Picking Splinters
Miraculous Hoyas Still Standing Tall
By Mike Hume
I know, I know you might be tired of hearing about it. And I know that Secretariat?s ghost is telling me to ease up with the floggings, but I just can?t believe that the Georgetown Hoyas are playing this well.
This year?s Georgetown men?s basketball team has absolutely no reason to be this good. None. In fact, I thought that after last year?s abysmal campaign that this season would be even worse. After all, the Hoyas were losing their only proven (if sporadic) scorer in Gerald Riley, and entering the season Georgetown?s two best players were extremely turnover prone, with Ashanti Cook and Brandon Bowman combining for 179 giveaways in 2003-04. But then a miracle happened.
For Georgetown fans, last season deserved its own circle in Dante?s Inferno ? one with a very high number. Especially considering the familiar scenery consisted of a three-headed Satan, in this case bearing the likenesses of Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim and Al Skinner, repeatedly devouring the Hoyas.
So while the big boys of UConn, Syracuse and Boston College along with Pittsburgh figured to run away with the conference yet again, there seemed to be nothing but failure awaiting a team that would feature three freshmen in its starting lineup. But like Virgil, John Thompson III has been leading Hoya faithful through the depths of despair this season and Georgetown is a viable name in the men?s basketball world once again.
Last season, Georgetown?s problem wasn?t turnovers, or shooting, or depth, or failure to perform in the clutch, or the losses that resulted from those things, or the even the complete and absolute denial that there was a problem of any kind by then-Head Coach Craig Esherick. It was all of those things; all of those things adding up to create a black hole that was rapidly sucking the program down into obscurity.
The program was done. Gone. Caput. Out of the headlines. You?d think that it might be an intriguing national story about how a once-powerhouse so rapidly changed from perennial contender to annual doormat, but no, not even a mention of how bad the team was. But this season that?s starting to change.
Through something akin to a coaching Heimlich maneuver, Thompson III has turned the close losses, a defining feature of Georgetown basketball for the past five seasons, into W's. After Sunday?s buzzer-beater against Notre Dame, Georgetown is 4-1 this season in games decided by five points or less. And once I commandeer the DeLorean and head back in time to 1985 to begin a campaign to bind Brandon Bowman?s feet, thus erasing the overtime loss to Syracuse, they?ll be 5-0.
Part of the reason for the turnaround is the Hoyas are playing smarter basketball this year. The offense is moving, even making backdoor cuts, and turnovers are down from 15.8 a game in 2002-03, to 13.5 a game this season.
The freshmen are playing with poise and confidence as well. Jeff Green has been nothing short of stellar since donning the Blue and Grey and could very likely give UConn?s ?shoe-in? Big East Rookie of the Year Rudy Gay a run for that mantle. Roy Hibbert, named Big East Rookie of the week this past Monday, got off to a rocky start, playing wide-eyed and terrified. But now he?s begun to master that fear and is realizing that he?s the biggest and can be the baddest man on the court if he so chooses.
And any mention of sensational freshmen would be lacking if it failed to mention the play of Jonathan Wallace, a calming influence at the point and a 43-percent three-point shooter.
Combine this influx of talent, the credit for which (with the exception of Wallace) rightly goes to Esherick, with improvement by Bowman and Cook and for the first time since 2000-01, Georgetown looks like it will make the NCAA Tournament.
Right now Georgetown sits at No. 27 in the RPI Ratings, just four spots below 10-4 Villanova who eradicated No. 2 Kansas this past weekend. And of course, Georgetown has already beaten Villanova, in Philadelphia. With four teams in the top-30 of the RPI, the Big East may well be the deepest conference in the land this year, and right now the Hoyas sit in third-place with a record of 5-2.
Looking at the rest of Georgetown?s schedule, the Hoyas should beat St. Johns again, Seton Hall, Villanova (at MCI Center), West Virginia and Providence. Factoring in losses to Boston College in Boston, Rutgers (who nearly bested Syracuse) at the tough-to-play RAC, UConn at Gampel Pavilion and Notre Dame at the Joyce Center, that leaves Georgetown with a record of 19-9 heading into the Big East Tournament. With a few wins at Madison Square Garden and an RPI as high as it is now, that equates to a tourney birth.
But wait, what Georgetown fans should be most excited about is this: next year should be even better. The Hoyas return all five starters next season. With another year of experience, and a few more high-end recruits on the way, this incredible success this season could just be the beginning.
Hoya fans have been in purgatory long enough. This season at least, it finally appears that the program has begun its ascent back to prominence. And the best could be yet to come.
