my allowance money on a t-shirt I saw at Manny’s that read: “Friends Don’t Let Friends Root for Georgetown,” which had a picture of the Hoya mascot’s mutilated corpse after an apparent car crash (I opted instead for the John Wallace jersey…probably a wise investment in retrospect.  The #44 is as versatile as it is storied.).

I even traveled to the Carrier Dome just so I could heckle the Hoyas.  Sure enough, the fans helped instigate a Technical Foul on that abusive SOB, JTII.  And at the time I believed he deserved two or three of them, followed by a police escort to the locker room.

And now look at me.  I’m cheering them on like they were my alma mater.

The thing is, it’s almost impossible not to like this current Hoya team.  The old Georgetown teams ruled the Big East by intimidation.  Their defense was relentless and physical.  Their offense was anything but pretty.  Players like Ewing, Iverson, Page, Mourning, Williams, et al. absolutely dominated people, and they did it with a mean streak.  They were eminently despicable.  Basically, they were easy to hate.

This team?  They share the ball.  Their passing is precise.  They play a brand of basketball that’s eye-pleasing and effective.  Hibbert, Green, and Wallace act like hard-working, upstanding players rather than me-first street-ballers.  They play smart defense.  And probably most importantly, there’s a different overall feeling to this team: instead of intimidating teams with physical brutality, they intimidate intellectually, making other teams look bad with backscreens and cuts to the hoop that produce open lay-ups. 

I mean, imagine if the New York Yankees cut their payroll in half, re-tooled their lineup with guys who were more blue collar and less primadona, and were taken out of Steinbrenner’s hands and placed in Rudy Giuliani’s hands.  It would be tough not to respect them, right?  Even as a Sox fan?  Seriously, they’d go from “I hate those damn Yankees” to “Well, they’re finally on an even playing field, and their players are real competitors.  I kinda like that team.”

That’s what’s happened to Georgetown.  Once upon a time, they were the Yankees, (or perhaps a better analogy, the Pistons of the early 90s).  And now?  They’re the Oakland A’s.  Likeable.  Hard-working.  Some might say overachieving.  Always fun to watch.

So, I suppose this is a sign that I’ve matured as a sports fan.  I don’t necessarily need to despise a team based on what color they wear or what a historic rivalry dictates.  I can now accept that the makeup of teams can change, and that a program can be dynamic…one season they’re punks…the next, they’ve got chemistry and inspire you to root for them.  Does it mean I’m soft?  Does it mean I’m a turncoat?

I don’t think so.

I want to see good basketball, and I want to see the Big East succeed.  And Georgetown couldn’t have done a better job of representing the conference this year.  So consider me a fan of the Hoyas.

Until they show up at the Carrier Dome.  Then I will hate them.

Categories: Commentary, Mister D, Georgetown, Syracuse, Postseason
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