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Just watched most of this. A few takeaways:
- This was the "Alonzo Mourning makes anti-Semitic comments to Nadav Henefeld" game. Except... well, he actually didn't. He just trash-talked the Dove more than he should've, and got his punk beat
- Georgetown came into that game 10-0, technically No. 2 in the nation but expected to be No. 1 since Kansas had lost earlier that day. It was the first time we'd beaten a team ranked that high.
- Mike Gorman called it the best win in program history at the final buzzer. Hard to argue with him (at the time), though you could make a case for the Syracuse game five days prior, as well as the NIT championship. Without those two I'm not sure the Georgetown win ever happens.
- That said, the young'uns have to understand this: beating Georgetown in the '80s and early '90s felt like what beating UK now does, but with an added dose of "You're our conference rivals, duck* you!" hatred. Beating them when they're 10-0 and ranked No. 1? Good god, what a win!
- We started on a 14-0 run, and forced them into 9 turnovers in the first 6 minutes.
- The HCC was LOUD. It was loud during the opening run, but even louder when they iced it from the line at the end. I doubt it's been that loud since. It was also a sell-out, which was 2000 more than our season average in Hartford at the time. Nonetheless, nobody rushed the court at the end
- Georgetown came out on a 9-2 run to start the second half, and actually took a 40-37 lead (clip of the UConn response below...)
- That UConn team was an early example of the "pace and space" type of team that's come into vogue over the last decade. We had a ton of 6-foot-5 to 6-foot-8 athletes who clogged up passing lanes, switched off of assignments, and were comfortable battling underneath & outside
- In that vein, Henefeld was for us exactly what Draymond Green is for the Dubs. He played as a stretch 4, raining fire from downtown, pulling defenders out of the lane, facilitating from the high post or beyond the arc, helping bring the ball up against the press, fighting underneath, and generally setting the tone and temperment of the team. He finished with 21 points, 6 rebounds, 5 steals, and the two biggest balls in the gym.
- There was one play early when Henefeld was guarding Mutombo in the post, switched off him to double-team and close out a drive, got a hand on the pass back to Mutombo to force a turnover that went the other way for a UConn lay-up, then forced another turnover on the ensuing Georgetown inbounds play
- We got absolutely brutalized underneath - not a surprise given Georgetown's size advantage. Calhoun sacrificed rebounding for getting our best shooters/scorers and "turnover forcers" out there, and not just for the 2-2-1 press (which we didn't use much of that game). Again: Very modern and very forward-thinking from St. Jim
- We played a ton of 1-3-1 in the halfcourt. Obviously that was part of why we were brutalized/out-rebounded
- This was the second "Mourning & Mutombo" team, but you could make the argument that Mark Tillmon was their best/most important player. He shot 47% overall that year, 43% from downtown and averaged 20 ppg, but Tate, Smitty & the zone just kept him off-balance the entire night
- Sellers was a battler, and Cyrulik gave us some great minutes late in the 2nd half. There's no way they'd have stayed in that game without the extra fouls.
- Oh yeah... extra fouls! That was one of the years that the Big East went with 6 fouls instead of 5, which just encouraged an already physical conference to become moreso. Watch this game, then watch Georgetown/Nova from '85, and the difference in the amount of every possession bumping/clutching/physicality is staggering. IMO this cost Big East teams in the tournament, which was called much tighter
- Smitty's release was so, so smooth. He would have a significant NBA career if he came around today, playing as a sixth man who could defend two spots and spread the floor. That said, he couldn't finish in the paint - and not just because of Alonzo & Dikembe
- What a shame about Murray Williams. He made a couple of "how in god's name did he cover so much ground to get into that passing lane?!!??" plays, but his +/- must've been miserable. He was a fraction of the player he'd been two years before
- No Burrell in this one. I'll have to pick a game from later in this season, or maybe his junior year. He remains vastly underrated among our fanbase - especially his court vision
- Tate was old reliable. He played like the type of guy you'd take real estate advice from
- And finally, I want to bring it back to Nadav: The play that best embodied what he was and how we played came just after the half, with Ronnie Thompson just sort of casually dribbling while calling a play 35 feet from the hoop. Nadav closed about 10 feet on him in an eyeblink, reached out and just swiped it from him, giving Smitty a fast-break lay-up. It was such an awesome, unexpected play that Clark Kellogg started giggling. It's still one of my favorite plays of all-time, and has been seared into my memory since I was 13.
Watch it here:
He hit another 3 right after that to make it 45-42. He was brilliant.
- I guarantee you Nadav goes too low in the All-Time Husky Draft thing that's starting. Obviously his boxscore stats don't wow you, but if we were to get access to RPM or BPM going back over the last 40 years, I'd wager an arm he's in our single-season top 5. He was that team's best player, defensive keystone & MVP
- This was the "Alonzo Mourning makes anti-Semitic comments to Nadav Henefeld" game. Except... well, he actually didn't. He just trash-talked the Dove more than he should've, and got his punk beat
- Georgetown came into that game 10-0, technically No. 2 in the nation but expected to be No. 1 since Kansas had lost earlier that day. It was the first time we'd beaten a team ranked that high.
- Mike Gorman called it the best win in program history at the final buzzer. Hard to argue with him (at the time), though you could make a case for the Syracuse game five days prior, as well as the NIT championship. Without those two I'm not sure the Georgetown win ever happens.
- That said, the young'uns have to understand this: beating Georgetown in the '80s and early '90s felt like what beating UK now does, but with an added dose of "You're our conference rivals, duck* you!" hatred. Beating them when they're 10-0 and ranked No. 1? Good god, what a win!
- We started on a 14-0 run, and forced them into 9 turnovers in the first 6 minutes.
- The HCC was LOUD. It was loud during the opening run, but even louder when they iced it from the line at the end. I doubt it's been that loud since. It was also a sell-out, which was 2000 more than our season average in Hartford at the time. Nonetheless, nobody rushed the court at the end
- Georgetown came out on a 9-2 run to start the second half, and actually took a 40-37 lead (clip of the UConn response below...)
- That UConn team was an early example of the "pace and space" type of team that's come into vogue over the last decade. We had a ton of 6-foot-5 to 6-foot-8 athletes who clogged up passing lanes, switched off of assignments, and were comfortable battling underneath & outside
- In that vein, Henefeld was for us exactly what Draymond Green is for the Dubs. He played as a stretch 4, raining fire from downtown, pulling defenders out of the lane, facilitating from the high post or beyond the arc, helping bring the ball up against the press, fighting underneath, and generally setting the tone and temperment of the team. He finished with 21 points, 6 rebounds, 5 steals, and the two biggest balls in the gym.
- There was one play early when Henefeld was guarding Mutombo in the post, switched off him to double-team and close out a drive, got a hand on the pass back to Mutombo to force a turnover that went the other way for a UConn lay-up, then forced another turnover on the ensuing Georgetown inbounds play
- We got absolutely brutalized underneath - not a surprise given Georgetown's size advantage. Calhoun sacrificed rebounding for getting our best shooters/scorers and "turnover forcers" out there, and not just for the 2-2-1 press (which we didn't use much of that game). Again: Very modern and very forward-thinking from St. Jim
- We played a ton of 1-3-1 in the halfcourt. Obviously that was part of why we were brutalized/out-rebounded
- This was the second "Mourning & Mutombo" team, but you could make the argument that Mark Tillmon was their best/most important player. He shot 47% overall that year, 43% from downtown and averaged 20 ppg, but Tate, Smitty & the zone just kept him off-balance the entire night
- Sellers was a battler, and Cyrulik gave us some great minutes late in the 2nd half. There's no way they'd have stayed in that game without the extra fouls.
- Oh yeah... extra fouls! That was one of the years that the Big East went with 6 fouls instead of 5, which just encouraged an already physical conference to become moreso. Watch this game, then watch Georgetown/Nova from '85, and the difference in the amount of every possession bumping/clutching/physicality is staggering. IMO this cost Big East teams in the tournament, which was called much tighter
- Smitty's release was so, so smooth. He would have a significant NBA career if he came around today, playing as a sixth man who could defend two spots and spread the floor. That said, he couldn't finish in the paint - and not just because of Alonzo & Dikembe
- What a shame about Murray Williams. He made a couple of "how in god's name did he cover so much ground to get into that passing lane?!!??" plays, but his +/- must've been miserable. He was a fraction of the player he'd been two years before
- No Burrell in this one. I'll have to pick a game from later in this season, or maybe his junior year. He remains vastly underrated among our fanbase - especially his court vision
- Tate was old reliable. He played like the type of guy you'd take real estate advice from
- And finally, I want to bring it back to Nadav: The play that best embodied what he was and how we played came just after the half, with Ronnie Thompson just sort of casually dribbling while calling a play 35 feet from the hoop. Nadav closed about 10 feet on him in an eyeblink, reached out and just swiped it from him, giving Smitty a fast-break lay-up. It was such an awesome, unexpected play that Clark Kellogg started giggling. It's still one of my favorite plays of all-time, and has been seared into my memory since I was 13.
Watch it here:
He hit another 3 right after that to make it 45-42. He was brilliant.
- I guarantee you Nadav goes too low in the All-Time Husky Draft thing that's starting. Obviously his boxscore stats don't wow you, but if we were to get access to RPM or BPM going back over the last 40 years, I'd wager an arm he's in our single-season top 5. He was that team's best player, defensive keystone & MVP
