Son Is Shining at Georgetown

This isn’t his father’s Georgetown, so the son with a familiar name accepted a formidable challenge.

John Thompson III returned home from Princeton’s ivy-covered walls to clean up a mess. The project might be even bigger than Thompson expected, and the shadow of his Hall of Fame father still looms over the program he left six years ago. Things could be easier.

Of course, being John Thompson’s son is nothing new for the Hoyas’ first-year coach, who understood the ground rules. Comparisons would be inevitable if he coached at the school his father led to prominence, which is fine with him.

Georgetown has been a big part of his life, and rebuilding the program is now his mission.

“People ask me all the time, ‘Do you talk to your father?’ And that’s a real funny question to me,” Thompson said. “I guess they figure that because of the comparisons, and with what I’m trying to do now with the program, I wouldn’t want people to think that I’m turning to my father for advice.

“But that’s strange to me, because Pops is a pretty good resource. We have a long way to go, there are no two ways about that, so I need as many good resources as I can get.”

It appears the Hoyas have already benefited from some fatherly advice.

Georgetown, which finished last season with eight consecutive conference losses, upset then-No.16 Pittsburgh, 67-64, in Thompson’s Big East Conference debut this month at Pittsburgh. The Hoyas (10-4, 2-1 in the Big East) are off to a surprising start, especially considering that Thompson has been on the job only since late April, is still slowly installing the intricate “Princeton” offense and acknowledges that the team’s talent level probably isn’t high enough to contend in the tough Big East.

Junior forward Brandon Bowman has team-high averages of 15.5 points and 7.4 rebounds, and guard Ashanti Cook, who also played with Bowman at Westchester High in Los Angeles, is third in scoring at 11.2 points. Jeff Green, an impressive freshman forward, averages 13.3 points and 7.2 rebounds.

Cook scored a game-high 23 points in the upset of Pittsburgh. Bowman had 18 points and nine rebounds.

“We have a group of guys who on most days work pretty hard,” Thompson said. “They have adapted and they’re learning, but it is a process.

“They’re learning a new system, a new way to play and a new way to think. It’s going to take time to get these guys to understand what’s expected of them. We have to increase our talent base, but I’m impressed with the effort.”

A proud father is also impressed.

“They’re a surprise to me,” said Thompson, who coached the Hoyas for 27 years and is now an NBA analyst for TNT.

“I had no idea, based on what he had to deal with, that they would have this type of start, and they’re definitely overachieving. He’s had great wins starting three freshmen and a group of guys totally unfamiliar with what he’s doing.

“It’s hard because people have so much to measure him by, to compare, but he knew that going in. He had his eyes open.”

The younger Thompson guided Princeton, his alma mater, to three Ivy League titles and two NCAA tournament appearances in four seasons. Georgetown turned to the favorite son to replace Craig Esherick, a longtime assistant who succeeded the elder Thompson when he resigned in 1999.

Georgetown had only one appearance in the NCAA tournament under Esherick and sub-.500 Big East records in four of his six seasons. The Hoyas were only 4-12 in conference play last season.

Thompson’s father built the Hoyas into a national power after taking over a struggling program in 1972. Georgetown won the 1984 national title and made three Final Four appearances, twice finishing as the runner-up, in a four-season span from 1982 to 1985.

The team won six Big East titles and earned 20 NCAA tournament bids. Talk about big shoes to fill.

“It’s hard to go to three Final Fours in four years.... That’s success that just doesn’t happen too often,” said the younger Thompson, who was 68-42 at Princeton. “Then you look at the schools that kids want to go to these days, they’re schools that have had success recently, so you know you have your work ahead of you.

“But is that where we want to be again? It is. Are we a long way away from that point? Yeah. But we’re going to do everything in our power to get to that. I wouldn’t have taken this job unless I believed we could do that.”

Thompson, 38, had on-the-job training in following a Hall of Fame coach at Princeton. He’d played for Pete Carril, who led the Tigers to 13 Ivy League championships, and was an assistant coach under Carril, then Bill Carmody.

Coaching at Georgetown is the only job that could have lured him from Princeton, Thompson said.

“I love Princeton and everything about Princeton. Princeton basketball is a part of who I am, and it always will be,” he said. “But I’ve said this over and over again, ‘Taking this job was a chance to leave home to come home.’ ”

As for the pressure of being John Thompson’s son, it’s not as if he has known anything different.

Said Hoya assistant Robert Burke, who played with Thompson in high school in Washington: “I don’t think it’s a problem for him at all, and I’ve seen him dealing with it for a long time. “He was a good high school player, he was All-[Metro], and people were always talking about his dad because his dad was going to Final Fours. I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I don’t know how he could have handled it any better.”

Thompson’s father agreed.

“He’s been my son all his life, so that’s not something new to him,” said Thompson, who had a 596-239 record at Georgetown.

“He has also been in a situation with Pete Carril ... where Pete had a lot of success. He has already had some success following someone who had tremendous success and a tremendous reputation.”

Recruiting is the key for another Thompson to succeed at Georgetown.

The school used to be among the top destinations for high school All-Americans, but there was a major recruiting drop-off with Esherick at the helm.

Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning and Allen Iverson once were the pillars of the program, and Thompson believes in a star-power system.

“The beauty of being at Georgetown is that we do have that history,” he said. “These kids are not that far removed that they don’t know about the Allen Iversons of the world, the Alonzo Mournings of the world.

“You couple that with the fact that we are in Washington, D.C., and we are one of the top academic institutions, and we have a lot to work with. We’re going to recruit guys who can play at the highest level because that’s where we want to be again.”