Georgetown Is Looming Large Again

This isn’t your big, bad Georgetown anymore.

There’s no Patrick Ewing throwing down a thunderous dunk in a defender’s face, no Alonzo Mourning scowling a warning to stay out of his paint, no Dikembe Mutombo blocking shots in a way that ridicules opponents for even trying.

The Georgetown of today doesn’t have any megastars. But after years of mediocrity, the Hoyas may again be the beast of the East.

No. 11 Seton Hall became Georgetown’s 13th consecutive victim Saturday. The unbeaten Hoyas, with a group of talented but largely unknown players, are expected to move up today from last week’s No. 19 spot in the Associated Press poll.

Georgetown is one of four unbeaten teams, joining Stanford, Baylor and Boston College. It’s a surprise to those who wondered whether the Hoyas could regain their place among college’s elite programs without the program’s largest presence, a 6-foot-10 coaching giant named John Thompson who once loomed over Georgetown basketball.

When Thompson suddenly resigned Jan. 8, 1999, to deal with a difficult divorce, there was a sense that he took with him all the superstars from Ewing to Allen Iverson and all the national attention that came with the success.

In fact, he did. After a 19-year stretch that included three Final Four berths, 18 NCAA tournament appearances and the 1984 national championship, the Hoyas have missed the NCAA playoffs for three consecutive seasons.

Three years away from the tournament may not seem like much to many programs. Georgetown, however, isn’t like most.

When Thompson stepped down, there was an unmistakable void.

“When my dad initially resigned, it was rough on everybody,” said Ronny Thompson, a Georgetown assistant and John’s son. “It was a transition for everybody, and it wasn’t a smooth one in the way he had to do it in the middle of the season.”

In a matter of minutes, Craig Esherick, a loyal 17-year assistant to Thompson, replaced his mentor and Georgetown looked like just another program, going 16-15 in Thompson’s last full season, 15-16 in the changeover season of 1998-99 and 19-15 in Esherick’s first year.

The question soon became: Can the Hoyas regain their status without Thompson, the man who fueled their prominence?

They’re getting there. Georgetown is off to its best start since beginning the 1989-90 season with 14 victories.

The Hoyas made their biggest impression by defeating the Pirates, touted early in the season as a possible Final Four team. Merely rising to the top 25, which they did Dec. 11, was an achievement.

It was the first time Georgetown had been ranked in the AP poll since March 11, 1996. In Washington, where there has been little to brag about sports-wise, the Hoyas’ success has become a big deal.

Esherick hasn’t tried to downplay the Hoyas’ resurgence.

“I know when we came back from Hawaii [in December], a couple of guys were wondering if we were going to be in the rankings because we had beaten Minnesota and we had beaten Louisville,” Esherick said. “They were wondering what the heck was going on when we weren’t ranked.

“I’ve always said, if we keep winning, we’ll be ranked. If we keep winning more, we’ll be ranked even higher.”

Never mind that early on the Hoyas’ biggest victories came against an unbeaten but unranked team (Minnesota) and two once-proud teams (Louisville and Houston) that were struggling with young players.

And ignore that the Hoyas’ schedule has included the usual share of cupcakes in the form of Nicholls State, Coastal Carolina and Maryland Eastern Shore.

Perceptions changed with the victory over Seton Hall. Georgetown has won its way back into the limelight.

Esherick says the Hoyas had never gone away. With National Invitation Tournament berths the last three seasons, Georgetown has been in postseason play for the last 26 years.

“I used to laugh at people in our profession who made light of that,” he said. “The NIT is a tournament with a lot of tradition, and we were glad to be in it.

“How many schools have gone to the postseason 26 years in a row? That’s a stat I enjoy, and I want to maintain that streak. There’s only one school I believe that has done that, and that’s the one in Chapel Hill.”

As much as Esherick touts the virtues of the NIT, he considers the NCAA tournament Georgetown’s March home. Esherick made that clear at the start of the season when he taped a large NIT banner above the urinals in the team’s locker room.

That act may surprise those who view the 44-year-old Esherick as a mild-mannered alternative to John Thompson. It’s no revelation to insiders.

“On the surface, one would think you would see this mellow guy, nothing like my father who had this kind of intimidating presence, but once you get behind the scenes, you see that he isn’t,” Ronny Thompson said with a laugh. “The reality is he yells and screams like anyone else. That’s where he fools a lot of people.”

Officials at Georgetown, which has always touted its “family” atmosphere, believe they made their best move by staying within. Esherick is an institution at the school too, having first come on campus in the mid-1970s as a shooting guard for Thompson.

But Esherick is stepping out of his former coach’s long shadow. The new coach is putting his own stamp on the program, pushing for a new on-campus facility to replace venerable but horribly outdated McDonough Arena and angling for upgrading the nonconference schedule by replacing annual patsies with teams such as UCLA and Duke.

It is Esherick’s program, and his players can see it.

“I wouldn’t call it laid back, but he’s more comfortable,” sophomore Demetrius Hunter told the Associated Press. “Last year, he was learning. I could tell he was learning.

“This year, he’s more comfortable as a coach. I’ve talked to other players about it. Last year, he was coaching, but at the same time, he was learning.”

Two years ago, the comfort level was low in the first few days of the new job.

“Oh, [Craig] was an emotional wreck,” said Ronny Thompson, who was along for the transition. “He got hit with a lot of things at once.

“Even though you have been prepared for a situation like this all your life, you can never plan for it. You can plan for these things, but you never know how you respond to it.

“As a head coach, you have to worry about so many things. If a kid doesn’t do well in school, it affects you. You’ve got the media to deal with. You’ve got so many things pulling at you and yet you still have to be a coach.”

Despite having a program with 10 former players on current NBA rosters, these Hoyas have yet to strike fear in anyone.

They have kept up their tradition of producing big men. But 7-foot Ruben Boumtje Boumtje is more known for his name than his game.

Boumtje Boumtje was the only player to earn all-Big East honors last season. Two of the top Hoya scorers this season are freshmen, forwards Mike Sweetney and Gerald Riley.

Are Sweetney and Riley future superstars? Maybe. Everybody’s All-Americans? Not yet.

Ronny Thompson believes these players will be well known in time:

“When you’re not doing that well, you don’t get as much exposure. The pro scouts, they know who our guys are, but pure fans don’t know. It’s going to take time for that process to happen.”

The Hoyas have been getting it done with an abundance of athletes who can play defense and wear down opponents, providing the most depth the team has had in years.

How balanced have the Hoyas been? Anthony Perry, a senior reserve guard, was Georgetown’s leading scorer in the 1998-99 season.

There haven’t been any household names to lean on. “He fully expects to win,” Ronny Thompson said of Esherick. “It’s not like it’s a new thing for him.”

It has been a new thing for junior guard Kevin Braswell, who had experienced more tough times than smooth before this breakthrough season.

“There’s just a whole new feeling around here this year,” he said. “I can’t explain it, but it’s a feeling I haven’t had in a long time.”