All you needed to know about Georgetown last Saturday night is that at one bar, things got so crowded before the game that the owner volunteered to send people in line on a bus to see the game at his "other bar" in Columbia, Md.
Other than that, everything pretty much went as expected: the big men (Hibbert, Noah, and Oden) dominated, and Florida and Ohio State both won. Yet it was the "other guys" who really won or lost the game for their teams.
Take Georgetown's Jeff Green for example. While it is hard to criticize who, as he apt to do, had a quietly effective game shooting 4-5 from the floor and grabbing 12 rebounds, Green being one of the unquestionable leaders of the team simply needed to shoot more.
Look at Kobe, look at Arenas, and take a look at some of Jordan's highlight reels, especially at the end of games. For these guys, greed is good, as they not only want to shoot the ball, they know their team needs them to shoot the ball.
While I'm not even attempting to compare Green to Kobe, Arenas or Jordan, none of these guys would have said after the game that they "didn't want to force anything, so I just took what they gave me."
Georgetown needed a "ruder" effort from Green if they wanted to win. They needed a Jeff Green who would define the situation instead of getting defined by it.
Let's now go onto Ohio State, a place where the school's mascot Brutus looks like a rejected Gumby character that's been plugged with helium. It is also a school that beat Georgetown at their own "gritty" game. How did they do it? Tenacious defense, down low dominance, and one Mike Conley Jr.
In a game that as expected was controlled by big men, Conley was the one guy who truly forced Georgetown to run, beating guards Jonathan Wallace and Jessie Sapp repeatedly down court.
For Ohio State, it was the perfect setup. Conley made Georgetown's legs tired in the first half with his speed, but it was Oden, everyone's favorite 29-year-old-looking 19-year-old, who made their legs buckle with his second half power.
Coming into the game, I didn't know whether to believe the hype pronouncing him to be "the next great American center." A first half that saw him get more fouls (2) than points (0) did little to erase these doubts.
But as he lifted to the sky on a drive against Green, and seemingly scored at will every time he got the ball down low, against Georgetown forwards who were considered among the best in the country, I began to understand.
This is Greg Oden, not Olden Polynice. I mean look at the guy: this is a guy who like the immortal Chuck Norris, never smiles when on the job. If you watch him though, and study his face, there is a sense of coyness that seems to be exuded though, as if the guy is amused that you'd even attempt to drive against a 7 foot, 250 pound man-child, who even at his size has more hops than a six-pack of Guinness. And after a pretty much nonexistent first half, Oden seemingly turned on the light switch in the second half and told himself, "okay, now its time to play."
And play he did, and although it's unlikely, I'm hoping that the possibility of maybe playing for the "shock and horror" that is the 2007 Boston Celtics, might convince Oden to stay another year in college. Still, shrimp souffl? and lobster, taste good even when you're on a bad team, and I certainly wouldn't blame Oden if he wanted to make the move to the NBA.
As for the other news, Florida had no trouble winning, and frankly like most people, I'm sick of talking about the Gators, and the ease at which they dominate. Yet on Monday night, I am predicting they will go down, as from my perspective though Joakim Noah, a very good player who can do a bit of everything including hit from the perimeter, still simply isn't as good as Oden, even as Oden is a bit more one dimensional. I also think that Florida will suffer the same fate that ironically befell the Ohio State football team, "the ease of victory factor," as Ohio State not only went blow to blow with the big guys from Georgetown, but also survived a surge from scrappy Xavier. Florida on the other hand has cruised in every tournament, even while their play hasn't always been stellar. Come Monday night I think that cruise control gets turned off.
