After last year’s 16-15 finish, replete with a stunning second half collapse and first round NIT exit, John Thompson III and the Georgetown men’s basketball team probably don’t want any reminders of last season.
At least one aspect will be easy to forget—the Hoyas have new uniforms.
But while it was easy to change their look, changing their identity is a different matter. Last year, the Hoyas were a young, talented team that lacked the experience and unity necessary for success. Defining this year’s team begins Friday night, when practice officially kicks off with Midnight Madness.
“It is a fresh slate,” Thompson said. “I’m excited to get going with this group. I think that they worked hard and smartly over the spring, and the summer, and the fall. They are anxious to get going. They’re hungry.”
If there’s one word that’s the early favorite to define this year’s squad, it’s hunger. Both coach and players used the word so much at Tuesday’s media day you’d think the Hoyas spent all summer starving themselves.
That may be true of junior guard Austin Freeman, who slimmed down 12 pounds during the offseason, but a number of Hoyas have bulked up since last March, addressing toughness concerns that plagued last year’s team.
“We’re harder, we’re hungrier,” junior guard Chris Wright said. “We’re definitely hungry. We want to prove ourselves to them. We have to get that swagger back that Georgetown’s had for a long time.”
That swagger was a staple of the squad JTIII took to the Final Four in 2007. But with the departures of Jessie Sapp and DaJuan Summers, no players remain from that team. It now falls on this current group to find its own swagger.
“That confidence comes with having success. You have some success you get a little bit of swagger,” Thompson said. “Every good team, regardless of the sport, there’s an air of confidence about them, and that’s essential for winning.”
It’s not so much that this year’s team lacks confidence, just that it hasn’t been able to show it yet. The lessons of last season’s disastrous campaign have been etched into the players’ minds over the long offseason. They’ve atoned for their failure through summer workouts, and while the public may be questioning this Georgetown team, they know who they are.
“We have our identity. We have an All-American big man. And we have a lot of pretty great players, who have the possibility of being very, very good,” Wright said. “It’s just a matter of us understanding that we have our identity, we are Georgetown. And we have to establish that.”
With all due respect to Wright and Freeman, the team’s most experienced players and expected leaders, that All-American big man—Greg Monroe—is Georgetown’s defining player.
Monroe could have declared for the NBA draft and likely been a top pick after his freshman season, but he came back because he, like his team, still has plenty of room for improvement. Monroe knows this, and spent the summer addressing the weaker points of his game.
Did the natural lefty work on using his right hand?
“Yes. A lot.”
Are we going to see more physicality from him inside?
“Definitely, from me and from the team.”
Is he ready to lead?
“I do have to be a little more vocal this year,” he said. “[I’m] just trying to help the younger people and the players in my class that should step up a little bit more.”
It’s a heavy load to place on the shoulders of a player who, despite his accomplishments, is still only a sophomore. But on this Georgetown team, which has no seniors, he qualifies as a veteran.
That might be cause for many to make comparisons to last year’s youthful team, but JTIII notes an important distinction.
“A better word than young is experience,” Thompson said. “We’re still young, but we have collectively, across the board this year more experience. And there’s no substitute for experience.”
That experience is the one thing that defines the returning Hoyas more than anything else. They’ve been through the highs (beating No. 2 UConn) and the lows (losing to St. John’s, twice), and are ready to use that knowledge.
When asked to sum up the difference between this season and last, Wright kept it simple: “We’re gonna win.”
