Thompson Sees Georgetown Win

High above the floor of the MCI Center, John Thompson stood at the front of a luxury box and waved to the crowd. Thousands craned their necks and waved back, especially Craig Esherick, who had just coached Georgetown to victory in the first game of the post-Thompson era.

“It was very tough for me to control my emotions when that happened,” Esherick said after the Hoyas broke a three-game losing streak with a 75-70 victory over Providence Saturday.

“There’s an awful lot he has done for me. He is my friend. He’s been my teacher and I cannot do justice to attempt to explain to you what he means to me.”

Thompson resigned Friday after 27 years as Georgetown’s coach, although he will remain at the university. The emotional crowd of 9,502 also gave him a standing ovation before the game. Esherick, at his request, did not have his name announced with the starting lineups.

“That victory was his victory. It was not my victory,” said Esherick, an assistant under Thompson since 1982. “Everything that we did on offense and defense is what he taught me. Nothing out there did I invent. Those are his players that he recruited.”

The players also felt they were playing for Thompson, and backed it up with a spirited performance. They came from behind against a team that had won its last four, outscoring the Friars (10-5, 3-3 in the Big East), 20-9, over the final eight minutes.

“That’s what made everybody play so hard,” guard Jameel Watkins said. “Coach is gone, and we wanted to win both for coach Esherick and for coach Thompson.”

Nat Burton and Kevin Braswell scored 20 points apiece for the Hoyas (8-6, 1-4). Burton also did a good defensive job on Providence’s Jamel Thomas, who missed all seven of his shots in the first half, was four for 18 for the game and finished with four fouls and 17 points. He did make three three-pointers, giving him 171 to move past Eric Murdock as the Friars’ career leader.

Afterward, Braswell said Thompson was the happiest he’d seen him “the whole season.”

“He was very happy, came in here laughing and smiling,” Braswell said.

The 0-4 start had been Georgetown’s worst in the Big East, but it was for personal reasons that Thompson suddenly stepped aside.

Thompson chatted with well-wishers outside the locker room before tip-off and watched the game from the luxury box, well out of the spotlight. Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning were among several ex-Hoya players seated behind the Hoya bench.

Esherick also got a partial standing ovation when he walked on the floor.