Say It Ain’t So, Greg Monroe

Leaving Georgetown after just two seasons?

Two seasons full of potential, full of excitement about the future.

Two seasons that were ultimately–dare we say it?–disappointing.

This makes DaJuan leaving last year look like good news by comparison. He mailed it in his last year anyway. But Monroe? Gosh.

You sure know how to hurt a guy.

What happened to loyalty? What happened to chasing glory instead of cash? Who doesn’t know that there is a million times more glory in the college game than the pros? There is more glory in the Big East than there is in the NBA.

This is sad.

Coach and four-year Hoya

Posse no longer getting laughed at

It was “a January to forget.”

But the Hoyas got the W over Rutgers, and now it is February!

It was not a resounding return to glory. But the Hoyas played a solid game. The clock cannot be turned back to December 29, 2008. But we can hope that better days lie ahead if…

Monroe sinks a sweet hook shot

…Nikita “Kruschev” Mescheriakov keeps hitting threes and avoids fouling out of every game in ten minutes.

…Somebody pulls down an offensive rebound.

…Wattad stays confident.

…Monroe, Summers, Freeman, and Wright all go for double-doubles every game.

Big East tournament is only 35 days away! Anything can happen.

Also, please pray for the repose of Fr. Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ, who died a year ago. Pray for the fathers and brothers of the Legion, and for all of us members of Regnum Christi. May the good Lord be merciful and shower his blessings on this woebegone world.

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St. Paul will Guide Us through the Week

Gerald Henderson smoked us.

Please bear with me.

There are few things more painful to your preacher than watching Duke beat Georgetown. I would rather be beaten up by deranged Mormon missionaries.

For about ten minutes during the first half, it looked like Georgetown could actually win the game. Then things fell apart.

Monroe got in foul trouble, including a mysterious technical foul. Gerald Henderson scored three points every time he touched the ball. Summers played a great game but could not make his free throws. And poor Jessie Sapp was joined by Chris Wright on some planet in another solar system where no one ever scores any points.

Anyway, enough bellyaching. God is good, no matter what happens. Here is today’s homily…

Brothers and sisters, we have an eventful week ahead of us. On Tuesday, our 44th President will be inaugurated. Before, that—tomorrow—we will observe the 80th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King lived and died to vindicate the human rights of the weak and oppressed. That is why we keep a national holiday in honor of his birth.

Our eventful week will continue on Thursday with the March for Life. We will march for the same cause that Dr. King fought for—the rights of the weakest and most defenseless people.

But there is more. Next Sunday, we will keep one of the main feasts of the Year of St. Paul. January 25 is the feast of the Apostle’s conversion to Christ.

Juice? Georgetown Downs Orange (88-74)

"I told you the Hoyas are tough!"

Summers brought it. Freeman brought it.

Monroe can pass the ball better than any 18 1/2-year-old big man who has ever lived.

Georgetown dominated the #8 Orange.

My mom doesn’t have cable, so we had to listen to Chvotkin the Great on AM 570, which, as I have said, is even better than being at the game.

Very nice Big East win for the Hoyas! By the way, does anyone know the whole story of how the Syracuse Orangemen became the Syracuse “Orange”?

DaJuan Summers had 21 points, his season high

On other interesting matters…

Doxology à la St. Paul

Greg Monroe had a nice dunk in the first half, though he did not have a great game

If it were a contest of faithfulness to the holy Church, Mount St. Mary’s would probably win.

And if the Mount were allowed to put its seminarians on the orthodoxy team, then they would kick Georgetown’s b–t.

But in basketball, it was a different story.

The Hoyas and Mountaineers hadn’t played since 1962. Georgetown won by eleven points, but the game was actually closer than that. It was a battle–not a pretty battle, but a battle nonetheless.

The Hoyas missed two out of every three shots. The Mount hung in the game until the last two minutes. The Hoyas got the W, but J.T. III said that he is not pleased: “I expect more from this group.”

Speaking for myself, I will take the Hoya win.

On another subject: The people in church will be spared the Preacher this Sunday morning. The deacon will be preaching.

Hoyas' Coach John Thompson III

But for you gluttons for punishment, here is a homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent:

Brothers and sisters: To him who can strengthen you, according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages but now manifested through the prophetic writings and, according to the command of the eternal God,
made known to all nations to bring about the obedience of faith, to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Romans 16:25-27)

Let’s listen again to the way St. Paul glorified God in the passage we heard from his letter to the Romans. He wrote: “To the only wise God be glory forever.”

May God be glorified, dear brothers and sisters.

Tigers! Bengals?

First of all, did you know that in Europe, they put fried eggs on their club sandwiches?

This is something I never knew. I was reading a column in the Financial Times, a British newspaper. In order to make sense out of what I was reading, I had to put two and two together.

The column only makes sense if a club sandwich requires a fried egg. The man who wrote this column lives a high-flying life, to which it will be hard for us to relate. Nonetheless his is an entertaining tale of sandwich enjoyment (or regrettable lack thereof).

Secondly, let me apologize for allowing SIX hours to go by since the Hoyas beat the Memphis Tigers in overtime before I got on this blog to whoop it up.

Yeahhhhh!!!!!

Yeeeeahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

I couldn’t get to this sooner because the overtime ended literally at the very moment I had to go over to church to prepare to celebrate Holy Mass. And I just haven’t had a free moment in the past four hours. But let me repeat:

Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Last year, Memphis went to the NCAA finals. Admittedly, this year they do not have Derrick Rose. In fact, the Tigers do not have a point guard at all.

The Tigers made mistakes this afternoon. But so did the Hoyas. And the Hoyas couldn’t buy a bucket for long stretches of time. Somehow Georgetown pulled the game out nonetheless.

(Web facsimile. Actual banner does not look like this.)

The lead changed in the game 18 times. There were 15 ties.

When the game went to overtime, the Hoyas had more gas in the tank when they needed it.

I was sitting in the Verizon Center last night during the Caps game, looking up at the banners in the rafters. One of them reads: Georgetown Hoyas, NCAA Champions, 1984.

It would be nice to have another one of those.

Meanwhile…Redskins? Please? (1:00 kickoff tomorrow)

Sweet Revenge

January 5

With all the fanfare surrounding Coach Zorn’s “home-coming” to Seattle, an important fact about today’s Seahawk’s game was ignored.

This was the Redskins second game at Qwest Field this year.

The first one did not turn out well. It brought a good run in the second part of last year’s season to a premature end.

Greg Monroe dunk at Verizon Center yesterday

On the other hand, today’s W has brought this season’s tough losing streak to an end. We will take it!

Bring on the mighty Giants! Let’s keep the revenge thing going.

Speaking of things we will take…We will definitely take a 2-0 Hoyas’ season start, with Greg Monroe reaching domination-level right out of the gate.

Next up for the Hoyas: Old Spice Classic on Thursday. Witchita State at 2:00 p.m. on ESPN 2.

The Hoyas lost on the last big holiday for family dinners (Easter). May that not happen again. Just like one loss to the Seahawks per year is enough, and one loss to the Giants per year is enough: One holiday-afternoon Hoyas disappointment per year is enough.

If we have to play Davidson again this year, let’s make sure it’s on a weekday. No Stephen Curry on holidays. No more crying in Washington over our turkeys and hams.

Georgetown 71, Jacksonville 62

Greg Monroe, now a freshman Hoya, had 14 pts

You were probably thinking, “Poor Fr. White. He is stuck over there in Rome, with no way to know anything about the Georgetown Hoyas’ season opener. The poor man has completely missed it.”

Well, these computers ARE good for something.

P.S. Thank you for the encouragement. I will do everything in my power to keep you up-to-date here.

Count on our prayers today for all the requested intentions.

In a few hours, we will see the Pope!!