There was one current player in the Riggs Library that day, onegawky high school senior who sheepishly approached his new coach andput out his hand.
'C-congratulations, Coach,' Roy Hibbert said to John ThompsonIII, the day JT III was chosen to resurrect Georgetown's moribundprogram in April 2004.
'He told me they were having workouts,' Hibbert remembered. 'If Iwanted to come work out, I could work out.'
'He had braids,' Thompson said, half-smiling, rolling his eyes.
Thirty minutes earlier, Big Roy, the all-growed-up senior, hadlowered his shoulder and scored, and the will and resolve ofThompson's players outlasted a deeper and a hair more talentedLouisville team in a 55-52 scrum for their second straight Big Easttitle -- something not even Pops's Georgetown teams had done.
Hibbert had 12 points and four blocked shots in the game, andmade an impossibly tough basket inside to give his team the lead inthe final four minutes. He got help from 6-feet-nothing JonathanWallace, who with less than two minutes left maneuvered his compactframe through mounds of Louisville muscle in the key and -- grimacing, fading away off one foot -- released the prettiestteardrop from maybe five feet.
All net.
In a mucked-up game in which good looks at the basket were at apremium, DaJuan Summers then made the most of a rare unobstructedview, knocking down a three-pointer from the right baseline thatbroke the tie with 40 seconds left and sent the Phone Booth intoanother state of delirium.
After Louisville's last gasps from beyond the arc, the wallflowerrecruit from four years ago grabbed his jersey. His voice bellowingloudly, Hibbert kick-started the student section on one side of thearena with the first two words of a familiar chant: 'We are!'
The bare-chested boys and face-painted girls hollered back:'Georgetown!'
In about a week, some well-intentioned television analyst willsurmise why the Hoyas don't deserve a No. 1 seed in the NCAAtournament. Or point out how Georgetown is too flawed to win thenational title a year after its scintillating run to the FinalFour.
And, as usual, they will miss the point completely.
See, before worrying about where Georgetown is going, we need tobreathe for five seconds and see how far the Hoyas have come since2004 -- the year the program's national relevance was lost amidits 13-15 finish and one-and-done in the Big East tournament.
Running on memories more than fumes, Georgetown had become St.John's South -- that esteemed, private Catholic university thatkept waiting for its time-machine transport back to the 1980s.That's the program JT III inherited when he left the security ofPrinceton and the nonscholarship Ivy League for his old man'spressure-cooker job.
Big John, who knew there would be cries of nepotism, was alsothere to wish his son well four years ago in that perfectly chosenon-campus library -- a beautiful, Victorian cast-ironprefabrication, a room that just oozed old Washington.
'I don't know, it's hard to think about that for me,' JT III saidwhen asked whether he ever imagined such a quick turnaround. 'We hada plan. We actually wanted to win a national championship that firstyear. But then you just go about your business. That's how Iapproached it, not, 'Ooooh, let's by year X accomplish this.' Wereally wanted to just improve and get better. And we still do.'
Recalled Hibbert: 'At the time, Georgetown wasn't playing toowell. I just couldn't believe it what they were going through. Ithink we changed it around.'
Ya think?
For the final two minutes yesterday, the masses stood andscreamed -- all 19,116 of the Verizon Center capacity. They werecompletely enraptured by the most exhilarating college basketballgame anyone could remember in this building since George Masonrocked Connecticut's world to go to the Final Four in 2006.
A very talented team coached by Rick Pitino, who 21 years agoshocked Big John's Hoyas to go to the Final Four with Providence,went down hard.
Bill Raftery called the game on national television. Secretary ofState Condoleezza Rice clapped wildly from courtside. Jason Campbelland Patrick Ewing Sr. posed with Mayor Adrian Fenty for a photo opat halftime.
Georgetown is not merely back; the Hoyas have become boffo boxoffice, the place to be on a sporting Saturday in Washington.
The postgame news conference was standing room only in a smallroom, drawing a crowd unlike the Wizards and Capitals had seen.
In his usual seat along a table in the back of the room was BigJohn -- proud father, Washington icon, talk-radio host, and, now,unpaid ombudsman.
'Are you going to hold it over Pops, now that you've donesomething he's never done?' Thompson III was asked. Confirming thefeat, JT III replied, 'No.'
'Ask him when they're going to compare you to your peers, and notPete Carril and your father,' John Thompson Jr., said, his voicegrowing a bit stern. 'You'll never make a damn dime if you have tobe compared to ancient people. When will you be compared to yourpeers, which you have done extremely well against, as opposed toyour ancient dad and Pete Carril?'
JT III beat Pitino, his father's old peer, today -- siphoningevery bit of resilience from his determined kids, who amazinglyfinished unbeaten at home for the first time in 12 years.
Looking back to that day in 2004, with JT III and young RoyHibbert standing there, it's safe to say almost every hoop dream aplayer and coach could have imagined four years ago has come true:dropping top-ranked Duke two years ago; stunning North Carolina lastMarch; just two wins away from a national title; and another BigEast crown Saturday before a deafening crowd at home.
Almost every dream imaginable, even the one in which the coachenvisioned his future center in a clean, dark suit, his hair neatlytrimmed, before the cameras.
'The braids?' Hibbert said, smiling. 'Senior year of high school.I was going through a phase.'
No need to explain. In 2004, Georgetown basketball was goingthrough its own phase. Together over the next four years, they bothmatured into something special and memorable. The Hoyas became whateveryone envisioned that day in the library, faster than almostanyone but a new coach and a 7-2 teenager imagined.
