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A Look at Eight Straight vs. Georgetown

Mourning vs. Princeton Time

Eight straight wins against Georgetown?

We’ll get to Providence’s Saturday afternoon victory against the Hoyas and what it means for the Friars’ 2018 NCAA Tournament hopes, but let’s start with the eight consecutive wins against Georgetown. That was inconceivable not all that long ago. And a pipe dream 20 years back.

I grew up on the Big East and attended my first ever Division 1 basketball game at the Providence Civic Center in 1989.

No, I wasn’t there for the Friars. It was the second round of the NCAA Tournament and, as a ten-year-old, I didn’t really have a dog in the fight. Taking to the Civic Center floor that afternoon were Georgetown, Notre Dame, North Carolina State, and Iowa.

A few days earlier the rest of the country wanted to see the Hoyas fall when they took on Princeton. They were the top seed in the East at the time, closing out a decade that included a National Championship, two other championship game appearances, a pair of Elite Eight finishes, and zero apologies for an in-your-face style of play that made them the most polarizing program in the country.

Princeton nearly pulled off the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history, but the 16th seeded Tigers fell by a point. While the rest of the country was disheartened, I was thrilled. I got to see two of the top freshmen in the country in Georgetown’s Alonzo Mourning and LaPhonso Ellis of Notre Dame go head-to-head. Both were eventually top-five picks in the 1992 Draft.

I don’t remember much from that afternoon’s doubleheader, except that I got Ellis’ autograph, I think NC State and Iowa went to double overtime, the Hoyas were the only team to wear sport coats around the arena, and I’d never seen cheerleaders fly as high as North Carolina State’s.

I also walked out of the Civic Center an unabashed Georgetown fan. I was all in on the Hoyas from that point on — hating Syracuse, heartbroken when they lost to undefeated UNLV in the 1991 NCAA Tournament (with both Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo upperclassmen), and through the Allen Iverson years which coincided with when my sister went there.

Despite the presence of eventual Hall of Famers in Mourning and Mutombo, Georgetown never felt like a national title contender again until Iverson’s sophomore year (they were a two seed that eventually fell to Marcus Camby and UMass in the Elite Eight — and I heard all about it at school).

I stepped foot on Providence’s campus in the fall of 1997 and instantly my decade-long allegiance to Georgetown vanished, but I appreciated their resurgence under John Thompson III in the mid-’00s.

The Hoyas reached the NCAA Tournament in eight of ten seasons from 2006 through 2015, including a Final Four appearance.

Which takes us to 2018 and the Friars taking control of what was once a lopsided matchup. PC has won eight in a row and nine of 10, but despite Providence’s recent success, Georgetown still leads the all-time series 44-28 — a sign of just how one-sided this series had been.

PC hasn’t lost at Georgetown since February 2014 — a night on which Bryce Cotton went off, scoring 19 of Providence’s final 21 points to close out the first half, finishing with 31 on the night.

That was prior to PC’s Big East Tournament championship of ’14, or the Friars’ four straight NCAA Tournament appearances. Providence has lost to DePaul three times since then.

For long-time Big East fans, PC’s recent record against Georgetown and the current state of former Big East power UConn serve as a reminder of not only how Ed Cooley has flipped the script, but how quickly things can change in college basketball.

Bullock Shines Once Again Near Home

Rodney Bullock’s 19 points on Saturday marked his highest output since the conference opener against St. John’s in late December. His eight rebounds were good for his second most in a conference game, and the five 3-pointers he knocked down were a season high.

A Virginia native, Bullock has always played well in DC. A year ago he had his highest scoring output in conference play at Georgetown (22), and in his first appearance at the Verizon Center two years ago he ripped down 14 rebounds.

Home cooking apparently also served freshman Nate Watson well. Watson is another Virginia native and scored 10 of his 12 points in a first half in which Providence struggled on both ends of the floor. Providence shot just 39% in the first half — a figure that would have been really ugly if not for Watson’s 5-8 effort.

Conversely, Georgetown shot nearly 55% in the first half and scored 22 points in the paint.

Providence’s defense emerged in the second half, as did senior point guard Kyron Cartwright. The Hoyas made just 8-29 from the field in the second, while Cartwright and Bullock combined to score 22 points on 4-5 from 3.

More significant than any winning streak, Cooley’s group was able to shake off a difficult first half to secure a win that very much keeps its tournament hopes alive. Providence closes the regular season with a mid-week trip to Xavier and senior night at the Dunkin Donuts Center on Saturday.

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