THE Latest IN A Tall Line : It Didn’t Take Long for Othella Harrington to Be Mentioned in the Same Breath as Other Great Centers in Georgetown History

It was two days before Christmas, and Millicent Harrington was baking cakes and cookies. The vegetable soup was on to simmer.

Her oldest son was coming home.

To his mother, Othella Harrington is a son newly off to college, a young man eager to talk on the phone two or three times a week, a freshman who was welcomed home with his favorite soup, made from vegetables grown in his grandmother’s garden last summer and then put up for the winter.

It’s only the world outside the Harringtons’ house in Jackson, Miss., that thinks of him as the next great big man at Georgetown in a line that descends from Patrick Ewing to Dikembe Mutombo to Alonzo Mourning and now to Harrington, a 6-foot-10 freshman.

To his mom, he’s a much-loved son descended from her and his father, Roy Harrington. Their other son, Roy, is a string bass player who hopes to earn a music scholarship to college next year.

“Just like any freshman, he’s adjusting to being away from home for the first time,” Millicent Harrington said of Othella. “He’s just a typical freshman who’s gone away to college.”

After five games, the typical freshman is averaging 19.4 points and 9.8 rebounds and shooting 68.8% for 11th-ranked Georgetown, which will play in the Disneyland Freedom Bowl Classic at UC Irvine’s Bren Center on Monday and Wednesday.

Harrington’s decision to go to Georgetown thwarted the hopes of many in Mississippi who were eager for him to stay home and go to Mississippi State. Instead--like Chris Jackson before him, who left Mississippi for Louisiana State, and Ronnie Henderson, a junior teammate of Harrington’s at Murrah High last season who is to play at LSU next season--Harrington left. During the weeks before Harrington announced his decision in May, nearly a month after most high school players had signed, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger sports department received 30 to 40 calls per day from fans curious to know if Harrington had made up his mind whether to go to Georgetown, Oklahoma or Mississippi State.

“He was in a state like Mississippi, you can’t imagine how big he was,” said Todd Kelly, a sportswriter at the Clarion-Ledger. “The day he

committed, this is how incredible it was, I got to the office an hour later and all the phones were busy.”

The next day, a color photo of Harrington ran on page one of the newspaper, not only the sports section. It was the sort of thing you might expect in a state where organizers matched Harrington’s Murrah High, the two-time defending 5A state champion, against Lawrence County High, the two-time defending 4A state champion, in a postseason game that was a sellout and a pay-per-view success as well.

For Georgetown and Coach John Thompson, landing Harrington was a coup that shored up the Hoyas’ reputation in the face of criticism from self-styled recruiting experts who said Georgetown hadn’t landed a high-profile national player since Mourning signed in the fall of 1987. Some speculated Thompson had grown weary of the worshipful pursuit of teen-age athletes. Thompson says it isn’t that he is tired of recruiting, only that he and his staff have a different perspective.

“I’m not excited, nor is any sensible intelligent person, about running around after 17-, 18-year-olds kissing their behinds,” Thompson said. His theory is that a player should choose a college based on considerations other than the frequency of coaches’ phone calls and appearances, and that a coach should recruit the players he wants, not those ordained by the recruiting experts.

Harrington made his decision based partly on Georgetown’s past successes.

“Ever since he was in seventh grade, he said he wanted to play at Georgetown,” Millicent Harrington said. “I think he just used the other schools as a measurement for Georgetown. I think it was because of Patrick Ewing, and because he liked the coach. It had always been in the back of his mind. His final choice was going back to his original dream. Not many people have an opportunity to live their dream.”

Orsmond Jordan Jr., the coach at Murrah, said he believes Oklahoma was Harrington’s second choice, but the player’s longtime affection for the Hoyas won out.

“He was a Georgetown fan like people used to be fans of the Yankees or Dodgers,” Jordan said.

Harrington’s signing was a tremendously important one for Georgetown, and Thompson didn’t completely refrain from gloating.

As he told the Washington Post: “We just wanted to show those boys who don’t think we know what we’re doing that we can get it done when we have to. . . . We just wanted to flex our muscles a little bit, show the boys we hadn’t forgotten how to get it done.”

Harrington picked Georgetown largely because of the tradition of the big man, a tradition that began with Ewing, but is embodied in the 6-10 Thompson, who was once a backup to Bill Russell with the Boston Celtics.

Many coaches would try to protect a freshman from being mentioned in the same breath with Ewing, Mutombo and Mourning. Thompson doesn’t.

“That’s not something we try not to mention,” he said. “We have a lot of experience dealing with high-profile players.

“Most people who come to a place come because they’ve seen what happened to people before them, especially because we’ve been here as long as we have.”

During the summer, Harrington and another talented freshman, Duane Spencer, were in Washington and played with some of the Hoya alumni.

“They had a chance to play with Patrick, Dikembe and Alonzo,” Thompson said. “Those are their friends now. They call to see how they’re doing.”

Instead of sheltering the younger players from the example of the older group, Thompson nurtures it.

“They’re positive role models in a society in which we’re in constant search for positive role models,” he said.

Still, even he must take measures to keep Harrington’s youth in mind.

“I just realize we’re talking about someone 18, 19 years old,” Thompson said.

The Georgetown freshmen are monitored as they adjust to college classes, basketball and being away from home. Another measure Thompson takes is to not allow freshmen to grant interviews until after Jan. 1.

“It’s a very simple philosophy. You can’t talk about something you know nothing about--unless you’re a fool,” he said. “We try to at least have people familiarized with playing basketball at Georgetown. Another thing is they need a little time to acclimate themselves to school. After their exams have been taken, kids have the flavor of college, they can talk about something they know.”

Harrington came out of high school with statistics some people didn’t believe. They accepted the 28.9-point scoring average.

But 24.9 rebounds?

“People would see that and say, ‘Aw, that’s not so,’ ” said Jordan, the Murrah coach. “Then he played in the McDonald’s game and had something like 21 rebounds in 22 minutes, and that was against the best.

“He has such good hands and intensity. He stays after it. He might miss it the first time, but he’ll tap it. He might put a hand on it and not get it, but he’ll make a second and a third effort. A lot of kids rebounding, if they don’t get it on the first effort they’ll stand around. He has that second effort. He knows it’s up there somewhere. He’ll go and get it.”

Said Kelly, the Clarion-Ledger sportswriter: “He just has that instinct to go get the ball. A lot of these big guys don’t have heart. He’s just as hungry as a little 6-1 guard.”

Said Jordan: “You have to know Othella. He’s a super person, a good student and a super basketball player. I call him a three-in-one. It’s hard to get three-in-ones. You might get a good student and person who’s not a very good ballplayer, or a good person and ballplayer who’s not a very good student.

“You can tell Othella to go to the weight room, and you can go home. He’s going to do it.”

Thompson has been pleased with the first games of Harrington’s college career, even if they have been against such typical early season Georgetown opponents as St. Leo, Southern, Maryland Eastern Shore and Morgan State, along with a game against Big East Conference opponent Pittsburgh.

“I think, No. 1, he’s composed in the post,” Thompson said. “Once he gets the basketball, he’s not in a hurry, and he’s extremely unselfish. He’s an excellent rebounder. And his work ethic seems similar to Patrick’s, Dikembe’s and Alonzo’s.”

Those who know Harrington describe him as quiet off the court, a young man who still says, “Yes, sir” and “No, sir,” the kind of speaker who is articulate and bright without being quotable.

His talent is for basketball, not quotes. His mother misses him, but she doesn’t wish him back home.

“Yes, because I miss him, and no, because I really feel he’s at the best place,” she said. “As a parent you have to let go. They can’t stay with you forever. If he’s going to have a career, he has to leave. He’s gone off to prepare for his career.”