See, this is where college basketball can be the most frustrating sport in the country.
Last week, No. 8 Marquette went into Cincinnati and got smoked and No. 11 Georgetown beat up on No. 18 Notre Dame. Both were definitive victories and, seemingly, made it quite obvious that the Hoyas were trending in the right direction while the Golden Eagles may have peaked to early.
Which is why we all should have known that when Georgetown visited Marquette on Saturday that the Hoyas would get drilled by the Golden Eagles. Marquette opened up a double-digit lead by halftime and pushed that out to as much as 17 in the second half before eventually winning 83-69.
As a result, Marquette locked up the No. 2 seed in the Big East tournament while Georgetown gave away a shot at getting one of the four double-byes. The Hoyas, who are tied with Cincinnati and South Florida for fourth-place in the Big East, are the five-seed while Cincy won the tie-breakers and moved their way into fourth.
I still think that both of these teams are good enough to make a run in the NCAA Tournament, but I am concerned about Georgetown going up against teams that are as athletic as them. Georgetown is able to thrive because of the versatility of their forwards -- guys like Otto Porter, Greg Whittington and Hollis Thompson -- defensively, but none of those guys are physical. Neither is Henry Sims inside; he doesn’t love contact.
If you can match up with the almost-freakish athleticism and length that Georgetown has, they can be pushed around.
Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.