Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA
CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

It’s the middle of May, and Yates Field House has become a ghost town.

With the usual flocks of undergraduates home for the summer, a smattering of seniors litter the basketball courts, tossing up jumpers in defiance of the fact that they’re closer to their days as investment bankers or congressional aides than junior varsity power forwards. It’s an eclectic mix — gym rats running five-on-five with football players, frat stars and their girlfriends halfheartedly working off last night’s party by shooting at the corner basket.

Then, of course, there’s Otto Porter Jr.

The 6-foot-8 sophomore forward, weeks away from hearing his name called by NBA Commissioner David Stern, is working on his pull-up jumper with a small group of trainers as John Thompson Jr. watches from the sideline. It’s a strange juxtaposition — the sophomore star preparing to finally realize his dream as his older schoolmates cling to their glory days.

The sight of McDonough royalty sharing the court with Yates plebeians is more likely a result of Georgetown’s limited athletic facilities than a conscious plan on the former’s end, and there’s no doubt that Porter Jr. has conducted much of his pre-draft training elsewhere. But it seems only appropriate that the quiet star from rural Missouri prepare for the biggest month of his life just as he always has: not in a state-of-the-art training facility but in an unassuming school gym.

It fits in perfectly with the story we’ve heard seemingly countless times but somehow haven’t gotten sick of. Otto Porter Jr., the shy, small-town superstar who turned down the glitzy AAU circuit, spent summers in the gym with his basketball-obsessed family, came to the big city and took the Big East by storm. While the Georgetown chapter of his story ultimately ended far short of the fairy tale most expected, his achievements nevertheless made him the most impressive male athlete to don the blue and gray this year.

FALSE START

The beginning of the 2012-13 season saw Porter Jr. and the Hoyas confirm some of the concerns analysts had expressed about them in the preseason. The lack of a clear-cut No. 1 scorer left the offense directionless at times, and Porter Jr. rarely took charge despite his status as the team’s most talented offensive player.

There were exceptions, of course. His 18-point, 11-rebound, five-assist, five-block performance in a nationally televised upset of UCLA was a masterpiece, and he scored 22 points in only 29 minutes in a blowout of Longwood.

But Porter Jr. worked strictly within the flow of John Thompson III’s methodical offense; when the Hoyas struggled, he couldn’t or wouldn’t shoot them out of it. Ugly wins over Tennessee and Towson saw Porter Jr. score eight and 10 points, respectively, and he took only six shots in the brutal 28-point loss to Pittsburgh.

Going into Big East play, there was no doubt about who the Hoyas’ best player was. But whether he could carry a team was still very much unproven.

PICKING UP SLACK

When sophomore forward Greg Whittington was placed on academic suspension at the start of the spring semester, the Georgetown faithful essentially panicked. It was an understandable reaction — Whittington was the Hoyas’ go-to lockdown defender and was second only to Porter Jr. in scoring and rebounding prowess. What very few people saw coming was the effect of Whittington’s absence on the dynamics of the offense.

Porter Jr. filled the hole left by Whittington in the scoring column and then some. He scored at least 17 points in each of the six games after his classmate’s suspension, and before long, the Hoyas were rolling.

The race for Big East player of the year — expected to be a wide-open contest, the favorites being Porter Jr., Syracuse’s sophomore guard Michael Carter-Williams and Cincinnati’s junior forward Sean Kilpatrick — became a foregone conclusion by the middle of the conference season. After a disappointing mid-January performance against South Florida, Georgetown wouldn’t lose for nearly two months.

A HISTORIC PERFORMANCE

Porter Jr. proved in January and February that he could carry a team’s scoring load, but his exploits went largely unsung outside of Big East schools and NBA scouts. One game would change that permanently.

On Feb. 23, the Hoyas traveled to Syracuse’s Carrier Dome for the last time as the Orange’s Big East rivals. More than 35,000 fans packed the arena, setting an attendance record for on-campus college basketball.

Nearly all left disappointed. Porter Jr. scored 33 points on 12-of-19 shooting to carry an otherwise ice-cold Georgetown squad to a resounding win over its archrivals. Frustrated with Syracuse’s ability to close in on him at his usual spot in the middle of their zone, he moved to the wing and rained three-pointers all afternoon. The performance inspired Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim to praise Porter Jr. as the best small forward he’d ever seen in the Big East.

The evisceration of the Orange drew the national spotlight to Porter Jr., and he did not disappoint. In Georgetown’s next game against Connecticut, the star sophomore went coast-to-coast in the waning seconds of double overtime to lift the Hoyas to a one-point win in a hostile arena. When Rutgers tried to bully him with excessive fouling the next game, he scored 28 points on 15-of-18 free-throw shooting.

Porter Jr. won the Big East player of the year award — to no one’s surprise — and the Blue and Gray ended the season with the league’s best record.

NO HAPPY ENDING

Late February turned out to be the high point of Porter Jr.’s season, as the Hoyas fizzled out in March once again. He wasn’t noticeably bad in Georgetown’s tournament losses, but he was nowhere near the machine that fans had become accustomed to during Big East regular season play. Many observers chalked this up to fatigue: Porter Jr. didn’t play fewer than 39 minutes in a game from the Carrier Dome show until the end of the season.

Whether it was exhaustion or just a few inconvenient off nights is unclear. What is clear is that the most talented Georgetown player since Greg Monroe left — like Monroe — without even a Sweet Sixteen appearance to his name. So when Porter Jr. sat down in McDonough Arena on April 15 — considered by most the worst day of 2013 thus far — and announced his candidacy for the NBA draft, it was with a sense of vague disappointment that fans saw his era come to an end.

Still, the team’s struggles at the end of the season don’t erase the most impressive season by a Georgetown basketball player in years. Porter Jr. elevated his game spectacularly when his team was shorthanded, remained a modest and likeable leader by all accounts and — most importantly — provided arguably the most memorable single-game performance in school history. For that, the Hilltop thanks him, and The Hoya names him its 2012-13 male athlete of the year.

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