BELLY OF THE BE-AST: MEET MR. MONROE

by Ray Mernagh

Georgetown served notice tonight that they fully intend to make a run at a third straight Big East regular season championship by straight dominating Connecticut on the road. The Hoyas won by eleven points, but were up 17 on the disinterested Huskies with a little over four minutes left after DaJuan Summers caught a Chris Wright miss at apex-level and punished the rim with a put-back-banger. If anyone was expecting a UConn run, Summers' dunk ended the anticipation. The second Summers concluded the dunk with a groan/scream, this game was over. John Thompson III has four really good players in his starting lineup -- Summers, Austin Freeman, Chris Wright and Jessie Sapp -- that are all capable of winning games for the Hoyas this season.

The big question is whether the Hoyas can develop a bench capable of contributing more than six points in spot minutes? Julian Vaughn, Jason Clark and Omar Wattad are the only bench guys in the rotation right now and it's imperative they find a role that lets them play in a comfort zone whenever called upon. Vaughn and Clark show some signs, while Wattad is a steadying influence on the floor. Reason number one the bench needs to mature is obvious -- the Hoyas will get into foul trouble and need extended, productive minutes off the pine in Big East play. The second reason the Hoyas will need a bench is because their fifth starter is Greg Monroe, and Greg Monroe folks, is a special player.


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The kind of player that can help the college basketball odds of a team with four really good players, plus a bench, go a long way in March. Monroe has a plethora of skills for a 6'10 big man, and all of them were on display in this match-up against the Big East's most intimidating defender, UConn's 7'3 Hasheem Thabeet. Allow me to provide some examples.

18:08 mark in the first half: Monroe catches a pass at the top of the key, starts to take Thabeet off the dribble when he notices Jerome Dyson coming to help off Austin Freeman. Freeman back-doors Dyson and Monroe hits him -- after one dribble -- with a pass over the top for a layup. That kind of recognition/decision-making done so quickly, is extremely rare for a big.

17:10 mark: Monroe catches at the elbow and his man crowds him. With his back to the basket Monroe stays calm, reverse pivots, takes a dribble and sees Freeman back-cutting his man again. Monroe hits him with a gorgeous left-handed bounce pass on the baseline that Freeman finishes on the other side of the rim. Again, recognition and decision making, but add to it the passing ability. Monroe made a pass that you either know how to execute or you don't. It's not something you really learn. In basketball, you're either a good passer or your not. Monroe is a very good, bordering on great, passing big man.

16:35 mark: Monroe tries to front Thabeet and Thabeet seals him and receives the lob over the top. Almost any big man, especially a young one, would instinctively foul Thabeet. Monroe doesn't and Thabeet misses the dunk. Monroe than runs the floor and makes a difficult catch, on an ill-advised pass ahead, with his right hand. He comes down, gathers himself and turns to dribble the ball out away from two defenders instead of charging, taking a bad shot, or getting stripped. On his second dribble he spots Summers spotting up at the arc and hits him for an in-rhythm three-pointer. Monroe's athletic ability shines through on this play as he runs, catches, stops, dribbles and facilitates in a matter of two or three seconds.

16:05 mark -- Very next possession: Monroe hedges out on the ball handler, gets away with a bump, the bump takes Monroe seemingly out of the play as he back away from AJ Price as Price heads towards the basket with his dribble intact. But Monroe sees Price's dribble is out away from his body and snatches the ball away from him from behind, just picks the kid clean at half-court. Pretty good for a 6'11 kid right (yeah, he's grown an inch since I started the column). He then out-runs Price to the other basket -- while dribbling -- and finishes despite the embarrassed guard grabbing him before he goes up for the bucket. Just to show he's human Monroe misses the free throw.

15:20 mark: Monroe gets the ball at the arc and faces up. He jab steps and then thinks about letting the three go but decides against it and does a dribble hand off to Summers while kind of screening his man. Summers hits the three.

14:45 mark: Monroe gets the ball in the same spot, faces up, and when Thabeet doesn't close out with any kind of initiative, drops a three-pointer right in his face.

I gave you six examples of why Greg Monroe is a special player. There were eight or nine but I got tired of rewinding the tape and I'm on a deadline. He did step in front of Thabeet twice to intercept post entries, and he also hit another three at the start of the second half. JTIII substituted him in on offense for most of the second half as he had some fouls and the kid never missed a beat, just always stayed in the flow.

He's special I tell you.

Now if they can just do something about that bench...