Austin Freeman News

Between the low score and two former Ivy League coaches opposing each other again, it was natural to refer to Georgetown's riveting home opener as a 'Princeton-Penn kind of game.' But one look at Greg Monroe seizing the game in the final seconds, and it's also easy to see why John Thompson III quickly -- and correctly -- killed that angle.

'It was like Princeton because I was sitting on one bench and Franny was sitting on the other bench,' the Hoyas' coach said of his counterpart, Temple's Fran Dunphy. 'In every other way, it's not like Penn and Princeton.'

Savannah State guard Tracy Rankins slashes to the basket under Georgetown's Nikita Mescheriakov and Chris Wright during Saturday's game at Tiger Arena.

In what appears to be a serious mismatch, the 19th-ranked Georgetown Hoyas have made the trek to Georgia to take on the Tigers of Savannah State.

Temple basketball coach Fran Dunphy and his Georgetown counterpart, John Thompson III, had experienced their share of battles in their previous jobs guiding rival Ivy League teams.

They blew a lead, turned the ball over, and shot poorly from the perimeter. So you can call it a win over Temple for the Georgetown Hoyas , but what they picked up in the win column, they certainly lost in the confidence pool.

Greg Monroe made a layup with 6.5 seconds remaining, as 19th-ranked Georgetown held on for a 46-45 win over Temple at the Verizon Center.

The 19th-ranked Georgetown Hoyas play their first home game of the season, as they welcome the Temple Owls to the Verizon Center for this afternoon's non-conference clash.

No. 19 Georgetown emerged from an overwhelmingly optimistic season-opening victory at Tulane with one obvious question: Which version of junior lead guard Chris Wright will predominate as the season progresses? Will it be the quick-triggered player who accumulated four turnovers and no assists in a sloppy first half at Tulane as the Hoyas took a ...

Greg Monroe returned home and finished with game-highs of 18 points and 11 rebounds, and No.

Georgetown's Jason Clark seems primed for a sophomore surge. The 6-foot-2 shooting guard from Woodbridge, Va., is slated to make his first start for the Hoyas when No.

The curtain goes up on another Georgetown Hoyas basketball season this Friday and it's anyone's guess how it will pan out.

On what otherwise might have been a smug, self-satisfied train ride back to Philadelphia after his team was picked to win this season's Big East title, Villanova Coach Jay Wright spoke to his players about toughness and leadership.

Not the toughness and leadership the squad boasted, but the toughness and leadership they had yet to demonstrate.

'We're going to take that [coaches' vote at Big East media day] today as a great honor,' Wright told them, 'and then we're going to go back to practice, because we've got a lot to prove. Nobody's going to go through this league on talent.'

Leading into the college basketball season openers, Sporting News will preview each of the top 25, counting backward from our preseason power poll.

There was a time when Greg Monroe was clearly the No. 1 player in the 2008 recruiting class, although that was before he signed with Georgetown and then concluded his high school career.

Greg Monroe was the perfect candidate to leave school early for the NBA draft. He was a big man with exceptional passing reads who had lived up to his high school hype.

Coach: John Thompson III . Last season's record: 16-15 overall, 7-11 in Big East Postseason: Lost in first round of NIT to Baylor.

For at least a few days in January, Georgetown was the talk of Big East basketball, opening conference play by toppling powerhouse Connecticut on the road. But after a 10-1 start, the Hoyas' promising season ended in irrelevance.

Deserted by their shooting touch, defensive fire and trust in one another, the Hoyas failed to earn an NCAA bid and folded in the opening round of the National Invitation Tournament.

To be sure, there are lessons to be learned from a season marked by such wild shifts of fortune. But there are dangers in dwelling on the string of disappointing defeats that landed the once-proud Hoyas with a record (16-15, 7-11) that didn't reflect their potential.

We're on a one-year winning streak when it comes to predicting the eventual NCAA champion.

Key Returners: Greg Monroe , Chris Wright , Austin Freeman A Strengths With three McDonalda TMs All-Americans returning, therea TMs no reason why the Hoyas shouldna TMt be expected to have a drastic improvement over last season.

January 30, 2010. Circle your calendars, Georgetown fans. Thata TMs when the Duke Blue Devils return to the Verizon Center.