Loud Noises!!

Georgetown's hopes for the recruiting Class of 2011 took a hit today in the most devastating fashion- longer sought after Top-10 recruit Rakeem Christmas committed to play at Syracuse. The uproars of despair from the Georgetown faithful at Casual Hoya was instantaneous. The comments are interspersed with jabs from intruding Syracuse fans and the result is essentially a verbal brawl- taking swings at 'Cuse, Rakeem, JT3 and former assistant Mike Cox.

I'm not too worked up over it.

Here's why:

The luxury of being a senior is that after three years of disappointment, faced with one final chance for glory in as an enrolled collegiate fan, the only focus is on this season. Does Rakeem Christmas help us win a championship next season? No. Therefore, I will not lose sleep over it tonight.

There are legitimate concerns about losing this recruit- being deprived of the column title "Christmas Comes Early!" not being the least of those concerns. Assistant Coach David Cox left this year and he was the lead on our #1 target recruit- JT3, whether through his own actions or in the management of his staff, dropped the ball on this one. But after spending hours this summer fidgeting in McDonough trying to find a comfortable position, you will have a hard time subscribing me to the "Woe is Georgetown! JT3 is a horrible recruiter!" petition. The 2010 Class of Markel, Bowen, Lubick and Moses all have impressed- they all can contribute this year, so not all seems to be rotten in the recruiting sphere.

Succeed breeds success and winning is a great recruiting tool. The successes of this years Hoyas will have a far more lasting impact on our program than a single recruiting decision. Austin and Chris are poised to lead us to the strong season, and if they do, the recruiting will fall into place.

Contributing to the panic is how few ESPN Top 100 remain available.... Oh wait, either "None" University is going to have a killer team next year or over half of the elite recruits are still available. This is still in the early signing period, folks. I fully expect that a few responsible, patient individuals (sounds like the type of kids who would well in our system, eh) will choose the blue and gray cap with the large "G" and a bulldog on it.

Also, if Rakeen woke up tomorrow morning, changed his mind and wanted to come to the Hilltop, would you accept him? No thanks, Rakeem. In your choice alone, you've exposed a fatal flaw in your character that we will move on just fine without, thank you.

"The Stark Plug" Heard Round The World!

In my blog post about Kenner League 7/25, both at The Voice and on this blog, I tentatively bestowed a nickname on Markel Starks, the speedy freshman point guard who will be coming off the bench: "The Stark Plug."

As I discovered through the Casual Hoya, ESPN was listening. A Hoya ESPN Insider report mentioned how Starks has already been given the nickname "The Stark Plug" from the Hoya faithful.

To the best of my knowledge, I am "the Hoya faithful!" The nickname is simple (word play), makes sense (Markel is pure speed and will be relied on for instant offense) and catchy enough to be recycled into multiple cheesy sports column titles (coming at you this fall, The Voice). I can picture Dickie V. screaming it to the point of nausea already...

Pickin' up Chris Paul

According to the nebulous source that is twitter, Chris Wright and Austin Freeman will be welcoming Chris Paul to the Georgetown campus tonight for a game of pick up. As I was a huge Chris Paul supporter in my pre-Hoya days (I faithfully, though horribly errenously, picked his Wake Forest team to win it all on my bracket two years in a row) so I am thinking about lacing up the basketball shoes and showing off the mid-range game. I assume the two-on-two teams would break down CP3 and I vs. Austin and CW4, so hopefully CP would get me some nice looks around the free throw line.

Kenner League 8/1: Markel v. Vee

The lone game I attended Sunday was the match-up between Vee Sanford and Julian Vaughn and the Tombs (4 frosh, AF and Hollis). It is the maximum number of Hoya's that you can see on a Kenner League court, and the crowd responded in turn with the best showing of the summer.

Markel Starks and Vee Sanford did not disappointed- each player seemed eager to prove himself the better, and it had the feel of the old one-up Nike commercials. Markel had some great flashes, was the first to connect on a three over Vee, and on a fast break left a member of Clyde's quick literally on the ground at the free throw line after disorienting him with a juke. Overall though, Vee manage to exploit some loose ends in Markel's game that haven't been pressed in Kenner. Markel had a tough time staying in front of Vee and though Vee struggled to finish, it forced the Tombs to play help defense and the disruption led to a lot of easy buckets. Markel has shown a propensity to make hard cuts, but he didn't guard them as well- multiple times after Vee passed off the ball to the wing, he was able to get a step on Markel going towards the hoops. Vee's superior length also gave Starks some problems, he was able to stop Starks' progress and forced him into a few careless errors when he tried to dribble through trouble when he clearly should've given it up. Vee also hit near back to back threes in a stretch that put Clyde's in the drivers seat (though his J is still far from a guarantee) and later hit one of his patented floaters.

The game was decided inside- Julian Vaughn was unstoppable. Nate Lubick was stranded inside because Moses Abraham was given the day off after spraining his ankle (we have learned all to well about the dangers of coming back too soon from a hurt ankle as a freshman, see CW 2007-8). Nate doesn't have the strength to contend with Julian, but he did a fair job, was active throughout and had a lot of nice closer range hoops. Sometimes he has the crazy notion that he's a ball handler and shockingly, he's fairly effective. He picked up a lose ball around the opposing free throw line, didn't look over for Markel or Austin and just charged around down the court, dribbled around two defenders and got a good look at a lay-up but couldn't put it in.

Play of the Game: Aaron Bowen posterizing Julian Vaughn. Bowen got the ball in the short corner on the tail end of a fast break and Vaughn was coming down the lane to greet him at the basket and got there just in time to have Bowen thrown down over his outstretched arms. When Bowen first took off I thought there was no chance he'd make it to the rim cleanly but he got up really quickly and he managed to keep his body from catching Vaughn.

It ended up being a strange position at the end of a close game, as I couldn't help rooting for the Tombs (as a Tombs apologist I will note that they played a rigorous game on Saturday as well) and half-hoping that Julian would miss a FT to give them one last shot to tie- but then also being relieved that Julian could hit a FT in a tight game. All in all, Austin, Vaughn stood out, while the other pieces around them looked solid, especially offensively.

Onward to the final weekend of Kenner- this last weekend has been shockingly laced through with defensive effort and hopefully that will continue for the 4 day March Madness of Summer Leagues: the Kenner League Playoffs.