The Morning Fast Break (Dec. 2, 2016): Georgetown attendance issues and deciphering whether Xavier should play small ball

A light day on Thursday leads to a light day on Friday!

Seton Hall took down Columbia last night. Tonight, St. John’s will hope to get back to their winning ways end and a five-game skid.

Enjoy your Friday and welcome to today’s edition of The Morning Fast Break!

Small ball in Cincy? (Banners on the Parkway)

Basketball is trending towards smaller, faster lineups. Between the Steph Curry craze in the NBA and the continued, often frustrating emphasis on freedom of movement at the NCAA level, the game is being pushed out of the slower pace it had settled into. There's still a place for traditional post men, but the days of having a monster in the middle chewing space and cut and dictating the game are dwindling.

Fixing Georgetown’s attendance problems (Casual Hoya)

OK, maybe the headline is a tad drastic but if you’re reading this I guess it worked. As we all know, attendance for Georgetown’s games at the Verizon Center has been really bad. Not just bad, but really bad. Last night was perhaps the crowing achievement of attendance horror, as just 3,996 people showed up to witness Georgetown’s thrashing of MEAC foe Coppin State. This figure is down from last season’s low of 4,062 against Maryland Eastern-Shore.

What the hell happened? (Rumble in the Garden)

Most people believed that even a Great Leap Forward would leave the squad at around .500 on the season. The team is banking on a lot of youth and emerging players, too much to expect much more. But the “process” of this year is to develop a coherent style of play, to bring along a young core and perhaps find a duo or trio of stars - with the expectation that next year’s newcomers (two transfers and a big-bodied seven-footer) would life the team’s fortunes to being within sniffing distance of the NCAA Tournament.

Let’s go back in time (VU Hoops)

Hey look, a new weekly segment! Every Thursday we’ll take a look back at that day in Villanova Basketball to remember the good times (and possibly not so good times). We’ll look at some numbers, opponents, highlight a game or two, and use this as a place for NovaNation to relive some of their favorite games. We’ve pulled games from the last 60+ years, all the way back to 1950, so there should be something for everyone. Let’s get to it!

Actually, we’re a wrestling and baseball blog

- Is 2017 going to be crazier than 2016?

- We’re likely getting another Sasha-Charlotte match.

- Cutch could be going to D.C.

- Let’s grade the CBA changes.