Georgetown’s Thompson Isn’t Worrying : College basketball: Hoyas are struggling, but coach is handling criticism and rumors with aplomb.

John Thompson’s 19th Georgetown team is on course to lose more basketball games than any since his second. His program includes freshmen playing key roles because over the past few years half a roster’s-worth of young men found themselves incompatible with the Georgetown way and transferred.

Thompson is alternately amused and annoyed by the persistent rumors that engulf him wherever he turns -- whispers linking him to jobs as seemingly sensible as general manager of the NBA’s New York Knicks or as farfetched as head coach at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. His critics are feasting upon the Hoyas’ travails this season (16-11, 8-8 in the Big East) almost as heartily as they devoured Thompson’s 1988 Olympic defeat.

These should be trying times, especially for a man as accustomed to success as this strong-willed coach, who made Georgetown into one of the nation’s elite college basketball programs.

So why is it that, when people approach Thompson on the street or in airports these days to offer words of encouragement and ask how he’s holding up through such trials, he replies (by his account): “Oh, I’m just as happy and just as fine as I can be.”

Part of the answer lies with Thompson, who insists he doesn’t take himself nearly as seriously as his scowling, irascible public image suggests. It’s not that this season’s struggles and stresses haven’t bothered him -- “If we were used to losing, it wouldn’t be as difficult,” he said this week. “But who would want that?” -- it’s simply that this is a slightly different Thompson in a slightly different situation from the driven coach who six years ago had to be carried off an airplane from exhaustion.

“We’ll eat our humble pie for now,” he said. “ ... This hasn’t been as frustrating as I get the impression (others think) it has. It’s been more challenging than frustrating. I read where we’ve won nearly 80 percent of our games in the Big East and the (conference) tournament, so it’s not something we’re accustomed to. But we’ll make our way through it. Contrary to what some people say, our season is not over.

“It has not been frustrating in the sense of the kids; they’ve been wonderful. There are some obvious (on-court) deficiencies that I wouldn’t want to talk about until after the season ... but our future is bright. In the final analysis, we’re building the foundation for a better team.”

The Georgetown program is undeniably softer around the edges than it has been in the recent past. The us-against-the-world stance of the Patrick Ewing-led Hoyas teams of the mid-1980s has been replaced by the demeanors of Alonzo Mourning, who came here three years ago with a wry smile and engaging manner, and Dikembe Mutombo, whom Thompson says would hold a news conference after every practice if he were permitted.

And the kinder, gentler front extends all the way to the top. “One of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard anyone say about us is that we don’t have any fun at Georgetown,” Thompson said. “I mean, if people could see us, we are one of the silliest groups of people you’d ever want to meet.”

Longtime associates contend the private Thompson hasn’t changed, rather the public Thompson has allowed more glimpses of him. Thompson always has enjoyed himself, friends say, but now he’s letting people know he’s enjoying himself.

“To me, he’s always been the same,” said Red Auerbach, Thompson’s acknowledged mentor from his Boston Celtics days. “It’s just that now, people are starting to understand where he’s at. He’s better appreciated, through some doing of his own but mostly because of the way others look at him.”

Thompson has won 439 games and six Big East titles, he has been to the Final Four three times and he has what he calls the “period to end all sentences” -- his 1984 national championship.

He has looked the part of the mellowing coach this season. He has put his arms around referees more often than berated them. He insists a trip to the National Invitation Tournament -- after 12 straight NCAA tournament appearances -- “wouldn’t be so terrible.”

Thompson said he wants to win as badly as ever, but that at this stage of his career “the kind of kids you deal with” also becomes a fundamental concern. Thompson admires Mutombo, empathizes with Mourning’s season-long battles against injury and expectations and often has expressed his admiration for his young players’ work ethic and perseverance. He describes this season as primarily “re-energizing” rather than draining.

“More so than in other years, he loves these kids he’s got,” Auerbach said. “He really likes this ballclub tremendously as people.”

This might have been a year of Hoya prosperity. If not for transfers, Mutombo and Mourning could have been flanked in the Georgetown lineup by Anthony Tucker, John Turner, Michael Tate, David Edwards, Milton Bell and Antoine Stoudamire. Instead, Thompson has had to start three (and for a while, four) freshmen, resulting in the kind of sideline aggravation that has him joking that he should be wearing sneakers to games and giving away his seat on the bench, for all the pacing, pointing, yelling and pleading he’s had to do.

He remains a figure as hotly debated as ever. In back-to-back issues of GQ, he was profiled under the headline “John Thompson Lightens Up,” then assailed by David Robinson as being an unyielding “dictator” during the summer of ’88. In the book “Big Man On Campus” by Washington Post columnist Leonard Shapiro, former Hoyas star Craig Shelton said Thompson never returned his telephone messages when he called to solicit help in trying to return to school and earn his degree.

Thompson never has hidden his disdain for the recruiting process, and November’s NCAA early-signing period didn’t see Georgetown land any certified prep blue-chippers. So the rumors that Thompson has lost interest in the rigors of college coaching and is headed to an NBA front office for certain this summer continue to swirl.

Thompson shrugs off the reports. “It’s good sports talk,” he said. “

“The people who know the least about you know the most about you, or at least that’s how they try to portray the situation.”

Thompson said that, as always, he’s not looking to leave Georgetown but will listen to any offers that come his way. The reason for the surge in speculation, he contends, is the public manner in which the Denver Nuggets courted him last summer, an awkward process that ended with Thompson turning down a potential $6 million offer to become the club’s general manager.

“Sometimes it all makes me wonder: Am I the only human being in existence who has been offered other jobs?” Thompson said. “Losing is not something we’re accustomed to, but by the same token this is not the time to take off and hide. I’m not in a heated rush to get out of here. As I’ve stated before, I feel I have one of the better jobs in the country here.

“For most of the years I’ve been at Georgetown, I’ve been offered a job somewhere else. ... There’s no sense for all of the speculating. But when and if I leave Georgetown, it will not be a secret ... to all of the people here at the university.

“If the opportunity presents itself, I’ll listen. If it’s right, I’ll go. ... It will have to be handled better than the Denver situation. ... (But) I’m not looking to leave.”

The Knicks’ post seems the most attractive, given the presence of Ewing and the grandeur of the New York stage. But some of those close to the situation insist it never will happen. The team has hired Dave Checketts as its president and says it will search for a personnel director following the season.

Other links seem less tenable. Thompson long has been considered a possible successor to Coach Jerry Tarkanian at UNLV, for he owns land in Las Vegas and enjoys his nights in front of the slot machines. But the Runnin’ Rebels appear poised again to be penalized by the NCAA and Thompson always has argued that, if he were to coach in Las Vegas, where would he go to vacation?

“He’ll only leave Georgetown for the NBA,” one Thompson associate said. “And unless something comes out of the woodwork that’s not foreseeable now, he’ll be back at Georgetown for at least another year.”

For all of this season’s tribulations, there have been positives for Thompson too. He says his health is fine, and his friends have rallied to his support. “I hope he stays in the college game forever,” North Carolina Coach Dean Smith said. “He’s good for the game, and he’s helped so many people.”

In retrospect, Thompson says, he’s happier than ever he didn’t take the Denver job because of the added pressures his successor would have faced during this already-difficult season. “I think my shoulders are broad enough, and my ears are closed,” he said. “I can deal with it.”

Thompson says he’s content. His autobiography is in the works. Yet he adds that the excitement he expressed last summer about the future of the pro game has not subsided, and there seems little doubt among those around him that he ultimately -- whether it be this summer or in a few years -- will sit in an NBA executive’s chair. And thrive in his new surroundings.

“John will be a success at whatever he does,” Auerbach said. “Above all, he’s a tireless worker. When you’re a worker and a thinker, you’ll be a success. And on top of all that, he’s lucky, just like I was lucky.”