Splinters: JTIII Revives Hoyas

Someone trigger the Amber Alert, someone has stolen the Hoyas. Having watched my formerly-inept alma mater match up against two of the top teams in the Big East in men’s basketball I can’t come to any other conclusion. Alright, maybe they’re pod people, but one way or another this year’s Georgetown team is far different from any other squad in the past five years.

I was shocked to find traces of a coherent offense running around on the court at Pittsburgh. I was floored to witness the Hoyas call a timeout to actually diagram a final play with about 30 seconds remaining and the score tied at 64. And I nearly died when Brandon Bowman flawlessly executed a backdoor cut to the basket for the game-winning layup. Who are these guys?

For five long, and I do mean long, years I watched as then-coach Craig Esherick had the Hoyas scrambling around like headless chickens for 30 seconds before heaving up a desperation three-pointer just before the shot clock expired. And at the end of every close game, Georgetown would follow the same strategy. Pass pointlessly around the perimeter before tossing up a low-percentage three-pointer. Of course the essential ingredient in all of this fruitlessness was that no one make any cuts of any kind.

My friends and I referred to this as the Paralysis Offense. Esherick would always call for this offense by holding his arms above his head and forming a zero with his hands. We always agreed that this was an apt signal for the offense since zero was exactly the number of points it usually yielded. It was also appropriate because that scheme had zero chance of actually working. You see? It works on so many levels. Brilliant.

And of course like any good offense the Paralysis Offense had variations such as the “Mental Paralysis Offense” where a player, usually Ashanti Cook of Brandon Bowman would suddenly feel the need to travel, step on the baseline, commit an offense foul or fake a drive, pivot and take a three-pointer as they fell away into the stands.

But the common denominator here was the Zero, and that’s exactly what Georgetown basketball had become, a zero. Georgetown was so bad last season no one even took the time to remark how bad it really was. It was irrelevant. After the Hoyas lost by 15 to Virginia Tech last season, the program had hit rock bottom. But then, two games later, things got even worse when the beleaguered Hoyas lost to a St. John’s team that had expelled or suspended a huge chunk of its team for videotaping a romp with a hooker. If the Virginia Tech loss was rock bottom, then the Hoyas were drilling for China.

What was most disparaging to Hoya fans during this time was that Esherick saw nothing wrong with this; even Athletic Director Joe Lang said that a goal of making the NCAA Tournament every year was unreasonable. Esherick’s indifference and, at times, flat out defiance that the program was succeeding, combined with Lang’s lowering of the bar culminated in a firing and a retirement and the entrance of the man who would be Georgetown’s savior — John Thompson III.

In less than 15 games, JTIII has achieved what Esherick couldn’t accomplish in five years. The Hoyas are executing and intelligent game plan. Mistakes are down and results are up. But even more importantly, the team believes in itself.

There is fire once again for the Blue and Gray. After giving back all of their 19-point lead against Pittsburgh, the Hoyas didn’t collapse as was their M.O. under Esherick. Rather they hung tight, cinched their shorts and came away with their first victory over a ranked team since 2002. Even against UConn when GU trailed by 19 at halftime, the team rallied to fall by only seven to one of the top teams in the country.

At the end of that game, freshman forward Jeff Green (who has been phenomenal this season and will be a stud for years to come) swung his arms in frustration — a frustration born from the knowledge that there were four to five mistakes (including a blown dunk, a horrible travel, and a missed put-back) that could have made the difference between winning and losing.

After beating Rutgers on the strength of a 44-point second half last Tuesday the Hoyas’ record now stands at 10-4. And that’s after playing their toughest pre-conference schedule in recent memory. It’s possible, however unlikely, that with one or two more unexpected wins like the one over Pittsburgh, that the Hoyas could be returning to the NCAA Tournament this season. Who would have thought that would even be possible this season?

Thompson III has rejuvenated this team in a ridiculously short period of time. Will they keep it up all year? Who knows? But one thing is for certain — these Hoyas are different. And as any Georgetown fan will tell you, after the last five years, change is a very, very, very good thing.

Mike Hume may be emailed at mhume@fcnp.com