Splinters: Thompson III Looks To Lead Hoyas to Improved 2005

It’s time for the college hoops season and while they may not be the best hoops team in the D.C. area, the Georgetown Hoyas are certainly the most intriguing local story of the 2004-05 season.

After the departure of Allen Iverson from Georgetown following the 1996-97 season, the Hoyas have steadily spiraled downward, and with the resignation of the legendary John Thompson in 1999 the once-famed blue and gray ballers have completed faded into obscurity. This season, despite dumping ineffective Head Coach Craig Esherick, for Thompson’s son John Thompson III, Georgetown does not have a single game broadcast on national television. This for a team that once appeared in three straight Final Fours in the mid-80s and has produced such NBA All-Stars as Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo and Iverson.

Now there’s a burning ember of hope and that comes in the form of the younger Thompson, and while the team’s overall record might not improve in the intensely competitive Big East, JTIII’s first season at G-town will be a success if the Hoyas can show even slight betterment in some of the areas where they foundered under Esherick.

The biggest area where Georgetown needs to improve is in running a set offense. Under Esherick, the offense consisted of a high-low game with the amazing Mike Sweetney in the low post and guards Gerald Riley, Tony Bethel and Drew Hall playing along the perimeter. But the departure of Bethel and Hall (transferred) and Sweetney (lottery draft pick by the Knicks in 2003) rendered that offense useless last season and the graduation of Riley has left the Hoyas without a clear threat from the perimeter this season.

Without a clear offensive stud, Georgetown will likely have to rely on playing intelligent basketball on offense, something the Hoyas have not exactly been guilty of in recent years. Thompson III could change that by installing aspects of the Princeton offense, where he served as head coach prior to coming to GU. If the Hoyas can mount a consistent offensive scheme, then the traditional “in-your-jock” defense for which Georgetown has always been famous, might be able to keep talented foes close enough to upset.

Of course consistency is something else the Hoyas struggled with under Esherick. At times, Georgetown could play head to head with any team in the country, throwing scares into teams like UConn, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Virginia and Duke in the past three seasons. However, all they were able to do was scare them because of critical turnovers and other mental mistakes such as taking ill-advised shots at crucial times. Often those mistakes turned into cold streaks which ended up costing the Hoyas a ‘W.’

Nothing has personified the Hoyas more in recent years than late-game losses. Since 2000-01 Georgetown has dropped 21 of 125 games by either five points or less or in overtime. That’s nearly 43-percent of the team’s losses. Poor late game decisions, none-existent last-second plays have contributed to those losses, but most of all any close loss always comes down to fundamental mistakes. The majority of the scoring this season should come from guard Ashanti Cook and forward Brandon Bowman, and this is the reason that most Georgetown fans are simply hoping to make it into the Big East Tournament.

Bowman and Cook are not bad athletes — far from it. They both have tremendous raw skills. But the duo, who also played together in high school, has consistently made poor game-decisions. Cook has a tendency to try to do too much off the dribble, while Bowman has a terrible habit of trying to force things on the court. He’s notorious for either hoisting up low-percentage fade-away three-pointers, driving out of control towards the hoop and picking up a charging foul, or making a baseline move only to get forced out of bounds. At 6-foot-8 and with the wingspan of an albatross, Bowman can be a huge match-up problem at small forward, IF he plays with his head and doesn’t try to do too much. If Thompson III can get this tandem to play intelligently, then the Hoyas will certainly make the Big East Tournament and could possibly make the NIT despite a relatively depleted roster.

One thing that Thompson III has already been successful at is trimming the fat from Georgetown’s schedule, by axing the majority of the cupcake games against teams like Bethune-Cookman, Coastal Carolina and Delaware State. Games like that did nothing to improve the team and only dropped the Hoyas RPI lower than the ratings for John McEnroe’s late night talk show. Haven’t heard of John Mac’s late-nighter? Precisely. While the Hoyas won’t make any national appearances this season, games against Illinois, Penn State and Temple at least have a chance at cracking the TV lineup.

This season, success will not be measured by wins and losses for the Hoyas, the Big East seems to have far too much talent for Georgetown to contend. But if Thompson gets his team playing smart, the Hoyas could chalk up a few noteworthy W’s that can get the country talking about the Blue and Gray once more.

Mike Hume may be emailed at mhume@fcnp.com