Hoyas (And Others) Might Not Have Finishing Kick

By Robert Ferringo

Guard play dominates college basketball. You need quality guards if you want to be a threat for any championship or title; this is not news.

This year there is no team in the country with a better backcourt than Georgetown. Their trio of Austin Freeman, Chris Wright and Jason Clark is the best in the business and no one can match the overall skill, talent, experience and overall ability. They combine to average 44 of the teams 76 points and they are the key cogs in the No. 3 most efficient offense in the country. Clark and Freeman are both shooting over 50 percent from the field and the trio combines to shoot 40 percent from 3-point land and nearly 80 percent from the free throw line.

That triumvirate has helped the Hoyas become a staple of the Top 25 this year, topping out at No. 9 in the country just three weeks ago. This success comes after most bobbleheads were predicting their demise due to the premature departure of stud center Greg Monroe. They are presently lost in the shuffle of an extraordinary Big East conference but this team could be dangerous come March.

However, that is if coach John Thompson doesn’t burn out the motor on this smooth machine.

I noticed back in the nonconference portion of the schedule that Thompson was not doing a good job of resting and protecting his backcourt. I felt like there were several times this year where Thompson could have gone a little deeper in the bench in some blowout games. But now that conference play is in full swing opportunities to rest his go-to guys are going to be few and far between.

Chris Wright is presently No. 11 in the Big East with 35.1 minutes played per game. Freeman (34.7) and Clark (31.7) are not far behind. Only two other players average over 20 minutes per game.

I am very curious as to how the Hoyas are going to perform at the window down the stretch. They started the year as one of the best bets in the nation, going 9-2 against the spread in their first 11 games. However, a five-game ATS losing streak ensued as this team stumbled to just a 1-4 straight up start to Big East play.

As we head down the home stretch I think that this team is going to wear down a bit. (And I have no idea how they are going to last more than a couple days at the Big East Tournament.) I would keep a very close eye on the minutes played of these three guards. If they become a close-but-not-good-enough team, barely missing covering some college basketball spreads late in the year, I would attributed it to some