![]() But sustainable or not, the Hoyas struggled to pull away, and briefly fell behind by four points after intermission. Some of the activity was unsustainable, as Dane Miller dropped a prayer 3, and Wally Judge looked unusually motivated, perhaps by being back in his hometown. As in the first game between these teams, Rutgers got some early offense from behind the three-point arc and from the post. It wasn't pretty, and not just because of all the fouls. Okay, now let's really get to the game a bit. Given that his teams have finished dead last in the conference in foul rate the two seasons before this one, Rice's continued incomprehension of the whistles suggests that he fundamentally misunderstands the rules of basketball, or something far, far worse. Given that his team has fouled at a rate that is above-average nationally and second-highest in the conference, any surprise should be minimal. As JTIII put it succinctly after the game, " We shot a lot of foul shots because we were fouled a lot." Nothing problematic so far, right?Įxcept, Rice seems flabbergasted whenever any of his players get whistled for anything. All that contact resulted in a lot of called fouls, 29 to be precise, which in turn begat 42 Georgetown free throws, 30 of them made. His teams grab, hold, and hack every cutter through the lane, which means a lot of that activity against Georgetown. If I were to sum this game up in two words that did not include Otto Porter, those words would be Mike Rice. You know all that, so let's get into the game a little bit. He's even inspired an adulatory twitter account. He's also versatile: the team's best three-point shooter, Otto instead abused the undersized Scarlet Knight guards Saturday night by going to the post early and often. Despite being far and away the team's primary offensive weapon, he generally doesn't make mistakes, committing just one turnover Saturday night and not committing more than one in any of the past nine games. On offense again, Otto found a driving lane obstructed and so made a nifty pass fake then simply extended his right arm under the hoop for a physics-defying reverse lay-in. Later, a Rutgers guard appeared to have a clear fast break opportunity, but then Porter put down his head and sprinted, tracking down his opponent like something out of a nature video, and, now fully extended at the hoop, swatted the lay-in. First, Otto made up for a teammate's missed transition lay-in by dunking the miss, bringing the surprisingly large Hoya crowd to its feet. Usually excellent but not necessarily flashy, Porter had at least three eye-popping moments Saturday night. The Scarlet Knights grabbed, pushed, and occasionally shot their way into a close game, but the Hoyas pulled away down the stretch thanks to a sterling 28 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks from Porter.īefore we get to the uglier parts of this evening's game, let's dwell for a second on Porter's brilliance. It wasn't easy, but Georgetown won its 11th straight game over Rutgers Saturday night, 64-51, riding yet another incredible all-around performance from Otto Porter.
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