Georgetown was the first of the 2007 Final Four participants to have an open practice this afternoon at the Georgia Dome. The team and select players met the media afterwards. The audio links are below.
Georgetown's starters were 3-22 from three point range the other time the Hoyas played in a dome this season (@ Syracuse, a 72-58 loss). Outside shooting will be something to watch closely tomorrow night. The cavenous Georgia Dome is full of odd angles, open spaces and funky sightlines.
These tricked-out Krispy Kreme donuts were a nice touch.
I had a chance to interview Senator Bill Bradley this evening in Princeton. Bradley was in town to discuss "The New American Story", his sixth book. Senator Bradley was gracious to give me 14 minutes of his time before signing copies of this book at the area Barnes & Noble.
You can listen to the interview here (.mp3). Unlike the majority of the interviews on princetonbasketball,com, this recording does not require a donor subscription. Enjoy!
Trailing by nine points with six minutes to play against North Carolina in the NCAA East Regional final, Georgetown never wavered from who they were.
"We wanted to stick with our stuff [on offense] because we knew it worked." said guard Jessie Saap. "We didn't want to go into anything different because it's been working all year."
The Hoyas rallied from a 75-66 deficit, sending the game to overtime and the Continental Airlines Arena into bedlam on a soft Jonathan Wallace three point short with thirty seconds to play in regulation.
"I call Jon 'Buckets' because to me, Jon doesn't miss." said Georgetown co-captain Tyler Crawford after the game. "That's Jon Wallace. He played with tremendous confidence."
The Hoyas switched to a 2-3 zone defense down double figures midway through the second half and North Carolina was unable to get the second chance opportunities and the points in the paint they had used to build their lead. The Tarheels finished the evening in a 2-23 shooting slide.
From the start of overtime the Hoyas knocked North Carolina out with an incredible 14-0 run. On Georgetown's first possession Jeff Green passed diagonally from the wing to a cutting Jonathan Wallace for a backdoor layup. Wallace faked coming up top behind a Roy Hibbert screen, then slashed fed to the basket as Ty Lawson spun in the wrong direction, laying the ball in as it reached him in stride.
An errant backdoor bounce pass by Green in traffic deflected to DaJuan Summers for a two-handed throwdown that doubled the Georgetown lead. Following a Tyler Hansbrough traveling violation Jeff Green drove to his left and used the glass to send the Hoyas out to their biggest advantage of the night. Six straight Georgetown free throws opened the lead up to 93-81 and the champions of the east were crowned on a breakaway throwdown from Summers.
Summers finished with 20 points, and East regional Most Outstanding Player Jeff Green appeared genuinely surprised after the game upon learning that he and not Summers had received this honor.
As the Georgetown band chanted "JT3! JT3!" Coach Thompson strolled across the court to reach his father, who was broadcasting the game for Westwood One. Thompson stopped along the way to embrace the small grey-haired man with the Georgetown hat sitting on the sidelines. It was his collegiate coach, Pete Carril.
"[Coach Carril] is a part of what we're doing." explained Thompson. "I just wanted to go over and give him a hug." Coach Carril and Thompson shared an embrace and a high five. They both went over to press row where they were guests on Thompson's father's broadcast. The two iconic figures of Princeton basketball and Georgetown basketball standing proudly alongside the man they had both been such strong influences on.
When Coach Thompson climbed the ladder to cut down the final strand of the net, he led the crowd in his favorite cheer.
We are...
Georgetown!
We are...
Georgetown!
We are...
Georgetown!
The Hoyas were heading to the Final Four, and Georgetown had proved that they knew who they were all along.
Pete Carril (in Hoyas hat) holds an impromptu press conference after the game.
Trailing by one point against Vanderbilt with seventeen seconds to play, Coach John Thompson went into the playbook and came up with a scheme that had worked before in a similar situation.
The play is called "Center/Forward."
Princeton ran it to knock off UCLA in the first round of the 1996 NCAA Tournament.
Last night Georgetown used it to defeat Vanderbilt 66-65 and advance to the NCAA East Regional Final on Sunday.
The Hoyas had executed the play out of a time out at the end of the first half and would have had an easy basket for Patrick Ewing Jr. if Ewing did not slip on the hardwood while driving to the iron.
It was Jeff Green, not Steve Goodrich, getting the ball on the right elbow with nine seconds left.
It was Patrick Ewing Jr,, not Gabe Lewullis, slashing to the basket before moving out on the arc, instructed by his coach to camp in the corner instead of cutting a second time on the baseline.
When Green could not find space to hit Ewing with a bounce pass, it was time to turn and go.
Green split a double team of oncoming Commodores and exploded above both men to kiss a shot high off the glass for the winning basket with two seconds remaining. Despite having two time outs in their pocket Vanderbilt rushed the ball inbounds and a desperation heave never made it to the rim.
The Hoyas poured onto the court, but it was Coach Thompson walking to the sidelines after doing an interview with CBS Sports to kiss his wife and wish his oldest daughter Morgan a happy ninth birthday.
I spent the game sitting next to former Princeton basketball player and current Time Magazine writer Sean “Bones” Gregory ‘98. When Georgetown called time down 65-64, Gregory turned to me and said with a knowing grin - “Center/Forward.”
After the game, as Gregory and I caught up with Coach Thompson for a brief interview in the hallway outside of the Georgetown locker room, his first words to us were: “Bones, didn’t you think Center/Forward was going to work?”
Did 1996 have something to do with this call? “If you want me to say that, I’ll say it for you” Thompson responded slyly.
There's a lot of rumor and speculation being tossed around about the open head coaching job at Princeton, but this early in the search for Joe Scott's replacement there is not an equal amount of concrete information.
The best I can offer up is a few lines from the transcript of yesterday's Georgetown interviews at the Meadowlands:
Q: The Princeton job just came open. Your assistant Sydney Johnson has been talked about as a candidate. Talk about is he ready for a Division I coaching job?
Coach John Thompson III:Who has talked about him being a candidate for that job?
Q: Published reports last couple of days in the wake of Joe going to Denver?
Coach John Thompson III:Has Gary [Walters] said it?
Q: Gary has not said it.
Coach John Thompson III:You know, all of my staff, my entire staff, I think one day they will all be very good head coaches. Obviously Sydney at Princeton is home for him, and one day sooner or later he's going to be a very good coach. Whether it's there or somewhere else, time will tell.
Congratulations to Princeton captain Justin Conway on being named a winter 2007 Academic All-Ivy selection. A well-earned honor for the senior sociology major from Santa Fe, MN.
The Richmond Times Dispatch is reporting that 6'4" Mills Goodwin guard Bobby Foley will be attending Princeton to play basketball. The son of coaches Bob Foley and Louise Foley is an expert three point shooter who was named 2007 Colonial District Player of the Year.
When Coach Joe Scott and I taped our last one-on-one interview of the season seven days ago, we spent an extra hour after I hit stop on my MiniDisc recorder sitting at the very top of Jadwin Gym talking about the future of Princeton basketball.
The conversation was as candid as it had always been when the tape was no longer rolling.
We discussed recruiting principles and strategies. We discussed ways things needed to be improved. We discussed what Coach Scott felt he could have done differently during the season. The majority of our conversation, however, was about where Princeton basketball was headed with Coach Scott as head coach.
After I got back to my desk I sent Coach Scott an email about an idea I had for a collaborative project that I had forgotten to mention while we were talking. He wrote I should give him a call in April and we could talk in greater detail then.
The man I shook hands with outside of his office was not a man who appeared to be going anywhere but back to work.
A press conference is scheduled at Denver for 5:00 pm ET on Wednesday.
Coach Scott was quoted on the Trenton Times web site this evening saying "it all started over the weekend."
A source tells me the same detail the Trenton Times is reporting: Coach Scott was not forced out of Princeton. A member of the athletic department I spoke to was caught by surprise by tonight's news, saying simply "I'm completely dumbfounded."
When I was at Jadwin Gym briefly this afternoon, Coach Scott was not around. I didn't think anything of it at the time. Plenty of coaches are on the recruiting trail at this time of year. Two assistants were in the basketball office, and both greeted me warmly.
There was no indication of the news that would drop jaws six hours later.
We will have more on this story as it develops and will be closely following Princeton's third search for a men's basketball coach in seven years.
We'll see how long these stay on-line, but here are a couple of "fan cam" alternate angle videos from Georgetown's 80-55 win over Belmont in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Both appear to be from late in the first half.
For the official CBS highlights from this game, click here. For the official CBS highlights of the Boston College/Georgetown second round NCAA tournament game, click here. Finally, all the key Georgetown highlights from the last eight minutes of the Hoyas' victory over the Eagles can be found here.
princetonbasketball.com was founded on April 28th, 1998 in an attempt to provide fans of the Princeton Tigers and Ivy League basketball with the best on-line source for up-to-date news and information. We have since expanded to launch a companion site, Georgetown Basketball News.
As these sites have continued to grow we have increased our coverage to include additional teams with Princeton connections - the Richmond Spiders, Denver Pioneers, Oregon State Beavers, Fairfield Stags and Mercer County Community College Vikings - plus former Tigers playing professional baseball and basketball all over the world. This site is not directly affiliated with the Friends of Princeton Basketball, Princeton University or the Princeton athletic department.
Sun. 11/10 vs. Florida A&M
Sat. 11/16 at Butler
Wed. 11/20 vs. Lafayette
Sat. 11/23 at Rice
Tue. 11/26 vs. George Mason
Sat. 11/30 at Bucknell
Sat. 12/7 vs. FDU
Wed. 12/11 at Rutgers
Sat. 12/14 at Penn State
Fri. 12/20 vs. Portland*
Sat. 12/21 vs. Pacific*
Tue. 12/31 vs. Kent State
Sat. 1/4 at Liberty
Sat. 1/11 at Penn
Sun. 1/26 vs. Kean
Fri. 1/31 at Harvard
Sat. 2/1 at Dartmouth
Fri. 2/7 vs. Columbia
Sat. 2/8 vs. Cornell
Fri. 2/14 at Brown
Sat. 2/15 at Yale
Fri. 2/21 vs. Dartmouth
Sat. 2/22 vs. Harvard
Fri. 2/28 vs. Yale
Sat. 3/1 vs. Brown
Fri. 3/7 at Cornell
Sat. 3/8 at Columbia
Tue. 3/11 vs. Penn
2,503 - B. Bradley, 1962-65
1,625 - I. Hummer, 2009-13
1,550 - D. Davis, 2008-12
1,546 - K. Mueller, 1987-91
1,451 - P. Campbell, 1959-62
1,441 - C. Robinson, 1979-83
1,428 - B. Earl, 1995-99
1,365 - B. Scrabis, 1985-89
1,321 - G. Petrie, 1967-70
1,292 - H. Haabestad, 1952-55
1,277 - G. Lewullis, 1995-99
1,239 - B. Taylor, 1970-72
1,207 - S. Goodrich 1994-98
1,133 - F. Sowinski, 1975-78
1,130 - R. Hielscher, 1991-95
1,122 - C. Thomforde, 1966-69
1,099 - T. Manakas, 1970-73
1,090 - J. Wallace, 2001-05
1,088 - C. Belz, 1956-59
1,079 - B. Hauptfuhrer, 1973-76
1,076 - B. Roma, 1976-79
1,071 - C. Mooney, 1990-94
1,064 - A. Hyland, Jr., 1960-63
1,062 - L. Brangan, 1957-60
1,057 - A. Hill, 1973-76
1,054 - D. Mavraides, 2007-11
1,044 - S. Johnson, 1993-1997
1,031 - J. Hummer, 1967-70
1,010 - W. Venable, 2001-05
