Mourning Is Making His Mark--Quickly

It’s taken Georgetown freshman Alonzo Mourning only 12 games to set two school records and conjure up comparisons to such stars as Patrick Ewing, Moses Malone and David Robinson.

All the attention and acclaim is just grand, but Mourning would just as soon be recognized for his own talents rather than be cited as the second-coming of someone else.

“All these comparisons create a little extra pressure,” he admitted. “But I shouldn’t let it get to me because I’m not Patrick Ewing or anyone else. I’m Alonzo Mourning. What I have to do is work hard and play my game, work to reach my goals and make a name for myself.”

The 6-foot-10 center needed little time to make an impression on the opposition and on the Georgetown record book. In his first home game, he registered the school’s first “triple-double” by scoring 11 points, snaring 10 rebounds and blocking a Hoya-record 11 shots against St. Leo.

“There’s no question that since Moses, he’s the best big kid to come out of high school,” said Miami coach Bill Foster after Mourning burned the Hurricanes for 26 points and 17 rebounds.

After watching Mourning score 15 points and block seven shots against his team, Pitt coach Paul Evans, who coached Robinson at Navy, declared, “There’s no comparison. Robinson averaged six minutes a game as a freshman.

“I said last year that if I was owner of one of the seven teams in the NBA lottery, I would have gotten Mourning out of high school,” Evans added. “Two years down the road, he’s better than the kids that went in the lottery last year.”

Mourning is the first Hoya to wear No. 33 since Ewing left the school in 1984. Georgetown guard Charles Smith, who played with Ewing, said Mourning has a good chance to be just as dominating as the man whose number he now wears.

“He’s improving every game because he’s a hard worker in both practice and in games,” Smith said. “He’s getting the same publicity as Patrick, and has a good shot at being every bit as good.”

Mourning is averaging 14.5 points, 8 rebounds and 6 blocked shots a game. He’s shooting 64 percent from the floor, but anguishes over every turnover and every personal foul.

“I don’t have that much experience, so I’m going to make mistakes and do a lot of stupid things,” he said. “It’s all part of the learning experience.”

Indeed, sometimes it’s hard to remember that Mourning is only 18 years old and just one year removed from playing high school ball in Chesapeake, Va. But his coach, John Thompson, who invited him to the tryouts for the 1988 U.S. Olympic team, hasn’t lost sight of the fact.

“He makes some freshman mistakes, but I think it would be kind of weird if in his freshman year he didn’t,” Thompson said. “I’m pleased, but I think we all have to remember that with all of the accolades and comparisons that we go through with Alonzo, he’s still a freshman.”

Thompson, who last summer invited Mourning to try out for the 1988 U.S. Olympic team, said he is content to slowly bring him along.

“I don’t want somebody to come in here at 18, 19 years old and become a super-human being,” Thompson said. “He’s got to go through a maturation period, so if he makes some mistakes it’s a good thing, because it gives me a chance to teach.”

Even though Mourning didn’t get to go to Seoul for the Olympics, he said the experience as the first high school player to participate in tryouts was a worthwhile one in preparing him for playing in the college ranks.

“Trying out for the Olympics and playing against all that talent really molded me to the point where I was ready,” he said. “I was comfortable in the college atmosphere I was in, so I really didn’t have to all of sudden adjust to it. Just by playing against that talent, I learned.”

If there’s anything that separates Mourning from Ewing, Malone et al, it’s his propensity to attempt -- and make -- long outside jump shots. He’s clicked on his only three-point attempt, and swished a 17-footer in the Hoyas’ 76-57 rout of Pitt last Wednesday.

Thompson kiddingly claimed that Mourning’s long-range talent could cost him money in the future.

“Alonzo’s a good outside shooter and that’s the worst thing that can happen,” Thompson said. “Sometimes a big guy is a good outside shooter and then he heads out there and starts to play well. Everytime he does that, I tell him, ‘When you go into the NBA, that’s going to take $3 million off your salary because guards don’t get paid as much as centers.’

“He’s a center,” Thompson deadpanned. “I’ve told him from the day I met him, in the NBA they play from the inside out. There are only about five centers available, and if you go out and play guard like 100,000 other people, that’s foolish. But I think he can hit those outside shots.”