Op-Ed: It's Time to Take Thompson Off the Pedestal

JT III is not a great coach YET. He will be. His team is young and he is young. His Hall of Fame father was eliminated in the first round the first five or six times he made the NCAAs. Obviously, all Georgetown fans are disappointed with the team's collapse, given its tremendous talent, its spirit, and the way JT III has revived the program. But Rick Pitino said, "Young teams wear down, physically and emotionally, especially in really tough leagues like the Big East." With what he has done in his brief Georgetown tenure, JT III has earned some patience. Remember when Duke lost a couple of Final Four games early in Krzyzewski's reign? Everyone said, "Good coach, but he can't win the big ones." They're not saying that any more, are they?

Have you ever seen the plays Krzyzewski runs after time outs? Its a shock when Duke doesn't score off them. Its also a shock when Thompson uses his timeouts intelligently. JTIII has consistently proved he is either unwilling or unable to adjust his lackluster gameplan, or lack thereof, to the teams he is playing. He plays to win games you have to grind out, and national championships can't be won that way. Another basic flaw in his style for today's college game is his apparent refusal to apply pressure on teams in the backcourt, and his inability to teach his teams how to break a press. How many times have we watched Monroe of Hibbert run down court with their heads down to go stand in the offensive paint instead of helping break the press? This isn't about the youth of the team. It doesn't matter how much experience you get if the teaching is mediocre.

Hugh, thanks for your input. In talking about different criticisms of Thompson, I wanted to show that it is justifiable to question some of the things that he does. In my experience on campus, it seems as though JTIII has already passed the "can't win the big one" stage and has reached the status of a great coach, which is blatantly inaccurate and off-base. My motivation was to portray him as he is right now, at this moment: a young, and as you said, not yet great, coach who is still learning on his feet. With regard to this statement ("With what he has done in his brief Georgetown tenure, JT III has earned some patience.") I disagree with the tendency in sports to allow people who had initial success to make mistakes and not face their fair share of blame (see Jeter, Shanahan). I especially disagree with that tendency regarding JTIII among students and the campus community. "Give credit where credit is due" works both ways. Regardless of Thompson's great success in his second, third, and fourth years at Georgetown, the mistakes he has made and the flaws that his scheme has should be pointed out as well. I believe that balance is seriously out of whack.

Here's a team with 6 players seeing their first serious time this year, 2 sophomore starters, one great junior, and one senior who doesn't contribute all that much. Of course we're inconsistent when playing the hardest schedule in college basketball.

We get the entire team minus one 6 ppg guard back next year, and even this year we were obviously capable of beating the best teams (ie #3 UCONN, #4 Memphis, #10 Nova). Experience breeds consistency, and that's all this team lacks.

Bottom line: the sky isn't falling, JT III is still a great coach, and watch out for us next year.

Wow, I didn't know a great junior transferred to Georgetown. Who is this kid? I know you can't be talking about Summers whose athleticism and skill are wasted in this offense and who keeps disappearing in big spots. Also, saying JT III is still a great coach implies that at one point he was great.

Look, kids. It's very apparent that some of you (certainly the author) have not been around long enough to have ANY perspective on this issue. I was class of '07: The class that saw the last year of Esherick and the class that finished w/ a Final Four run. So just as an initial matter, I think that all you kids need to do some research. Talk to some people who were around in the late-'90s/early-'00s. Find out what it was like when Georgetown basketball was completely irrelevant. Now, even after some of our struggles this year, there were commentators who STILL thought we might make the Tournament if we just beat SJU and then won 2–3 BET games. During an underwhelming season, we were still THAT relevant. And JTIII has been an enormous part of that ascendancy back into the highest levels of college basketball.

As another matter of perspective: UCONN was in the NIT just a few years ago. Good teams with good coaches have bad years. It happens. We'll be back.

Are there things Thompson can do better? Yes. Are there areas that I think he needs to improve or adjust more than he does? Yes. The same goes for every relatively young coach with an extremely young team.

And don't you--a bunch of 19-year-old kids who have been on campus for 2 years--dare lecture anyone about how we should and should not regard John Thompson III. Some of us know better. We know where this team came from and where it's going. You're all welcome to get back off the bandwagon if you'd like. Some of us will stay right where we are with III at the helm.

So, this is what a sophmore with all about 3 months of basketball experience is like. So you say call it what it is, ok lets call it what it is. You look like you took every negative commit and applied it to you article here. We have one down year after years of being irrelevant in the basketball world, and now the sky is falling. Only thing the coach can do is coach, he can't play defense, he can't shoot free throws, he can't make passes, and he definitly cannot make the cuts in the lane for the players. He can only teach it, and if you hear him all year, he speaks about execution, "we didnt execute well today" JTIII has been quoted time and again saying that. So you can have all the athletic ability in the world son, if you do not execute or play smart your not going to win period, just that simple. And you speak on the players athletic ability, and adjusting the offense to them, who on this team is really that athletic and can play the up tempo style I have been hearing since Tuesday, Chris Wright, and thats only when he is under control. It seem obvious to me that you need to wirte on another topic, and leave Georgetown Basketball to people who know what they are talking about, because taking every negative comment and putting it here does not make you knowledgeable about the program. And maybe you need a t-shirt to tell you that.

Note to the poster above: I graduated in 2005 and know what I'm talking about.

I think the author's point is well-taken: we, the fans, hold JTIII on too high a pedestal. He's a young coach and may be a victim of his own success.

My concern, however, is that perhaps Thompson puts himself on too high a pedestal. It was no mystery prior to the season that GU had a young and inexperienced (and, in my view, overrated) team. Why, then, would he choose the most difficult schedule in the country for this team? Admittedly, he has very little wiggle room within the Big East, but the team's non-conference schedule was far too difficult for such a young team (indeed, JT, Jr., has made this point for two or three years running). If there's a coaching flaw to be found here, it's failing to recognize the team's limitations.

Quite frankly, JTIII should have known that this was an inexperienced team that would have to sneak-not plow-its way into the Tournament. An easy schedule is the most tried and true way to do this...see, e.g., every team west of the Mississippi apart from the PAC-10 (note: that was a deliberate cheap shot, and I apologize).

There's a lot to be gained from this season, however, and it doesn't seem so bad in hindsight. First, I think it guaranteed that Monroe has no real shot at leaving after just one year...which is arguably a good thing. Second, and most importantly, this team that once wore its lack of experience on its jerseys can now legitimately say that they've played the season's toughest schedule in both the Big East and NCAA. That's a lot of experience in a very short time and it could pay some serious dividends in years to come...assuming our recruits don't all decommit.

Dont want to get into a fight on a forum but this guy wasnt even born when the Hoyas won their only championship in 1984. The Hoyas were irrelevant not even more then 6 years ago. So yes I'm going to stand up for coach who came in and reincarnated this program left for dead. So why dont we call out Calhoun, and Billy Donavan, and a few more coaches who have won championships and then there teams also have had off seasons. It happens man in all sports, this year I think he used the OCS as a learning tool not only for himself but his team also. Who I deed say some have ego problems. So I'm behind coach, and he is going to have to do something for us to pull him down off the pedestal not some sophmore who wasnt around when we ruled the basketball world.

I for one do not agree with playing a bunch of cupcakes to "sneak" into the tournament. Look at the success of recent teams who have done that (a "dominant" Clemson team lost in the second round to a Villanova team that barely made the field last year).

However, a lot of the out of conference games we played were set up in the previous years. The Memphis game was a return game for the game we played there last year and the Duke series has been set up for while. After having no game against Duke last year the series resumed this year, and I believe continues for the next three seasons. The other difficult OOC games were in the Old Spice Classic. The team went 2-1 and almost beat a then ranked (and current lock for the tournament) Tennessee.

The Big East schedule is set for us so there is nothing we could have done about that.

We were 9-2 in out of conference games. Two of those loses were at Duke and against a good Tennessee team, who shot the lights out against us on a neutral court. However, we also beat a Memphis team that is being talked about as a one seed in the tournament and blew Maryland out of the water. I don't see how blaming JTIII's scheduling has any relevance. Without playing the tough games in the beginning of the season there is no was this team develops enough to go in and get a win at UCONN.

Teams get better by playing against good teams. A young team will never be able to develop by playing the Savanah State's of the world 15 times before the conference games start. It is better to develop your team than try to "sneak" into the tournament where you will be eliminated in the first or second round.

This season did not go as planned. However, neither did JTIII's first season which ended with five straight loses to end the regular season and miss a bid to the tournament. These are similiar because each team was new to JTIII and each other. In his second season JTIII coached a team that didn't make the tourney a year previous to a Sweet 16 team that had a last second shot to beat the eventual champion Florida. The Hoyas were the only team that tested Florida in that postseason. The lumps this team took this year will provide valuable experience as we head into next season.

Well said Dave Finn. It is time somebody spoke out.

Great players who were leaders (Wallace, Green, Ewing) on the court carried this team the previous 4 season and made up for the lack of coaching.

This year there is no floor leader and no coaching which caused superior athletes to fall apart as a team. 4 All Americans ended up playing Yates quality pickup. The only reason the team won any games could be attributed to worse meltdowns by other teams. Nova could have killed us in the final game if they didn't turn the ball over 30 times.

And why does Thompson call timesout whenever the teams gets on a roll? Score a big three or a dunk and then call timeout. Then he goes one step farther to pull out the player who just scored and kill any rhythm. During the timeouts, many times he doesn't even talk to the players. His brain trust of coaches all stand in a circle and talk to each other. My seats are right behind the Georgetown bench so I can see this clearly every game.

It is not all Thompson's fault but you can judge coaching by lineups, timeouts calls, plays out of timeout, and defensive sets. We FAILED in every one of those categories. When St. John's can break our zone and we can't even get a shot off on there man to man, that is TERRIBLE COACHING.

The players didn't do much to help either this season either...

Next year all we can hope is that athletics has enough money left over from raising the ticket prices to buy Thompson a clown car to drive out onto the court and tiny bicycles for all of the players. The circus show will be necessary because there isn't enough highlight footage for a pregame video!!!!!

Calm down folks, put it in perspective.

When the players on the current UConn team were freshman and sophomores two years ago they didn't make a post-season tournament. Last year they lost to San Diego St. in the First Round. This year they are a favorite for a 1 seed. No one is questioning Calhoun.

In 2005 North Carolina won a National Championship with Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants and Sean May. When they were freshman they lost to Georgetown in the NIT.

When Wallace, Green and Hibbert were freshman they lost a lot of bad games. They were 8-3 a pretty much lock in the Tournament and then they lost their last five including a horrible one at St. John's and went to the NIT.

Give this team time. We will all look back at this article one day and laugh.

As part of the apparent 'elite few' who belong to the group that this dumbass describes as 'students who really know the game (a group that is unfortunately in the minority among Georgetown students)'let me remind this oh so intelligent bastion of basketball knowledge of a couple things. We played the hardest schedule in the country, why? Because JTIII is smart enough to realize that this was going to be a rebuilding year and we would probably be on the bubble at the end. In recent history, bubble teams have been hammered for having a weak ass schedule. We saw this happen to Syracuse twice. TWICE. JTIII was looking to avoid that and give us an extra edge late in the season. Obviously, we are no longer on the bubble, but were we to win just two more games, that would have definitely helped us.

ALSO, the UCONN team that has spent a lot of time at the top of the polls and the top of the most daunting conference arguably ever, FAILED to make the postseason AT ALL two seasons ago with largely the same line up as they have today. Two seasons ago, they did not make the NIT. Now they are in position to make a final four, possibly title run.

This spoiled brat needs to realize that you cannot be a dominate team every single year. You need to build to get to that point. Our guys are very young with a lot of promise. Yes, there are a lot of things that they need to figure out still, but we have time. JTIII will get them there. Do not crucify our coach simply because he does not exceed your unrealistic, immature expectations.

Congratulations, Dave!
Finally someone has the candor to stop the Obamanization of this coach. His nine-year coaching career is a mix of some success, a mass exodus of players, and head-scratching bench decisions. All forgiveable, except his despicable decision not to start Jesse last weekend.
If this trend continues, a new T-shirt will sprout -
III MUST FLEE!

This article is ridiculously comical. But in all the wrong ways.

We actually did live up to expectations. Pre-season ones, that is. Ones that our coach has rightfully referred to "popularity contests" but which, nevertheless, question how far a young team would go in a conference that is now eating its young. If you've watched this game for a long time you know talent gets you so far. What did our Final Four team in 07 have that the NIT one in 05 didn't? Clearly it wasn't talent because it was the same core group of guys and not coaching because we had the same coach. They improved. That's the point. And why? Because our coach is incredible

We actually over preformed from Dec-mid Jan and yes, everyone would like the team that played against UConn and Syracuse here at home to have shown up every game this season but if you consider yourself among the "enlightened" few at Georgetown who can speak intelligently about basketball, you're an idiot for expecting that.

To anyone who thinks a deep run in the tournament is something you are entitled to every year, get a grip. And please, don't hurt yourself jumping off the bandwagon.

And for those who have enough self-respect and appreciate the privilege of being associated with one of the greatest programs in college basketball, I look forward to seeing you at the Verizon Center next season.

Did anybody actually read the article? He doesn't say he expects national championships every year or that Thompson is an awful coach and should be fired. All he says is way too many people are giving a young coach too much credit for succeeding early in his career with Esherick's recruit's. People like Calhoun have proven themselves over long careers. The article simply points out some flaws in the coaching over the last few years. We just can't put JT III in the Hall of Fame before he deserves it.

I think we all need to step back and look at what the original author said. He's not saying trash Thompson or the current Hoya line up.

What he was saying is that they are not untouchable nor should they be given a free pass. And least of all they should be immune from criticism. Maybe once in a while the team and coach need to hear "hey what you're doing isn't working; you need to shape up." People are confusing positive, constructive criticism with negative criticism.

If we never criticize the team and reflect on all the possibilities of why we failed, we'll never improve. Sometimes that criticism hits close to home, like the coach and his coaching ability. But if ignore it, it is no better than an ostrich keeping its head in the sand.

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men — not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular." -Edward Murrow

I'll be seeing you at the booth henlehoya. Nice post.

A lot of people on here have blasted the criticism of Thompson. But does anyone have any responses to the actual criticism of JTIII's coaching? Not the fact that he is being criticized but what people actually consider to be flaws in his coaching. Why do you believe decisions such as not implementing a press among others is the correct coaching decision?

Yes, I certainly did read the article.

The author is attacking a complete strawman. No one gives our Coach a free pass. No one is clamoring for him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. We like him. And he's a pretty integral part of the team's success. Am I actually explaining widespread support for our men's basketball coach? This is kind of surreal.

If DaJuan Summers thought it would be smart to go around punching girls in the face or if Chris Wright decided stealing a laptop would be an ok thing to do and JT III did nothing about it, I'd have serious problems with our Coach's behavior. But he hasn't done any of those things. He's guilty of a losing season. And as a fan, I'm supposed to feel unenlightened because I continue to support him and the program at large? And that's exactly what this article is attacking--being a fan. Showing up even when the team is losing. Supporting them through a brutal schedule in an incredibly tough conference. You know, the kinds of things that make being a fan different from being a customer.

And when the author reveals his oh-so-enlightened take on college basketball with nuggets like "Tuesday's performance gave fans no reason to be excited about having virtually the same team (minus current seniors Sapp and Bryon Jansen) coming back next season." (See all the above posts about the current UCONN team), I'm going to defer to the person who has won a Big East Tournament, two BE season titles and took him team to the Final Four when it comes to in-game strategy.

And as much fun as it would be to continue adding legitimacy to this blowhard article, I'm going to cut myself off after this comment.

Fine, so we need some constructive criticism once in a while. But complaining about Hoyas rallying around the coach who returned our team from six feet under to Sweet Sixteen in three years? No, that doesn't make him perfect, but that III is still a powerful symbol. What would you rather see on the student sections shirts? Why don't we switch our cheer to "WE ARE--onlycomingtothegamesaslongaswekeepwinning!"

Before you get all defensive, I realize the author isn't saying to fire JTIII or anything. Yes, I guess some could call Hoya basketball "unwatchable" and "ugly" right now, but I'd expect to hear that somewhere in upstate NY from an orange-clad jerk.

What makes the biggest difference is this: is Dave Finn (or any similar commenter) one of those ever-increasing ship-jumpers abandoning his seat at Verizon, or will he be there next year, still cheering even when it's "ugly"? All those kids who painted their faces blue for the first time after Duke 06 are suddenly Hoya-haters now that we're not in their Facebook brackets.

Constructive criticism goes hand-in-hand with supporting your team, so Dave, I hope to see you in the VC next year next to Henlehoya and Staggahoya and all the other non-fairweather fans.

I've got some criticism for his coaching ability; he's got some of the best athletes in the country and he's running an offense designed for small, slow and unathletic teams. The guards look like they are running around with their heads cut off and then panic when the shot clock hits 10. When you've got the athletes that Thompson does, you spread the floor, move the ball quickly to create mismatches and isolation. You get the ball into the hands of your big man in a position where he doesn't have to put the ball on the floor and can get to basket and body his man. The Princeton offense is for teams of Princeton's ability.

And when I say that III is a powerful symbol, it's because it has five years of resurrecting our program and bringing it back onto the national scene. I don't mean we like his bald head or his Jack-like jowls. We love III because of what he's done for our program and our players.

Did anyone see Hibbert his freshman year? Could anyone have guessed that Gumby-looking gawk was going to turn into the athletic big man ruling our team? JTIII apparently did.

I don't have a problem with anyone looking for the flaws on the team and thinking about it reasonably. But I think we can calm down, be patient, trust the coach.

P.S. A cult-hero? Duh. Georgetown students have a thousand campus gods. Leo's servers become cult heroes. We'd put Ripai on an Obama shirt if we could. (Although based on several comments here, I get the feeling some students would be calling for Ripai's head if they ran out of chicken fingers on Monday.)

JumpBaby: Excluding home games that were played during breaks, I have missed a total of 6 games in 2 years, one of which was this year's Memphis game when I had an exam. Believe me, there are few things that bother me more than fair-weather fans. You pick a team and you stick with them, no matter what: that's what it means to be a fan. I was there this season as we started to lose and the student section became emptier and emptier. One of my good friends is a senior who tells me about his freshman year, before the '06 Duke upset, when the VC student section was half-full. "Constructive criticism goes hand-in-hand with supporting your team." I could not agree with you more. If I did not feel as though I knew this particular team well enough, I would not have written the article. And I would love to take in some games next year with henlehoya and staggahoya -- this kind of dialogue is what we need.

How things have changed on campus. As a student there, if I had wanted to take cheap, ill-informed shots at a leading member of the university community, i would have had to do it at the pub. Certainly the editors of the Hoya would have taken me aside had I written this and pointed out that I didn't know enough to write about the chosen topic. Certainly someone would point out that insulting one of the hardest working members of the university staff in such a forum was not only ill-advised but also inappropriate. Perhaps the standards of the Hoya have changed, but isn't there someone around campus to point out that snot nosed 19 year olds are not meant to impugn the work of guys who first rose to their current positions when Mr. Finn was in grade school?

To look at just one element, Jessie (so popular a topic these days), you call him loyal and hard working but the same could be said of every player on the team. Starting any game in blue and gray is a privilege and Coach felt Jessie had lost that privilege. You don't know why, I don't know why and neither of us in a position to speculate. A leader in the community who is responsible for making that decision clearly saw behavior in Jessie that was not "loyal" when he fought with his teammate at the Duke game, when he sulked on the bench after being sidelined or at some other time in practice or elsewhere. YOU HAVE NO IDEA why that happened and to speculate and project your expectations onto this team is not only unfair but insanely presumptuous.

Finn, a good lesson to learn at GU if you learn nothing else is never to believe anyone who tells you to "trust them" or that they "really know the game". Whoever you were talking to does not practice or play with this team, clearly is not qualified to determine when there is an "abundance" of athleticism and most importantly does not understand what III is adding to the GU community and to the basketball tradition. Go listen to your professors and leave journalism and basketball to people who understand the meaning of "fan", "community" and "support".

89er do I understand you correctly that you think the Hoya should not print rational criticism of the university and its staff?

People are taking the author to town for two distinct yet connected reasons:
1 - Mr Finn is a Sophomore. At best he has been watching the team for 6 years? (assuming he started watching in high school) More realistically Mr Finn has watched georgetown basketball for 2 - 3 years. Hardly making him a georgetown basketball historian. So for Mr Finn to critize not the fans, or what the fans think seems to be somewhat premature. Does Mr Finn know the origin of the WAG shirts? Does he think WAG stands for "wear at games" or "We are Georgetown"? Did Mr Finn attend or otherwise watch 90% - 100% of georgetown games this season so as to construct a logical, researched article or opinion paper? Did Mr Finn bother to interview any fans? Any fans he could quote? Any fans that are no longer undergrads? Its one thing to disrepect someone by telling them what they think is incorrect (when last time I checked everyone is entitled to their opinions, even Mr Finn) its an entirely different thing to tell a group of people what they think, and that it is wrong.

2 - Given the aforementioned lack of experience, exposure, and emotional connection with the team; what business does Mr Finn have in critiquing the coach? Did the coach teach lazy cuts? Did the coach teach poor shooting? Did the coach teach a press? The answer to many of these questions, actually ALL of these questions is we as fans do not know. I don't have access to the practices - does Mr Finn? All we have to judge the coach on is what we see on the court.

Did we fail to make the NCAA - yes. Were our expectations at the beginning of the year met? - maybe. When a team loses will fans complain about every little thing that goes wrong - yes. Do most fans who have cheered for the team dating to pre JT III have faith in JT III that he will correct the issues - YES.

JT III is not a god; nor is he worshiped like one. Last time i checked there is only 1 God and nearly everyone (Jews, Christians, Muslims...) on the planet can agree with that. Thankfully His name is not Mr Finn.

Joey,

The coach didn't make lazy cuts but he didn't correct them either. Also, you're all proving the point of the article, which is that people refuse to listen to any criticism of the argument. Instead of criticizing his argument you criticize him for being a sophomore, which apparently is a direct correlation to ones basketball knowledge?

And for everyone here who has taken exception to the criticism of Thompson who gets paid hundreds of thousands how can people feel fine calling an undrgrad an "asshole" and a "blow hard" for simply expressing an opinion?

All right then Dave, that's what I like to hear. Our team had a bad year and we can all support them as they come roaring back next season. I'll see you there with our WAG/ III shirts on.

Mike - here is the point of my post. I believe JT III tried to correct the problems throughout the course of the year. I believe we should trust a coach that brought our program back from occasionally being in the NCAA tournament discussion - to the final four. I believe that at the end of the day; our youth lead to every problem we had this year. Confidence, shooting, rebounding, accepting coaching etc etc etc - all these things can be taught in practice but sometimes if the players are that young (and that many of them are) things wont soak in.
I think the Mr Finn would rather blame everything on the coach. He contradicts himself by aknowledging the strength of schedule, the experience in the Big East, and the loss of seniors - yet still thinks the coach should ahve corrected every issue that was raised this season.

So yes - attacking the author's youth is my way of saying, Mr Finn... you lack the perspective to make this argument.

There are a couple things that are not mentioned here. There seemed to be a corresponding decline to our beloved Hoyas basketball team after Bryon Jansen's injury. He is the team's spiritual leader. Coincidence? Perhaps.

Second, this could possibly be the curse of McDonough Gymnasium. We had no home games there this year, which was very unfortunate. Now we are in the NIT and could possibly have a home game there. Is this the result of the ghost of Father McDonough wanting us to pay our respects to him?

There is a great idea from a post here. Someone should make a shirt with Ripai's picture on it in the Shepherd Fairey Obama Hope style. If they are too embarrassed to try to get a picture of Ripai, they could take a picture of Robert Mugabe and alter it slightly to match Ripai's facial characteristics.

Underneath the picture of Ripai it should say "SWIPE." Someone that made that shirt could make a ton of money selling it to Hoyas. They should give a percentage of the profits to Ripai/Suru/Umberto.

This article to me seems a bit indulgent, like complaining that the Dow Jones went down to 13,000. Things could be a lot worse. I do think it is valid to criticize the author's relative inexperience in Hoya basketball history because, brother, it HAS been a lot worse. There was a time where some people thought the best it could get was when Esherick made a half-court shot to send a game against GW into OT (that we eventually won). Others, like me, left many a game at the cap center or MCI thinking the closest we were gonna get to another final four was the one we made in 1996 (according to the record books, at least). I think there is a place for criticism, but it's not in the university fishwrap. Go the the Hoyatalk board to shout your vitriol (you won't be alone). Unless you felt the shame I felt when the only thing our mustachioed coach could do to inspire the team was hold up two fists, could you try to portray our current situation as a nadir. We are better off with JT3 as our coach than we have been in at least a decade, and I, for one, am thankful he is our coach and willing to give him a pass for this year.

A lot of you are really showing your true colors as Hoya fans. Instead of disecting the article and thinking about the season you are jumping on a fan who is voicing his displeasure for the product on the floor. No one except the team knows what goes on behind closed doors. All this writer, or any writer without inside access can base their judgement on is the product they see on the floor. Are you all pissed because this article couldn't be further from the truth? Or are you pissed because the writer calls out your obvious ineptitude as basketball fans? If youre upset because of the former then the latter becomes a much stronger argument.

I could not agree more. EXCELLENT article. I've had the exact same observations all year long.

How a team struggles with a simple press ALL season long is beyond me. Why he never tweaked his offence when Monroe dominates the post consistenly is beyond me and why he refuses to take advantage of the athleticism of his players is beyond me.

Well done, couldn't have said it all better myself.

JT Jr's last two seasons at the helm - NCAA 1st round, NIT... hands it mid season over to Esherick who gets em back to NIT

Esherick - 1st season NIT, 2nd NCAA sweet 16, didnt go back to NIT even with invitation because the NIT was going to screw them over with away games... then NIT Finals... then no NIT and fired

no one seems to mention that Ronny Thompson was a crap head of recruiting and only after he left was Esherick able to recruit both Hibbert and Green...

so JTII comes in, NIT quarters, NCAA sweet 16, Final four... Esherick's recruits minus J-wall and pat jr.

you are in the big east, running the same system every year does not work. People can get past cuse 2-3 zone just as they can tell the backdoor cuts are coming.

we had amazing big men because they stayed down low and gave the big east it's rough and tumble persona... not having them up at the top of the key...

JT3 does the same thing as his dad with timeouts and pulling hot players out. runs in the family. i do like how he uses timeouts to cool down the other teams by taking them right before official timeouts.

recruiting... sure they need to grow up and get experience.. but you should know the system you want and recruit towards it... why do we need a monroe figure at the top of the key? why dont we run the ball instead of insisting on taking up the whole 35 seconds.

questioning jt3 is fine and should be welcomed. I would love to know JT3's reasoning behind his treatment of sapp... your one senior leader who put in time? bench him for nikita? if anyone knows some of the players on campus they know the team chemistry... plus seeing the players drunk two nights before a game? ill give JT Jr credit for some of the paranoia, maybe it should come back...

what hurts the most this season and if you disagree please stand up... I NEVER SAW THEM FIGHT FOR THE NAME ON THE FRONT OF THEIR JERSEY... it disgusted me to see uconn and cuse fight it out for 6ot and realize that i wish our players had been like that this season.

these guys gave up - something i had never associated with Hoyas before

Dave:

You had the courage to say what a lot of people have been thinking for the last two years. If anything you went way too easy on Thompson. He is not a decent coach, he is a LOUSY coach. Frankly, under his guidance his team has become positively inept in so many areas: passing, dribbling, rebounding, ball control, how to make uncontested layups, the ability to throw three-point shots which manage to hit anything solid (with the exception of the floor or people in the stands), an ability to drive inside. Here's a good example of why he doesn't have a clue OR any coaching skills: on those rare occasions when they manage to get the ball to Monroe under the basket, Monroe rarely takes the easy shot. Instead, he looks around for someone to pass it to and, much more often than not, has the ball stripped from him, throws the ball out of bounds or throws it to someone on the opposing team. 99% of basketball coaches anywhere (including in high school, elementary school, etc.) would teach him to just take the shot. However, Monroe is still not shooting and still contributes to our ridiculously high turnover rate. Ultimately, that is a coaching deficiency. And I don't think it is going to get any better. If anything, Thompson is becoming more and more ineffective and seemingly has no ability to control his players or call plays.

And for all of you who still think we have a future with Thompson, can you answer me this question honestly: if his name was Joe Smith III would he have been hired in the first place? (At best, he was an above average coach in the Ivy League. Repeat: THE IVY LEAGUE.) After the humiliating meltdown this season would he still be looking at four more years as an excessively-compensated Big East coach? Let's face it: he was hired solely out of nostalgia for his father who coached during the glory years of the 1980's when we had Ewing and Mourning.

After the disaster that was Esherick, there was a collective delusion that Little Thompson would magically transform us into a team which would regularly get into the Final Four year in and year out (like his father did three of the four years when we had Ewing). This was the triumph of hope and nostalgia over common sense. Yes, he did take us to the Final Four in 2007 to his credit (as you noted Dave, relying on Esherick's recruits) but since then he has continually failed to deliver results commensurate with the talent he has on the team. And if anything, he seems to be more feckless, confused and helpless with each new game. And most notably, he has almost entirely abandoned the vaunted Princeton Offense, which, last time I checked did not involve throwing the ball around the perimeter for 34 seconds followed by a three-point airball (which assumes that the ball was not turned over by then, which is always a big IF with this team).

There are many of us who think that things are not going to get any better for the duration of Thompson's contract. Players are transferring out and good recruits are abandoning us, citing Thompson as the reason. We Hoyas fans need to look beyond Thompson if we hope to actually recapture the glory days. At the very least, we need a GOOD coach, and Thompson just isn't it.

j - look up rational, then call me. Anyone who alleges that this team was full of extraordinary athletes can not be rational. If this was Bailey Heaps writing I might take it differently, but this guy has no rep or credentials to hang his hat on. Anyone who alleges that our stars play "too unselfishly" has probably never played a team sport.

One other thing to consider is how our team would have played had we had Vernon Macklin and Jeremiah Rivers this year. There is frankly no reason why Omar Wattad and Nikita should have had any playing time this year except that we had a weak bench. Why did they transfer? I have heard that it was because of JTIII. Vernon has a lot of potential to be a great player and it would have been great to have him down at center or power forward with Monroe playing at his side. It would have been reminiscent of the days of Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutumbo. Likewise, Rivers was a good defender, something that we sorely lacked this year, particularly whenever Omar was playing. Rivers also would not throw up ridiculous airballs like Omar did for much of the year. Why did these two players transfer?

I was one of the fans who was overjoyed when JTIII was named coach, recalling how well we had done under his father, and figuring he could reclaim the magic for us. A fellow Hoya fan, who doubted that JTIII had the experience, skills and toughness to manage in the Big East, had some prescient words for me back then: "Never confuse Frank Sinatra, Jr. with Frank Sinatra."

@Jumpbaby:
Chicken fingers are on thursday :-p, minus that you have a good refreshing perspective, and I agree with most of what you said.

Hey BostonHoya89,
Sinatra comparison aside, I'm glad III isn't like Pops because:
a. He wouldn't quit on his team in mid-season
b. He doesn't want to buck the school's president by investing in a Las Vegas casino.
c. He doesn't recruit felons and/or illiterates
d. He doesn't pretend to be interested in the kids' education by showcasing an "academic advisor" on the bench.
e. He doesn't make prospective players read out loud from a book(see Grant Hill, Reston,Va.)

No, I'm very comfortable with III, thank you.

How can a team start out of the gates and beat some heavy weights and stalwarts of the Big East and then CONSISTENTLY fizzle out to the tune of being beaten twice in a row by a a program that has been scratching at the bottom for years now. Same personnel, same coaches and still the same opponents, then one wonders as to what happened? Its like a someone saw the crap report ahead of the debacle and started to unload the Hoya stock? Sell, sell, sell and the the Hoyas tumbled from the top of the charts into an abyss. Nothing anyone on that team tried worked. Predictability, ruled the hoya fate. It was like someone let the "cat out of the bag" on the Hoya strategy of winning and now the secret formula was now in the open for all to know and adjust. Adjust the opponents did in reducing a much vaunted caoch and his list of blue chip players to grasping and groping for something to work in their favor. Hoya game stratgey became predictable which the opponents tore apart at the seams. Nothing worked; before the game, during the game and post game strategy was reduced to chaos and confusion. When a team starts out showing the maturity and the skill to beat ranked teams and then all of sudden with a flick of switch turns into group that lacks basic game sense, it is difficult to make a case for growing pains! In this situation like it or not the trail clearly leads to the top. JTIII, needs to rediscover the art of coaching. I am even tempted to think that this may not even have anything to do with his caoching ability but perhaps something very personal that manifests itself in every aspect of his life. Peace!

Dave, it was great that you wrote what was so apparent. I just wished you had said it after the Pitt game, before I flushed my tickets- down the same toilet that JTIII flushed the season down. After the pounding by Pitt, particularly Blair, I did't understand the three guard lineup and the lack of Sims or Vaughn's playing time. What happened the legend of tough, gritty, G-town basketball? The Beasts of the East. As the great philosopher, Uncle Ricky said, "either sh-t or get off the pot!" should be said to JTIII and his YMCA scheme!

While his own inconsistent and passive play had a great deal to do with that, the offense in which he was playing also played a role in his decline in production.

How can you be passive if you don't get the ball, Roy was in position and everything, you just said it yourself, the Hoyas best offensive weapon and then you turn around and say Roy's playing passive had a great deal to do with his play, well, I just wanna tell you, that's not a true statement, but I respect your writing, :)

Yes, we have to press, we have to runnnnnnnn, let them fellas get them legs loose, we don't have to press the whole game. We just have to press at time and even when we're up double digits and to say up double digits and some, smash em, take em out while we got em down. Everytime we scored we jogged down the court and sat down. With a team as athletic and talented as those Hoyas you gotta let em loose. Let em push the rock when they can, when they need to set the offense, do so, and run the play and execute it...

Hey Polar:

I agree with your comments 100% about all the ways that JTIII is an improvement over his old man...OFF THE COURT. But ON THE COURT, where it counts most, JTIII is a disaster. Granted his father wasn't a perfect coach: his inability to teach Ewing the difference between goaltending and shot blocking almost certainly cost us the championship to UNC in 1982 and his teams always had problems with free throws and with unnecessary fouling (this latter point JTIII clearly learned from his father...I have never seen a team foul so many players who are shooting from three-point range). But year in and year out, on the court, John Thompson got it done and helped train his players to be better (and well-rounded players, both offensively and defensively) if not NBA stars.

JTIII on the other hand has absolutely NO ABILITY to improve his players. When he first started at Georgetown, Jessie Sapp was a good player with even greater potential. He was aggressive, had good instincts on the floor and a good eye for shot selection. There was even talk of him being NBA material. But after four years with JTIII, he ended up as a benchwarmer, because if anything, JTIII squeezed all of the talent and enthusiasm out of him. Sapp's failure to start on Senior Day is less a reflection on Sapp and more on III's pathetic lack of ability to develop a solid player like Sap.

And it was the same with Hibbert. Hibbert did us all a great favor by finishing his senior year. He could have gone pro after his junior year like Green. Everyone was excited to have him back and there was talk of a return to the Final Four. But Hibbert did not count on JTIII's complete (and at times, laughable) inability to figure out how to penetrate our opponent's defenses. As a result,we simply gave up on our inside game, the better to let Summers and Ewing hurl bricks from three-point range. Hibbert was completely marginalized except for rare instances like when he hit the three-pointer (!) against UConn at the buzzer. Because of Thompson's lack of coaching ability, one of the best centers in the NCAA spent much of his senior year as the fifth wheel on the floor. As the original article mentioned, because Hibbert stayed at Georgetown for his senior year, his appeal in the NBA draft was much reduced, and he ended up being drafted by Toronto so as to be packaged in a bigger deal for someone else the Raptors really wanted.

Make no mistake: Monroe has learned his lesson from the Hibbert debacle and he won't stick around out of loyalty knowing that the longer he stays at Georgetown, at least under III's tutelage, the less he will learn and his appeal to the pros will be much diminished. If he is smart, he will go pro at the end of next year before he too becomes either a benchwarmer or a center on a team with no inside game (since the coach doesn't know how to have one).

And as for Jeremiah Rivers, whom someone asked about above, it was no secret that his father Doc was not a JTII fan and didn't see his son either getting a fair amount of time on the floor or developing any skills. Doc strongly urged his son to transfer rather than staying behind on this Bad News Bear-type team where every player who arrives with any talent, enthusiasm and heart has it sucked right out of them by an incompetent coach whose only currency is his last name.

As I see it, we are in a FIRST-rate division with a SECOND-class team (largely the result of JTIII's inability to recruit new talent or develop the players he does have) overseen by a THIRD-rate coach with FOUR more years on his contract. I think I need a FIFTH of strong whiskey to help numb the pain of knowing that this past season was not a one-time aberration, but rather what we have in store for us as long as JTIII is in charge.

God help us.

Here's a team with 6 players seeing their first serious time this year, 2 sophomore starters, one great junior, and one senior who doesn't contribute all that much. Of course we're inconsistent when playing the hardest schedule in college basketball.

We get the entire team minus one 6 ppg guard back next year, and even this year we were obviously capable of beating the best teams (ie #3 UCONN, #4 Memphis, #10 Nova). Experience breeds consistency, and that's all this team lacks.

Bottom line: the sky isn't falling, JT III is still a great coach, and watch out for us next year.

Yessir, I agree...

Well documented, BostonHoya89, with many salient points. Maybe we should ditch both of these Thompsons and bring in Bobby and Pat Knight. That will put fear into these players, if nothing else.

Love your use of Numerology. I owe you a FIFTH of scotch.

I think it is ridiculous that some of the comments cite Dave Finn as an irreputable source and state oh well "he was not even born in 1984... he is only a sophomore... snot nosed kid." He might not have been alive for 1984, but he could see countless games from that era of Hoya basketball on ESPN Classic or know stats or simply their style of play.

The fact of the matter is we were an underachieving team this year. We lost to St John's twice in the regular season, a team which has been hurt by NCAA sanctions and has consistently finished at the bottom of the Big East in recent seasons and a team who was dismantled by Marquette, who was without Dominic James, after the Johnney's beat us in an ugly game (looked like bad high school basketball). We also lost to Seton Hall, which has only 7 or 8 scholarship players and whose coach Gonzalez can only recruit transfers or junior college players. At one point in the season, my uncle, who is a consultant for Seton Hall basketball games at the Prudential Center, informed me after our loss to them, that they had not one commited recruit for next year's class. And that is not even mentioning losing twice to Cincinnati.

Some of you may cite well we won big games against UConn, Memphis and Nova, but the fact of the matter is that those games were early in the season and we lost the important ones later on in the season; the ones we desperately needed for an NCAA bid.

JTIII is not infallible and untouchable. On one hand, he is not responsible for the inexperience of his players and granted the Princeton offense does take time to master (I ran the Princeton offense on my AAU team for years coached by a former Princeton player). However, he is responsible for motivating his players, adjusting his game plans to the ability and strength of his players, calling timeouts when necessary, and implementing plays after a timeout. Furthermore, he is responsible for insisting that players not drink a few nights before a game which indicates that all the players gave up on the season. Players giving up on a season is JTIII's fault since he is the head coach of the team and such a lack of leadership or fortitude stems from the top.

In the end, JTIII is not immune to criticism and if he is a good coach he is doing way more soul searching and own self criticism than anything written in this article.

Dave Finn was right. JTIII does not deserve a free pass.

Revise to prior post. Meant lost twice in the whole season. Once in Big East regular season and once in the Big East Tournament.

That poster above is not serious, right? That Thompson didn't teach Ewing how to block shots?

Thompson TOLD Ewing to goaltend those shots as a way to intimidate Carolina in that game.

Oh good, we pulled Baylor in the first round of the NIT. Looks like a one and done for the once-mighty Hoyas.

Hoyas1971:

So you think Thompson's telling Ewing to goaltend constantly against UNC in the 1982 championship game was a good idea? Which intimidated such delicate flowers as Dean Smith, James Worthy, Sam Perkins and Michael Jordan???

Let's do the math, shall we? The final score was 63-62. Ten of UNC's 63 points (or 16%) came from Ewing's goaltending. And if you saw that game, not all of those five shots were going in. Maybe three of them at most. Imagine if Ewing had only goaltended four of those shots. We probably would have...WON. Good plan. Maybe the acorn did fall close to the tree.

You can't even get mad at the people who are ripping Finn. At best, you can ignore them.

The people who blindly think that JTIII is flawless or everything is always optimistic re: Georgetown basketball are the type that post frequently at Hoya Talk/ get really into Hoya Blue: They were never sports/ basketball fans (for the most part- not all of them, before you run wild with this...) until they came to Georgetown. Then, they were born into the spirit of illogical optimism and hero-worship that is so common in late-onset sports fans.

As a diehard sports, basketball, college basketball, and Hoyas fan, I can tell you that Finn is spot-on in his assessment.

By the way- Is Thompson still a good coach? Yes. Should we be wearing t-shirts with 'III' on the back in the student section? Absolutely not. I sure won't be next year- it's just ridiculous to elevate him to Coach K, Boeheim, or Calhoun status.

AMEN! And the entire campus needs to stop putting the b-ball players on a pedestal as well. Hey G-town, how about rewarding all the hard working (academic) students! Athletes are over=rated and get too many freebies. Start concentrating on the academic excellence of the student body--how about giving them scholarships for good grades? We'd rather give a donation to supplement a hard working, well deserving academic achiever rather than a pampered overrated athlete!

I'm so happy that JTIII's questionable coaching is finally being called out. I've been a Hoya fan since the early '80's. I remember those great Hoya teams of John Thompson's. They were dominant, but they were never the greatest offensively. His father's teams were intimidating, and they played great defense. For whatever reason, the defensive effort just wasn't there this year. I also question his use of the "Princeton Offense", even against teams that play zone. It just didn't look as effective this year. When you saw them run their offense in the past, it had a rhythm and was fun to watch. All season long this offense looked confused, and out of sync. Is the problem that this team was too young, or is Thompson just a terrible offensive coach. How can you explain having one field goal in the final 9 minutes of regulation against St. John's? How many times did we see player making a foolish turnover in a key moment? How many times did someone take a forced shot, or make a lazy pass to the other team? These are, unfortunately, the hallmarks of poor coaching. Poor discipline. He has brought Georgetown back into the national spotlight. The school isn't yet in the same league as North Carolina, UConn, or Duke, but they're solidly back in the top 20 as far as recruiting in the past 5 years. If coach Thompson isn't able to learn from his mistakes, and adapt, however, this renaissance may be short lived.

JT III = mediocre coach

To those who are saying this was a rebuilding year, or that it was a young team, or that they still basically met expectations, you need to get your head out of the sand.

Take a look at our team. Greg Monroe, DaJuan Summers, and Austin Freeman are ALL Projected NBA Top 15 Picks (and Monroe is supposed to be a Top 5). To have that level of talent on the team and end up a 6th seed in the NIT is a joke. Obviously, all the blame can't be placed on JT III. But to all self-righteous class of '07 alums who started this cult of insanity that led to a ridiculous contract extension, screw you. Hibbert, Green, and Wallace would've made the Final Four under any decent coach. Not to mention moving directly from 4 years at Princeton to head coach at a prestigious program like Georgetown was pure nepotism. Finn is spot on in his assessment.

Sincerely,

Sad Hoyas Fan

It is not all Thompson's fault but you can judge coaching by lineups, timeouts calls, plays out of timeout, and defensive sets. We FAILED in every one of those categories. When St. John's can break our zone and we can't even get a shot off on there man to man, that is TERRIBLE COACHING.

The players didn't do much to help either this season either...

Next year all we can hope is that athletics has enough money left over from raising the ticket prices to buy Thompson a clown car to drive out onto the court and tiny bicycles for all of the players. The circus show will be necessary because there isn't enough highlight footage for a pregame video!!!!!

JTIII still is a young coach who has shown the flexibility to adjust. He is very talented, taking over a team that he didn't recruit and taking them to the Final Four. By all indications, he is an excellent recruiter and has the confidence of his core players. They will improve, and the coach will adjust over time so that he can win.

I have a longer perspective than most. I came to campus in 1976, only a few years after JT Jr. There will be bad years and good years. You can count on a rebuilding year with so many young players on the team (I can't remember when the Hoyas were this young. Also remember, the top-seeded Louisville team finished in 12th place when its seniors were freshmen in 2006).

There will be people who can't get along. There's some upset over Macklin and Rivers. JT Jr. had a revolving door of players. Good players, key players, transferred or were dropped. Though distressing, the transfer of Rivers and Macklin is not surprising. They were peripheral compared to players like Michael Graham or Anthony Jones.

Far more distressing is the scrutiny given to college coaches. Criticism of Gary Williams has been unfair, and I would hate to think that JTIII will face the same harsh scrutiny.

No one is entitled to a national championship or Final Four run or even a NCAA selection. Enjoy watching the development of this coach and his players. It's a privilege, not a right. Appreciate that. During my student years and ever after, I certainly have been proud of my Hoyas. This year has hardly diminished that.

What does it say about the Georgetown community when this article receives more posts than any other article this year?

It says that we care more about a basketball game than:

1) The study abroad student who died in South Africa last semester
2) The defacement of the Jan Karski statue
3) The Afghani student who cannot get a visa to come to school
4) The girl who died this semester of pulmonary hypertension
5) The students who routinely get mugged near campus
6) The rising cost of tuition that prevents potential Hoyas from coming to our beloved school

Need I say more?

http://thehoya.com/node/17253
http://thehoya.com/node/16228
http://thehoya.com/node/18338
http://thehoya.com/node/18343

Maybe we should readjust our priorities.

James

One down season and everybody is up in arms. Nobody was calling him out when things were good. Things will rebound and this will be forgotten.

"shirts that depict him in the same light as Barack Obama"

Why can't JTIII be compared to Obama? When these shirts were made Obama had not done a thing. Obama represents HOPE, something that Thompson should represent to Georgetown.

I agree he should not be revered as much as he has been.