Hoya News

Balla's Pre-season Summary

2008-08-18T11:34:00.002-04:00

I don't know what the policy is for posting another person's message board entry on a blog, but Balla's post on the Georgetown Board was a great introduction to the coming season. Here's the link to his original post at hoyatalk.

So what is new. Hope everyone has been well (almost everyone). A lot to get to, and I am not going through the two months of threads to answer everything. so I will try and address everything in this post. If anyone has questions, just ask me in this thread.

On a somber note, condolences to Tim Russert's family. Mr. Russert technically was not a Hoya, but he was on campus enough to have gained tenure. He certainly was one of the good guys. I have heard good things about his son, so I am sure he will make his pops proud.

Congratulations to Roy and Pat. When my blackberry blew up after both got drafted, I admit I got choked up. For those of us that have known Roy going on a decade and Pat going on two decades, we could not be any prouder of what they have achieved thus far in their lives. basketball is irrelevant. The young men that they have become is what is important, regardless of how their basketball careers turn out. Funny, half a dozen scouts and GMs told me that Pat was a second round lock months before the draft. Yet for some reason, none of the so called experts had him getting drafted. Pat could be one of those guys that plays in the league for ten years for ten different teams, but he will find a place. I find it comical that people say Roy messed up by coming back to college. We live in a country that over half of African American kids do not graduate from high school, and there are more black males in jail than in college. Roy EARNED his degree from one of the best universities in the world. In the process, Roy came from nowhere to become an excellent basketball player. Roy's progression as a STUDENT-ATHLETE enabled him to become a millionaire upon GRADUATING from college. Yeah, Roy messed up. I hope every kid could mess up like Roy Hibbert. The Hilltop is a special place. I like the fact that people on the outside do not understand what it means to be a Hoya. They don't get it, and they never will. I luv this article about Roy and Monroe. Reach one teach one+, that is the Hoya way: http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/ind....coll=1#continue

Malik Story. Well I was shanking golf balls in the Bahamas(dress like Tiger, play like Barkley) at the time of Malik's disappearance...err commitment to Indiana. So I have an alibi, and did not abduct him. However I did send Tom Crean a fruit basket. I can't wait for more Rivals write-ups and post on more players that Gtown will NOT take. I hear Malik has a lot of groupies out in Utah, so perhaps a home and home can be arranged with IU. This will allow Malik's groupies to spend some quality time with him. So Malik Story's contribution to GU was a weekend of entertaining vitriol. Kinda like george w has contributed nothing positive except an $11 discount below Platt prices from SOMO for Basrah light crude oil. Of course ya gotta luv the Chinese that will buy it back on a flip at platt prices. Now that is the American way.

Chris Braswell. I wish him the best. He is a good kid that is trying to get things straight now. It is best for all that Braswell and Gtown went in different directions... Everyone has always done right by Chris(his mom, Gtown, Dematha, Triple Threat). He has some good people guiding him, and is now working hard. Wherever he ends up, I will just be happy to see him receive his college diploma eventually.

BTW. Speaking of DC. Triple Threat(reebok), coach Stevens is an excellent coach and does a great job with that program. Since Nike has pulled the plug on the DC. blue devils(weak program and weaker name), Nike should put its money behind Stevens' program. The Jeff Green ballers sounds good.

It is funny how the tabloid Internet media/posters, like to claim certain players to be a Gtown "lock", or that Gtown is really recruiting a kid hard... Gtown moves in silence, despite what all of these Internet experts try and write-up or post. There has been a lot BS put out over the past couple of months. Some of the BS is from the usual suspects just trying to stir up interest. Some of the BS of from the other usual suspects trying to start stuff up, to create mis-information about recruits. Heck there are people in the media from various papers and recruiting sites basically trying to recruit players against Gtown or push these kids to different schools. These fools have never figure out that when they go against Gtown, they will lose. Heck, pieces of garbage like Jerry Meyers are in coach dookies office receiving "dictation"...

09 Prospects

NOTE: Everyone knows I do not sugar coat, so if you are related to anyone in the 09 class, you might want to skip over the this section.

Let me make this clear, the 09 class is ABSOLUTELY GARBAGE! 09 might be worse than 08. Heck I have not seen such poop since the Paulus/Mcroberts class. Hoya fans should be ecstatic that JT3 got the two must get players (Hollis and Riley). Now Gtown is basically done with the 09 class. I stated this months ago, but for some reason the Internet idiots continue to try and hype up players that Gtown is/was not going to take. Fans should NOT expect Gtown to take anymore players in 09. The only way Gtown takes another player will be in the spring, after the staff has evaluated if any positions need to be filled for next year. Otherwise the squad is loaded for next season.

Terrel Vinson. Not happening. Nice kid, but not a good fit for GU. He is an undersized PF that is trying to become a SF. He does not have the perimeter skills or the interior skills to fit the GU system. Bottom line GU ain't taking him.

Ryan Kelly. Nice kid and good student, but he is this summer's Jon Reik plus Hansboroughesq hype. Kelly had a good 3-4 week stretch of aau ball/all star camp where he played very well. Frankly Kelly should name his first son after John Wall, because Wall has made him. Kelly is a decent shooter(streaky) and good passer, but he does nothing else well. He is a horrible defender at any position. Whoever thought that Kelly could play SF in the Big East, is a fool. And Kelly will get eatin up at PF in the Big East also. He is an ACC player(or ND because Brey is a dookie and ND does not play defense). Let the "experts' say what they want, and rank him wherever. Heck it just further under-scores how pathetic the 09 class is. The good thing about recruiting is that JT3 actually got to watch Kelly up close for about 6 weeks. Bottom line, Kelly is NOT Hoya material.

BTW. John Wall is the real deal. Wall just needs to improve his jump-shot, but he can flat out play. Unlike that over-hyped kenny boyton. boyton is this years undersized gunner. Every year there is a guy that is a short shooting guard that looks all world in aau/all start settings. These guys never pan out. The "experts" never learn that there is only one AI, then there are a whole bunch of chris duhons... The fact that boyton is so hyped just shows how awful the 09 class really is.

Tristan Spurlock. Like I said months ago, if Spurlock had been willing to wait until spring, there would be a chance that GU would take him and he could get what he wanted. GU was not going to take him now, and the staff wanted to watch him more during this up coming season. Frankly he was unimpressive his JR season, and aau ball does not mean much. So if a roster spot opens up in the spring, Kelly would have been on the short list. But he decided to commit to UVA now. UVA is a good fit for him. He is a good kid, and I wish him the best. Bottom line, GU was not going to have its hand forced according to a kid's timeline. Gtown was not going to take Spurlock unless he was willing to wait until spring.

Truth. A lot of kids recruit a program more than the program is recruiting them. It usually not over the top BS like Malik Story, but there is a lot of bunk that gets floated around.

BTW. Just want to thank RDF and Tonydeals, for actually speaking the TRUTH and ignoring the Internet tabloid posters and rumor mongers.

BTW #2. If there really had been something earth shattering that was going on with recruiting over this past summer, I would have dusted off the key-board and posted it.

Honestly the only player left in the 09 class worth using a schollie on would be Mouph. He is a man-child, a banger with shooting touch, and he is only getting better. But he is a 4/5, and PF is really that last position that Gtown needs to fill right now. Like I said about Donte Taylor, Plumlee, Milton Jennings, Kelly...none of these guys are essential needs unless they wanted to wait until the spring to see how things shake out. Next year at the PF/C the roster will have Monroe, Sims, Vaughn, and Riley. That is why fans should not expect GU to take another 09 player anytime soon. JT3 does not even know what the next years roster will look like, and what positions need to be filled yet. GU might need a combo guard, combo wing, or combo forward. The staff will be monitoring a lot of 09 players during the season, and we will see how things shake out in the spring... The usual suspects in the media will try and float out various names over the next few months and hope something sticks, but fans should not expect anything imminent.

Mouph vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYMidZpnPdg

Euro chicks luv the Goo Goo dolls. I do not know why, but whatever works.

Breaking News! EDIT brett favre.

2010 Prospects

Gtown's real focus now is on the 2010 kids(and has been for a long time). There will be at least 3 schollies available for the 2010 kids, and probably 4.

Gtown's 2010 recruiting priorities are (and have always been):
PF. Josh Hairston
SF. Roscoe Smith
SG. Jason Morris
PG. Tyler Thornton

Hairston. I luv the kid. Like I have always said, he is a better shooting version of Jeff. Hairston is a perfect fit into the system as a point power forward like Jeff/Monroe. I would be disappointed if he ended up somewhere else. But the good thing about Hairston is that he is making his decision during his junior year. So if he decides to go elsewhere, that gives Gtown plenty of time to go after other 2010 PFs/combo forwards. The 2010 class is deep at both forward positions, so Gtown will have plenty of other options. Yes Hairston has a lot of people in his ear that want him to go to other schools. His mom is a Vtech alumn, so that is understandable. His aau/hs coaches are all pushing for dook. It is funny that Nolan Smith and his step-dad (DC assault coach), are both pushing for Josh to go to dook. Truth is, Nolan wanted to leave dook and transfer to Gtown. But JT3 does not get involved with that, and would not re-recruit a player until he has been released from schollie. So it was not going to happen. I wonder if coach dookie gave Josh his old "I will make you a man" shtick, like he gave this Josh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NElaIEymBb4

Hairston Vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxdIsQ32aJA

Roscoe. I could watch this kid play all day. Like I said long ago(before the media hype), Roscoe is the best player in MD in the 09 or 2010 class. He plays like an old-school Hoya with new-school skills. Sun is just relentless like a 6'7 AI. Yes, he needs to improve his outside shooting. But he is a hard worker and getting better everyday. Roscoe is a flat out balla. Unlike many wings from the B-more area, Roscoe has a complete game and just does not camp-out at the three point line. Roscoe plays hard on defense also. Roscoe has worked hard to improve his academic standings, and has good family support. After all, his pops is a Thompson. 2010 is loaded with good SFs, if GU does not get Roscoe: CJ Fair, Terrance Jones are high on the Gtown radar. CJ is a great kid and excellent shooter. Hope he recovers from his knee injury. I'm sure the staff will be monitoring him during the season. Terrance Jones is a do it all type player. He really really needs to improve his jump-shot, but the rest of his game is very strong. There are of course a lot of other wings on the radar like Travis Mckie and Harrison Barnes, so Gtown has plenty of options.

Roscoe vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeaWkykM23o

CJ Fair vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KKdlH18HnM

Terrence Jones vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxc4i3cZ1Yw&NR=1

Jones vid #2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lREIDR73TE4

Jason Morris. He played all summer on a bad ankle, but he still brought it hard. He is a heck of an athlete and steadily improving basketball player. Jason has an explosive game, always attacking. He needs to improve his left hand(handles and finishing), but I luv his game. For those wondering about Dawkins, Dawkins never had an offer. He was always the back-up option to Morris. If anyone has seen both kids play frequently, they understand why Jason Morris was the priority recruit at this position.

Tyler Thornton. He is a mini JT3. The kid is just a winner. Tyler is a defensive dynamo with great handles, that knows how to lead a team. He is a high IQ player that can affect a game without taking a lot of shots. Yes, he needs to improve his jump-shot. But just like Roscoe, Tyler is working hard on it. It is funny that the dookies think that just because they offered Tyler that he is just going to float down to durham. Last I checked coach dookie has been there forever, and he has NEVER produced an elite NBA guard. Yet for some reason those idiots think that dook is guard U. Heck, outside of Grant, Brand, and Boozer, every player from dook has under achieved or not lived up to the hype. There are a lot of top PGs on Gtown's radar for 2010, of course Starks and Atkins are right there along with some national kids. Gtown will get a good PG regardless in 2010. The staff has watched Josh Shelby a lot, but he is more of an undersized SG than he is a PG. The Dematha coaches are working hard to make him more of a PG. But everyone in the DC area that has watched Thornton, Atkins, Shelby, and Starks, understands why Shelby is not as good a fit for Gtown as the other guards are.

Thornton and Atkins vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibLAS_jawLQ&feature=related

Starks vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqgc61UC4Ek

Starks vid 2, #5 green:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3g17h_FEZQ&feature=related

Josh Smith(6'9 center from Seattle), is a probably the top center prospect. But Center is not an area of urgency for GU in 2010. I see Smith staying west (UW or ucla), but if he leaves the westcoast, Bigman U (Gtown) is a nice place to come.

Josh Smith vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V53UzB62ZHE

Jeremy Tyler is probably as good a talent as there is in the 2010 class. But he really lacks focus, discipline, and fundamentals. Plus he has a lot of people in his ear, so we all know how his situation will play out.

Jeremy Tyler vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaJcyVNju4k&feature=related

Summer viewing:

The Dark Knight(Batman). Excellent! It is about time that they made a good Batman movie.
Hancock. So they could not let Will Smith have a good hanky-panky scene with Cherlise Theron(hitting Ol gal with a rolling pin does not count). For the definition of a good Charlise Theron hanky-panky scene, I suggest watching 7 days in the Valley.
The Hulk. Much better than the one a few years ago. Ed Norton is underrated.(watch Rounders).
Indiana Jones. Well I already stated that George Lucus owes me $8.50. Make it an even $20 for that JaJa Binks character in Star Wars.
The Mummy. its about time to bury that franchise

When is Entourage coming back on? Best show eva (or at least recently). I need my fix.

So Jay Leno was the only thing good on NBC since the Cosby Show, and now they are canceling him. And no, I never watched Seinfeld or Friends.

BTW. There is something just wrong about watching "womans" gymnastics.
BTW #2. There is something just right about watching "womans" volleyball.

2011 class.
Well now that these guys are about to be sophomores, it is time to put them on the radar. I will not go in-depth about them, because I prefer to wait until they have completed their soph seasons. Kudos to the staff for working the circuit this summer while JT3 was busy with team USA stuff. The 2011 class will be as strong if not stronger than the 2010 talent. There are some good ones that Gtown will be monitoring(and more to come): Michael Gbinjie(wing), Mike Shaw(PF), LeBryan Nash(SF), Tyrone Johnson(PG), Lavon Harper(PF), Chris Coleman(C), James McAdoo (PF/C),Ramon Eaton(wing) 6'6 Darius Nelson(wing) and some kid named Martin(combo guard), are all on the Gtown radar. There will be a lot more players added (and might already be) over the next year.

Forget about Mike Gillchrest, because he is already on the wes/calipari(memphis) payroll.

Speaking of memphis: It took the NCAA a second to investigate Kelvin Sampson then put IU on probation, yet memphis and usc investigations drag on and on...

Billy "little monkey"/dookie Packard = door.arse.out

Congrats to my man Clark Kellog. Although Mr. Raftery is the best eva, Raft has an agreement in place with Obama to become ambassador to Tahiti. Thus Raft could not make the longterm commitment to CBS. Now if CBS would just get rid of seth dookie davis, all would be well. I wonder if seth pointed out the officiating injustices when it comes to dookie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKHf00juP18

BTW. Speaking of officials, tim daughney is garbage and got what he deserved. His father was garbage also( he was the ref that let christian laetner skate). So the trash does not fall far from the trash can...

Breaking news! EDIT bret farve's sycophants(espn)

Current Team

I have no expectations for this season (I expect to win it all next year, at least final 4). I am just going to sit back and enjoy watching these kids play and develop this season. Should be fun.

Sapp. Gotta step up in a leadership capacity. I luv the kid's heart, and Raftery size "onions". Sapp has to improve his conditioning, lateral quicks, and consistency from the perimeter(stop fading away).

Summers. He improved his defense and rebounding a lot from his freshman season. But this talk of Summers going pro is pre-mature. The same scouts and GMs that told me Pat was a second round lock, have told me that Summers in not a first round pick right now. The easiest position for teams(pro and college) to fill is SF. So a player either has to do a couple things great, or a lot of things good. Summers really needs to improve his handles, lateral quicks, and consistency on his shot. BTW. Summers is not a PF in college or pro. He only played there last season, because JT3 did not have much choice. Of course Summers playing PF last year helps to give the team more flexibility this season, particularly at the end of games. The good thing for Summers is that the 09 national class is WEAK. So if Summers stays for his senior season, there will not be many one and dones jumping over him. The 06 and 07 classes were strong, so there were a lot of one and done high draft picks. That will not happen much in 08 or 09.

Freeman. I luv his efficiency. He just gets it done. Freeman is the only player that can play both SG and SF, so his versatility will be needed. I am not going to get into the whole weight thing. He does need to get leaner. But like I said last season, Freeman has to get in better condition, improve his handles, and improve his lateral quicks.

Wright. This kid is a tough minded fighter, and will eventually be a good PG. This is almost like his freshman season, so he will have growing pains. But he is a smart kid, and will learn from his mistakes as he matures. He needs to become more discipline, make better decisions, and become a more consistent shooter(including free throws).

Monroe. I am ecstatic that he is a Hoya. He is a great kid, that will eventually become a great player. Like I said a year ago at this time long before Monroe officially committed to Gtown, he is a 2-3 year player. People that expect Greg to be one and done have not watched him, and do not understand where he is in his development. Monroe came to bigman U for a reason. He has things to work on and he will only get better. He needs to improve his back to the basket game, consistency on his shot, and post defense. Monroe is a hard worker(he is his mother's son), so he will get it.

Sims. WEIGHT ROOM! Sims is talented, versatile, and a good shooter. But he has to get stronger for the Big East, plus needs to improve his back to the basket game and defensive rebounding.

Clark. No secret, I luv this kids game. He plays HARD. Like a said last season, Clark is the best rebounder of all the incoming freshman and the best rebounder of anyone on the current roster. Now those that have had a chance to watch him in Kenner, understand what I was talking about. He has to improve his strength and consistency on his jump shot. he also needs to improve on his mid range game.

The incoming freshman are extremely talented and underrated(a good thing). Monroe was the LA and National(Wootten) player of the year. Sims and Clark were the MD and DC players of the year. The best talent in the country is in the local MD/DC/VA area, so they have earned their stripes. Plus Sims and Clark were well coached in high-school, so there a pretty fundamentally sound for incoming freshman. Having said that, all three have a lot of work to do. They all have to get stronger and need a quick learning curve. Oct/Nov will come quick, so now is the time for them to work even harder.

Vaughn. His eligibility is a welcome surprised. Julian Vaughn becoming eligible for this season is HUGE. Five fouls. No overstating how important the right amount of depth is. Now Gtown has three bigs(Sims, Monroe, and Vaughn). His personal situation is unfortunate, but from a basketball perspective, this is great. Michael Corleone...err JT3 has basically traded Macklin and Rivers, for Vaugh and Clark. I will take that trade just for free throw aesthetics alone. Vaughn has to improve his conditioning, body, leg strength, and back to the basket game.

Omar and Nikita. Both good spot-up shooters, but they have to get a lot quicker on defense if the expect to ever see quality minutes.

As for the who will start and how many minutes will each guy get, minutes are EARNED in practice and increased or decreased based on game performance. What a player did last year, in high-school, pick-up ball, or Kenner, does not matter. There are always pick-up ball all stars in the off season, that do not make the progression come fall. There is no substitute for hard work. This team has some serious talent, but everyone has to really improve their games between now and the fall.

Nice Kenner league recap blog:
http://blog.georgetownvoice.com/category/basketball/

Future Hoyas.

Hollis. WEIGHT ROOM! (and drop your butt on defense).

Riley. WEIGHT ROOM!(and work on your counter post moves).

I hope Obama does not pick another senator as his VP. The Dems have played that losing hand for two straight elections. Since Ted Strickland decided to tank it, Iowa plus Virginia still equals 20pts.

Obama needs to get his own surrogates(talking heads) on the air, like bunch of Ed Schultz. I'm am normally a Clintonian, but you play to win the game. Not that any of my fellow Clintonians would intentionally sabotage Obama, but Clinton people trying to promote Obama is like a Gtown grad trying to promote uconn. It just does not work.

BTW. in 2008 Presumptive/elitist = Uppity

Breaking News! Brett Favre is the baby's daddy, not John Edwards.

BTW. Campbell Brown is painful to watch. That train-wreck will only be watchable during the election, then it is a gotts to go situation. Heck, why put off tomorrow, what you can do today. The AC 360 gal should knee-cap Campbell and take her spot.

BTW #2. What happened to the recruiting sub-board that was voted on. Soon school will start and the board will be inundated with endless preseason prognostications, poll gibberish, and the ever exciting playing time/position banter... Pretty good time to start that sub-board.

All in all life is good on the Hilltop. It has been a great summer, and lets look forward to the season.

In closing, I will quote my man the late great Bernie Mack, "I ain't never had no pumpkin pie".

Kenner Schedule

2008-08-13T09:20:00.000-04:00

http://www.hoyabasketball.com/kenner_schedule.pdf

7/12 Kenner

2008-07-13T09:27:00.001-04:00

Schedule - http://www.hoyabasketball.com/kenner_schedule.pdf

Rosters

7/5: Report from First Tombs Kenner Game

2008-07-05T23:01:00.001-04:00

Some notes from the Tombs game:

Monroe looks big and can definitely grow into his frame. He runs the floor well. He's got a great array of post moves and looks very comfortable on the low block. He's big enough that he can muscle his way to the basket. He can face up from the perimeter and take his man off the dribble He found Clark cutting to the basket on a give-and-go from the post.

On the down side, he took a three that didn't look natural or comfortable.

He's also got good positional sense on help defense, stepping in position to close down the lane.

Sims really impresses. He strokes the three (old line), turnaround jumper from 15 feet, cuts to the basket from the high post to score, and blocks shots jumping vertically (ie not into the shooter and he doesn't leave his feet on pump fakes). Had a good pass from the high post resulting in a bucket for Monroe in the low post. You get the feeling we may see a lot more of this.

Defensively, sims will block shots as a help defender, but he has difficulty playing post defense. he lacks the bulk to hold position down low. It was hard to tell how good Monroe was defensively in the post as he was seldom challenged

Clark is very slight, but pretty quick. He led the break and finished on one early possession and sank a three on the next. He can beat his man off the dribble and played a bit of point (as I understand he did on his AAU team).

Nikita is not having a good day. Plenty of fouls, not making jumpers, stripped of the ball once. Hustle play toward the end of the game, but not much to go on from this game.

Omar sank a three but get too many more looks. He did put on 25 pounds since last year his brother tells me.

FLHoya
MCI

Greg Monroe Video

2008-03-27T08:23:00.003-04:00

For much of the year we've heard grumblings that Greg Monroe was having a disappointing year, that the designation of top recruit was a stretch, or that he's part a very weak class of high school seniors. So many criticisms of Monroe performances this season have led many to question whether he'll be an impact player for the Hoyas next season.

Just so you know: Monroe really turned it on at the end of the year to win the state title and the Wootten award for best high school player in the country. His team that recovered from a 17-point deficit in one game of the tournament and he scored 39 points in another.

Here are highlights and interview footage from that postseason run. (This is a youtube playlist, so it is three videos in a row).

Will Future Hoya Teams be Truer to Princeton Principles?

2008-03-24T22:28:00.002-04:00

Certainly the disappointing loss to Davidson will take some time to get over. And much criticism will continue to be leveled at the officiating crew in Raleigh.

Yet one of the shortcomings the team experienced yesterday, was one which featured all season long: an inability to make entry passes into the post.

Far too often this season Hibbert would get great position down low only to be overlooked by the guards. Or they would see him posting, but did not have the confidence to make a safe entry pass.

Watching the other teams in the tournament, it was hard not to marvel at how often centers like Stanford's Brook Lopez received the ball in a position on the court where all they had to do was turn and shoot a gimme.

Our guards have not done this often enough for Hibbert during his time as a Hoya. But should this be surprising? JT3 played and coached in the Princeton system where there are no post players. In the Princeton, centers play on the perimeter to open up the lane for the cutters. There isn't a need for an entry pass. It's entirely possible that JT3 never had to learn that skill as a college guard and hasn't been able to pass it on to his players.

This year, in particular, Georgetown seemed uncomfortable in an offense that balanced post play with three point shooting. At some point in the season, our back door cutting almost evaporated. While the absence of back door cuts may be attributable to the zone defense we often faced against Big East teams, in our two NCAA games we faced man-to-man.

Against Davidson, the refs were calling fouls when their defense grabbed at our players making back cuts. This was an ideal officiating environment for our Princeton offense to flourish. Belmont and West Virginia ran more back cuts against Duke then we did in the whole tournament.

Look for the Princeton offense to return to prominence next year. JT3 never recruited Roy, and while the big guy has been a huge asset for the coach, he's an anomaly in the Princeton.

Macklin, Monroe and Sims are mobile front court players and may not spend much time in the post. Braswell is a guy that rebounds and can score off of putbacks.

With the roster now full of JT3 recruits, the coach no longer has to balance different styles of play. It may very well be that the Hoyas develop a consistent offense next year more fully committed to the Princeton offense.

New Nike Commercial with JT3

2008-03-12T16:22:00.000-04:00

Greg Monroe: Future Stars of America

2007-12-11T08:01:00.000-05:00

This ran in New York and Washington on the local Fox affiliates. It's a short clip highlighting Monroe and his decision to attend Georgetown.

Hoya Intro Video

2007-12-07T11:18:00.000-05:00

So we can watch this on a loop before the game airs on TV, here is the Georgetown intro video, We Are Georgetown.

Fairfield: Does the Fast Break Detract from the Princeton Offense?

2007-12-01T18:22:00.000-05:00

During today's Fairfield game, for the first time I can remember, a JT3 coached team worked to push the ball up the court at every opportunity. There was a concerted effort to look for fast break opportunities and to get into the front court quickly on offense. This is a sharp departure from the Hoya offense that we are accustomed to watching and it may take some getting used to by the players as well.

Some noticeable results were early turnovers (Sapp dribbling out of bounds) and rushed shots (Ewing for 3). This aggressive pace also left Hibbert with even fewer touches as the team was slow to settle into their offensive sets.

It seems Hibbert featured even less in the offense because of the pace. He found himself in foul trouble which didn't help things, but the reduced minutes for Roy (as PT is spread more evenly) means that for the fewer offensive possessions he's in the game, the big man needs touches in the post. Speeding up the game today meant on a number of possessions the Hoya offense looked to shoot before finding him.

It looks as if Georgetown is still finding its way around JC3's offense and, if they decide to run more than last year, it may be in these early games where the team learns to integrate that tempo into the offense without losing focus of Princeton principles. These are the games to try out new wrinkles. Expect the Hoyas to settle into its established offense by the time conference play comes around.

Great Barker Davis Profile of Sapp

2007-12-01T06:30:00.000-05:00

Barker Davis has a great profile of Jessie Sapp in today's Washington Times.

Dashonte Riley Video

2007-11-26T19:31:00.000-05:00

You may not have caught this video on the Hoya board as it was buried in an old thread. Dashonte Riley is one of the top center prospects in the class of 2009. He goes to Detroit Country Day, same school that Chris Webber went to. With Hollis Thompson signed, the one area we will lack depth after this year will be at center. While we do have Sims coming in, he's light for a Big East five. As is Macklin, who will be a senior when the high school class of 2009 matriculates.

We have a really solid shot at Riley who seems to have considerable skills and mobility. The highlight for me was the turnaround 15 footer at the elbow, but his shotblocking would make an immediate impact in the Big East. He could be part of a dynasty at Georgetown with Monroe, Freeman, Thompson and Wright. Video below.

Props to the Student Section from UM

2007-11-20T07:43:00.000-05:00

I think this article in the Ann Arbor News went by without anyone's notice, but I thought it was worth a mention here. The Michigan players apparently attributed our crowd noise for getting them out of their game:

"There was just a lot of miscommunication, whether it was man or zone,'' sophomore DeShawn Sims said. "We've just got to do a better job. ... Coach prepared us and told us the stuff we were going to run. We just got rattled and confused out there by the crowd.''

It should be noted that Sims was the Big Ten player of the week and was limited to one point on Thursday. There was also this gem from the article:

For one moment, Georgetown's student section chanted: "Where's your men's team?''

Clearly this level of enthusiasm and student attendance is remarkable for a November game. I don't remember having ever seen Hoya students so loud this early. For too long, our home court advantage has been neutral at best. With the lower bowl sold out and the student sections filled, it looks like this is finally changing.

Greg Monroe Highlight Video

2007-11-19T17:31:00.000-05:00

I've tried this and it is a one-time deal. You get to watch it once and that's it. Probably once per computer. I watched it once with Firefox and then again with Internet Explorer on the same computer. That's all you're probably going to get. Monroe looks fantastic. He could clearly step right into a starting role and put up big numbers. He is as nimble a 6-10 forward I have ever seen.

http://decenturl.com/rivalshoops.rivals/greg-monroe-video

Also should mention a new interview video with Roy Hibbert.

http://decenturl.com/cn8/hibbert-interview

Michigan Recap

2007-11-16T07:09:00.000-05:00

In a dominating performance, the starters played sparingly giving the freshmen and the bench players lots of PT. As far as the starters go, there were some pretty solid performances save for Roy who missed a few easy shots. This wasn't really a game to measure the first team, however, as the early lead gave our bench considerable floor time.

Offensively, Freeman played well and under control, taking open outside shots and a couple times going to the rim. Wright was not nearly as patient, constantly turning down open jumpers to drive into multiple coverage. While fearless, the freshman point guard spent quite a bit more time missing difficult layups or runners when he could have been setting up teammates or taking high percentage shots. A lot of positives may result from his extended playing time, though, as he will likely get the chance to watch film with the coaching staff and learn how to find easier scoring opportunities.

Also positive were backdoor cuts from the freshmen showing that they are picking up some of the Princeton principles. Macklin had a good bounce-pass feed to a backdoor cutting Wright in the first half.

Macklin ran the floor well and, while not a go-to option offensively, did well with put-backs and feeds from driving guards. He showed some serious hops on a dunk set up by a Chris Wright drive. He also had a garbage time set where he dribbled in from half court, once between his legs, and threw up a hook shot layup. Clearly, it was not a serious effort from Vernon, but you get the feeling watching him that he would thrive in the open court. As awkward as Roy is running the floor, Macklin glides, covering lots of ground quickly. Developing a jump shot or post moves will get him much more playing time, but if we start running the break Macklin will be a big asset.

Rivers took the point in a three guard offense when JWall and Sapp were on the bench. Playing with Wright and Freeman, he managed the offense and sank a baseline three pointer in the first half. After a while he seemed to defer to the freshman, giving Wright the ball to bring up court and start the offense. Showing team first leadership, he recognized the need to get early exposure for the young guards instead of trying to pile up points for himself.

Tyler got quite a bit of playing time, but didn't show much on the offensive end.

Probably the performance that was most striking, however, was the Hoya defense. The team played with an intensity uncommon in past November performances. I can't remember having seen another team throw up so many airballs. The Hoyas played tight man D and rotated well up top when playing zone. Michigan's Grady hit shots consistently in transition, but after a while we started trapping him in the half court and forced the ball out of his hands.

Some highlights if you weren't able to catch the game:

WRC pre-game with interviews of JT3 and Roy.

ESPN Game Highlights

ESPN Top Play Number 6:

Michigan Game Tonight

2007-11-15T08:55:00.000-05:00

Here's the game program for Michigan tonight.

And here's ESPN's All Access piece covering of the Hoyas.

Check back here for highlights after the game.

W & M Highlights

2007-11-12T15:38:00.000-05:00

For those who weren't able to catch the game, and given that there was no televised coverage, here are a few highlights from the game aired on local news.

This is the NBC affiliate

And this is the Fox affiliate

Dick Weiss (NY Daily News) - It's the Return of the Hoyas

2006-11-06T16:26:00.000-05:00

It's the return of the Hoyas

Thompson III following in dad's footsteps

By DICK WEISS
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

John Thompson III is trying to recapture domination of his father's Georgetown days. His father (below) led Georgetown to glory with big men Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo and Alonzo Mourning during 1980s.

It all started at McDonough Arena, that historic brick gymnasium right up the winding road from the entrance to Georgetown University off M Street.

That is where Hall of Famer John Thompson set up his laboratory, transforming a once stagnant program in that tony section of D.C. into the Beast of the Big East and producing a litany of great big men beginning with Craig Shelton and progressing through Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo and Othella Harrington, who helped Thompson erect his own Washington monument.

They were the faces of the Thompson-coached powerhouses that won a national championship in 1984, reached two more Final Fours, won 596 games, seven Big East regular-season titles, six tournament championships and received 20 NCAA bids from 1972 through 1999.

If Ewing was the most dominant force ever in the Big East, the towering seven-foot Thompson was its most dominant, imposing personality.

Now, John Thompson III has inherited the task of rekindling the flame his father ignited, turning the Hoyas into a national contender for the first time since 1996.

He may be closer than anyone thinks.

The younger Thompson, a Princeton graduate who was heavily influenced in his coaching philosophy by his college coach Pete Carril and by his father, returned to Georgetown in 2004 after spending four years as head coach at his alma mater.

It was a homecoming for a man who had an inside view to the Hoyas' rise to power. "I was 6 when (my father) got the job," he says. "My favorite player was (guard) John Duren. I loved him because he really knew how to control a game."

Thompson remembers the first time one of his father's teams reached the championship game in 1982. The Hoyas lost to North Carolina, 66-62, when a slender freshman named Michael Jordan nailed a baseline jumper with 15 seconds remaining and Freddie Brown made a bad pass on the next posession that was intercepted by James Worthy.

"I remember thinking after that loss how hard it is to get to that point," Thompson III says. "The work, the effort, the luck, the right bounces. I remember wondering if we'd ever get back.

"The follow-up to that occured two years later after we beat Houston to win it all in Seattle. My father's reaction: 'Let's do it again.' It's special, something I haven't experienced."

The son is establishing a legacy of his own.

Just two years after his arrival, Thompson, 40, coached the Hoyas to 23 victories, a program-defining 87-84 win over then top-ranked Duke and a spot in the Sweet 16, pushing eventual NCAA champion Florida to the limit before falling, 57-53, after Corey Brewer made a miracle three-point play with 27 seconds left.

Thompson has established Georgetown as a smart, unselfish team that produced assists on 65% of its baskets last year while playing a pumped-up version of the Princeton offense that has squeezed the most out of his players.

He has also rebuilt the fan base. The lower bowl of the Verizon Center is virtually sold out and thousands of fans are wearing those two-year-old blue and gray T-shirts that say, "Some Have Forgotten. We Will Remind Them," with the numeral III below.

More importantly, Thompson has laid the foundation for the future. Thompson and assistants Robert Burke and Kevin Broadus have worked hard to reestablish a connection with the best players in the Baltimore/D.C./Northern Virginia area. "Most of the kids we're recruiting now weren't born when (Ewing) was playing," Thompson says. "I think a lot of their parents had an understanding of the history of the program. We're hoping we get to a point where they want to come because of what we're doing."

The Hoyas must be doing something right. They have received verbal commitments from the two best seniors in the area - potential McDonald's All-American guards Austin Freeman of DeMatha Catholic and Chris Wright of St. John's. They have also gotten committments from the two top junior prospects - forward Chris Braswell of DeMatha and guard Jason Clark of Bishop O'Connell in Arlington, Va.

It wasn't always that way.

Thompson had to scramble after deciding to take the job in the spring of 2004. He was lucky that 7-2 center Roy Hibbert and 6-9 forward Jeff Green were willing to take a risk and stick with their commitments to a program whose tradition had eroded to a point where it won just 13 games in 2004.

Hibbert grew up with Georgetown basketball. "I used to go to McDonough when I was in seventh, eighth grade to watch their preseason exhibitions," he says. That was back when they had (seven-foot center) Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje."

When Hibbert was 13, he used to take the bus to Georgetown to work out against Hoyas players. "I wanted to be part of that big-man history," he says. He was often matched up against powerful Mike Sweetney, a future lottery pick, who would routinely push him around. But that did not deter Hibbert, who played four years on the varsity for former Georgetown guard Dwayne Bryant at Georgetown Prep and committed to the Hoyas as a junior.

Green, who played for Hyattsville, Md.'s Northwestern High, the same school that produced the late Len Bias, committed to Georgetown during the fall of his senior year. Green, who missed most of the summer events, did not have a national profile to speak of but came on strong, leading his team to the Maryland 4A state championship and making first team All Met.

Green and Hibbert lived five minutes apart but never met until the summer before their senior year when they played in an all-star game at the fabled Jabbo Kenner League in D.C. "I was sitting next to him and he was asking was I looking to go to Georgetown," Green said. "I didn't know he had already committed. He talked me into going."

Green made an immediate impact as a freshman. He averaged 13.1 points and 6.6 rebounds, and was selected Big East Co-Rookie of the Year for a 19-win NIT team. Hibbert was more of a project. "Jeff was doing everything possible, playing guard, forward," Hibbert says. "I started working hard after my freshman year because I wanted to give Jeff some help."

Green had his biggest moment last season when the Hoyas stunned Duke, posting 18 points, seven assists, five rebounds and three steals. Hibbert, who has shed 20 pounds to get down to 278, turned into a major force by the start of the NCAA tournament, scoring 20 points, grabbing 14 rebounds and blocking three shots as the Hoyas handled Big Ten power Ohio State in a second-round game in Dayton.

If Thompson's Hoyas can find a dependable perimeter threat to complement their high-low combination, who knows how high the Hoyas can soar? Maybe as high as some of his father's teams. "You can never forget about the past at Georgetown," Green says.

It is hard to miss when the elder Thompson and former legends such as Ewing - whose 6-8 son Pat Jr., transferred from Indiana and wears his dad's old 33 - Mourning, Mutombo and Allen Iverson come back to McDonough to remind the current players of their heritage.

The Daily Orange - Roy Hibbert Profile

2006-02-24T09:20:00.000-05:00

MBB | The Georgetown Giant: GU's Roy Hibbert evolved from goofy big man to interior threat

Kimberley A. Martin

http://tinyurl.com/qm745

Besides Shaquille O'Neal, there are few people that can make a 7-foot-2, 283-pound frame look natural. Roy Hibbert isn't one of them. His critics have called him everything from goofy and gangly to long and big.

This season, the Georgetown center has established himself as a formidable low-post threat, averaging 12.4 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks this season. He'll look to add to those numbers when the Hoyas visit the Orange at noon on Saturday.

Hibbert started his career at Georgetown Preparatory School in Bethesda, Md. Though awkward as a 6-foot-9 freshman, the coaching staff saw potential in his game. Others gawked at his overwhelming size and lack of coordination.

Syracuse wide receiver Rice Moss, Hibbert's point-guard at Georgetown Prep, remembers the constant heckling his friend endured during games. But even he admits to taking part in the teasing.

"We were in Oregon one time, and all the fans started screaming, 'Lurch! Lurch!'" Moss said. "So we've called him that ever since. He's just a big Lurch, the dude from 'The Addams Family.'"

Hibbert's size has always made him an easy target for name-calling, but he took it in stride.

"That happened quite a bit, wherever we played," Dwayne Bryant, Georgetown Prep's head boys basketball coach said. "You've got a kid who, at the time was 16 or 17 years old, at his size. And everywhere you went people stared, people taunted. Those types of things didn't faze Roy when he was on the basketball court."

In his early years at Georgetown Prep, some people said he was just "too big" to become a good player and that he would never amount to anything. But Hibbert ignored the comments like he ignored the jeering fans. And despite breaking his foot twice, Hibbert improved his coordination and low-post skills well enough to earn a starting spot on the Hoyas roster.

Though Bryant said Georgetown Prep isn't by definition a feeder school for the university's basketball program, his connections at Georgetown helped steer Hibbert towards the Hoyas. Bryant, a four-year starter under former coach John Thompson and the university's all-time 3-point leading scorer, introduced Hibbert to Georgetown and summer workouts with legendary Hoya big men.

"Through his high school career, on occasion, we would play against guys his size, but even in college it's rare that he's going to face someone as big as he is," Bryant said. "Working out against guys like Alonzo (Mourning), Dikembe (Mutombo), Patrick (Ewing), Othella (Harrington), Mike Sweetney and all those other guys obviously helped him, because he got to work out against some of the NBA's best on a daily basis, or at least a regular basis."

Hibbert's extra workout sessions may have helped him become a Hoya, but it didn't erase the doubts of his critics. Some argued head coach John Thompson III should have redshirted Hibbert in his freshman year. Last season, he averaged about five points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game in sixteen minutes.

It was just like high school: same script, just different characters for Hibbert.

But on Wednesday night, Hibbert scored a career-high 25 points on 10-for-13 shooting in Georgetown's much-needed win over Rutgers. The victory snapped a three-game losing streak for the Hoyas. It was an answer to the early nay-sayers.

"People thought he would be more of a hindrance than a help," Bryant said. "And he decided to get in the gym and work his tail off this summer, and now he's considered one of the best sophomore centers in the nation."

Hibbert's never been a stranger to hard work. He can't afford to be.

His performance in Wednesday's game may quiet his critics, but as the latest big man to walk in the shadows of Georgetown greatness, Hibbert will always have big shoes to fill. Though he isn't a natural shot blocker or as athletic as Ewing and Mourning, Hibbert has the potential to be a stand-out center, both at the collegiate and professional level.

"I think if you were going to compare him, you'd have to compare him to Dikembe," Bryant said. "I think he might even be much further along defensively than Dikembe and Alonzo at this stage. Because he's a little bit more of a natural as opposed to those guys who were power players. But I think as far as his numbers go, in particular points and rebounds, he may be very similar by the time his career is over."

Though at times a liability, without question Hibbert's biggest asset is his size. His height makes it difficult for other teams to defend against his jump hooks and his 5 to 10-foot jump shots. As Hibbert becomes more comfortable with his size and his strength, he'll become more aggressive, dunking the ball on people and attacking the rim, Bryant said.

Those closest to Hibbert don't doubt that he'll make the necessary adjustments within time. Since he was a Little Hoya at Georgetown Prep, Hibbert has possessed a focus and determination uncharacteristic of athletes his age.

Usually mellow and "goofy," according to Moss, Hibbert's former Prep teammates often said he had "split personalities" because of his intensity on game days.

"He's one of the more focused kids I've ever coached," Bryant said. "He practices extremely hard, but he takes his mental game to a different level come game day."

Adversity can make certain people give up. Others, like Hibbert, stand up to the challenge. And if they happen to fall, like Hibbert has done many times, they get right back up. Early on in his childhood, Hibbert's parents, Roy and Pat, instilled the importance of hard work and determination in their son. It's a trait that has now manifested in Hibbert's resolve to prove his critics wrong.

How long it will take Hibbert to become consistently dominant at center is unclear. But his former coach isn't worried.

"He's going to figure it out," Bryant said. "He's always been that way. He's always been a worker. He's always been someone who gives 100 percent. You don't have to ask him to play hard or to work hard.

"That's just something he does. I believe that's directly related to his mother and his father. They're both extremely hardworking people, and that's what they've instilled in their son. If you want something, go get it. Don't wait for anyone to give it to you."

AP - Ensemble cast has Georgetown primed for return to NCAAs

2006-02-09T07:47:00.000-05:00

This is a wire story so it will be picked up by local papers all across the country. Very good for spreading the word that you can play an unselfish style of basketball with stars on your team.

Ensemble cast has Georgetown primed for return to NCAAs
Associated Press Wire
Joseph White

The most lasting image of Georgetown's season to date is the sight of 7-foot-2 Roy Hibbert towering over the celebrating fans who stormed the court after last month's victory over top-ranked Duke.

Never mind that Hibbert, one of the Hoyas' top players all season, scored only two points in that game.

Brandon Bowman is Georgetown's leading scorer going into Thursday night's game against St. John's, yet a bar graph of his output over the last eight games would look anything but smooth: 4, 20, 5, 23, 8, 12, 10, 15.

Jeff Green, last year's Big East co-rookie of the year, has been more consistent lately and matched his career-high with 22 points Sunday against Pittsburgh, but he's had a pair of 2-point outings this season, including a game against Providence in which he went 0-for-4 from the field.

A consummate ensemble cast has led Georgetown (16-4, 7-2 Big East) to the No. 15 spot in the rankings in coach John Thompson III's second season at the Hilltop. The Hoyas have a six-game winning streak and are headed toward their first NCAA tournament bid since 2001, unless upcoming opponents can somehow find a way to figure out which player is going to have the hot hand on any given night.

"We have an unselfish group," Thompson said. "Depending on the matchups, depending on the game, depending on the day, we have different guys that can score, so I think we're fortunate that we don't have to go in and say, 'Hey, this person needs to get 25 for us to win.' We're just trying out how we're going to win the next game, and it could be much different from how we tried to win the previous game."

Until recently, the Hoyas were the only Big East team with five players averaging double figures. Bowman (11.8), Green (11.7) and Hibbert (11.6) are about as close as three teammates could be in a team scoring race, with Ashanti Cook (10.2), Jonathan Wallace (9.1), and Darrel Owens (8.9) not far behind.

Those numbers reflect Thompson's success in selling the motion-based Princeton offense to his players. On some days, the backdoor cuts work efficiently all game, as they did against Duke. If teams back off to shut the backdoor, then any of five players Bowman, Green, Cooke, Wallace, Owens are reliable from 3-point range. Green has also been used effectively as a point-forward, a different look that is difficult to defend and allows him to pick up more assists.

"Everybody can score," Owens said. "A lot of teams have one player they look to go to down the stretch. A lot of teams have one player they look to run their offense through. With five or six guys almost scoring double figures, it shows the teamwork."

The plan requires swallowing the team concept at the expense of individual accomplishment. Green is a much better player than he was a year ago, even though he's not averaging as many points or rebounds. Owens had three games in the 20s from late December to mid-January, yet he has eight points in his last three games combined.

"I guess you could say its tough," said Cook, who has a relatively stable eight points in each of his last three games. "But for the most part we've been winning that way, with different people stepping up. Every night it's going to be a different person. I'm just amazed that all of us are on the same page."

Winning does stave off a lot of problems. Green, Hibbert and Wallace are all sophomores who have a mission to restore the Georgetown mystique, while seniors Bowman, Cook and Owens want a taste of the NCAA tournament before they leave.

"I really don't care how much I score, as long as we win," Green said. "I like grabbing rebounds, throwing out assists, so as long as we win, I don't care."

Knight Ridder - Dick Jerardi Picks 8 Big East Teams for the NCAAs

2006-02-08T20:05:00.000-05:00

Knight Ridder is a wire service so this story will be picked up by papers across the country. Dick Jerardi is picking 8 teams from the Big East.

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
February 8, 2006, Wednesday
Sizing up the NCAA Tournament - conference by conference
Dick Jerardi

PHILADELPHIA - Don't ask me how it happened, but Selection Sunday really is March 12, 32 days from Wednesday. The selection committee will have many questions to ask and answer as it gathers in Indianapolis the second weekend of March.

Will it take every team from the Big East? Will it take a team that finished ninth in its own conference? Will it really give a mid-major league like the Missouri Valley the three at-large bids it appears to deserve?

For years, committee members have said that conference affiliation is irrelevant, that all prospective at-large teams are judged on their own merits. Which is as it should be. Taking the committee at its word and having crunched the relevant early-February data, here is my annual conference-by-conference look as it stands today:

AMERICA EAST (1):

ALBANY is the only team with a winning record. And Saratoga is only a short drive up the Northway. That's sufficient.

ATLANTIC 10 (1):

The league definitely is better than last season, but other than GEORGE WASHINGTON, nobody has been terribly consistent. There is still time for Charlotte, Xavier, Temple or somebody to get hot, but it is getting late.

ATLANTIC COAST (6):

DUKE is 8-1 against top 50 teams, but the Blue Devils won't get to take the ACC refs with them to the NCAA. When the league has to suspend a crew because of a blatantly wrong call in Duke's favor, the conspiracy theorists can have a field day. Regardless, Duke can score with anybody. I wonder about its ability to stop the ball. NORTH CAROLINA STATE made the Sweet 16 last season with its open, Princeton-style offense. NORTH CAROLINA had to replace everybody and has been a revelation. And the recruits are better than the guys there now. BOSTON COLLEGE has found its legs. If the ACC refs ever let Craig Smith stay on the floor, the Eagles can beat anybody in the league. MARYLAND is only 1-6 against the top 50, but still has time for some signature wins. MIAMI started slowly, because so many key players were hurt.

ATLANTIC SUN (1):

EAST TENNESSEE STATE point guard Timmy Smith might be the fastest player in college hoops, faster even than Dee Brown, of Illinois.

BIG EAST (8):

That is half the teams. Seems about right. CONNECTICUT has, by far, the most NBA players on its roster. VILLANOVA has played some close games, which might not be such a bad thing when everything tightens up in March. WEST VIRGINIA just missed the Final Four last season; give it the right matchups and it will be very difficult to beat. GEORGETOWN is another team with a unique style, and the Hoyas might have the most versatile big man in America in Jeff Green. PITTSBURGH won't dazzle you with offense, but the Panthers are fundamentally perfect on defense. SETON HALL was dead a month ago, but has strung together enough big road wins to get involved. SYRACUSE is just 1-6 against the top 25, which means a few big wins would help. MARQUETTE is the only new member that is any kind of factor.

BIG SKY (1):

Really, what is an NCAA without the Lumberjacks? NORTHERN ARIZONA is in.

BIG SOUTH (1):

If you know anything about BIRMINGHAM SOUTHERN, send me an e-mail. Meanwhile, put 'em in.

BIG TEN (7):

Last season, the league had three in the Elite 8 and two in the Final Four. Might not be that good, but still very solid. IOWA starts all juniors and seniors. ILLINOIS is 6-2 against the top 50. OHIO STATE can beat you inside or out. MICHIGAN STATE is great from the foul line and always dangerous in March. MICHIGAN might have the league's most talent. INDIANA really misses D.J. White, and coach Mike Davis is fighting for his job. WISCONSIN has really hit the wall lately.

BIG 12 (5):

Whatever bothered TEXAS in December is clearly gone. The Longhorns are one of the teams that could win six. KANSAS was lost in December. The young Jayhawks have played really well for a month. COLORADO has been under the radar all season, as has its star, Richard Roby. OKLAHOMA started slowly and still has trouble scoring. But the Sooners have enough to win some March games. IOWA STATE just smashed Colorado, but definitely is no NCAA lock.

BIG WEST (1):

Can there be a tournament without the UC IRVINE Anteaters?

COLONIAL(1):

GEORGE MASON has been the best team, but the tournament is wide open.

CONFERENCE USA (2):

MEMPHIS is 7-2 against the top 50 and 8-0 on the road. Love Rodney Carney's game. ALABAMA-BIRMINGHAM is the old "Forty Minutes of Hell" that former Nolan Richardson assistant Mike Anderson brought with him from Arkansas.

HORIZON (1):

Don't know whether WISCONSIN-MILWAUKEE is hitting the Sweet 16 again, but, assuming it gets in, it must be considered dangerous.

IVY (1):

PENN looks light years better than the opposition. If the Quakers win the next three (at Dartmouth, at Harvard, Princeton), the race is over.

METRO ATLANTIC (1):

Jeff Ruland's IONA team has been solid all season. Matt Brady's Marist team has played very well for a month.

MID-CONTINENT (1):

Does anybody know what IUPUI stands for?

MID-AMERICAN (1):

KENT STATE is doing it without Antonio Gates.

MID-EASTERN (1):

DELAWARE STATE beat Kent State in November and was very competitive against a brutal early road schedule.

MISSOURI VALLEY (4):

NORTHERN IOWA and CREIGHTON are 10-3 against the top 50. WICHITA STATE and SOUTHERN ILLINOIS are good enough to give the MVC four teams.

MOUNTAIN WEST (1):

Yes, Steve Fisher is alive and pretty well at SAN DIEGO STATE.

NORTHEAST (1):

FAIRLEIGH-DICKINSON is one of those 15 or 16 seeds that won't get blown out.

OHIO VALLEY (1):

There should always be a spot for the MURRAY STATE Racers.

PACIFIC-10 (5):

UCLA is Pittsburgh West - not pretty, but very effective. CALIFORNIA and STANFORD have surprised. So has ARIZONA, but in the wrong way. It is 0-5 against the top 50 and in danger of missing the tournament for the first time since being granted statehood. WASHINGTON had better start winning some road games.

PATRIOT (1):

The question is: Will BUCKNELL (18-3) get an at-large if it does not win the tournament? I say yes.

SOUTHEASTERN (4):

TENNESSEE football was awful. Hoops has been great. FLORIDA is very young and very talented. LSU does not have Pete Maravich, but does have a lot. KENTUCKY is in, but the Wildcats just don't have typical UK talent.

SOUTHERN (1):

ELON is in front. That's all I know.

SOUTHLAND (1):

NORTHWESTERN STATE is in. Northwestern (the only team from a BCS conference never in the NCAA) is out again.

SOUTHWESTERN ATHLETIC (1):

SOUTHERN was overmatched early in its guarantee road games.

SUN BELT (1):

WESTERN KENTUCKY is solid. Anybody seen Clem Haskins lately?

WEST COAST (1):

GONZAGA is very good, but I still wonder about its defense.

WESTERN ATHLETIC (2):

NEVADA has a terrific talent in Nick Fezekas. Stew Morrill at UTAH STATE, new to the WAC, is one of the nation's best coaches.

LA Times - JT3 Mention for Coach of the Year

2006-02-08T08:43:00.000-05:00

In today's Los Angeles Times. This is a homer story about coach of the year candidates and suggests Tim Floyd and Ben Howland should be considered legitimate candidates (while ignoring the fact that they coach in conference that might not have a higher RPI than some AAU summer leagues.) Of note, however, is that JT3 gets the first mention for the honor among non-LA teams. See also the story at the bottom about ACC refs getting suspended for too obviously calling a game for Duke.

ON COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Howland, Floyd Should Be Commended for Their Work
Diane Pucin
Los Angeles Times
February 8, 2006

UCLA's Ben Howland and USC's Tim Floyd are legitimate coach-of-the-year candidates.

Argue away.

But defining the award isn't easy. What should a coach-of-the-year candidate accomplish?

Should he do a great job in a rookie year at his school with another coach's players? Step to the front of the class, Bruce Pearl at Tennessee. Congratulations on stretching the boundaries of Buzz Peterson's kids and stepping to the front of the Southeastern Conference.

Or should he quietly step into the large shadow of his father, confident enough of his own skills and beliefs, and make steady progress until his team, unranked until a few weeks ago, beats the No. 1 team in the country and challenges for first place in the toughest conference in the country? Congratulations, John Thompson III at Georgetown. Thompson has the deep and intimidating baritone voice of his father, but his way is not to engender Hoya Paranoia. Thompson III chats with the media, and his players aren't socked into a cocoon.

Do you reward the coach at a more anonymous school, one that has built-in recruiting disadvantages and a mediocre tradition but who has molded a hard-core system to his advantage? Then Jeff Bzdelik, who has brought the Princeton offense to Air Force and forged a defensively impenetrable, offensively patient team that is the class of the Mountain West Conference, is your man. Will any NCAA fourth- or fifth-seeded team want to play a 13th- or 12th-seeded Air Force in the first round of the NCAA tournament?

How about the creative young coach who plays with four guards and makes his lack of inside height and power something to celebrate? Cheers to Villanova's Jay Wright and his small, scrappy Wildcats.

But is it fair to ignore royalty? Sure, Connecticut's Jim Calhoun and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski have all the talent and the patter of ESPN's praisers to pump their product, but the Huskies and Blue Devils also have been at the top of the polls all year. The coaches are doing something right.

So let's look at what Howland and Floyd have accomplished.

Every UCLA player of significance except freshman point guard Darren Collison has suffered some substantial injury.

If Jordan Farmar hadn't been limping on a badly sprained ankle, it could be argued the Bruins would have beaten third-ranked Memphis in November.

What if sophomore center Lorenzo Mata hadn't broken a leg just when he had played the best stretch of basketball in his career?

Freshman Alfred Aboya has needed two knee surgeries in the last seven months. How far has he been set back? Hard to tell, but certainly he'd be more in tune with his teammates if he'd been healthy during fall practice.

If underrated sophomore forward Josh Shipp hadn't been sidelined for all but four games by a hip injury, the Bruins might be considered legitimate candidates for the Final Four.

And even so, when UCLA plays its most enthusiastic man-to-man defense and when Farmar and Arron Afflalo have their shooting aim straight, and when senior 7-footer Ryan Hollins gets his long arms and legs moving in the same direction, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute is wrestling away rebounds, the Bruins make it seem as if the Sweet 16 is in reach -- and maybe a little more.

That's a credit to Howland. He has never made an excuse. Not when senior Cedric Bozeman, who was just finding his rhythm after sitting out all of last season because of a knee injury, suffered a shoulder injury. Or when Shipp, who had 11 points and seven rebounds in his first game back from hip surgery, came to the sad decision that he still had too much pain to continue this season.

With the exception of the inconsistent Hollins, Howland has forged a 19-4 record with freshmen and sophomores. There is no junior class at UCLA. Mbah a Moute -- a strong candidate for national freshman-of-the-year honors -- and Aboya were not considered top-level recruits.

Somehow the Bruins are leading the Pac-10 -- yet are among only three teams that haven't had a player voted Pac-10 player of the week. The other two? Bottom-of-the-pack Arizona State and Oregon. So maybe it's the coaching.

And even if USC doesn't win another game this season, a possibility since second-leading scorer Gabe Pruitt will miss at least three weeks because of a hairline fracture, Floyd has accomplished more than anyone could have expected.

Only four players returned from the mess of 2004-05. One of them, Lodrick Stewart, wasn't happy last season while his twin brother, Rodrick, abandoned ship for Kansas.

Then the Trojans opened the season with an unsightly overtime loss to Cal State Northridge at the Sports Arena and a humbling 20-point loss to Oral Roberts in Alaska. The season could have been lost at that moment with the motley crew of leftover recruits and leftover players. But USC went on a nine-game winning streak.

Though he didn't officially accept the job until April and had little recruiting time, Floyd uncovered one of the best young point guards in the country in freshman Ryan Francis. He has coaxed controlled performances out of Stewart. Keith Wilkinson, a freshman from Capistrano Valley High, who lists becoming an ESPN sportscaster as a career goal, has played significant minutes. Most freshmen who play at major colleges say they want to play in the NBA, not talk about it.

For upsetting North Carolina alone Floyd should be considered for coach of the year. For nursing 15 wins already out of the Trojans and hanging in the top half of the Pac-10, Floyd should earn some coach-of-the-year votes even though he probably won't.

Go Duke

The address of the Blue Devil athletics website is goduke.com, and coaches and fans of the other Atlantic Coast Conference schools can't be faulted for feeling that conference officials take that name too seriously.

Before Tuesday night, in the Blue Devils last two games -- an overtime one-point victory over Florida State and a two-point win at Boston College -- Duke's opponents made 20 of 24 free throws and the Blue Devils were 60 of 80 from the line. That's a disparity that is hard to ignore.

And finally, the ACC officials didn't ignore it. Mike Eades, Ray Natili and Ed Corbett, the crew that did the Florida State game, were suspended one game by ACC coordinator of men's basketball officials John Clougherty for giving Florida State's Alexander Johnson a technical foul after Johnson backed away from a shove by Duke's Shelden Williams. The phantom technical was Johnson's fifth foul and left the Seminoles short-handed for overtime.

Davon Jefferson Dropped out of Patterson, Taking Correspondence Classes

2006-02-02T17:33:00.000-05:00

This is from today's paper. (2/2) I hadn't heard about this. Does anyone know if it's true? See bolded paragraph below.

Long Beach Press-Telegram
Wilkinson moves up, in USC rotation

USC forward Keith Wilkinson, who was only promised a scholarship for one season by coach Tim Floyd, is currently in USC's seven-man rotation and moved ahead of freshman forward Jeremy Barr over the weekend.

"It's hard not to think about because it's in the back of your mind," Wilkinson said of his scholarship situation. "It's always something that comes up in your head."

Wilkinson, a 6-foot-8 forward from Capistrano Valley High, played 13 minutes against Oregon last weekend. Although he weighs only 205 pounds, he usually guards players who are much bigger.

"It's tough but it's not something I can't handle," Wilkinson said. "And offensively, they have to come out and guard me."

Trojan tidbits

Davon Jefferson visited USC on Wednesday. Jefferson, a 6-foot-7 forward, attended Lynwood High and then went to Patterson Prep School in Lenoir, La., but left before completing his classes. He's currently taking correspondence courses and has not been offered a scholarship by USC.

USC forward RouSean Cromwell (fractured foot) is making normal progress and cleared to undergo some light drills. He is expected to return in three weeks. Guard Dwayne Shackleford fractured his nose in practice Monday but is available for tonight's game against Arizona.

-- Scott Wolf

http://www.presstelegram.com/sports/ci_3466735

1/28 - Sun - "DaJuan Summers can beat teams by driving to the basket or taking jumpers"

2006-02-02T07:20:00.000-05:00

I missed this story from a few days ago, but it appears that Summers has the kind of skills that will fit the Princeton offense pretty well.

The Baltimore Sun
January 28, 2006
McDonogh upsets St. Frances Boys basketball
Todd Karpovich

McDonogh senior DaJuan Summers can beat teams by driving to the basket or taking jumpers from outside the paint. Yesterday, he did both.

Summers was a major force in helping the No. 12 Eagles to a 53-48 upset of No. 3 St. Frances in a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference game. Summers finished with a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds as the host Panthers had trouble matching up with the 6-foot-8 forward.

"I usually just come out and see how the defense is playing me," said Summers, who was last year's All-Metro Player of the Year and has signed with Georgetown. "They were playing a zone, so I just hit my jump shots early. Once they went man [to-man], I took it inside."

The Eagles (13-8, 6-4) took control early, opening a 27-13 lead late in the first half. St. Frances had trouble finding any rhythm, committed seven turnovers and made only four of 16 shots.

Panthers coach William Wells said part of the problem was that he had only six players healthy enough to practice on Thursday. He also said his team did not match McDonogh's intensity.

"McDonogh is a tough team, and they came down here to beat us," Wells said. "We are a much better team than how we played. We played real soft. That is what happens when you don't put your heart on the floor."

After trailing by double figures for most of the game, St. Frances (17-7, 6-5) cut the margin to seven with four minutes left. But McDonogh settled down and made seven of 10 free-throw attempts in the final three minutes to close out the win.

Brandon Herbert also had a big game for the Eagles with 14 points and six rebounds.

"The kids really buckled down, played unselfish and gutted out a win," McDonogh coach Donta Evans said. "We knew they would come at us in the third and fourth quarter, and fortunately, we were able to hold them off."

01/31 - Wash Post Wallace Profile

2006-01-31T16:28:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post
January 31, 2006
Hoyas' Wallace Poised at the Point
Camille Powell, Washington Post Staff Writer

There was never any question that Jonathan Wallace had the toughness and the smarts to be the point guard for the Georgetown men's basketball team. But when Wallace joined the Hoyas last season as a freshman walk-on, there was the question of whether he had the athleticism to survive in the Big East.

In this case, an excess of the former qualities have helped make up for any deficiencies in the latter, and Wallace, just as he has since he joined the team, will start at guard tonight for 17th-ranked Georgetown (14-4, 5-2 Big East), which plays at DePaul (8-10, 1-6).

"He's someone who gets, and will continue to get, the most out of his God-given abilities," said Georgetown Coach John Thompson III, who originally recruited Wallace while he was the coach at Princeton. "The beauty of basketball is that it takes more than just athleticism. Your intelligence, your understanding, your desire are a large part of whether you're a good player or not."

Wallace has those three qualities in abundance. At 6 feet 1, he may be the least imposing -- physically speaking, at least -- guard in a conference that is filled with dynamic back-court players. He doesn't have the speed and quickness of Villanova's Kyle Lowry, for instance; he doesn't have the flair of Connecticut's Marcus Williams. But Wallace has a command of the Hoyas' motion offense and is a steady presence on the court.

"He's always calm," said senior Ashanti Cook, Wallace's back-court mate. "I guess for us to be successful the point guard or our guards need to be focused."

It shouldn't be a surprise that the Hoyas have gotten such leadership and composure from Wallace; this, after all, is a guy who was voted student government president and quarterbacked the football team at Sparkman High School in Harvest, Ala.

"I try to be as poised as I can be," said Wallace, who is averaging 3.3 assists and 9.2 points on 49.1 percent shooting. "Being the point guard, the team looks to you, and usually however I act kind of shows how the team is going. In games like the Duke game, it's so high-tempo, you've got to be even-keeled and keep people on task. The game is so long, it's like a process. You can't get overexcited, you can't get down."

That poise comes from his father, a high school vice principal who coached youth basketball for 15 seasons. Manuel Wallace used to unlock his school's gym early in the morning so Wallace could work out, and he constantly offered advice.

"Growing up around that kind of educated me on how to act in games like that," Wallace said. "One thing he told me -- and Coach Thompson tells me the same thing -- was never lose your composure, always depend on your teammates for help. They're going to have your back."

Manuel also is responsible for Wallace's distinctive shot -- the rainbow three-pointer that looks as if it's going to scrape the ceiling. "I was always the smallest one, so I had to shoot extra high," Wallace said.

Some credit for Wallace's shot should also go to his mother, who used to wave a broomstick in his face as he practiced shooting as a way to simulate tall defenders. "Sometimes I'd whack him in the head by mistake," Cynthia Wallace confessed last year with a giggle.

That outside shot has been much more dependable this season. As a freshman, his shooting faded as the games started to add up; he shot only 34.3 percent (23 of 67) from three-point range in conference games. This season, Wallace is shooting 48.3 percent (14 of 29) from beyond the arc in Big East play, which puts him third in the conference behind West Virginia's Mike Gansey and Marquette's Steve Novak.

Wallace is more confident picking his spots to attack the basket, and he is better at handling pressure. In games against West Virginia, Connecticut and Duke -- three teams now ranked in the top 11 nationally -- Wallace shot 52.7 percent and had 15 assists with only three turnovers. His overall assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.07 is fifth best in the Big East.

On one possession late in the first half against U-Conn., Wallace essentially broke the Huskies' press by himself, dribbling from end to end, weaving through defenders and then driving right at 6-8, 260-pound Ed Nelson. Wallace scored and drew the foul. In the first half against Duke, Wallace drove into the lane, spun off his defender and then added an extra little shimmy right before he laid the ball into the basket, a score that ignited a 19-5 Georgetown run.

"He's the type of kid where he gives you everything," Thompson said. "He's an honest player. What he has, he's going to give you, and that's so key. You need guys like that to win."

1/29 - NY Daily News - "the team that has made the most dramatic strides has been Georgetown"

2006-01-29T10:00:00.000-05:00

Apparently, this was run as a wire story and has been picked up by papers all across the country. It has even run internationally.

Dog day afternoon
Upstart Hoyas hound Cincy
New York Daily News
by Dick Weiss

Georgetown's Brandon Bowman puts up shot over Bearcats' Cedric McGowan.
WASHINGTON - In order for the Big East to maximize its clout, it is important for the conference to have representative teams in New York, Philadelphia and this town.

Villanova has resurrected itself the last two years in Philly, becoming a Top 10 team. St. John's is starting to show some signs of life.

But the team that has made the most dramatic strides has been Georgetown. The formerly stagnant Hoyas - who were mired along with the Johnnies at the bottom of the league in 2004 - have been a revelation under second-year coach John Thompson III, who brought along his own version of the Princeton offense when he returned to his hometown from that Ivy League school and has rejuvenated Georgetown a year ahead of schedule.

The Hoyas, who blistered undermanned Cincinnati, 76-57, at the MCI Center yesterday for their fourth consecutive victory, are 14-4 and 4-2 in the league. They are rapidly emerging as the most dangerous team inside the Beltway, ahead of two other NCAA teams - George Washington and Maryland - now that they have grasped the nuances of Thompson's offense and are running it without hesitation. The Hoyas, who had 22 assists on 30 baskets against the Bearcats (14-7, 3-4), lead the country in points per possession.

Georgetown created national ripples here last weekend when it shot 60% in an 87-84 victory over top-ranked Duke, constantly burning the Blue Devils with back-door plays after Duke kept overplaying the ball. The Hoyas had 24 assists on 32 field goals.

It's the type of effort that makes a father proud. "Where are we going to dinner?" asked John Thompson Jr., poking his head into his son's postgame press conference.

Big John won a national championship here with Patrick Ewing back in 1984, suffocating any team that stood in their way with full-court pressure. In many ways, this father and son are opposites when it comes to coaching philosophy. But it is obvious Big John admires what his son has accomplished here in a short time. "With me, it's not so much the system, but who's running it," he said. "There are a lot of guys trying to run that system and it's not working. John's got it working."

John Thompson III felt a little extra pressure heading into this game. Georgetown invited former players back for a reunion. "Since I've been here I've gotten a lot of questions - 'Does your dad stick his head in? How's your dad feel about what you're doing?' I can deal with that. But when you realize Michael Jackson and Gene Smith and Ronnie Highsmith are sitting in the stands, I don't know if it affected our guys, but I was like, I hope we play well today. I don't want to hear from those guys."

Thompson, who arrived in the league at the same time as St.John's Norm Roberts, has the pieces in place to be a national power in the new Big East.

Although senior forward Brandon Bowman leads in scoring at 11.7 points per game, the most critical parts of this team - 6-9 forward Jeff Green, 7-2 center Roy Hibbert and point guard Jonathan Wallace - are only sophomores.

Green, who had 20 points, seven rebounds, five assists and no turnovers against the Bearcats, has made an immediate impact in the Big East and should be even better once he moves to small forward next season. Hibbert has been one of the league's most improved low-post players, thanks in large part to the individual instruction he has received from assistant Robert Burke. Wallace has become a heady ball-handler, one who had an 11-1 assist/turnover ratio against UConn and Duke, and has demonstrated a thorough knowledge of the system, which spreads the floor and surgically dissects opponents. The Hoyas can put three shooters on the floor - Wallace, senior guard Ashanti Cook and 6-7 senior forward Darrel Owens - who all shoot better than 42% from the three.

The frightening part for Georgetown's opponents is that the best is yet to come. Thompson and assistant Kevin Broadus, who helped Karl Hobbs recruit the nucleus of an A-10 championship team when he first arrived at GW, are starting to lock up the Baltimore-D.C. area again, much like Thompson's father did in the '80s. The Hoyas have signed 6-9 DaJuan Summers from McDonough School, the best prospect in Baltimore, along with Doc Rivers' son, Jeremiah, a skilled guard from Winter Park, Fla., and have reopened the pipeline to the Tidewater area with the signing of 6-10 Vernon Macklin from Hargrave, Va., Military. Thompson also has gotten a commitment from 6-4 junior guard Austin Freeman of DeMatha, the first time the Hoyas have gotten a commitment from a player from that fabled Maryland program in three decades.

Georgetown already is following the road map that St. John's needs to take if it wants to eventually reach the NCAA Tournament.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/story/386745p-328173c.html

San Diego Union Tribune Brandon Bowman Profile

2006-01-28T09:30:00.000-05:00

Player profile: Brandon Bowman
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

January 28, 2006

Georgetown | 6-9 | 223 | Forward

Meet the leading scorer on the team that gave Duke its first loss this season. Meet yet another former standout out of Los Angeles Westchester High.

Bowman is a senior who has suffered through the struggles of Georgetown's once-proud program, through the difficulty of not experiencing an NCAA Tournament berth since arriving on campus.

A third-team All-Big East Conference selection as a junior, Bowman averages 11.7 points this season. He and Hoyas teammate Ashanti Cook led Westchester to a state title in 2002.

The two have played together since meeting on a fifth-grade AAU team.

“As far as basketball players, I think we have matured,” Bowman told reporters in November. “Luckily, I've had someone from back home who understands me better than anyone else.”

Bowman – who tested the NBA draft process following last season before ultimately removing his name and returning to school – had 21 points and eight rebounds against Duke, when the Hoyas' spread offense accounted for several easy baskets on a day Georgetown shot 61 percent.

“You walk around campus and everyone is excited (about basketball),” he said. “We are too.”

Things to know about him:

Other teammates at Westchester included San Diego State junior guard Brandon Heath and Arizona senior wing Hassan Adams.

He is a cousin of NBA players Antoine and Samaki Walker.

Sociology major with a minor in English.

Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/college_basketball/20060128-9999-lz1s28colbkb2.html

1/26 - Fall Church News - Post Duke Commentary

2006-01-26T16:38:00.000-05:00

Falls Church News-Press
Picking Splinters: Taste Should Leave Hoyas Hungry
By Mike Hume

“We Beat Duke!”

The cry is shouted loudly and frequently after the buzzer sounded on last Saturday’s landmark win by Georgetown. So why was the Duke fan next to me smiling?

The Hoyas won. They beat Duke. We won. You lost. So why the heck are you grinning?

As a Georgetown alumnus lucky enough to watch the game in person, I know why I’m happy. In the recent history of the program, there hasn’t been a win like this.

Until Saturday, this tale always ended in heartbreak for Hoya Nation. Since 1999 Hoya Fans have been six-times more likely to see the season end in (or out of) the NIT than the NCAA Tournament. En route to that usually-disappointing end, big wins have been few and far between. The last exciting victory I can recall was a last-second 55-54 win at MCI over Notre Dame last season.

But Notre Dame is not Duke. That is why the key word in that three-word phrase, as Georgetown moves forward, will not be “beat,” but rather the name of their vanquished foe.

Duke is THE program in college basketball. When they lose, it’s shocking. Heck, when they miss a shot, it’s shocking. When they’re ousted in the NCAA Tournament (and it’s always the NCAA Tournament), it’s an upset. That’s why last Saturday’s win was so big.

The win over the Blue Devils isn’t just notable because they were undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the nation. The win over the Blue Devils is notable because Duke is everything you want your program to be.

On Saturday, Georgetown and its fans got a taste. A taste of what it’s like to play the best basketball in the country. A taste of what it’s like to have the best fans in the world. And a taste of the victories programs reap when those two things are combined.

The Hoyas played smart, dragging defenders away from the hoop only to beat them time and again through the back door. They played with poise while staving off a 56-point second-half charge, maintaining their composure even as Duke ratcheted up the press and J.J. Redick poured in bucket after bucket. The Georgetown players exhibited every drop of the talent prognosticators knew each of them possessed when they first came to campus, shooting over 60-percent from the field.

And then there were the fans.

For the first time in six years I can say that Georgetown actually had a home court advantage against a top-tiered foe in MCI Center. The declining GU program led to declining attendance at MCI, where a gagged monk floating through space made more noise than the sub-10,000 person crowds. And usually, the majority of those in attendance cheered for those sporting the away jerseys.

Saturday the stands shook and the rafters rattled not to the cries of “Let’s Go Duke,” “U-C-O-N-N, UConn, UConn, UConn,” or “Here Come the Irish.” Rather they trembled to the timbre of the “Hoya, Hoya Saxa” of the dear old Blue and Gray. And everyone could hear it. On the court and off.

For years I dreamed of cheering in an electric environment like Cameron Indoor, and on Saturday I did, even despite the vacuous cavern that is MCI. A student section that spanned both ends of the court sported uniform gray t-shirts carried their team on an emotional high. A two-page spread reading “Beat Duke” appeared in GU’s campus paper of record, The Hoya, gently taunted their opponents.

But all of this — the effort, the fandemonium, the victory, everything — was just a taste. It was one game. Duke has been doing this for over a decade. And that’s what should drive both Hoya fans and players as this season moves on.

On Saturday, senior Brandon Bowman scored 23 points and limited the miscues to which he has sometimes been prone. On Monday, with a four-point lead, he fouled Notre Dame’s Colin Falls on a three-pointer with less than two seconds left in regulation. It took Georgetown two overtimes to prevail.

Top teams don’t make mistakes like that. And thus, through some transitive property, Georgetown is still not a top team.

But no one claims them to be. Yet.

You don’t just knock of the champs and take the title. This isn’t boxing. You have to labor over the duration of the schedule. It takes multiple games, multiple seasons. But now the groundwork is there for Georgetown.

The Hoyas have already inked prized recruits Dajuan Summers and Vernon Macklin. Patrick Ewing, Jr. transferred to the Hilltop after a stint at Indiana. DeMatha junior Austin Freeman is similarly on board. Now, with the tidal wave of exposure from this landmark win, a swell that started with the hiring of John Thompson III is starting to crest. Georgetown is back in the national eye.

But it’s still just a taste. And tastes don’t satiate the nation’s top programs. It just makes them hungrier.

If the Hoyas keep working to improve, then perhaps someday down the line, when the gray from my t-shirt has seeped into my hairline, maybe, just maybe Hoya fans will reap the reward of hearing an incredible three-word phrase that cements you as a premiere program. And maybe they too will smile when the opposing fan next to them shouts: “We Beat Georgetown!”

WFAN Radio Interview with JT3

2006-01-26T09:41:00.000-05:00

http://wfan.com/chrismikeaudio/

1/25 - Macklin Dominant at SlamFest Tournament

2006-01-25T16:45:00.000-05:00

FoxSports.com
Thomas, Macklin show no sophomore jitters
Dave Telep

For more in-depth recruiting info from Scout.com, click on the link for the schools mentioned.

Hulk Hogan and Rick Flair couldn't make it, so Lance Thomas and Vernon Macklin picked up the slack at SlamFest in Richmond, Va.

The two-day event featured some of the most prominent players throughout the Mid-Atlantic corridor, yielded a number of top-notch performances and gave observers a chance to see the nation's top two sophomores.

SlamFest, the 4th edition, was the stage as two seniors hoped to solidify their McDonald's All-American status. Each stated his case emphatically.

Vernon Macklin, Hargrave's 6-foot-9 power forward, hit up American Christian for 28 points and 15 boards in a throttling of the kids from Philadelphia. Macklin has long been regarded as an elite athlete and his explosiveness around the basket has never been questioned.

Athletically, Macklin's got some freakish habits when it comes to finishing. On the day when his Georgetown Hoyas took down Duke, Macklin dunked everything thrown to him at the rim. The lone blemish on an otherwise outstanding day came from the free throw line, where he's never settled in on a stroke and is not as proficient as he needs to be.

Hibbert Ready for NBA?

2006-01-25T08:58:00.000-05:00

The secret's out, but will Hibbert go?

Gregg Doyel Jan. 25, 2006
By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- An NBA scout warned me not to write this. Another NBA scout gave the same advice. As for Georgetown coach John Thompson III, well, he'd prefer not to see this written either.

Sorry. No can do, gentlemen. This needs to be said, and it needs to be said large -- 7-foot-2, 283-pound large: Georgetown sophomore Roy Hibbert has NBA written all over him.

When it comes to Hibbert and the NBA, it's not if, but when he decides to go. (AP)

He doesn't necessarily have NBA star written all over him, at least not yet. Not if he were to enter the 2006 draft after this season at Georgetown, where he is averaging 11.7 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 21.8 minutes.

But Hibbert's an NBA player right now. Or at least, he's an NBA Draft pick. He's a spot on an NBA roster. Which means he's a walking millionaire, if he wants to be.

Which he doesn't want. Not yet.

"My parents sent me to Georgetown to make sure I get an education," Hibbert said. "So I'm staying for all four years to get my degree."

Agents will still call. Scouts will still hover, even if the two who spoke to CBS SportsLine.com don't seem enamored with Hibbert's game. Hibbert's gait and reaction time are rough on the eyes, but it's hard not to stare all the same. He looks every bit of his official height and weight, and frankly he looks taller than 7-2. Hibbert spent most of No. 21 Georgetown's 85-82 victory Tuesday night against Notre Dame guarding and being guarded by Torin Francis. He was bigger than Francis by nearly a head. Next to Hibbert, Francis looked like a small forward. And Francis is 6-11, 252 pounds.

There is nobody in college basketball -- and very few in the NBA, or beyond -- as big as Hibbert. That makes him a commodity. J.J. Redick has an NBA jump shot. Rudy Gay has NBA athletic ability. Roy Hibbert? He has NBA size.

And at times, Hibbert shows NBA skills. He might show them more often if he was in a system that showcased a low-post big man. Georgetown's system does not. The Hoyas run the system Thompson learned and coached at Princeton, and while it's pretty to watch -- lots of cutting and passing, not a lot of dribbling -- it's not the ideal system for Hibbert.

Many of Hibbert's possessions were spent at the foul line, where his only job was reversing the ball from one side of the court to the other. Most of the time, Georgetown ran 30 seconds of clock before taking a shot, with Hibbert never getting within 15 feet of the basket. This is not a complaint about the Georgetown offense -- the Hoyas are 13-4, with a win against then-No. 1 Duke -- but it's factual that Hibbert isn't getting many touches in scoring position.

Still, Hibbert had enough touches Tuesday to score 18 points. He grabbed 13 rebounds. He showed NBA flashes. There was his one-dribble move from the foul line, when he picked up the ball and held it high over his head like a steak platter, took one long step and then flicked home a 5-footer. There was his pick-and-roll with Jeff Green, when he slid to the goal, caught the pass, pivoted halfway -- then pivoted the rest of the way -- before dunking.

There were other moments, too. While Hibbert is a terrific shooter from the foul line (78.5 percent) and is hitting 59.2 percent from the floor, his only reliable move from the field is a dunk. In one possession he had his shot blocked by 6-9 Irish forward Rob Kurz, rebounded and missed, then rebounded and missed again before being fouled. Most players would have screamed in frustration or anger or even triumph, but Hibbert averted his eyes, looking embarrassed, as if he knew he should have scored there.

And he's right. An NBA player would have scored there. Like we said, Hibbert's not ready for the NBA. But he'll be in the NBA whenever he wants to go. Note that we didn't say ready to go. Hibbert isn't ready to play in the NBA, but when you're 7-2, 283 pounds, readiness isn't the issue. Upside is the issue, and Hibbert has an enormous upside for three reasons:

He's huge: Hibbert isn't as agile as previous first-round reaches such as Andrew Bynum (taken in the 2005 NBA Draft), Robert Swift (2004), Darko Milicic (2003), Nikoloz Tskitishvili (2002) or DeSagana Diop (2001). But he's bigger than all of them. And he can't be a worse project than all of them. And all of those guys were lottery picks.

He's raw: Hibbert has played little more than three years of organized basketball. His sophomore year of high school was gutted by a broken foot on the first day of practice, and when he broke the foot again the following summer, his junior year was compromised. It wasn't until his senior season at Georgetown Prep, when he averaged 19 points and 17 rebounds, did Hibbert finally get to play unimpeded. The Hoyas had hoped to redshirt Hibbert last season, but it was not to be. He averaged 5.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 15.8 minutes.

He's young: Hibbert is 19, and just barely at that. He won't be 20 until December 2006. How enticing would it be for an NBA team to be able to draft a 7-2, 283-pound center who has played two seasons in the Big East ... and is just 19? Ten teams would pass him up in the first round. Maybe 20. But all 30? No possible way. This is the league that has devoted first-round picks to Ian Mahinmi, Rafael Araujo, Dorell Wright and Sasha Vujacic -- all since last season. Someone would take huge, raw and young Roy Hibbert this year.

But only if huge, raw and young Roy Hibbert wants to be taken.

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Hoyas emerge as front-runners in Jefferson sweepstakes

2005-12-17T14:48:00.000-05:00

Dec. 14, 2005
By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
Tell Gregg

Georgetown's monster recruiting class for 2006 could get a little scarier.

Correction -- a lot scarier.

The Hoyas have emerged as a leading candidate for Davon Jefferson, one of the top 10 recruits in the country and one of the only prep players eligible to enter the 2006 NBA Draft.

Jefferson, a 6-foot-8 wing at the Patterson School in Lenoir, N.C., is eligible for the draft -- despite the NBA's new restrictions -- because he meets both of the league's criteria for prep school players: He's 19, and the 2006 draft would be one year removed from his original high school graduation date. Jefferson signed with UNLV last year but didn't qualify academically.

Jefferson's club coach told CBS SportsLine.com on Wednesday that Jefferson is serious about spending at least one year in college. And that the Jefferson sweepstakes isn't the two-school affair -- between Kansas and Oklahoma State -- being speculated in recruiting circles.

"Put two-and-two together," H-Squad coach Rick Isaacs said. "You know what kind of mentor (Georgetown coach) John Thompson would be. They'd be fantastic."

Isaacs said Kansas and Oklahoma State were still involved, and that Southern California might be a factor.

Georgetown's late addition to the Jefferson competition is especially intriguing, considering the Hoyas already have locked up two of the best players from the Class of 2006 -- likely McDonald's All-Americans Vernon Macklin and DaJuan Summers. The Hoyas' recruiting class also includes the sons of two NBA legends, high school senior Jeremiah Rivers (Doc's son) and Indiana transfer Patrick Ewing Jr. If sophomore Jeff Green joins seniors Brandon Bowman and Darrel Owens in the 2006 NBA Draft, the Hoyas would need all the forwards they could get.

Georgetown's shot at Jefferson will rise as his NBA stock falls -- and it has been plummeting of late. One NBA scout told CBS SportsLine.com that Jefferson hasn't been consistent at Patterson, showing the athletic ability of Gerald Green but nowhere near the jump shot. Another scout said Jefferson hurt himself by not making Patterson's recent trip to the New Jersey area, where almost a dozen scouts were waiting to watch him play.

Contrary to rumors, Isaacs said, Jefferson has not left Patterson.

"He missed that trip for academic reasons. He's here in California now, and I've got a plane ticket for him to go back on Jan. 2," Isaacs said. "Davon stepped off the plane last night, and the first person he wanted to talk to was John Thompson. What does that tell you?"

It tells you Georgetown could lose Bowman, Owens and Green to the 2006 NBA Draft ... and still be an NCAA Tournament team in 2007.

Hargrave’s Macklin gets 20 in winning return to Norcom

2005-12-15T10:09:00.000-05:00

The Virginian-Pilot(Norfolk, VA.)
December 15, 2005
by Paul White

PORTSMOUTH — It was Vernon Macklin’s night, but with a wide-open dunk in front of him, Hargrave Military Academy’s Aswon Sayles briefly forgot the memo.

So instead of flipping the ball back to a trailing Macklin on a breakaway, Sayles flushed it himself — then nearly got booed out of Junius Kellogg Gymnasium.

‘‘Gimme my money back!’’ one fan shouted. ‘‘We came to see Ticket!’’

No refunds were necessary, though. The ‘‘Big Ticket’’ delivered more than his share of ferocious dunks in a triumphant return to Portsmouth, as Hargrave Military Academy raced past Norcom 86-65 before an appreciative capacity crowd.

‘‘Everybody’s showing me a lot of love,’’ said Macklin, the 6-foot-9 senior who transferred to Hargrave for a more rigorous athletic and academic curriculum after three years of starring for the Greyhounds. ‘‘I had a lot of fun. I’d like to do it again.’’

Although boarding school can be a culture shock for many, friends predicted that the easy-going Macklin would have little trouble making the transition. And indeed, on Wednesday night the military Macklin seemed a lot like the same ol’ Vernon — the same seemingly indifferent gaze, the same loping gait, the same stunning explosiveness to the rim.

There were no banners or signs celebrating Macklin’s return, and his pre-game introduction was met with mere polite applause.

Then, about 45 seconds into the game, ex-Woodside High star Stefan Welsh flipped the ball off the glass to a streaking Macklin, who extended his right arm and crammed the ball through the rim.

The place went nuts.

Norcom’s Ben Finney did everything he could to keep the youthful-but-pesky Greyhounds in it, as he finished with 28 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists. With Finney leading the way, the Greyhounds trailed just 18-16 after one quarter.

But with the Georgetown-bound Macklin fronting a roster of eight other Division I signees, superior talent eventually won out.

Tyler Smith, a smooth 6-7 wing, led Hargrave with 23 points. Macklin, who is averaging 19 this season, delivered 20 against his former team. The last two may have been his most spectacular — a fourth-quarter rebound, coast-to-coast dribble and slam that brought the fans out of their seats.

‘‘Way to put on a show, dog!’’ one fan shouted as Macklin departed the court with 2:01 left.

The line pretty much summed up the evening. For while Macklin may no longer be a Greyhound, he’s still seems to be the Norcom fans’ ‘‘dog.’’

2005-12-11T22:10:00.000-05:00

WTimes - Hoyas' program heating up while the Terps cool down

2005-11-15T13:03:00.000-05:00

Hoyas' program heating up while the Terps cool down
By Barker Davis
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

DeMatha High School's Austin Freeman, one of the top college basketball prospects in the class of 2007, sat in front of a room full of classmates, teachers, parents and reporters in the Hyattsville school's library last week and calmly and confidently made the most important choice of his young life.

"I narrowed it down to four schools: Georgetown, Maryland, North Carolina State and Notre Dame," Freeman said before bowing his head for the standard hat-donning drama. "I'm going to attend Georgetown."

Freeman's choice represented more than simply a high-profile local commitment for coach John Thompson III and the Hoyas. When the 6-foot-4 shooting guard pulled on a blue and gray cap, it symbolized more than just the long-awaited reconciliation between the Hilltop and the area's most storied prep program. Because of an ancient rift between Hall of Fame coaches John Thompson II and Morgan Wootten, the Hoyas hadn't received a commitment from a DeMatha player since 1971.

Freeman's decision provided a snapshot of the fundamental power shift that seems to be taking place between the area's premier college basketball programs. The pendulum of local pre-eminence that has been poised for more than a decade over College Park seems to be swinging back toward the Hilltop.

The message is simple and identical, whether it comes from coaches and commentators, current players or coveted prepsters, recruiting analysts or casual fans: The Hoyas are white hot.

"Most of my peers and the guys I play ball with are talking about Georgetown," Freeman said. "They're a real hot program right now."

And that positive buzz isn't restricted to players.

"Georgetown is back," Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said during the recent Big East media day at Madison Square Garden. "What John was able to accomplish with his team last season was extraordinary, and they have basically everybody back. Our goal and expectation is to win the conference. But beware the Hoyas, this season and beyond, because John's got some serious momentum and energy going down there."

Expectations for this season's Georgetown squad, which returns all six players who started games during last season's 19-13 campaign, differ considerably depending upon the source. Calhoun picked the Hoyas to finish second in the new-look, 16-team leviathan that is the Big East.

Collectively, the league's coaches picked the Hoyas to finish sixth behind Villanova, Connecticut, Louisville, Syracuse and West Virginia. And though the Hoyas were tabbed 18th and 20th by publications Lindy's and the Sporting News respectively, they were not ranked in the preseason Associated Press poll.

"I certainly understand why people would question us," said senior forward Brandon Bowman, who led the Hoyas in scoring (15.1 points) last season. "Yeah, we were better than people expected last year. And there's been some recruiting success. But in our opinion, we still haven't done much. We still haven't made the NCAAs since I've been here. We lost our last five conference games last year. The excitement's nice, but we can do much more. It's time for us to take the next step."

And in some respects, until Georgetown takes that next step and returns to the NCAA tournament, it seems absurd to claim the Hoyas are threatening to swipe the local spotlight from a Maryland team that won a national title just four seasons ago.

"I think John's doing a great job at Georgetown, but it's far too early to put Georgetown in the same elite class with Maryland," ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said last week. "In the last five years, Maryland's been to two Final Fours and won a national title. Georgetown's only made one tournament appearance in the last five years."

While true, such a simplification worships the past while ignoring the present signposts that often are harbingers. Last season, while Thompson was busy resurrecting a scuttled ship by leading the Hoyas to the verge of an NCAA tournament berth, the Terrapins endured their third consecutive slide in winning percentage and missed the tournament for the first time in a dozen years.

And this season, Maryland returns basically the same cast that has propelled the program in the wrong direction for three years less troublesome though talented point man John Gilchrist and top recruit Shane Clark, whom the Terps lost to Villanova in a transcript debacle.

As for those signposts, it appears that in terms of blue-chip recruiting, Georgetown and Maryland are heading in opposite directions. The Hoyas already have signed two of the top 25 prep players in the nation for next season in big men Vernon Macklin (Hargrave Military Academy, Chatham, Va.) and DaJuan Summers (Baltimore McDonough), virtually guaranteeing Georgetown a top-10 class. And decisions like Freeman's should make Maryland fans a bit anxious, considering the school's lack of success with recent local talent.

The Washington area has boasted or boasts 14 players ranked among the consensus top 40 in the prep classes of 2004 to 2007. Nine, including superstars like Connecticut sophomore Rudy Gay, already have signed with or committed to college programs. Georgetown has two scores among the nine with Summers and Freeman. Seven other schools, including ACC members North Carolina and Florida State, have claimed one commitment apiece from that coveted list. Maryland isn't among them.

"I wouldn't necessarily say that Maryland has slipped as much as Georgetown has just taken it to another level," Rivals.com recruiting analyst Tim Watts said of the trend. "Thompson and the Hoyas are getting guys now that you expect to develop into potential NBA lottery picks. Almost nobody qualifies as can't-miss, but guys like Macklin and Summers are about as close as it gets."

Some would argue that Maryland coach Gary Williams never has targeted nor needed the nation's bluest chippers, and it's certainly true Williams routinely does more with less than most other coaches. But between the NBA's new hardship policy and the prestige shift likely to accompany the bigger, better Big East, attracting those players is likely to become more important for all schools - and slightly more difficult than in the past for ACC schools.

"You can never downplay recruiting," Louisville's Rick Pitino said. "At age 53, recruiting is the most important thing in my basketball world. Because that's why you win, and that's why you don't win. In the offseason, I live on the road. The season is the easy part. You sleep in your own bed. You get into a nice season routine. Recruiting is the greatest challenge for all of us. Put it this way: We'll play 30 to 40 games this season, and a good chunk of them will be at home. But in the offseason, I'll go to between 300 and 400 AAU games, and basically all of them will be on the road."

Ask Freeman, Macklin or Summers why he chose Georgetown, and each will mention that Thompson attended virtually all of his summer games.

"[Thompson] was at almost every one," Freeman said.

How many of Freeman's AAU games did Williams attend?

"I think he came to maybe one," said Freeman, who was pursued doggedly by Maryland assistants Rob Moxley and Michael Adams. "You notice when the head coach is there. It shows how much they want you - that you're a priority."

Williams hardly can be blamed for wanting to devote his offseason to something other than gallivanting around the country from one smelly, dim gymnasium to another simply hoping that a recruit he can't even talk to because of an NCAA rule will checkmark his attendance. After all, Williams is a 60-year-old future Hall of Famer with an established power program and a national title on his resume. And in fact, a growing distaste for this sort of nonstop recruit pursuit was one of the parts of the business the elder Thompson found most tedious in his waning years on the Hilltop - years when an upstart firebrand from Ohio State by way of Boston College and American University began to capture the Beltway's imagination.

Fact is, like almost everything else in life, coaching and program-building is cyclical. There's always somebody younger, more energetic and hungrier waiting in the shadows.

"We don't want to just be the hottest program in the city," the 39-year-old Thompson said recently. "We want to be the hottest program in the country."

Austin Freeman a Hoya

2005-11-10T06:28:00.000-05:00

[From the Washington Post today. Freeman is ranked 24th by Scout, 37th by Rivals ]

Yesterday's other big recruiting news came from DeMatha guard Austin Freeman, a third-team All-Met last season. Though only a junior and still a year away from being able to make his college choice official, Freeman announced he had committed to play for Georgetown, picking the Hoyas over Maryland, Notre Dame and North Carolina State.

"He really liked the players that they have coming in, the players they currently have, and he loves the coaching staff," DeMatha Coach Mike Jones said. "His family wanted him close to them. Obviously [Georgetown] plays in the Big East. It's a great Catholic school with a great academic reputation. There's a ton of reasons why he picked them. With his final four choices, he really couldn't have made a bad decision."

(Bad) business as usual for UConn's Calhoun

2005-11-02T09:03:00.001-05:00

Oct. 31, 2005
By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
Tell Gregg your opinion!

Connecticut stole a recruit from St. John's this week, and the sad part is, nobody's surprised.

UConn coach Jim Calhoun is a Hall of Famer and a champion, but when it comes to coaching, he is not a moral beacon of light. This is not a news flash.


Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun's tactics have earned him little respect from his fellow coaches. (AP)

This is the man who found a legal way to pay off the AAU coaches of three major UConn targets -- Denham Brown, Brandon Bass and Rudy Gay -- by setting up sham exhibition games with teams connected to their AAU programs. It worked so well that Brown and Gay signed with UConn ... and the NCAA changed its rules about preseason exhibitions, putting a lot of well-meaning exhibition outfits out of business.

This is the man, CBS SportsLine.com was told, who lured ACC rookie of the year Ed Nelson from Georgia Tech by communicating, through a UConn assistant, with one of Nelson's club coaches throughout Nelson's sophomore year with the Yellow Jackets. Two days before the 2003 spring signing period, way too late for Georgia Tech to find a replacement, Nelson announced he was leaving. Nelson has never been more than a role player for the Huskies, but that's not the point. Calhoun wanted him. Calhoun got him. Everyone else is collateral damage.

And so it is with St. John's. Still trying to Wet-Vac the slop left behind by Mike Jarvis, second-year Red Storm coach Norm Roberts thought he had secured his point guard of the future in 6-foot Doug Wiggins of East Hartford, Conn. The UConn staff had been floating around the periphery of Wiggins since he committed to St. John's in March, staying in contact with his high school coach and even his barber, but only in the past few days -- with Wiggins less than two weeks from signing with St. John's -- did UConn move in for the kill.

Wiggins backed off St. John's and committed to the Huskies over the weekend. He might never start for UConn, but Calhoun thought he needed him anyway. Last week the Huskies cut loose another guard from the class of 2006, Ramar Smith, after Smith left South Kent (Conn.) Prep to return to Detroit, where his odds of becoming NCAA-eligible are not great. With the erratic Smith out of the picture, Calhoun wanted another guard. And there, down the street in East Hartford, was Wiggins.

Maybe Wiggins had grown up rooting for the Huskies. Maybe he was heartbroken not to have been recruited by UConn. Maybe it doesn't matter. St. John's offered Wiggins, Wiggins accepted, and it was up to Calhoun to honor the process.

But Calhoun honors nothing but his own program. That is why Calhoun, er, the school, suspended reserve point guard A.J. Price for the entire 2005-06 season but suspended All-American point guard Marcus Williams for just the first semester -- despite their involvement in the same criminal case. Price was expendable. Williams was not. This is justice, Jim Calhoun style.

Calhoun is feared, but he is not respected. Not by coaching colleagues who have grown tired of his cutthroat negative recruiting tactics and by his exploitation of NCAA loopholes like the one that landed him Brown and Gay.

Listen to this story, and it's a true one: In 1996, when UConn went 30-2 and Calhoun was a candidate for every national coaching honor there was, his Big East colleagues voted Boston College's Jim O'Brien league coach of the year. Or at least, they tried to vote O'Brien coach of the year. The Big East office, not wanting to be embarrassed when national awards came out, circumvented the process by anointing Calhoun and O'Brien as co-coaches of the year. A Big East coach from that season says league coaches had essentially blackballed Calhoun on their ballot.

Calhoun has never conducted his business in the most morally upright way, but in recent weeks, he has abandoned all pretenses. There's the Williams-and-Price situation. There's Doug Wiggins. And there's Will Harris, a small forward who committed to the Huskies in July and described UConn as his "dream school." A few weeks ago, his dream school filed for an annulment. The story out of UConn is that Harris "decided" to reopen his recruitment, which is true in the sense that Matt Doherty "decided" to resign from North Carolina in 2003.

"I guess it's just part of the business," Harris told SportsLine.com. "They didn't feel I was the best man for the job. I wanted to play there, but I'll be fine."

Harris will be fine, Wiggins will be fine, A.J. Price will be fine. Georgia Tech and St. John's will be fine, too.

Or maybe not.

Like Calhoun cares. He got his. Everyone else? They can go to hell.

10-27-05 - Wash Post - Stags' Freeman Will Decide Early, Very Early

2005-10-27T23:47:00.000-04:00

Stags' Freeman Will Decide Early, Very Early

By Josh Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 27, 2005; 11:39 PM

Austin Freeman might be the most highly recruited basketball player in the Washington area these days. Though only a junior, the DeMatha High guard has plenty of college scholarship offers and hears recruiting pitches so often that he will make a decision before the start of the season, Stags Coach Mike Jones said.

"He's getting tired of the calls and people asking," Jones said. "For the most part, guys like a Freeman, who are going to get recruited at that level, [the intense recruiting is] going to happen eventually, it's just happening sooner. If you're good and get noticed, you're going to go through this process at some time. It's impossible not to."

Freeman is not the only one. Increasingly, high schoolers are committing to colleges earlier. Montrose Christian swingman Greivis Vasquez, perhaps the most sought-after senior yet to make a decision locally, also could make his choice soon.

Of course, part of the reason for players being able to make decisions sooner is that colleges begin recruiting them sooner. If you're not in on the ground level -- recruiting a player from early in his career -- then it is harder to advance to the next level and be among a player's final options. So by the time a player gets to his junior year, it is not difficult to see him get burned out by the process, Jones said.

"The whole process wears on you," Jones said. "It seems like [committing early] is the trend, anyway. Everybody is committing very early -- a lot before their senior year, a lot before their junior year. If you look at the top 100 players in the class of [2007], none of those guys have played a game in their junior year yet but I guarantee that 35 to 40 percent of them have made their college choice already.

"This is all normal. Austin is a little late by some people's standards."

Jones noted that even if Freeman makes his decision soon, he will not be the first local player from his class to announce his choice. Mike Beasley, who was All-Met as a sophomore last season while playing for Riverdale Baptist, more than one year ago picked Charlotte. (Beasley has since transferred to Oak Hill Academy in southwestern Virginia for this season.)

As for Freeman, he has taken unofficial visits to Maryland and Georgetown. This weekend he will visit North Carolina State; next weekend Notre Dame. Those are the four schools that Jones expects Freeman will choose from, though Syracuse also could be in the mix.

"Anytime you ask him, he'll list 12 or 13 schools, but I think those five are the ones he's seriously considering," Jones said. "The bottom line is if Austin and his dad and mom are comfortable with making [a decision] that's their business and their choice, too."

Jones said he does not expect any of his other players to make college choice soon. (Senior point guard Nigel Munson picked Virginia Tech before last season.) Junior forward Jerai Grant is "being recruited by half the ACC and most of the Big East, but he's a guy who probably is going to make a decision after the season or before next season," Jones said.

FOXSports.com - Once-storied programs are poised for return

2005-10-22T19:28:00.000-04:00

Once-storied programs are poised for return

Yoni Cohen / Special to FOXSports.com

In the early and mid-1980s, Georgetown, Houston, and Indiana were college basketball's elite.

Twenty-some years later, the Hoyas, Cougars and Hoosiers are primed for a return to glory ... or at least to the NCAA tournament.

In 1981, Indiana won the national championship. In 1982, Georgetown was favored, but fell in the final seconds. In 1983, Houston was favored, but lost at the buzzer. In 1984, Georgetown defeated Houston and cut down the nets. In 1985, Georgetown again lost in the finals. In 1987, Indiana once more won the national championship.

In the process, Georgetown's Patrick Ewing and John Thompson, Houston's Akeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler and Indiana's Isiah Thomas, Steve Alford and Bobby Knight popularized the NCAA tournament.

Houston's surprise loss in 1983 and Georgetown's shocking defeat in 1985, perhaps the two greatest upsets in college basketball history, established the NCAA tournament as the most exhilarating event in sports. Never again would the national championship be broadcast on the same night as the Academy Awards.

More recently, all three programs have fallen on hard times. "Phi Slamma Jamma" has been grounded since 1992. "Hoya Paranoia" has not overtaken March Madness since 2001. The Hoosiers have not had a season on the brink since 2003.

This year, however, Georgetown grey, Houston red and Indiana crimson should be back in style come March Madness.

Georgetown

In his first year on his father's throne, John Thompson III all but made the "Princeton Offense" a misnomer. Though last season's Hoyas played at a pace marginally faster than did the Tigers, Georgetown scored more and gave up fewer points per possession than Princeton. Not only did last year's Hoyas shoot from behind the arc with greater accuracy than did the Tigers, Georgetown also distributed more assists per game than did Thompson's alma mater and former employer.

The result of the Hoyas' steep learning curve? Sixteen victories before Valentine's Day ... but only one conference win thereafter. Last year's club hit a wall, one that this year's edition will run right through.

Stud forward Brandon Bowman re-thought his early entry into the NBA draft and is back to score in bunches. Versatile Big East Co-Freshman of the Year Jeff Green returns to serve as a role model for young players everywhere; last year he shot 40 percent from behind the arc, 50 percent from the field and 70 percent from the charity stripe.

Senior point guard Ashanti Cook, a double-digit scorer, practiced with 7-2 center Roy Hibbert this summer, further acclimating each to the other's game. Hibbert, fast becoming a Thompson favorite, should be much more of a factor. Swingman Darrel Owens was granted an additional year of eligibility. After collecting nearly as many points in the Big East tournament and NIT as he did during the rest of the season, Owens could well be poised for a breakout campaign. Add four well-regarded recruits to the mix and the Hoyas have the makings of a Big East contender.

Look for Hoya Paranoia to make a long overdue return. (Jim McIssac / Getty Images)

Need additional evidence that what's old is new at Georgetown? Pat Ewing Jr. recently opted to play for John Thompson III. (The school from which Ewing Jr. transferred? Indiana. The hometown of KRIV, the television station that first reported Pat's relocation? Houston).

Crews Picks the Vols

2005-10-19T10:21:00.000-04:00

Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tennessee)October 18, 2005

Darren Epps; Staff Writer

Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl is putting together one of the top recruiting classes in the country before he ever coaches a Volunteers game.

Pearl landed the school's most highly rated men's basketball commitment since Vincent Yarbrough on Monday when 6-foot-7 forward Duke Crews announced he'll play for the Vols in 2006. Crews, from Hampton, Va., is one of the top high school seniors in the country and picked the Vols over Wake Forest and Georgetown.

"It's not all about the name of the school," said Crews, ranked the No. 10 small forward nationally by Rivals.com. "Tennessee is where I felt most comfortable. I want to be a part of starting some success at Tennessee. I believe it's a program on the rise."

Crews cited his relationship with Pearl and assistant coach Tony Jones as one of the main reasons he spurned several ACC schools for the Vols. Crews also took an official visit to defending national champion North Carolina.

"Coach Pearl and Coach Jones were both straightforward with me from day one," Crews said. "They said they wanted me, but more than that they needed me."

Crews joins 6-8 forward Wayne Chism, rated the nation's No. 42 player overall, and point guard Marques Johnson as commitments for the 2006 class. Johnson is one of the top prospects in the state of Indiana.

But the gem of the class so far is Crews, who was the No. 2 player at the Nike Camp in Indianapolis last summer and is ranked the No. 28 player overall by Rivals.

"It's pretty surprising he picked Tennessee," Rivals recruiting analyst Jerry Meyer said. "It really does solidify the job Coach Pearl and his staff are doing in recruiting. To land Duke Crews is maybe a statement commitment as far as establishing the fact this coaching staff can get it done recruiting against top programs. They went into ACC country and beat out those guys."

Crews attended the same high school, Bethel, as NBA star Allen Iverson. Meyer said Crews will be equally entertaining.

"The Tennessee fans are going to love Duke Crews," Meyer said. "He battles. He brings it. He plays with such a passion. He's an intimidating figure out there on the court. More times than not, when you travel and see these kids, you're disappointed because they don't play with a passion. Duke is not like that at all.

"To get one like that and who is so talented, that's why it's so big for Tennessee."

E-mail Darren Epps at depps@timesfreepress.com

October 14, 2005 - The Washington Times - "Hoyas Add More Depth, Optimism"

2005-10-14T11:10:00.000-04:00

By Barker DavisTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished October 14, 2005

Last season Georgetown experienced basketball enlightenment under first-year head coach John Thompson III. Get ready for the Gilded Age.

Thompson's second season on the Hilltop unofficially begins at tonight's Midnight Madness celebration amid an impressive buzz of momentum and national expectation. Despite one of the nation's youngest rosters, the Hoyas finished 19-13 last season, and only a stretch-run swoon kept the program from earning its first NCAA tournament invite since 2001. Thompson welcomes back the top six players from last season, adds a solid four-man recruiting class and enters the brutal new Big East with a squad ranked as high as 20th by one preseason publication (the Sporting News).

"We're excited to get this year going," said Thompson. "I think we worked very hard across the board in the offseason. And one thing that is different this year is now we don't have 13 freshman [relative to learning my system], we have nine sophomores and four freshman. Those guys who were here last year have a much better understanding of the structure of our system. They know what to expect, and they're ready to add to that and grow."

About 10 members of the team spent all summer at Georgetown. And to a man, they described the offseason work as more rigorous than in any previous offseason. Senior forward Brandon Bowman, who tested the NBA draft waters before returning for his final season, was one of those players who spent the offseason pushing his teammates in workouts on the court, on the track and in the weight room.

"This has definitely been the hardest we've worked in the offseason since I've been here. ... We busted it pretty good as a group," said Bowman, who led the team in scoring (15.1 points) last season. "We're all stronger physically and fundamentally and excited to get started -- ready, willing and able."

Aside from having a full season in Thompson's system, which requires a heightened hoops IQ and focuses on spacing, screens and sharing, better conditioning is likely to make a huge difference for the Hoyas. Last season's group, particularly the three freshman who played extensive minutes, seemed to fade physically down the stretch, a stretch that saw the Hoyas lose six of their final seven games en route to stumbling into an NIT bid.

Poor rebounding and foul trouble defined that seven-game stretch, as freshman phenom Jeff Green (13.1 points, 6.6 rebounds) and towering freshman center Roy Hibbert (5.1 points, 3.5 rebounds) saw their numbers decline in the season's final weeks. "I think everybody wore down, so I'm not going to use that as an excuse," said Green, who shared Big East Rookie of the Year honors with Connecticut's Rudy Gay and has added 15 pounds of muscle and shaved off his dreadlocks.

But nobody on the team looks more transformed than Hibbert, a 7-foot-2, 280-pound monster who earned everybody's nod as most improved.

"Roy is balling. He's going to be a big surprise to a lot of people," said senior point guard Ashanti Cook, who watched Hibbert's development firsthand as a teammate on his Kenner League team this summer. "He's been dominating this summer and pretty much everyday in practice.

"He's got a lot more confidence in himself. He feels like he can score, and he's no longer hesitant to put it up. Man, he's 7-2 and confident. It's tough to stop that. You throw it down to him, and he's going to score all day. That makes us so much better as a team, because it opens up so much outside."

With Louisville, Marquette, Cincinnati, DePaul and South Florida joining the Big East this season, and Duke, Oregon and Illinois on the Hoyas' nonconference slate, Georgetown will need a more significant contribution from Hibbert.

Hibbert pinpointed solving the team's rebounding issues as his personal goal this season:

"Rebounding -- I'm taking that over. That's my job, and I'm ready. "
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20051014-124200-9039r

October 1, 2005 - Sun Sentinel -- Heat Notes - "Guard Close"

2005-10-03T11:45:00.000-04:00

The Heat is considering adding former Georgetown guard Kevin Braswell to its camp roster. Braswell is seen as insurance, with rookie free-agent guard Gerald Fitch recovering from a back ailment that could keep him out of training camp. Braswell has played overseas and in the National Basketball Development League since leaving Georgetown in 2002.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/basketball/heat/sfl-heat01oct01,0,4069307.story?coll=sfla-sports-heat

September 22, 2005 - Yale Daily News - Mutombo Comes to Yale

2005-09-22T16:24:00.000-04:00

Mutombo comes to YaleHumanitarian NBA star visits patients at Yale-New Haven

BY CARI TUNA Staff Reporter

To the average American, Dikembe Mutombo is best known as a Georgetown basketball prodigy, a member of the Hoya trifecta of centers including Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning, whose tenacious defense continues to impress NBA crowds.But in central Africa the lore surrounding Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean Jacques Mutombo extends well beyond the hardwood.

His stats in his birthplace, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, reflect tremendous humanitarian effort -- helping provide polio vaccines for 8.2 million children, breaking ground on a new 300-bed hospital, and volunteering at programs for thousands of children. In a country of over 50 million where life expectancy is under 50 years, his efforts hardly go unnoticed.

During a visit to the University yesterday, the 7-foot-2 Houston Rocket towered over his entourage as he met with child patients at Yale-New Haven Hospital and received an anatomy lesson with local high school students in the Anlyan Center -- complete with extra-large latex gloves. A medical student asked Mutombo to prod the lungs of two cadavers with his hand, eliciting a low, rumbling roar of a laugh from him.

In addition to basic anatomy, Mutombo gathered knowledge of health care from medical school administrators and officials."My visit has been great," Mutombo said. "I got a chance to learn a lot from the faculty."

After his tour, Mutombo gave a speech and fielded questions about health care in Africa from a near-capacity audience at Battell Chapel.The event was the brainchild of Anup Patel MED '08.

After he learned about Mutombo's work on health care in the Congo, Patel and fellow medical students asked the University and the School of Medicine to extend an invitation to the eight-time NBA All-Star.Patel said Mutombo's stop at the Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital was particularly successful.

"A lot of kids were really happy when they saw him," Patel said. "He put a smile on a lot of faces."

Mutombo's visit was part of an ongoing campaign to raise awareness about health care issues in Africa and publicize the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital. Mutombo is building the hospital through the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation in his home-town of Kinshasa, the capital city of the Congo. Named after Mutombo's mother, it will be the country's first new hospital in almost four decades.

"The purpose [of the hospital] is to improve the health care and living conditions of my people," Mutombo said.

The facility, set to open in June of 2006, will hold 300 beds and the latest medical technology, he said. Mutombo himself donated $10 million of the $29 million needed to fund the project and has been campaigning to raise the remainder of the money since the hospital's conception in 1997, he said.

Mutombo said he hopes his visit to Yale will mark the beginning of a collaboration between Yale-New Haven, the medical school and the Kinshasa hospital.

"We can work together to improve the lives of human beings around the world … to implant the technology and the experience into a third world country," he said.

Mutombo, who returned to the United States three days ago after his most recent visit to the Congo, said he was pleased with the progress of the hospital's construction.

Yale basketball player Chinenye Okafor '07 said she admires not only Mutombo's philanthropic efforts but his personal achievements as well. A native of Nigeria, Okafor said she knows first-hand how difficult it can be to make from Africa to the United States.

"The fact that he came [to Georgetown] on a scholarship before he started to play basketball is impressive," she said.

Both the men's and women's basketball teams met with Mutombo for a photograph before his presentation.

In his keynote address, Mutombo spoke about the devastating effects of diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS on the African population.

Throughout the presentation, which included a video about his work in Africa, Mutombo emphasized the continent's lack of sufficient health care facilities and trained medical professionals to combat these diseases.

"We are here to share our concern for the people of the African continent," he said. "It is my sincere hope that the Africa of tomorrow will have equal access … to health care. It is our common interest as citizens of the world."

Mutombo said after his retirement from basketball in the next two years he plans to fully devote himself to humanitarian aid. Following the completion of the hospital, he said he plans to build a new school and gymnasium in Kinshasa.

After his address, Mutombo fielded questions from the audience on a variety of topics focused around African health care and politics. When asked if he will ever set his sights on the presidency of the Congo, Mutombo just laughed, shook his head and said, "Stay away from politics."In addition, Mutombo was awarded the first African American Legacy Council Creed Medal on behalf of the Communities of Color Initiative of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. The award honors Courtlandt Van Rensselaer Creed, the first African-American graduate of the Yale School of Medicine.

© 1995-2005 Yale Daily News Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=29952

September 10, 2005 - GUHoyas - Coach John Thompson III Offers Prizes as Part of Hurricane Relief Effort

2005-09-13T15:46:00.000-04:00

Coach John Thompson III Offers Prizes as Part of Hurricane Relief Effort
Rare "Behind the scenes" view of the basketball program offered
Sept. 10, 2005

Washington DC - Hoya Paranoia- whether you believe it is an "Us vs Them" mentality that Georgetown teams have used to great success or think it refers to the dread opponents feel about facing GU's trademarked and relentless defense, it does exist.

Coach John Thompson III has continued the tradition of running closed practices behind locked doors. Now, in an unprecedented move, as part of the effort to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina, he is lifting the veil of secrecy for lucky Hoya fans.

As a member of the organizing committee for the Coaches' hurricane relief effort, Coach is offering two "Hoya Paranoia" prizes for auction.

John Thompson III: Hoya Paranoia 1 - Get a rare peek at Georgetown Basketball's game plan with an exclusive invitation to a pre-game practice. Join the Hoyas for a breakdown of their game strategies as they prepare for Providence on January 5, 2006. Package includes two court-side seats at the MCI Center that night to watch the Hoyas in action.

John Thompson III: Hoya Paranoia 2 - Join Basketball Hall of Famer John Thompson Jr. as a guest at his daily Washington, DC sports talk show. Follow that up with two court side seats to relive one of the greatest BIG EAST rivalries as Georgetown faces St. Johns at the MCI Center on February 9, 2006.

These prizes will be available at allcoachescare.com on September 14 when a massive online sports auction will be held to raise money so that Habitat for Humanity can begin rebuilding after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

http://guhoyas.collegesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/091005aae.html

September 2, 2005 - The Hoya - Former Hoya Runs for Office in Tenn.

2005-09-13T15:44:00.000-04:00

Former Hoya Runs for Office in Tenn.
By Brenna McGee
Hoya Staff Writer
Friday, September 2, 2005; Page B6

Former Georgetown men’s basketball player Omari Faulkner (COL ’04) was defeated in the August Democratic primary for a seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

Faulkner, 23, was one of four candidates in the special election for the vacant seat in District 87. He finished last in the August 4 election with 15.5 percent of the vote. Gary L. Rowe, a businessman and longtime minority business promoter in Shelby County, won the election with 40.8 percent. Rowe is expected to carry the general election in September.

The election, held to fill the seat vacated when Kathryn Bowers (D) was elected to the state Senate earlier this year, saw incredibly low voter turnout. With fewer than 1,000 voters participating out of the approximately 33,000 in the district, only 200 votes separated Rowe and Faulkner.

Also contending for the seat were Andrew “Rome” Withers, a photographer, and Alonzo Grant, a two-time contender for the seat when it was held by Bowers. Withers and Grant finished second and third, respectively.

Faulkner’s candidacy for the vacant House seat was his first venture into the political arena. Although he fared poorly in the voting, the Memphis Commercial Appeal recognized Faulkner as having “strong potential for elected office in the future.” He was also endorsed by the Memphis Education Association and the Memphis Area Association of Realtors.

A native of Memphis, Faulkner is currently a district sales manager for Frito-Lay. After graduating from Georgetown, Faulkner spent six months traveling abroad as a cultural envoy with the State Department’s CultureConnect program. Along with former Hoya teammate Courtland Freeman (COL ’04), Faulkner visited more than 20 countries in eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South America to conduct basketball clinics and promote American culture. While abroad with the program, Faulkner told The New Straits Times Press in Malaysia that he planned to return to school to get a master’s degree in public policy once he was done with basketball.

A basketball star at Hamilton High School in Memphis, Faulkner was recruited to Georgetown on a full scholarship. While at Georgetown he was awarded the Raymond Medley Model Student Athlete Award and was a two-time recipient of the Mary Fenlon Scholar Athlete Award. On the court, Faulkner played in 46 contests while averaging 0.6 points per game.

Faulkner could not be reached for comment.

http://www.thehoya.com/sports/090205/sports8.cfm

September 12, 2005 Hoya Recruiting Romps

2005-09-12T17:47:00.000-04:00

Recruiting class could put Hoyas back on Big East, national map

Sep. 12, 2005
By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
Tell Gregg your opinion!

John Thompson III is on the phone, and he'd love to talk about his second recruiting class at Georgetown. It's a great class, on track to be one of the top 10 in the country next year and maybe even Georgetown's best since 1981, when Thompson's father signed Patrick Ewing, Bill Martin and Anthony Jones.

John Thompson III won 19 games in his first year at Georgetown. (Getty Images)

But John Thompson III won't say a word. He can't. NCAA rules prevent him from discussing his three recruits until they've signed with the Hoyas, and they can't sign until November. But if you jam the phone close enough to your ear, and if you listen hard enough, you can almost hear Thompson grinning. And it sounds like he's grinning big.

The recruits' names are Vernon Macklin, DaJuan Summers and Jeremiah Rivers. If you're a fan of college basketball, learn them. If you're a fan of another Big East program, fear them. Macklin, 6-feet-9, is a definite McDonald's All-American; Summers, 6-8, is probably going to join him after blossoming this summer; and Rivers is a consensus top-100 recruit with great size (6-4) and bloodlines (Doc Rivers is his dad) for a point guard.

And Georgetown isn't necessarily finished, either. The Hoyas are among the four finalists for another likely McDonald's All-American, Duke Crews, an offensively ferocious 6-7 forward. Although they're competing with North Carolina, Wake Forest and Tennessee, the Hoyas have two reasons to feel good about their shot at Crews. He's friends with Macklin, another native of the Virginia Tidewater area, and he's from the same high school as ex-Hoyas All-American Allen Iverson.

Whether or not he gets Crews, Thompson already has capitalized plenty on his first year as the Hoyas' coach, when Georgetown unexpectedly won 19 games and nearly claimed a spot in the 2005 NCAA Tournament.

"The talent level in the program just multiplied," says recruiting analyst Dave Telep of Scout.com. "Georgetown has done excellent things with this group, and they aren't finished. When it's all said and done, this could be the best Hoyas class in quite a long time."

With or without Crews, Thompson has put together a class to rival some of his father's top hauls when the elder Thompson was turning Georgetown into a national powerhouse:

1981: Ewing, Jones, Martin, Ralph Dalton.
1982: Michael Jackson, David Wingate, Horace Broadnax.
1988: Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, Ronnie Thompson.
1994: Allen Iverson, Jahidi White, Boubacar Aw.

Georgetown hasn't been a national power in a decade, not since Allen Iverson and Othella Harrington led the Hoyas to 29 victories in 1995-96. The Hoyas probably won't get there this season, either, though improvement on last season's 19-13 record is possible. Only six players started for Georgetown in 2004-05, and all six are back -- led by 6-8 senior Brandon Bowman (15.1 ppg), who smartly withdrew from the 2005 NBA Draft, and 6-8 sophomore Jeff Green, who will face a similar decision after this season.

Green is a long way from entering the 2006 NBA Draft, but to protect the program, Thompson must recruit with the idea that Green might follow Bowman and seniors Ashanti Cook (10.8 ppg) and Darrel Owens (7.3 ppg) out the door in April. Green is a unique talent who averaged 13.1 ppg and led the team in rebounds (6.6), assists (2.9) and blocked shots (1.6) while shooting 40 percent on 3-pointers. The NBA is watching.

"In this day and age, you have to understand if you have good players -- and your team has success -- then guys may leave early," Thompson says. "We haven't gone into it that way, that Jeff's not going to be here, but at the same time you have to plan accordingly."

Thanks to a solid freshman class led by 6-3 Jesse Sapp and 6-7 Octavius Spann, the Hoyas will be deeper this season than last, when they lacked the luxury of being able to redshirt raw freshman Roy Hibbert. Hibbert, 7-2 and 278 pounds, was pleasantly productive in 15.8 minutes per game (5.1 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 1.3 blocks), and after spending this summer working out against NBA players like Mike Sweetney, Brendan Haywood and Andrew Bogut, he ought to be better this season -- though not as good as he'll eventually be.

"You think about Georgetown centers (Ewing, Mourning, Mutombo), and everyone wants to throw him into that category -- and he will be one day," Thompson says. "Roy's probably worked harder than anyone on our team this summer. Hopefully, much like with our team, you'll see improvement. As we try to get things going here, we want to keep taking baby steps."

Baby steps? With 19 victories in his first season and monster results with his second recruiting class, Thompson isn't taking baby steps. He's stomping around like Godzilla.

GU Releases Schedule w/dates

2005-09-12T12:29:00.000-04:00

2005-06 Schedule
11/18: at Navy
11/21: at J. Madison
11/26: VANDERBILT
12/03: at Oregon
12/08: at Illinois
12/11: FAIRFIELD
12/17: STETSON [1]
12/21: SAVANNAH ST.
12/27: vs. Colgate [2]
12/28: vs. UTEP/MVSU [2]
01/05: PROVIDENCE
01/08: at St. John's
01/11: at W. Virginia
01/14: at Connecticut
01/17: S. FLORIDA
01/21: DUKE
01/24: at Notre Dame
01/28: CINCINNATI
01/31: at DePaul
02/05: PITTSBURGH
02/09: ST.JOHN'S
02/12: W. VIRGINIA
02/16: at Marquette
02/20: at Villanova
02/22: RUTGERS
02/25: SYRACUSE
03/04: at S. Florida
03/08: Big East Tourn.
1 Non-Conf Game TBA
[1] McDonough Gym
[2] Sun Bowl Tourn.

Macklin was headed to NBA?

2005-09-11T23:55:00.000-04:00

Associated Press
July 9, 2005
Prep players struggle with acceptance of NBA's new rule
MICHAEL MAROT, AP Sports Writer

Vernon Macklin thought his toughest decision as a high school senior would be choosing whether to play college basketball or jump to the NBA. At 6-foot-8, 215 pounds, Macklin has the athleticism and potential that make pro scouts drool.

But after the NBA adopted a new eligibility rule last month, just one question remained: Which school would he pick?

"I probably would have looked at the NBA," Macklin said, "but now I've got to go to college."

Macklin, of I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth, Va., is among the first class of prep players to deal with the NBA's new requirement - waiting one year after high school before entering the draft.

At the Nike All-America Camp, where about 120 of the nation's top high schoolers try to impress college and pro scouts annually, the change is obvious.

Only a handful of NBA scouts signed this year's check-in board rather than the dozens that had become routine over the past decade. Players who once were peppered with questions about being the next Kevin Garnett or Kobe Bryant now answered queries about their college choices.

In hotel rooms, players said the conversations included some talk about the NBA but focused primarily on different schools around the country.

For Macklin, the change has forced him to re-evaluate his future.

"I don't have a list of schools right now," he said. "I'm starting over."

Reactions to the change range from disappointment to relief.

Some, like Jeffrey Jordan - Michael Jordan's son - think players should still make their own choices. Others, like Jonnie West - Jerry West's son - believe the NBA did the right thing.

Opinions hardly matter now, though.

Macklin and Spencer Hawes, a 6-11, 215-pound big man from Seattle, were considered two of the top candidates to make the jump - as Hawes' high school teammate, Martell Webster, did this year. Portland took Webster with the No. 6 pick in last month's draft.

"You'd like to see them let you make the decision for yourself," Hawes said. "But even though you want kids to make the right decision, some don't, so the league had to intervene."

What options remain?

Tywon Lawson, who played at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia and is considered by some to be the nation's top prep point guard, said he has talked with at least four players who are considering prep school - including some who may attend for academic reasons.

Others suspect players will opt for junior college, Europe or the NBDL - a choice that could continue to hide their weaknesses and create a mysterious aura heading into draft day.

"I think a lot of kids might take the prep school route, even some who didn't think they were going to the pros," Hawes said. "That way you don't get exposed and it will make you (look) that much better."

College coaches also have another predicament.

National Association of Basketball Coaches executive director Jim Haney said he proposed a three-year commitment, following the NFL model which was upheld in the Maurice Clarett case. Baseball, too, requires players to wait three years after high school to re-enter the draft if they choose to enroll in college.

When the coaches realized their initial proposal would be rejected, they sought a 20-year-old age limit. Instead they were left with a rule that could force some coaches to gamble on a one-year recruit to remain competitive.

Arizona coach Lute Olson believes short-timers are detrimental to programs that are trying to plan for the future.

Few coaches, though, anticipate top players fleeing for other leagues.

"The good thing is that the kids may get there and realize maybe they aren't ready," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "I think a lot of kids think they'll be in college one or two years and then leave, and then they realize they aren't ready. So maybe it will be beneficial in the long run."

While many players acknowledge they could be enticed to skip the NBA's big bucks and savor the college environment, some believe the NBA's new rule simply isn't fair.

"When it first came out, there was a lot of talk about it," Lawson said. "People were wondering whether there would be any exceptions or whatever.

"I don't think I'm ready for the NBA. But some people, like (Greg) Oden or (Kevin) Durant are good enough to go to the NBA and might get burned a little bit if they go to college and get hurt or something."

The Greatest Article of All Time

2005-09-09T13:09:00.000-04:00

As I am just now joining this blog, I have reached back into the archives for this, the greatest article of all time. Read it. The summer is over and this is what you missed.

http://espn.go.com/page2/wash/s/2002/0311/1349476.html

August 31, 2005 - GUHoyas.com - Down on the farm Jeff Green and Tyler Crawford visit Jonathan Wallace

2005-09-01T12:14:00.000-04:00

Down on the farm
Jeff Green and Tyler Crawford vist Jonathan Walace
Aug. 31, 2005

Harvest AL - Workouts for the Georgetown Hoyas who stay on campus for summer session are intense. Not only is the condensed academic schedule rigorous, but battling athletes like Mike Sweetney, Andrew Bogut or Brendan Haywood on the McDonough hardcourt day in and day out is exhausting. But even this type of mental and physical conditioning could not prepare some Hoyas for the "foes" they went up against after summer session was done.

After classes were complete and the Kenner League championship over, sophomores Jeff Green and Tyler Crawford traveled to Harvest, Alabama with teammate Jonathan Wallace, to relax before the beginning of the new school year. Unfortunately, for the rest craving two-some, their visit was not filled with sipping lemonade on the porch at night or dipping their feet in a warm southern brook. A high school principal by day, Wallace's father owns and operates a beef cattle farm, where Green and Crawford were introduced to all the members of the Wallace family, including those with four legs.

"They had the cows confused with lions" Jonathan said with a laugh. "They kept looking at them like they were going to attack."

Green hailing from Hyattsville, MD had few previous encounters with livestock. The 2005 BIG EAST Rookie of the Year might not have found his league opponents intimidating, but these animals caused his 6'9" frame to shake.

"Those animals were huge." Green said "They're 900 pounds and strong too. John called them over so we could feed them...they would jerk the bucket out of your hand and just stare at you."

Tyler Crawford became more accustomed to country living growing up in Stuarts Draft, VA. But he didn't spend time visiting local farms, so he too was uneasy around the Wallace "pets."

"We made sure there was nothing behind us in case we had to run" said Crawford about feeding the cattle. "They all travel together so if one of them charges..."
All Wallace could do was shake his head and say, "We're not talking about wild animals."

When asked about anything else that came out of their visit to the Wallace homestead Tyler reflected, "Everybody in the family was disciplined. They all had different jobs but at the same time they were working together."

"Like a basketball team" Green interjected. "I have a better understanding about why Jonathan is the was he is...even when he was doing something else on the farm he made time to check on the animals, to make sure they were ok in the heat."

The duo did have two suggestions for the Georgetown Basketball staff. One: They think preseason conditioning working the Wallace farm might be tougher than anything the strength & conditioning coach can come up with. Two: Thanksgiving dinner at the Wallace farm would be great.

http://guhoyas.collegesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/083105aac.html

August 24, 2005 - Virginian Pilot - All-Tidewater player of 2005 commits to Georgetown

2005-08-30T16:41:00.000-04:00

All-Tidewater player of 2005 commits to Georgetown
By PAUL WHITE, The Virginian-Pilot©
August 24, 2005

Vernon Macklin, the 2005 All-Tidewater boys basketball Player of the Year, has been a longtime admirer of the ACC.

But on Wednesday, Macklin cast his lot with the Big East by making a verbal commitment to attend Georgetown in the fall of 2006.

A 6-foot-9 forward who is a consensus top-10 national recruit, Macklin starred for three years at Norcom High in Portsmouth before opting to spend his senior year at Hargrave Military Academy. He said he chose the Hoyas because of the program’s tradition, its playing style and its coach, John Thompson III.

‘‘I enjoy coach Thompson, and they like to go up and down,’’ Macklin said Wednesday by phone from Hargrave in Chatham, Va. ‘‘That’s the style I like to play.’’

In addition to declining to commit to an ACC school, Macklin also ended a long-held desire to play in college with his good friend Stefan Welsh, formerly of two-time state champion Woodside. The two will share the court this season at Hargrave, but Welsh has committed to Arkansas.

’’At least we’re both playing for Thompson brothers,’’ said Macklin, noting that Ronny Thompson, John’s brother, is an assistant at Arkansas.

Macklin — who averaged 22.4 points, 12.2 rebounds and 4.5 blocked shots per game last season as a junior at Norcom — said he began leaning toward Georgetown after making an unofficial visit earlier this month.

But he said he didn’t finalize his plans until this week. He also expressed relief that now, with the decision made, he can concentrate on academics, basketball and adjusting to life at a military school.

’’I’m excited because he’s excited,’’ Hargrave coach Kevin Keatts said. ‘’He felt like he was really wanted at Georgetown.’’

Those at Georgetown cannot comment on potential recruits until the school receives the athlete’s signed national letter of intent. The early signing period is from Nov. 9 to 16.

Macklin still must achieve a qualifying score on the SAT. He will take the test for the first time later this year.

A three-time All-Tidewater selection, Macklin is going through orientation and basketball conditioning at Hargrave this week, and will begin classes Monday.
The team will work out several times during the NCAA’s contact period Sept. 9-Oct. 5, when college coaches can visit the campus to evaluate and speak to players. Hargrave then will begin exhibition play on Oct. 18 against Oak Hill Academy.

Hargrave currently isn’t scheduled to play in Hampton Roads, but Keatts said he still has eight to 10 games to add to his team’s schedule and is eager to return Macklin and Welsh near their hometowns.

Reach Paul White at (757) 446-2630 or at paul.white@pilotonline.com

August 26, 2005 - Hoya - Faces Change on Georgetown Roster Macklin Gives Verbal Commitment

2005-08-30T11:21:00.000-04:00

Faces Change on Georgetown Roster
Macklin Gives Verbal Commitment
Olivia Scott, Hoya Staff Writer
Friday, August 26, 2005; Page A10

Although the Georgetown men’s basketball team is losing two players to transfer, it will also welcome three recruits and one transfer to the Hilltop for the 2006-07 season.

Vernon Macklin, a 6-foot-9 forward from Portsmouth, Va., made a verbal commitment to the Hoyas Wednesday. Rated as the 12th best prospect by the recruiting Web site http://www.rivals.com, Macklin chose Georgetown over other top-rated basketball programs Wake Forest and 2005 NCAA Champions North Carolina.

Macklin’s commitment was the third verbal commitment received by Georgetown for next season. Guard Jeremiah Rivers, son of renowned Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers, will join Macklin on the Hilltop next year. Rivers is also considered by many to be among the top high school players in the country. Forward DaJuan Summers has also made a verbal commitment to the university.

In addition to the prospects for the 2006-07 season, the Hoyas will have a new face on the bench this season as forward Pat Ewing Jr. has transferred to Georgetown from Indiana University.

The son of legendary Hoya Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85), Ewing Jr. originally considered coming to Georgetown before enrolling at Indiana, according to rivals.com.

In two years with the Hoosiers, Ewing Jr. averaged 3.4 points and 3.7 rebounds in 57 games. After sitting out the 2005-06 season per NCAA regulations, Ewing Jr. will have two years of eligibility remaining.

Georgetown men’s basketball Head Coach John Thompson III also announced last spring that junior guard Ray Reed and freshman forward Cornelio Guibunda were granted releases to transfer from Georgetown.

Reed will play for California State University, Fullerton. A native of Southern California, he came to Georgetown from Inglewood High
School.

Reed was one of the most consistent bench players for Georgetown. He competed in 31 of 32 games in the 2004-05 season, averaging 2.4 points in 16.2 minutes of play.

Meanwhile, Fullerton is coming off one of its best seasons in recent history, finishing with a 21-11 record that included a three-game run in postseason play in the National Invitation Tournament.

Guibunda will travel across the District to join the team at American University.

Originally from Maputo, Mozambique, Guibunda attended King & Low Heywood High School, where he was ranked the No. 16 high school center in the nation by College Basketball magazine before enrolling at Georgetown.

Guibunda appeared in four games for a total of seven minutes in his freshman season.

Georgetown Senior Sports Communications Director Bill Shapland said the university has no further comment on these transfer students.

http://www.thehoya.com/sports/082605/sports5.cfm

Duke Crews - Georgetown is One of Four Finalists

2005-08-28T19:33:00.000-04:00

(Look who we beat out to make it to Crews' final four)

Penns Grove product took game to Virginia, now a five-star recruit

Sunday, August 28, 2005

By Chris Kaiser

ckaiser@sjnewsco.com

Within the year, Willard "Duke" Crews will have to make a life-changing decision.

Judging by his past actions, weighing difficult choices is an area the senior has experience.

Three years ago, Crews showed plenty of potential as a freshman on the Penns Grove High School boys basketball team. Crews stood approximately 6-foot-4 and carried the raw talent to be a dominant post player. He finished the 2002-03 season averaging 10.6 points per game and was named a Today's Sunbeam first-team all-star.

Crews' game developed on the playgrounds of Penns Grove. All who saw and mentored the budding star knew his potential would blossom into a blue-chip high school player. But an opportunity to gain more exposure and play at a higher level in Virginia couldn't be passed up.

The 15-year-old's fortune wouldn't come without sacrifice -- Crews would have to say goodbye to his mother, Louise Patrick. The transition was softened, though, as Crews was leaving one family member to join another.

Terrence Patrick, a Penns Grove alum, led Division III Newport News Apprentice School to two national championships in basketball, and his impressive skills on the gridiron has earned him an NFL tryout in September.

While attending Newport News, Patrick invited Crews, his brother, to come live with him. Crews took his brother up on the offer and has matured into a highly-touted Division I recruit at Bethel High School.

"It was just a better situation down there," Crews said. "That area has a bigger name. It's known for putting people in better schools and into professional sports. You've got Allen Iverson, Aaron Brooks, Michael Vick, Ronald Curry, there's a whole lot of people (who have come from that area.)"

"I think it's been pretty tough on (Louise Patrick)," said Terrence Patrick. "First it was me after high school, but once Willard came down here, too, she had to make a lot more trips. She wanted to make sure we were being taken care of. She's spent a lot of time on the road."

Crews now tips the scales at 235 pounds and stands at 6-foot-7. He is currently ranked 28th in the country for the Class of 2006 by Rivals.com, and has been given a five-star rating after a sensational spring and summer of AAU ball.

"I've never seen someone have such a big turnaround. He's easily the hottest prospect of the summer," Jason Jordan, a writer for the Daily Press in Newport News said. "I remember talking to him during the end of the (high school) season, he wasn't ranked in the top 150 in February or March.

"At the Boo Williams Invitational Tournament, he had a really good game against Brandon Wright -- a 6-foot-9 forward from Brentwood Academy out of Nashville, Tenn., ranked No. 5 in the nation by Rivals.com -- in the first game of the tournament and he showed him up. He knocked him down on defense and scored on him at will. He's kept at that level and went above."

Crews' play with the Boo Williams AAU team has turned plenty of heads as his potential college suitors read like a grocery list of the top college hoops programs in the country.

Among those interested in the small forward are: Cincinnati, Illinois, Connecticut, Maryland, Georgetown, Virginia, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Duke, Georgia Tech, Florida, Florida State, Miami (Fla.), Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma State, Kentucky, Michigan State and Clemson.

While it may not be March, Crews has formed his own final four, trimming his list to North Carolina, Wake Forest, Tennessee and Georgetown.

"I always knew I was going to college, I just didn't know where," Crews said. "Now that I've established myself as one of the best players in the country, I have my choice of schools and it's a great opportunity for me.

"That's what everybody dreams about, having a UNC and Duke (recruiting you), and now I have it, so it's a dream come true."

Jordan, who also writes for ESPN the Magazine and Rivals.com, said he believes Crews will have an immediate impact as a freshman at the collegiate level.

"He plays really, really strong around the basket," Jordan said. "He finishes hard. He plays hard. He's raw, but he's an excellent player. And he's necessary. You need him on your team. He's going to work hard and give you a double-double."

Defensively, Jordan compared Crews to Sheldon Williams, the Duke standout who was named NABC Defensive Player of the Year after breaking school records with 122 blocks for the season and averaging 3.7 blocks per game.

As a junior at Bethel, Crews averaged 18 points per game, leading Bethel to a 22-4 record and the state regional semifinals.

While a whirlwind of hype has swirled around Crews as his stock has risen over the summer, he hasn't allowed himself to get caught up in all the hoopla. Crews has remained humble, a trait his mother instilled in him.

"He has handled himself very well," Louise Patrick said. "When I ask him certain questions -- I want to know why he chose a certain college, I want to know what it was -- and he gives me what I need to know. So I'm satisfied with that.

"To have all the top programs respect him and look at him as, 'Oh my God, this guy is genuine,' I love that. Just to get the pat on the back to say you did a great job. It all paid off."

Sunbeam reporter John Zagone contributed to this story.

August 24, 2005 - WP - Hoyas Get Oral Commitment From Another Top Recruit

2005-08-26T21:46:00.000-04:00

Hoyas Get Oral Commitment From Another Top Recruit
Thursday, August 25, 2005; E02

Vernon Macklin , a 6-foot-9 forward who is considered to be among the top high school seniors in the country, made an unofficial commitment to the Georgetown men's basketball team.

Macklin, who averaged 22.4 points, 12.2 rebounds and 4.5 blocked shots as a junior at I.C. Norcom High in Portsmouth, Va., is rated as the 12th-best prospect by Rivals.com.

"I like the tradition at Georgetown, and I want to get better on and off the court," said Macklin, who transferred to Hargrave Military Academy over the summer.

Macklin chose the Hoyas over Wake Forest and North Carolina.

He said that a member of the Georgetown coaching staff was at every game he played this summer, and that attention factored into his decision.

"Coach [ John Thompson III ] is a straight-up and forward guy; I like the way he talks and coaches," Macklin said. "They play the game I play, running up and down."

Georgetown has now received three unofficial commitments for the 2006-07 season: Macklin, forward DaJuan Summers and guard Jeremiah Rivers (the son of Boston Celtics Coach Doc Rivers ). Summers, who was named the Baltimore Sun All-Metro player of the year as a junior at McDonogh, also is considered to be among the top 25 players in the country.

-- Camille Powell

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/24/AR2005082401900_pf.html

3/21/05 - DaJuan Summers - Player of the Year

2005-08-26T21:45:00.000-04:00

The Baltimore Sun
March 21, 2005 Monday
ALL-METRO BOYS BASKETBALL
Pat O'Malley

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
DaJuan Summers
McDonogh

Summers not only broke out at McDonogh this season, but nationally as well.

The 6-foot-9, 225-pound power forward is considered to be one of the top 100 players in the nation by a number of publications and rating services, who also have him ranked in the top 15 at his position.

The spotlight on Summers started shining at the end of last summer when he sparkled at Nike showcase events and with the Cecil-Kirk Amateur Athletic Union team.

Summers followed up his big summer with a standout high school season, leading surprising McDonogh (23-6) to the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference final and a No. 5 ranking in The Sun's final poll.

Averaging 20.4 points with an explosive repertoire of dunks, not to mention a smooth touch from the perimeter, Summers also muscled up in the paint to grab 11.6 rebounds per game. McDonogh coach Matt MacMullan said Summers had the best junior season of anyone who has played for the Eagles in the past 20 years.

Fluid with a loose body and long wing-span, Summers, who had a number of double doubles and several 30-point games this season, can shoot off his dribble and deliver crisp and accurate passes. He also is a threat whether he's facing the basket or has his back to it, and he is a natural at blocking shots.

Summers is the first McDonogh player to be named All-Metro Player of the Year in boys basketball.

2/16/05 - Baltimore Sun - Dajuan Summers: His inside-outside play could open doors

2005-08-26T21:44:00.000-04:00

The Baltimore Sun
February 16, 2005
His inside-outside play could open doors;
Pat O'Malley, SUN STAFF

Boys basketball: McDonogh forward DaJuan Summers is regarded as one of the best juniors in the state, and his skills could land him on the doorstep of a Division I school.;
High Schools

DaJuan Summers' mother, Twana Summers, claims that her youngest son, 8-year-old Malik, can tell you what his older brother is going to do each time down the court. It's the kind of information opponents would love to have on the McDonogh junior.

"Malik can tell you every play what his brother will do before it happens," Twana said.

If his opponents have a clue, it's not evident. DaJuan, 6 feet 9 and 225 pounds, has a soft and accurate shot from the outside and the quickness and explosiveness to score from the inside with an assortment of dunks. He is averaging just more than 20 points per game and gives star power to the fifth-ranked Eagles (21-5), who open the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference playoffs at home tonight.

Many national recruiters and publications, including Maryland Prep Hoops.com, which featured Summers on the cover of its magazine, consider him one of the top juniors in Maryland.

"DaJuan is easily among the top 100 juniors in the nation, and I think with DeMatha's Jeff Allen [6-8] ranks as the best juniors in Maryland," said Tom Strickler, who covers the Mid-Atlantic area for Eastern Basketball and National Recruiting Service.

"He is another in a long line of great players to come out of Baltimore. And what a transformation he has made into a power forward. He can take a shot off the dribble, and uses his body well when he takes a defender to the basket. After seeing him as a sophomore, then late summer with Cecil-Kirk [Amateur Athletic Union team], I saw a player passing and shooting. What a transformation in just a matter of months."

Division I schools, including Maryland, are interested in Summers. McDonogh coach Matt MacMullan has been contacted by Georgetown, Florida State, Miami, Wake Forest, North Carolina State, Notre Dame and Connecticut.

Steve Keller, publisher of National Recruiting Report out of Neptune, N.J., sees Summers as "the best junior in Maryland who is underrated on the national level."

"Some people don't realize how good this kid is. I see him playing in the ACC or Big Ten and eventually becoming a star," Keller said.

He is not underrated at McDonogh.

"Clearly, DaJuan has the most natural ability and talent of any junior we've had," said MacMullan, who is in his eighth season as Eagles coach and has three former players currently playing Division I basketball.

"DaJuan has definitely had the best junior year of anyone we've ever had."

This week's MIAA A Conference tournament, with the semifinals at Villa Julie on Friday and a 3 p.m. final on Sunday, will be the last chance for the recruiters to see Summers as a junior.

McDonogh earned the third seed and will play 10th-ranked Archbishop Spalding (21-10) at 5 p.m. today.

The Eagles are contenders primarily because of the play of Summers, who is averaging 20.4 points and 12 rebounds per game after averaging 11 points and six rebounds as a sophomore.

He worked hard in the offseason to improve his overall game, playing for the Cecil-Kirk team of coach Anthony Lewis. It's the same AAU team that Archbishop Spalding's Rudy Gay played on before deciding to attend Connecticut, where he is currently starring.

"They have similar styles, similar rankings at this time [of their careers]," said Lewis in comparing Summers to Gay.

Lewis said Summers is the 57th-ranked junior overall and 19th at his position by Rivals.com, which is about where Gay was as a junior before he moved into the top 10 before the start of his senior year.

Could Summers reach that level?

"Possibly, the signs are there for him to take it to the next level," Lewis said. "He's a great kid with a great work ethic."

Summers knows he benefited from the summer work.

"I played on the wing with Cecil-Kirk and started shooting more and being more aggressive going to the basket, attacking the rim better," said Summers, who played in the Nike All-American Camp, the Nike Jamboree and the 17-and-under Showcase.

"I grew about three inches and put on 15 pounds and did well at all of those camps and people started noticing me."

Summers' idol is Carmelo Anthony, the former Towson Catholic star now playing with the Denver Nuggets.

But Summers says his single mother, Twana, is his "role model," because of "her work ethic." She works for Safeway and has dedicated her life to her children, DaJuan, Malik and 19-year-old Regina Summers, who is a graduate of Walbrook High and currently the No. 2 debater on Georgia State's team.

"My mom has taught me that you have to work hard to succeed and to be well-mannered," DaJuan said.

Most of McDonogh's scoring last season was done on the perimeter by then-seniors Justin Drummond, Corey Davis and Jon Brick and freshman Malcolm Delaney, who transferred to Towson Catholic this year.

This season, McDonogh's go-to guy is Summers, who, like Anthony, has developed an inside and outside game.

"We definitely saw DaJuan as our No. 1 option going into this season, and we had high expectations for him," MacMullan said. "He's more than lived up to those expectations."

Macklin Puts Up Big Numbers

2005-08-26T21:43:00.002-04:00

Charlotte Observer
December 31, 2004
MACKLIN PUTS UP BIG NUMBERS
LANGSTON WERTZ JR., STAFF WRITER

I.C. Norcom center Vernon Macklin couldn't sleep Wednesday night. He said he tossed and turned thinking about playing in the Bojangles' Shootout Thursday.

Turns out he's pretty good with no sleep.

Macklin had a variety of quick dunks and twisting layups in Norcom's 48-42 win against Statesville Christian. Macklin, a 6-foot-9 junior, finished with 20 points, 19 rebounds, six blocks, two steals and two assists.

His rebounds total fell one short of tying Raymond Felton's tournament record.

Macklin was on his way toward a big game after grabbing 10 rebounds in the first three minutes, showcasing uncanny speed and quickness for a player his size. But the game slowed to a halt in the second quarter.

Norcom, up seven, held the ball near halfcourt, inviting Statesville Christian to come out of a zone.

Statesville Christian wouldn't, so the Greyhounds (5-2) held the ball. The Greyhounds started with seven minutes, 39 seconds left and no points were scored until Norcom guard Antonio Williams hit a three-pointer with five seconds left.

Things got so slow that at one point, Norcom coach Horace Lambert called Macklin over to talk to him in the backcourt, a weird sort of one-man timeout that lasted about 25 seconds.

"I was happy about the stall," Macklin said. "I was tired of the zone and I wanted them to play man. I felt I played well, though. I was so pumped up and I couldn't sleep (Wednesday) night. I just wanted to play in this tournament so bad."

About the only thing Macklin didn't do well was make free throws. He was 4-for-12.

"I gotta work on those," he said with a smile, "that was kind of pitiful, huh?"

"Big Ticket" Sees Big Future

2005-08-26T21:43:00.001-04:00

Charlotte Observer
December 30, 2004
'BIG TICKET' SEES BIG FUTURE
LANGSTON WERTZ JR., STAFF WRITER

Vernon Macklin is considered one of the nation's best high school basketball players.

If he attends college, he says he'll probably choose North Carolina.

"I like the way they play, mainly," said Macklin, 17, a junior who will play in the Bojangle's Shootout this week at Charlotte Latin. "I love the way they run coach (Roy) Williams' offense. They're fun to watch. I figure they'd be fun to play with."

Macklin and his I.C. Norcom (Va.) teammates play today at 2:30 p.m. against Statesville Christian in the tournament formerly known as the Dell Curry Shootout.

At 6-foot-9 and 200 pounds, Macklin averages 29 points, 14 rebounds and five blocked shots. National recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons said he might be the second-best player in his class behind 7-foot center Greg Oden of Indianapolis. Oden is widely expected to be the first player taken in the 2006 NBA draft if he decides to turn pro.

Gibbons believes Macklin is also good enough to be a potential first-round pick - if he chooses to skip school.

"He can shoot 3s, go inside and he's a quick leaper," Gibbons said. "He's definitely top five in the nation. If he chooses to go to college, he won't be in college very long. I hope he goes to college, but the pro scouts are already impressed with his potential."

*

Numbers climb steadily

Macklin has become a national name in recruiting circles. Some observers felt he was the best player in the Hampton Roads, Va., area as an eighth-grader. He was given the nickname "The Big Ticket."

Macklin scored 29 points in his high school debut two years ago and was ranked No. 2 nationally, among freshmen and sophomores, behind Oden by national analyst Brick Oettinger of prepstars.com. Hoop Scoop's Clark Francis compared him to the Hampton Roads area's most well-known players: Alonzo Mourning, Allen Iverson and Ronald Curry.

Macklin averaged 19 points and nine rebounds as a freshman and improved to 21.5 points last season.

Norcom coach Horace Lambert said Macklin impresses scouts with his ability to run the floor swiftly and to dominate a game on offense or defense.

In his team's season opener this year, Macklin had 41 points and 21 rebounds, many of his points coming on crowd-pleasing dunks.
"I love to try to get the crowd hyped up by dunking everything I can get my hands on," he said. "I love to dunk. Sometimes it's an intimidation thing, too, because the next time I go up (the defense) won't jump because they're pretty sure I'm going to dunk it again."

*

NBA lure strong

Macklin said he has plenty to work on. He sees himself as a small forward in college, said he needs to work on man-to-man defensive skills and his outside shot.

"I want to get bigger, and I want to get stronger," he said. "I'm in the gym shooting as much as I can. Wherever I go to the next level, I don't want to have a weakness when I get there."

He said the lure of NBA riches is strong for a young man who comes from a family of eight. Macklin has long lived with his grandparents, Wavely Powell and Dorothy Watkins. Watkins preached to him about keeping his grades up and getting an education.

When there was talk of Macklin possibly transferring to a prep basketball factory, like an Oak Hill Academy (Va.), Watkins made it known she wanted her grandson to graduate from his natural home school.

"There's time for the other stuff," she would say.

Watkins died recently, and Macklin said that was the toughest thing he's ever endured. He said his grandmother wanted to see him attend college, so school weighs heavily on his mind. Asked his favorites, he lists, in order, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Maryland, Georgetown and Georgia Tech.

Told North Carolina's football team is playing in Charlotte today in the Continental Tire Bowl, and bringing thousands of Tar Heels fans, Macklin smiles.

"I hope they come see me," he said. "I'd like that. I want to show them how I can play. I want to show them my whole game."

It might be a look at the future.

*

Langston Wertz Jr: (704) 358-5133; lwertz@charlotteobserver.com.

Shooting Higher (Macklin to Hargrave)

2005-08-26T21:43:00.000-04:00

The Virginian-Pilot Edition
June 30, 2005
SHOOTING HIGHER
PAUL WHITE

Boo Williams will lend his expertise all summer.

Michael Jordan will weigh in with some tips in August.

But it is what will happen in the fall that could have the biggest impact on the basketball fortunes of Portsmouth's Vernon Macklin.

South Hampton Roads' most acclaimed basketball recruit in 17 years, Macklin will head from Norcom High to Hargrave Military Academy, intent on maximizing his immense basketball potential.

''It's just something I feel I have to do,'' soon-to-be Cadet Macklin said. ''It's the place I need to be.''

At Hargrave, Macklin will have to adjust to 6 a.m. reveille calls, honor-code requirements and uniform inspections. He also will be joining a postgraduate team that went 28-1 last season against junior college teams, college junior varsity teams and other prep schools.

Perhaps more importantly, Macklin is placing himself in an environment that, if he can make it through, will all but ensure his ability to accept one of the myriad of major college scholarship offers at his disposal.

According to Hargrave coach Kevin Keatts, 12 of the 13 players on the 2004-05 Hargrave team a signed Division I letter-of-intent.

This becomes particularly significant in light of the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement that requires high school players to wait until a year after their class graduates before being eligible for the draft.

Although Macklin has long maintained his desire to attend college -- preferably at an ACC school -- rather than jump straight to the NBA, some analysts have suggested NBA teams might have been intrigued by Macklin's talents were he to make himself available. At least next year, that will not be an option.

Keatts said Macklin's progress at Norcom left him on track to graduate from high school with his class next June. Still, he has yet to take the SAT or the ACT, and with its smaller class sizes and more focused attention, the folks at Hargrave say they specialize in putting the finishing academic touches on most students.

''We have excellent teams, but we're more proud of the fact that all of our kids are prepared academically to go on to college,'' Keatts said. ''And we kind of prove it with how many of our kids go on to the next level.''

Dominance at that next level is something that has been projected for Macklin since his freshman year at Norcom, when some analysts had him rated the second-best player in the country among ninth-graders.

In the two years since, Macklin, now a three-time All-Tidewater performer with 1,480 career points and the 2005 All-Tidewater Player of the Year, has pretty much maintained his lofty standing among the nation's elite. Most recruiting services have him among the nation's 10 best rising seniors. Not since Alonzo Mourning roamed the courts at Indian River in 1988 has a South Hampton Roads player been so highly regarded.

Unlike Mourning, though, much of Macklin's acclaim is based not on what he is but on what he might become.

Beyond the offensive rebound and putback dunk, Macklin's offensive game remains a work in progress despite averaging 22.4 points a game last winter. But he's 6-foot-9, with the wingspan of someone about 7-foot-2. And he's quick enough to defend smaller players on the perimeter, yet effective enough in the post to reign as a devastating shot blocker.

Still, after years of ranking Macklin largely on potential, analysts are targeting this year as the one when he finally needs to put it all together, especially since this is a player who will turn 19 in September.

''It's time to produce,'' said Rob Harrington of prepstars.com, which has Macklin rated No. 10 among rising seniors. ''Or at least show improvement. I mean, if he doesn't, someone will still take a chance on him. But he needs to step it up if he wants to stay among the very top guys.''

This summer will provide Macklin plenty of opportunity to improve his stock. He has already attended a Nike skills development camp in Portland, Ore., featuring 15 of the nation's best recruits. Last week, he was in Richmond for a four-day event hosted by the NBA Players Association.

Next month, he will return to the well-known Nike camp in addition to performing in tournaments with Boo Williams' AAU team. In August, he will be 1 of 5 players in Los Angeles at a program hosted by Michael Jordan.

''It's a big summer for him,'' Williams said.

Then it's on to Hargrave. Macklin originally looked into attending another prestigious boarding school/basketball powerhouse, Oak Hill Academy. But he said he became enamored with Hargrave after visiting the school, which will provide him a full scholarship.

The prospect of playing with good friend Stefan Welsh, formerly of two-time defending state champion Woodside High, also excited him. The two have long talked about playing together in college. Now they will be teammates at Hargrave.

''I'm looking forward to it,'' Macklin said. ''Schoolwork and basketball. That's all I'm going to think about.''

Reach Paul White at 757-446-2630 or paul.white@pilotonline.com

MACKLIN REPORT

During his freshman year at Norcom, some analysts had him rated the second-best player in the country among ninth-graders.

He is a three-time All-Tidewater performer with 1,480 career points and the 2005 All-Tidewater Player of the Year.

He averaged 22.4 points a game last winter.

Most recruiting services have him among the nation's 10 best rising seniors.

Post - Rivers Commits to GU

2005-08-26T21:42:00.001-04:00

The Washington Post
May 11, 2005
Rivers's Son Commits to Hoyas

Jeremiah Rivers, the son of Boston Celtics Coach Doc Rivers, made an unofficial commitment to play for the Georgetown men's basketball team in 2006.

The 6-foot-4 guard chose the Hoyas over Notre Dame, Kansas and Georgia Tech.

"He felt he fit in there; he felt comfortable with [Coach John Thompson III] and the players," said Matt Hixenbaugh, Rivers's coach at Winter Park High in Florida.

"He likes the upward momentum around the program and wants to be a part of it."

Rivers, who averaged 15 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds for the 17-11 Wildcats, is considered to be among the top junior point guards in the country. Next month, he is scheduled to participate in USA Basketball's Youth Development Festival as well as the NBA Players' Association Top 100 camp.

At Georgetown, Rivers won't be the only player with a famous father playing for Thompson.

Pat Ewing Jr. reportedly has decided to transfer to Georgetown after playing two seasons at Indiana and will be eligible for the 2006-07 season.

"He's lived his whole life in the spotlight; people always know who he is," Hixenbaugh said of Rivers.

"I think he identified with Coach Thompson a little bit. Everything kind of fit together perfectly."

August 25 - WT - Coveted Macklin commits to Hoyas

2005-08-26T21:42:00.000-04:00

The Washington Times
Coveted Macklin commits to Hoyas
By Barker Davis
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published August 25, 2005

Georgetown basketball's striking renaissance under John Thompson III continued yesterday as the coach and his staff received a verbal commitment from blue-chip power forward Vernon Macklin of Hargrave Military Academy (Chatham, Va.), a consensus top 15 prospect among the class of 2006.

"Georgetown obviously has a strong tradition with big men," the 6-foot-9, 221-pound Macklin said yesterday in explaining why he chose the Hoyas over North Carolina and Wake Forest. "It also has an excellent academic reputation, so it's a place where I feel like I can do well on and off the court.

"What maybe got me the most, though, was Coach Thompson. He came to every game I played this summer. He even showed up at some three-on-three games, and that definitely made an impression."

In the 16 months since taking over Georgetown's foundering program from Craig Esherick, Thompson has impressed many of his peers. South Carolina coach Dave Odom called the Hoyas "the best-coached team we've faced all season" after the Gamecocks squeaked past the Hoyas in the NIT quarterfinals to leave Georgetown with a 19-13 record in Thompson's debut season.

And both Odom and Connecticut sideline maestro Jim Calhoun used the word "phenomenal" to describe Georgetown's instant transformation under Thompson.

The program's momentum has carried into the offseason, where Thompson already has secured commitments from three elite rising seniors, completing a gold-standard recruiting class for next season two months before Midnight Madness signals the start of the 2005-06 campaign.

"Georgetown is just about the hottest thing going right now," Hargrave coach Kevin Keatts said. "It's an exciting time up there, if you look at what's going on with that program. They're on the fast track back to glory, and Vernon wanted to be part of that."

Macklin will be joined on the Hilltop by fellow summer commitments Jeremiah Rivers of Winter Park, Fla., and DaJuan Summers of Baltimore. Rivers, the son of NBA player and coach Doc Rivers, is a 6-4 combo guard whose stock fell somewhat after an erratic summer.

But like Macklin, Summers (6-8, 235) has been tagged as a budding superstar, skyrocketing in the recruiting rankings after dominating performances at both the Nike and NBAPA summer camps. Summers was courted at length by Maryland.

According to Rivals.com, Macklin is the No. 12 player in the Class of 2006, while Summers (McDonogh High School) is No. 24 and rising. Georgetown hasn't signed a pair of prospects with such credentials since McDonald's All-Americans Allen Iverson and Jahidi White arrived on the Hilltop in 1994.

Georgetown might have its first top 10 recruiting class in a decade. If the Hoyas don't add another player to the class, and barring transfer or NBA defections, Thompson and Co. are out of scholarships, only Ohio State, North Carolina and Stanford look certain to have stronger groups.

And though Thompson already has secured reinforcements, the near future looks equally bright. In two months, Georgetown will begin the inaugural season of the brutish, new-look Big East armed with an intact starting five that includes leading scorer Brandon Bowman, Big East Rookie of the Year Jeff Green, and 3-point marksman D.J. Owens.

"Coach [Thompson] has got it going again up there," said Macklin, who goes by the nickname "Big Ticket." "He's determined, and he's a very hard worker. I love that, because I'm all business when the ball goes up. I can't wait to get up there, because it's time to go to work. It's time to ball."

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20050825-120644-8382r

"Big Ticket" See Big Future

2005-08-25T21:43:00.000-04:00

Charlotte Observer (North Carolina)
December 30, 2004
'BIG TICKET' SEES BIG FUTURE
LANGSTON WERTZ JR., STAFF WRITER

Vernon Macklin is considered one of the nation's best high school basketball players.

If he attends college, he says he'll probably choose North Carolina.

"I like the way they play, mainly," said Macklin, 17, a junior who will play in the Bojangle's Shootout this week at Charlotte Latin. "I love the way they run coach (Roy) Williams' offense. They're fun to watch. I figure they'd be fun to play with."

Macklin and his I.C. Norcom (Va.) teammates play today at 2:30 p.m. against Statesville Christian in the tournament formerly known as the
Dell Curry Shootout.

At 6-foot-9 and 200 pounds, Macklin averages 29 points, 14 rebounds and five blocked shots. National recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons said he might be the second-best player in his class behind 7-foot center Greg Oden of Indianapolis. Oden is widely expected to be the first player taken in the 2006 NBA draft if he decides to turn pro.

Gibbons believes Macklin is also good enough to be a potential first-round pick - if he chooses to skip school.

"He can shoot 3s, go inside and he's a quick leaper," Gibbons said. "He's definitely top five in the nation. If he chooses to go to college, he won't be in college very long. I hope he goes to college, but the pro scouts are already impressed with his potential."

*

Numbers climb steadily

Macklin has become a national name in recruiting circles. Some observers felt he was the best player in the Hampton Roads, Va., area as an eighth-grader. He was given the nickname "The Big Ticket."

Macklin scored 29 points in his high school debut two years ago and was ranked No. 2 nationally, among freshmen and sophomores, behind Oden by national analyst Brick Oettinger of prepstars.com. Hoop Scoop's Clark Francis compared him to the Hampton Roads area's most well-known players: Alonzo Mourning, Allen Iverson and Ronald Curry.

Macklin averaged 19 points and nine rebounds as a freshman and improved to 21.5 points last season.

Norcom coach Horace Lambert said Macklin impresses scouts with his ability to run the floor swiftly and to dominate a game on offense or defense.

In his team's season opener this year, Macklin had 41 points and 21 rebounds, many of his points coming on crowd-pleasing dunks.
"I love to try to get the crowd hyped up by dunking everything I can get my hands on," he said. "I love to dunk. Sometimes it's an intimidation thing, too, because the next time I go up (the defense) won't jump because they're pretty sure I'm going to dunk it again."

*

NBA lure strong

Macklin said he has plenty to work on. He sees himself as a small forward in college, said he needs to work on man-to-man defensive skills and his outside shot.

"I want to get bigger, and I want to get stronger," he said. "I'm in the gym shooting as much as I can. Wherever I go to the next level, I don't want to have a weakness when I get there."

He said the lure of NBA riches is strong for a young man who comes from a family of eight. Macklin has long lived with his grandparents, Wavely Powell and Dorothy Watkins. Watkins preached to him about keeping his grades up and getting an education.

When there was talk of Macklin possibly transferring to a prep basketball factory, like an Oak Hill Academy (Va.), Watkins made it known she wanted her grandson to graduate from his natural home school.

"There's time for the other stuff," she would say.

Watkins died recently, and Macklin said that was the toughest thing he's ever endured. He said his grandmother wanted to see him attend college, so school weighs heavily on his mind. Asked his favorites, he lists, in order, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Maryland, Georgetown and Georgia Tech.

Told North Carolina's football team is playing in Charlotte today in the Continental Tire Bowl, and bringing thousands of Tar Heels fans, Macklin smiles.

"I hope they come see me," he said. "I'd like that. I want to show them how I can play. I want to show them my whole game."

It might be a look at the future.

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Langston Wertz Jr: (704) 358-5133; lwertz@charlotteobserver.com.

Giubunda transferes to AU

2005-08-22T09:13:00.000-04:00

American University Men's Basketball Announces Addition of Georgetown Transfer Cornelio Guibunda
Sophomore forward will sit out one season
Aug. 22, 2005
WASHINGTON - American University head men's basketball coach Jeff Jones on Monday announced former Georgetown University forward Cornelio Guibunda will transfer to AU and begin classes this fall.
Guibunda, a 6-9, 227-pound forward, played in four games for the Hoyas last season. At King & Low-Heywood Thomas School, Guibunda averaged 21 points, 15 rebounds and nine blocks per game in his senior season. He was ranked 16th among high school centers by College Basketball magazine.
"We're really excited to have Cornelio join our program," Jones said. "This year will be a valuable one for him to work on his overall game and help better our team in practice."
Per NCAA transfer rules, Guibunda will be required to sit out the 2005-06 season. He will retain sophomore eligibility when he returns to the court in the 2006-07 season.

http://aueagles.collegesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/082205aab.html

June 30 - Macklin to Hargrave

2005-06-30T00:30:00.000-04:00

2005-06-30T00:15:00.000-04:00

12-31-04 - Macklin Puts Up Big Numbers

2004-12-31T21:44:00.000-05:00