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Monday, January 29, 2001
Hoyas hovering around elite teams
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
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WASHINGTON D.C. -- Let's dispense with a myth first. No, the 2000 NIT banner isn't the one that hangs over the urinal in the Georgetown locker room.
The Hoyas aren't that disrespectful to a tournament that actually gave them life for this season.
Instead, the banner that serves as motivation is a replica of the 1993 NIT banner that arrived too small to hang above the rafters. The real 2000 NIT banner still hangs in the far corner of McDonough Gym.
But when anyone says the word, "NIT" the players squirm.
|  | | Anthony Perry and the Hoyas got past UNLV, but dropped two Big East games last week. |
"I don't want to hear that word, ever," said senior forward Lee Scruggs. "It's one of the worst words I could ever hear right now. It's not all bad, but we should have been in the NCAA Tournament last year but we didn't play up to our expectations. We put it up over the urinal to remind us every day of what happened last year."
Georgetown coach Craig Esherick was so in tune to his players' disappointment of not earning an NCAA Tournament berth that he made them watch Selection Sunday last March, knowing they wouldn't hear their name called.
The lesson stuck.
"It was one of the most painful things I've done in coaching," Esherick said. "We were real close to being a tourney team last year but I wanted our players to understand the hurt."
The plan, according to junior guard Kevin Braswell, is to run into the bathroom and rip down that NIT banner on Selection Sunday. No one is talking about burning it or anything that serious. But some sort of symbolic gesture will take place.
And, yes, Georgetown should be in the NCAA Tournament after a hiatus too long for this storied program. Even with losses in two of their last three home games to Pitt and Notre Dame, the Hoyas have arrived back in the top tier in the Big East. That doesn't necessarily translate into being one of the elite teams in the country. But it does mean they've got a drive that might be missing for some of the other teams in the league.
Heading into Monday's Big East West showdown at Syracuse, the Hoyas remain one of the hungriest teams in the league. Seton Hall coach Tommy Amaker said he couldn't coach or teach hunger that is inside the Hoyas. He said he knew that his team lacked the same drive as he watched Georgetown sweep the Pirates this season.
It's easy to understand the pain. Seton Hall went to the Sweet 16 last year. The assumption was that the heralded freshmen who came in would simply continue the path and possibly take the Pirates to the Final Four. But, at Georgetown, not one player has been to the NCAA Tournament. The Hoyas haven't been since 1997, seemingly a lifetime in this program.
"It's not just a challenge but a goal," senior center Ruben Boumtje Boumtje said. "We have to see what that's like. We have to do it."
Georgetown's season this year, really started last year, when the Hoyas beat West Virginia and Syracuse in the Big East tournament. The Hoyas then started the NIT at Virginia and won a thrilling triple-overtime game against a team most people thought should have been in the NCAA Tournament. The Hoyas lost at Cal in the second round of the NIT, but had found their hunger for this campaign.
"What showed our guys, particularly our seniors and Kevin Braswell, our only junior, is that we have a good team coming back this year so let's not blow it," Esherick said. "Let's do everything that we can to make certain that we make the NCAA Tournament this year. That created a hunger on the entire team."
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"What showed our guys, particularly
our seniors and Kevin Braswell, our only junior, is
that we have a good team coming back this year
so let's not blow it. Let's do everything that we
can to make certain that we make the NCAA
Tournament this year. That created a hunger on
the entire team. ” |
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— Craig Esherick,
Georgetown head coach |
But that appetite was nearly squelched when Scruggs, arguably the most talented player on the Hoyas, was academically suspended for the first semester. Even though the Hoyas had a soft non-conference schedule, the Hoyas' base of finding hidden gems re-emerged with the development of freshman forwards Mike Sweetney and Gerald Riley. Their play in the post in Scruggs' absence allowed the Hoyas to pick up where they left off last season and they went undefeated without Scruggs. It also made them deeper, more versatile and even more dangerous to face when Scruggs returned in mid-December until they went 16-0 heading into Pitt.
"I was concerned when Lee wasn't going to play, but Mike Sweetney came in and did a wonderful job for this program and the credit has to go to the coaches," Boumtje-Boumtje said.
Scruggs has accepted his role as being the top reserve, too. The unselfishness on this team has been evident by Braswell being more selective in his shots and going inside more often to Sweetney, Riley, Boumtje Boumtje and finding Scruggs in his sweet spot. Perimeter shooting against and for the Hoyas is still a concern, and lapses -- both against Pitt and Notre Dame -- at both ends of the court have to be remedied for this team to mount a serious campaign in the NCAA Tournament.
"We've improved. Offensively and defensively we're very good because we can press full court and trap full court," Esherick said. "We can play slow, we can play fast. We can rebound with anybody in the country. But we've got to finish the season before we compare this team to the past."
The Hoya paranoia in its truest sense isn't back. But the name of Georgetown is starting to bring back the intensity with its opponents.
John Thompson's specter over the program has dissipated with the players saying this is clearly Esherick's program. He wasn't able to put his stamp on it when Thompson abruptly resigned midway through the 1998-99 season. The 1999-2000 season was Esherick's first and he was on the verge of a tournament team. This year, Esherick's second full year, is looking like a lock for the tournament, even with this recent skid.
"(Coach Thompson) was here for 27 years and his name was associated with the university for 27 years. It's natural for people to take a while to get used to Craig Esherick and Georgetown," Esherick said. "I think eventually that will happen."
It can happen sooner if the Hoyas win the Big East, or go far in the NCAA Tournament. But can they do either?
"I think we're deep enough and we have talent enough on this team to compete with any team in the country," Boumtje Boumtje said. "It's going to be up to us to get out there and want it on the court. We just have to play the way we're supposed to play."
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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