No Roy, No Problem
Hoyas' Guards Make Up For Center's Day Off
NEW YORK — If a 7-foot-2 tree of a basketball star falls in the World’s Most Famous Arena, will anybody hear? Not if your guards combine for 43 points and can knock down shots from SoHo.
With Roy Hibbert doing his best Shawn Bradley impression, Jonathan Wallace and Jessie Sapp turned the Big East quarterfinals into their own NBA three-point contest. No, that’s not a typo — I say NBA because the majority of Wallace’s and Sapp’s 11 treys came from behind the extended stripe at Madison Square Garden, the one normally reserved for Stephon Marbury and the rest of the erstwhile New York Knicks.
For the first and only time in the history of civilization, Hibbert towed the same stat line as his still raw understudy Vernon Macklin: zero points, four rebounds, and five fouls. By swatting at Nova’s big men like a blindfolded first-grader playing Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey, Hibbert got himself into foul trouble early and spent the afternoon on the bench. John Thompson III called on Macklin for relief, who responded by playing some more own slaphappy defense in the post.
As the Georgetown frontcourt frantically racked up silly fouls, the backcourt calmly stroked the three. Wallace and Sapp joined DaJuan Summers, Austin Freeman and Chris Wright to shatter the school record for three pointers and tie the Big East tournament record.
Maybe Sapp and Wallace placed a call to Tracy McGrady and Rafer Alston and asked them what to do when your 7-footer goes missing. For the past 20 games, McGrady and Alston have picked up the slack for the Houston Rockets after Yao Ming went down for the season. Today at the Garden, a cautious Alabama farm boy and a gun-slinging Harlem street baller teamed up to save the Hoyas.
“These two were terrific today,” John Thompson III said, nodding at Sapp and Wallace, who sat smiling beside him on the press conference podium. “Jon got us going, kept us going in the first half, and Jessie made some plays in the second half.”
For all we know, watching Hibbert flounder might have turned Thompson’s stomach into one giant ulcer. If it did, the fourth-year coach didn’t let on as much afterwards, choosing to comment instead on the positives he drew from his team’s most fluid game of the season.
“To say Roy had a tough time getting into rhythm would be an understatement,” Thompson said. “The nature of our team is when any particular guy is not doing well, we have other people that can step up, and our team is confident in everyone.”
Players like Summers, who poured in 15 and contributed three clutch threes to the barrage. Or Patrick Ewing Jr. who showed everyone why he was given the first-ever Big East Sixth Man Award earlier in the week. Ewing had his usual inglorious seven and nine, but as always, his impact was felt keenly.
Ewing’s emotiveness almost had him keeping time with Hibbert and Macklin in the sin bin. The rambunctious swingman drew a technical in the first half for flippantly tossing the ball in the air after a foul call and should have been smacked with another after turning the rim into his personal pull-up bar following a thunderous second-half dunk.
“They could amputate my legs and I’d still be playing,” Ewing told reporters after the game.
Hibbert’s ineffectiveness is more than likely nothing but a fluke, for Jay Wright has always been Hibbert’s arch-nemesis. Maybe it’s because Wright has the inside scoop on Georgetown’s Goliath after spending time with Hibbert this summer as coach of Team USA basketball. Or maybe Big Roy gets distracted by the GQ suits the dapper Wright sports on the sideline. Whatever it is, of all the brilliant coaching minds in the Big East, Wright has been the only who has found a way to limit Hibbert over the star center’s four year-career.
“We let everyone else make threes so he couldn’t score,” Wright said with a sheepish smile when asked about his giant slaying tactics. “That wasn’t the plan though. We did a great job getting the ball inside and being aggressive with him and getting him into foul trouble.”
The strategy nearly worked. Despite being down 11 at the half, Wright’s group stormed back and took the lead early in the second, an NCAA tourney bid hanging in the balance and a preseason Big East Player of the Year languishing on the bench.
“At halftime, we felt like we were doing a good job of getting to the foul line,” Wright said. “In the second half, we just didn’t get to the foul line and we didn’t make our threes. You can’t live and die by the three.”
Wright was right — you can’t live by three. Georgetown proved that you can thrive by it.
“Coming out Coach just told me to be aggressive, but that didn’t necessarily mean by scoring,” Wallace, who fell six points shy of tying his career high, said. “We were keeping the offense moving really well. I was just getting open looks and stepping up and making them.”
Simple enough. Get open, zone and make it rain like Reggie Miller circa 1995. After all, it’s the Big East Tournament, and it’s Madison Square Garden. The roar of the crowd will drown out the sound of the buzz saw as your redwood topples to the hardwood.
Existential dilemma solved. Ball game won.
HOYA On-the-Go Podcast
NEW! Basketball Preview
Latest Issue
Good article. The quotes from this game are great, especially about amputating Ewing's legs.
Why does Harlan Goode hate Georgetown basketball?
That's the only conclusion I can draw form his last few articles. And he's like a one-man editorial board, where's the actual reporting?
I'm pretty sick and tired of the articles that certain members of The Hoya write. How ignorant can you be to write "Today at the Garden, a cautious Alabama farm boy and a gun-slinging Harlem street baller teamed up to save the Hoyas?" Harlan do you realize how wrong it is to call Jessie Sapp a "gun-slinging Harlem street baller?" You portray him as a thug. But I guess you don't care about his image. And to add more insult you call Jon Wallace a farm boy and compare Roy Hibbert to Sean Bradley. Clearly no one has taught you how to write nor explained to you that there are somethings that you cannot put into writing.
Not only have Harlan and the editors of The Hoya shown their ignorance in this piece, but the same has been going on since the fall of 2007. In the article "It's Fourth Down for Football," The Hoya bashes the Georgetown football program. It boggles me how anyone who attends Georgetown University can belittle their own peers with the garbage that they write into The Hoya. The Hoya needs to clean up its act as well as its writing.
I must agree with the above post. Not only do I wonder where the actual reporting went but I also question the author (and the seemingly ignorant editors) who wrote: "Today at the Garden, a cautious Alabama farm boy and a gun-slinging Harlem street baller teamed up to save the Hoyas." Without thought, once again, another writer for the Hoya has managed to offend people with a careless, defamatory, and racist air to their writing. Please clue me in to when and where, anyone has heard or seen Jessie Sapp 'gun-sling'? How did this appalling description enhance this article except for lie about one of the brightest stars on the Men's Basketball team? Please Goode let me know how this article does not simply show how your fantasies about black masculinity are not an entertaining melody of the only TWO things urban men of color are good at: killing people and sports? After last semester’s catastrophe about the Jena 6 incidents, to once again have the audacity to use the same sense of privileged insensitivity is disgusting—yet in my opinion not surprising.
Gunslinger is a sports cliche that means no inhibitions when it comes to shooting. Some examples:
Brett Favre: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/sports/football/05favre.html?ref=footb...
Drew Neitzel: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080315/SPORTS07/803150...
Kevin Garnett's description of the NBA's Western Conference:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/19/AR200802...
The term is not racist. He is from Harlem; if he was from Mclean, Va., he'd probably be described as such. He didn't play organized basketball until 10th grade; his game was largely influenced by informal games with childhood friends.
As for Wallace, he grew up on a farm in Alabama. End of story.
And Roy looking like Shawn Bradley? Against Nova, he DID. A basketball analysis is not supposed to read like a Valentine.
So unfortunately, this is the case of a misunderstood journalist against what appears to be those that are not well versed in the basketball genre. Although your concerns a well understood (I am black myself), the term "gun-slinger" is used to describe someone that can shoot a basketball with great accuracy--as said basketball player (Jessie Sapp) displayed in his game against Villanova. Now I say this not to undermine any concerns of overt/underlying racism/insensitivity, but simply to point out that for those that are into the game of basketball, there is an understanding that a player who shoots the ball well (regardless of race/ethnicity), is called a "gun-slinger".
As for being called an Alabama Farm Boy: I think the appropriateness/inappropriateness of these comments is something better determined by the player himself--in this case, Jon Wallace. Whether or not this player has referred to himself as such is something worth noting. You cannot blame someone for using terms to describe a person when that person has described themselves in that way. I do not know if this has occurred in this particular case, but that should be known before anyone points to this particular journalist and attempts to deem their words insensitive.
good points, john.
From the New York Times:
"But [Wallace] kept a soft spot for the farm animals. When he was little, he used to beg his mother to take him to the farm’s small duck pond. When he was older, he enjoyed tending to cows.
“People may think I’m weird, but I love that lifestyle,” Wallace said. “It was nothing I complained about. For some reason, I love cows.”
...
Wallace would like to play professionally after he graduates, but he has also been accepted to Georgetown’s law school. If he does not have other commitments this summer — basketball, law school or whatever — he knows where he will be.
“That’s hay-cutting season at the farm,” Wallace said. “From sunup to sundown, you’ve go to work.”"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/sports/ncaabasketball/30hoyas.html?_r=...
I think it is very safe to say Wallace embraces the farmboy notion.
To reader John:
Ok so clearly you think you're an expert at journalism and at the basketball genre. You denounce others comments because...oh that's right, you're an expert at sports journalism. Oh you write for SI? I understand what you're saying. It is a term that is used in sports. It is also used in football to describe a a good quarterback. But what you and others seem to miss is the context in which the term was used. It's not an inviting one. I doubt if major national newspapers would allow such lack of discretion on the author's part. And to jwall4pres, the examples you gave of people using the term in articles do not show the term being used in the same way that it is in this article. They're used in completely different contexts. What people seem to miss is the bigger picture. No one is disputing the fact that Jon was raised in a rural area or that Sapp used to play basketball on the playground (even though the majority of good basketball players do). The fact that Sapp never played organized basketball before 10th grade has no relevance. The entire sentence that we are highlighting is wreckless in the way it sounds and Harland could have used different words to get his point across and make the piece creative. Instead of calling Sapp a gun-slinger because he has no conscious about shooting the ball, he could have been described as having ice in his veins.
John:
Even though you make valid points, please be careful of how you use your words as well. It can be taken as if being black verifies your thoughts and actions, just as the writer of this article.
Even though the article seemed not to be making a racist remark, the writer should be more careful with the words used to get his point across, as Steve said earlier.
AFAIK the answer to the "dll/article?" is yes
Is that a girl on the picture
Post new comment