A publication called 'Ultimate Sports' ranks the Georgetown Hoyasas the ninth-best men's college basketball team in the country.Inside Sports magazine ranks Georgetown No. 8. Sport magazine, Street& Smith's, College Sports and The Sporting News have Georgetown No.6. Dick Vitale's preseason forecast ranks the Hoyas fourth. ESPN'snew magazine, Blue Ribbon, something called Lindy's, and BasketballTimes proclaim Georgetown the third-best team in college basketball.The Associated Press, in its preseason poll, ranked the Hoyas fifth.
So the first question to pose as the hoops season begins is: IsGeorgetown really going to be that good? You know, good like back inthe early- and mid-1980s. Elite eight, perhaps even Final Four good?
At the recent Big East media day in New York, the first, oh, 15questions put to Coach John Thompson were about how great his teammust be.
'Oh, have you seen them?' Thompson would ask with a fake scowl.
'How do you know they're any good?' Thompson asked anotherreporter praising his team.
But even Thompson couldn't keep it up for long. Finally, askedwhat he likes about his team from what he's seen in practice, the manwho rations public praise said, 'Our speed, agility, our depth,aggression.'
Thompson had a tangible way to measure just how well the '95-96Hoyas can cover a basketball court defensively: 'Since October 15th,'he said, 'we've had 27 stitches. We can apply pressure. That's notphysical, it's fast.'
Just then a thought crossed Thompson's mind, and he couldn't helpletting loose with it. 'I can go back to acting nasty again,' hesaid, a smile breaking through another mock scowl. 'And it'll be,`He's acting like this because his team got better.' '
Of course, no amount of preseason or, for that matter, pre-Marchanalysis will tell us whether Georgetown basketball will again be apart of what Thompson calls 'the big action.' On paper it doesn'tseem unreasonable to rank Georgetown in the top 10 because the Hoyaswill put a team on the floor that includes Othella Harrington, AllenIverson, Jerome Williams, Eric Myles, Jahidi White, Boubacar Aw,Jerry Nichols, and a certain 6-foot-3 freshman phenom from McKinleyTech named Victor Page.
At the risk of sounding like a coach, I will now point out thatthey don't play 'em on paper. Teams with more talent than this losein the first round of the NCAA tournament every year. And if theprognosticators are as carried away with these forecasts as they werewith their assessments of Iverson a year ago, they will have turnedthe Hoyas into the Houston Rockets.
On the other hand it's quite possible all the ingredients are inplace for a great season. Harrington, the senior center who's goingto have to be a big-time leader and producer, said: 'There's acertain attitude about this team. There's a good feeling thatradiates.' It's already radiated up to U-Conn. Coach Jim Calhoun, whosaid, 'You don't have to spend a lot of time making the case to methat Georgetown can be in the Meadowlands {site of the Final Four} atthe end of the year.'
One reason Harrington feels so good about the team's chances isthat he and Iverson, who never seemed to complement each other lastseason, played together and hung together in Japan during the WorldUniversity Games over the summer. For all the hype surroundingIverson, the fact is he shot 39 percent and had only one more assistthan he had turnovers as a freshman. He'll be so much better if he'sin sync with Harrington. 'The summer overseas was very important forme and Allen,' Harrington said, 'because it was our first timedeveloping somewhat a camaraderie between us. It'll help us on thecourt. We learned a lot of things about each other, we learned how toplay the two-man game. We learned we're more complementary to eachother than I thought.'
Thompson now expects Iverson to 'be able to direct other people,influence other people's games. Allen's so talented he figures, `Whythrow five passes when I can go by this guy right now?' He's got somuch talent it's hard for him to be patient.'
Talent alone, of course, doesn't put a team into the top five orthe Final Four. Something has to click, not only with Iverson andHarrington, but between those two and Jerome Williams, the 6-9swingman with huge skills. 'We're talented, no question,' Thompsonsaid, 'but you can't tell about character in November. You've got toknow more about the ability of each person to understand what has tobe sacrificed, how they'll get along with each other, how they'llrespond to adversity. My feelings now, like your feelings now, don'tmean a thing.'
Even the notion that Georgetown is mega-talented needs to betempered. Going into the season, the Hoyas don't have a first-teamall-American. Villanova -- ranked No. 3 by the Associated Press --does, in Kerry Kittles. Connecticut -- ranked sixth -- does, in RayAllen. As talented as Page may be, the Hoyas' back court will beawfully young, while U-Conn. trots out the best player in the country(Allen), and another NBA prospect in Doron Sheffer. Are the Hoyas asgood as Kansas? No. Kentucky? U-Conn.? Maybe not. Villanova? Abouteven. For that matter, Memphis and Utah, two teams you don't hearmuch about at all, may be as good as the hyped teams, the ones on BigMonday and Big Tuesday and Monster Wednesday. And Wake Forest,remember, has the best big man in the country in Tim Duncan. Thepreseason shocker for me is reading polls that rank Maryland in thetop five. Note to those pollsters: Joe Smith isn't in school anymore.Maryland is going to be good, but let's not get carried away. Howmany games did Smith win by himself last year? About half of 'em.
Around here, the excitement over what could be the best Georgetownteam since Alonzo Mourning's junior year won't be quieted. EvenThompson noted: 'There seems to be a lot of excitement generated. Thekids are excited, too. That's not bad, but it's not a reality. Thereality is there's always a bunch of surprises.'
That said, the realist offered one more observation: 'Theattitude, the energy level . . . Everything I've seen,' he said, 'isa good sign.'
