When John Thompson III was named Georgetown’s head coach, the Hoyas had appeared in only one NCAA tournament in the past seven seasons. Under his leadership, the team has gone three for four, even reaching the Final Four in 2007, the first time since 1985 for the Hoyas.
The Hoyas’ progress in just four years is certainly a testament to Thompson’s coaching, but it is also indicative of the quality of his players. The class of 2008, the first class to have Thompson as their coach for all four years, is gone, leaving a legacy as one of the most talented, beloved groups ever to play for the Hoyas.
“Everyone who has followed us and been around knows how special that group is to me,” Thompson said.
“But they are gone. So, I love them, and I think they love me, but they are gone. We’re not going to dwell on who’s not here, we are going to dwell on the guys who are here.”
The fans and the media will certainly scrutinize those new faces , but they cannot be expected to forget the past so quickly. The 2008-2009 Hoyas will have to deal with expectations that have soared since JTIII first arrived on campus. One of the costs of success is that “rebuilding year” has been eliminated from fans’ vocabulary.
Fortunately, this year’s team has plenty of talent. It’s just a question of whether all that talent can come together and overcome the obstacles of youth, inexperience, and a brutal Big East conference.
This is without question the youngest team Thompson has coached during his tenure at Georgetown, with only two upperclassmen on scholarship. But senior Jessie Sapp and junior forward DaJuan Summers are two players who appear to be more than capable of handling the responsibility and leadership that will be required of them.
Sapp, the 6’3’’ guard from New York City, is the team’s most experienced player and leader on the court. He led the team in assists last year, averaging 3.2 per game. He should continue to facilitate the offense, but don’t be surprised if he also finds more scoring opportunities this season running alongside sophomore point guard Chris Wright.
“I worked on every aspect of my game,” Sapp said. “I worked on being the floor leader and the team leader—I talked to Jon[Wallace] and those guys and they taught me a lot. I worked on my mid-range and my ball-handling too so I can be a complete player for this team.”
Summers joins Sapp as a third-year starter. The 6’8’’ forward is the team’s lone junior and top returning scorer, averaging 11.1 points per game last season. Summers was recently named as one of 50 preseason candidates for the Wooden Player of the Year Award. He will need to be a dominant presence up front for the Hoyas, especially early in the season as his younger frontcourt mates adjust to new or expanded roles.
The one whose development will be watched most closely is undoubtedly freshman Greg Monroe. The 6’11’’ forward/center from Louisiana is expected by many to be the backbone of the next great series of Georgetown teams. A McDonald’s All-American in high school and one of the top recruits in the country, Monroe is expected to contribute right away. It’s difficult to avoid comparing him to graduated center Roy Hibbert, but Thompson cautions against such simple comparisons.
“He is totally different,” Thompson said. “I can’t stress this enough, and maybe it’s natural to compare him to Roy, but Greg is totally different.”
For one, no one is going to be calling Monroe a stiff. He is more mobile than Hibbert ever was and arrived on campus a more fully formed player. Monroe may not match Hibbert’s offensive output right away, but he will make up for it in his own way.
“He is a facilitator,” Thompson said of the freshman. “For someone that came into college with the accolades and the hullabaloo that he did, you know, he is someone that will make his teammates a lot better.”
Most of the attention entering the season has been focused on Monroe, but Georgetown’s other newcomers have already proved themselves in this summer’s Kenner League. Monroe’s classmates, center Henry Sims and guard Jason Clark, will both see meaningful minutes. Also expected to be a part of the rotation is sophomore forward Julian Vaughn, who was granted a transfer waiver and is immediately eligible after leaving Florida State. Vaughn provides a soft shot and much-needed depth inside for the Hoyas.
Comparatively, Wright and fellow sophomore guard Austin Freeman look like seasoned veterans. Both received significant playing time as freshmen last year, with Freeman starting in a majority of the games. Wright missed most of the regular season with a foot injury, but returned and contributed in the playoffs. This year the pair will find themselves elevated from supporting cast to featured players.
“We have a different team this year,” Wright said. “We can be fast but we are always going to be a great half court team and we are always going to play defense. I think it’s going to be the same brand, but it’s going to be a lot more running.”
However the Hoyas choose to adapt to the new personnel, they will need to do it quickly. Georgetown’s schedule does not give the young team much time to develop a rapport, with tough non-conference matches early in the Old Spice Classic and against Memphis at home. Conference play will be extremely challenging—the Big East could see as many as nine of its teams reach the NCAA tournament. The league is so competitive that Georgetown, ranked 18th overall in the ESPN/USA Today preseason poll, was picked to finish seventh in the Big East.
“It’s rough. It’s a tough schedule, and hopefully I’m not sitting here in April saying that was a mistake,” Thompson said. “For this group it’s more important to be tested, to learn, to grow, to improve, and to just go through that evolution early. Hopefully we can do that without losing confidence.”
If the Hoyas can remain resilient and bounce back when they face the inevitable struggles, they will be in a good position to return to the NCAA tournament for the fourth consecutive year. Some may look at this year’s team as a step back compared to recent success. But this preconception sits just fine with some.
“I love when people think we can’t do this or can’t do that,” Sapp said. “For us to be the underdog and for me knowing how much talent we have here, when we win it’s going to feel that much better.”
Playoffs? Who refers to the ncaa post season as “playoffs”?
Folks say we are young and inexperienced, but I say these young players have a high IQ of knowledge of the game, I think that makes up for the “so called” inexperience. You have to remember that most of these young men grew up in this area, which is “now” a “hotbed” for talent, and “has been” for some time now, so these are some of the best young men in the country. From watching them play against pros and other college stars this summer in the Kenner League I was totally amazed, those pro’s Roger Mason, Brian Chase, Lonnie Baxter, after a Kenner championship loss said, this “those guys are ready” meaning the Hoyas, Freeman, Sapp, or DaJuan were not on that team, the big suprise this year I think will be my man Jason Clark, you will see, the other suprise will be Henry Sims, look out for my man Merchericov, I hope I spelled that right, he has to be in the mix because he can shoot, but he has to play that outrageous defense that is a Gtown tradition.