Monroe Will Return for Sophomore Season

The offseason has been quiet thus far from a recruiting standpoint, but on Wednesday, Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III made his biggest recruiting splash in quite some time: He got freshman center Greg Monroe to return for his sophomore season. Thompson told The Hoya of Monroe’s decision early Wednesday afternoon, just hours after the university confirmed that sophomore guard/forward Omar Wattad intends to transfer.

The 6-foot-11 Monroe, once the No. 1 recruit in the nation, was named the 2008-09 Big East rookie of the year. He averaged 12.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists.

Monroe was projected by many to be a top-five selection in the upcoming NBA draft, but has long maintained that he would return for his sophomore season.

“I laugh at that every time I see it,” he said of the projections after the Big East tournament. “Just, I don’t know what I’m doing, but you can’t be mad at that. I’m just getting prepared for next year, here, and I’ll worry about that later in life. I’m just worried about getting ready for next year.”

Wattad, meanwhile, will leave the Hilltop after two seasons of relatively little playing time.

“Omar will not return to Georgetown next year,” Thompson said in a prepared statement. “We wish Omar the best in his future.” In a phone interview with The Hoya, Thompson added, “His two years here were good and he is moving on, and we wish him the best.”

Wattad appeared in 25 games as a sophomore, starting one of them, and averaged 2.6 points and 1.4 rebounds. Wattad’s lone start came against Florida International in the Hoyas’ final non-conference bout and was touted as a testament to his hustle and leadership of the second unit.

Wattad, however, played less and less as the year progressed, failing to appear in six of Georgetown’s final nine games.

He is the sixth member of the Hoyas’ squad to transfer in the past three offseasons.

“I think there is attrition in college basketball, in one form or another,” Thompson said when asked about the several transfers over a few years. “People leave because they are unhappy with the basketball situation, people leave because they have things going on in their personal life, and people leave because they don’t have the opportunity to return.”

He declined to place Wattad into one of these categories.

The Hoya could not immediately reach Wattad. Thompson was not sure where Wattad would end up and said that he didn’t believe Wattad had quite figured it out yet.

In addition to Wattad, Georgetown is set to lose junior forward DaJuan Summers to the NBA draft, but with Monroe returning, the Hoyas should stand a good chance of improving upon this season’s 16-15 record.

With just one of the 11 members of the Big East’s first and second teams — West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler — definitely returning to school (Luke Harangody of Notre Dame has declared for the draft but has not hired an agent), Monroe should compete for league, and possibly even national, player of the year honors.

After being named Big East player of the year, Monroe discussed what he needed to improve for his sophomore season.

“I have to get a little stronger,” Monroe said. “I mean, the system will get better, I will get better in the system, so moving onto next year, that’s the things I have to work on — definitely my strength and just getting better all around game. There’s never time you can’t improve your game. Just improving everything and doing all the things I did this year and getting better at everything, and try to come out and have a better effort next year.”