Out of the shadows

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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The offense is from Princeton. The defense is from Dad.

But at some point people are going to have to consider Georgetown coach John Thompson III for his own unique contribution to the Hoyas' resurgence. The apprentice to Pete Carril and John Thompson Jr. is doing quite well on his own, thank you, with one of the best teams in this NCAA tournament.

"People have got to realize that John is John," Thompson Jr. said of his son here Wednesday. "I would love to see people compare him to his peers. Maybe he would have been national coach of the year if they did.

"Yeah, we've played a part. But you can go to the Library of Congress and get plays. You can't go to the Library of Congress and learn how to coach."

And you can't go near a TV or office pool these days without hearing about Georgetown's Final Four chances. This is the trendy pick – the Big East champ, the winner of 15 of its last 16 games, the possessor of two tremendous frontcourt players in Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert, a year after two-big combos at Florida (Joakim Noah, Al Horford), LSU (Tyrus Thomas, Glen Davis) and George Mason (Jai Lewis, Will Thomas) keyed runs to the semifinals.

The Hoyas (26-6), the No. 2 seed in the East Regional, begin play Thursday against No. 15 seed Belmont (23-9). NCAA expectations are the highest for this program since 1989, when Thompson Jr. and his No. 1 Hoyas nearly lost to Carril and Princeton in the first round, before ultimately falling to Duke in the East Regional final in East Rutherford, N.J.

Combine that with the fact that East No. 1 seed North Carolina is playing in the same building this weekend – "They'll be watching us, so yeah, obviously we'll watch them," Hibbert said – then factor in all the chatter about Thompson III bringing Georgetown back to the glory days overseen by his father, and you have a coach who is admittedly concerned about keeping his players in the moment.

"In this day and age, with the access to information, you'd be a fool to think they're not seeing that stuff," Thompson III said. "At the same time I think our group is focused and that we understand that it's about us. It's irrelevant what people think or what people are saying. You have to play."

And they're doing that as well as anyone lately. The Princeton offense was questioned by many when Thompson III brought it with him in 2004. It can't work on a nightly basis at this level, they said. You can't recruit to it, they said.

But they didn't understand the Princeton offense is a lot different when you don't have Princeton athletes running it. It's about timing and precision, not necessarily about squeezing the clock. Georgetown can go small and run if you like, as seen in an 84-82 win over Notre Dame in the Big East semis.

"We like to control the game with our offense," said the 7-foot Hibbert. "We can play at any pace. But if we're not comfortable with the pace, we'll slow it down and get it back to a halfcourt game."

Regardless the style, Green is the key. Thompson III calls him the smartest player he's ever coached – and Green, a junior, said it took him a year and a half to grasp the nuances of his coach's offense. He's essentially a point forward, directing the flow and scoring from anywhere on the floor.

"I think Jeff Green is special and he's someone who has the ability to dominate a game, control a game," Thompson III said. "He can dictate a game without scoring any points."

Guards Jonathan Wallace and Jessie Sapp spearhead a defense that can best be described as confrontational.

"He didn't get that defense from coach Carril," Thompson Jr. sniffed.

No, that's where this Georgetown team looks a lot like those old Georgetown teams. And Thompson III seems calmly resigned to the fact that people are going to keep asking him about those old Georgetown teams.

But maybe, if the Hoyas go on the deep run that is beckoning, those people will start seeing him as something more than a well-trained apprentice.

"It's his time," Thompson Jr. said. "It has nothing do with his father or Pete Carril. It's his time."