Louisville rally comes up just short at No. 14 Georgetown

I'm not willing to go so far as to say something along the lines of "well, we were supposed to lose" or "I guess that's what happens when you only get one day of rest after a double overtime thriller," but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't hard for me to be mad at these guys. Disappointed? Slightly, but the negative emotion I feel right now is nothing compared to some of the late January and February evenings of a year ago.

No, they didn't play well and yes, the game was there for the taking at the end, but effort is absolutely never an issue with these guys, which makes full-hearted criticism difficult to dish out.

Let's play Good/Bad

Good: I think we all would have settled for taking 2 of 3 when we were staring down this West Virginia/Connecticut/Georgetown gauntlet six days ago.

Bad: Eventually, settling comes back to bite you. This was the second straight three-game segment we had the opportunity to sweep, and the second straight time where we've fallen short on a night where a win was there for the taking.

Good: The come back. Pretty sure they'd already established this as a fact before Monday night, but counting this team out of any game is a poor choice.

Bad: The turnovers. The Hoyas forced their fair share, but the unforgivable ones led to a healthy chunk of Georgetown points, especially in the first half.

Good: Terrence Jennings. He showed some life with his back to the basket, but taking full advantage of his ability to run the floor is what has made him so valuable these past two games. He scored six points off of offensive rebounds that he wouldn't have had if he hadn't hustled to the other end of the floor, and he single-handedly prevented four more points by getting back and preventing a pair fast-break scores. That's a 10-point swing that he's solely responsible for.

Bad: Chris Smith in the game's final three minutes. That's back-to-back off nights for the Big East's best walk-on, but his performance in crunch time this evening really hurt. The bad foul on Jason Clark with the Hoyas up one and appearing out-of-sync on offense was especially painful. He works too hard not to bounce back.

Good: Peyton Siva's dad. Seriously, can someone with 9,000 times more money than me get this guy to every game?

Bad: Preston's shot. I would file this under "strange" if it were an option, but it looks to me like Preston has changed his shot over the past three games or so. He's no longer pulling the ball back so far above his head. It actually looks more aesthetically pleasing, but...if it ain't broke, man.

Good: Zone defense. Second straight game we've done a tremendous job at attacking the perimeter and not collapsing when it isn't necessary.

Bad: Man defense. Everyone knows you can't go underneath screens when you're checking good shooters. Kyle's too old to be doing that.

Good: Mike Marra's out-of-nowhere clutch shooting.

Bad: Mike Marra's out-of-nowhere horrendous passing.

Good: Russ Smith's energy. Again, he gave us a real lift tonight on both ends of the floor, and Pitino said he would have left him in - instead of yanking him around the four-minute mark - if he hadn't been so gassed.

Bad: Press-break recovery. Georgetown has good guards but you can't just hand them 8-10 points once they've broken the press and have the ball across midcourt.

Good: I'm glad Leo wasn't subjected to this.

Bad: Altering the starting lineup during a winning streak. Rick Pitino has never seen Bull Durham.

Good: Already being one win away from reaching two in the fourth segment.

Bad: Having to wait eight entire days for our next actual game.

Good: We're halfway through the conference season and our record is 17-5, 6-3. I think we all would have taken that a few months ago.

Box Score:

Technicals: None
Officials: Karl Hess, Ed Corbett, John Gaffney
Attendance: 12,164