On Wednesday night men’s basketball Head Coach John Thompson III gave a speech to an audience of 150 Georgetown students and fans in Gaston Hall.
The speech, delivered exactly one month before tip-off of the Nov. 11 season opener, was supposed to be about 100 years of Hoya basketball. Thompson kept the history lecture short, however, and spent most of the time answering questions from the audience.
Thompson began the evening by describing Georgetown basketball as an evolution, a theme he returned to throughout the night.
“We evolve, then we re-evolve, and we are in the midst of that right now,” he said of his team that made it to the Sweet 16 of the 2006 NCAA tournament.
Thompson then listed off some statistics about the illustrious record of Georgetown’s men’s basketball squads: four Final Fours, 10 Sweet 16s, six Big East tournament titles, seven Big East regular season titles and 23 NCAA tournament appearances. But Thompson also made a point of saying it is not all about the numbers.
“It’s about good people, about building good people,” he said.
Thompson also shared some stories about growing up as a coach’s son and told of memories he had of sitting on the bench during the Hoyas’ 77-75 loss to Central Michigan in the 1975 NCAA tournament and watching his father – legendary Head Coach John Thompson Jr. – cry at a team banquet after Georgetown lost to Iowa in the Elite 8 in 1980.
Thompson then moved on to answering questions from the audience. Fielding questions about his family, his time at Princeton, his jobs outside of coaching and his expectations for the upcoming season, Thompson was funny and even self-deprecating.
He got one of his biggest laughs when asked by a member of the pep band if he had any favorite songs.
“I’m a big fan of Michael Jackson,” he said, pausing, “his music.”
But Thompson was also serious, talking about the difficulty of facing his younger brother, Ball State Head Coach Ronnie Thompson, on Nov. 27 when Georgetown plays hosts to the Cardinals at Verizon Center.
“As a brother it’s an awful game, hard as hell, and I don’t really want to do it,” he said, “but it made sense for Georgetown.”
On the topic of scheduling, Thompson also said he was open to playing other local teams, such as the University of Maryland, George Washington University and George Mason University, if it makes sense for all the scheduling involved. He said the only team he would not want to play is his alma mater, Princeton University.
Thompson also used the speech to announce that more student season tickets will be available next week. Student season tickets had sold out last month, but the university was able to get more tickets from Verizon Center to accommodate the high demand. The number of student season tickets sold this year is the second highest in school history, he said, trailing only behind the total for the 1982-83 season, when Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85) led the Hoyas to their first of three-straight Final Fours.
Thompson also addressed the issue of an on-campus arena, saying he would like one but knows that it is beyond his control. He was critical of the current format of the Big East tournament as well, saying “all 16 teams [in the conference] should get to go to New York.”
Speaking about the upcoming season, Thompson said the biggest challenge will be “for our group of guys to mesh,” and that several players will have to step up on the perimeter to fill in for graduated guards Ashanti Cook (COL ’06) and Darrell Owens (COL ’05).
“Last year’s over,” he reminded the audience.
The two answers Thompson gave that got the biggest responses, however, were the ones that reminded everyone why Georgetown basketball is so special.
Asked which game he is most looking forward to this season, Thompson responded, “The one in April.”
And asked why he chose to leave Princeton and take the job at Georgetown, he replied, “Because I want to win a national championship.”
Present at the speech were men’s basketball players juniors Tyler Crawford and Roy Hibbert and freshman DaJuan Summers.
The event was sponsored by the Lecture Fund.
