L.A. Friends Find Home With Hoyas

Considering all the scenarios, all the possible detours that could have separated them, it was a longshot that Brandon Bowman and Ashanti Cook would spend four minutes together at Georgetown, let alone four years.

They appeared headed in different directions coming out of Westchester High in 2002, when Bowman signed with the Hoyas and Cook with New Mexico. But Lobo Coach Fran Fraschilla resigned before Cook set foot on campus, freeing Cook to join his high school teammate at Georgetown.

But Bowman didn’t really like it there. Cook feared he was losing his freshman year roommate when Bowman, dissatisfied with losing and the chill of an East Coast winter, received a release from his scholarship. Later, he grudgingly decided to return for his sophomore year.

Things worsened the next season, which ended with nine consecutive losses and the firing of Coach Craig Esherick. Bowman and Cook could have parted ways again but decided to give Coach John Thompson III and his Princeton offense a try.

Then, after another season that ended without an NCAA tournament appearance, came the lure of the NBA, which nearly prompted Bowman to forgo his senior season.

Looking back, the hardships and heartache have made this season and its accomplishments -- the first Sweet 16 appearance for Georgetown in five years; the Hoyas (23-9) play Florida (29-6) today in a Minneapolis Regional semifinal at the Metrodome -- all the more enjoyable for the friends who have been playing together since the fifth grade.

“I’m just glad we’ve had a season like we’ve had this year before we leave, me and Ashanti,” said Bowman, a 6 feet 9 senior forward. “It’s a good opportunity to do something special and be in the history books at Georgetown.”

Success was always a given for Bowman and Cook at Westchester, where the pair combined to help the star-studded Comets to a state title and a 32-2 record during their senior year. Initially at least, it seemed like the best they could hope for at Georgetown was a berth in the National Invitation Tournament.

“At Westchester, it was like everything fell in place,” Bowman said. “Here, it’s been kind of different.”

The Hoyas hovered around .500 during their freshman year before making a run to the NIT finals, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy Bowman, who wanted to make a bigger mark elsewhere.

Cook told him he was better off staying.

“The thing about our friendship is, he’s not afraid to tell me something and I’m not afraid to tell him something, and we don’t get angry at each other about it,” said Cook, a 6-2 senior guard. “It’s more like, he’s trying to help me out and I’m trying to help him out. We both want to see each other do well.”

Said Bowman: “We’re pretty much up front with one another. You have to have that in a good relationship, so we don’t hold anything back.”

Even though he became the Hoyas’ second-leading scorer as a sophomore, Bowman’s patience was further tested during a losing season that resulted in the departure of Esherick.

“I hate to lose,” Bowman said. “It wasn’t something I was really accustomed to before I got here because of all the winning we did in high school. It was kind of different freshman year, sophomore year. All the losing didn’t sit well with me at all.”

Thompson’s arrival initially created more problems than it solved for a group of players skeptical of the Princeton offense.

“It was kind of tough buying into the system and believing that it would work,” Cook conceded. All the cutting on backdoor plays “takes a lot out on your knees and your shins.”

Consider Cook and Bowman converts now. After getting back to the NIT last year, Georgetown appears on the brink of retaking a place among the nation’s elite basketball programs, a place it held for most of the 27 years it was coached by John Thompson Jr., the coach’s father.

Part of this season’s success can be attributed to the bond between fellow starters Bowman and Cook, the younger Thompson said.

“They know each other inside and out,” Thompson said. “They know what buttons to push on each other and when to push them. Has it helped our team? I definitely think so.”

One indication of Georgetown’s rise is that Bowman has gone from the Hoyas’ leading scorer as a junior to its third-leading scorer this season, behind sophomore forward Jeff Green and sophomore center Roy Hibbert.

That’s OK with Bowman, who considered turning pro after last season but decided to stay.

“I wanted an opportunity to do this,” he said of the Hoyas’ NCAA tournament run. “It’s kind of like a dream for me and Ashanti, I guess you could say. We both have the opportunity, we’re both here in the Sweet 16.”