A Personal Statement

[the_way]

If it isn't in GU, then it is not a trustworthy source.

[GPHoya]

He is a smart guy who was prepared for the question and has decided already what he will do about schedule. The reference to different teams needing different things in the pre-season schedule is a truism, but in this context it is a signal that next year's team will need to build confidence and learn to play together. Except to the extent that tough teams have already been placed on the schedule, this is Thompsonese for "creampuff city here we come".

This is not necessarily an unwise decision if you are building for the long haul and plan to start two or three of your freshman and give all of them extensive playing time. Given Brandon's comments, my guess is that the upperclassmen wil be viewed with skepticism by a coach lokking to restore the tradition. The upperclassmen who get with the program will hold onto playing time. Those that don't, won't and talent and potential will matter less than attitude and effort. The California kids who effectively blackmailed Esh with transfer threats should be prepared for a new sheriff to lay down the law.

Time could prove me wrong, but my gut tells me that Causey and Crawford will get minutes that might otherwise have gone to Owens and Cook. Bowman will play with more discipline or less altogether than you might expect for the best talent returning to the team. Minutes and patience will be shown to Green (assuming he qualifies), Guibunda and Hibbert even as the new coaching staff works round the clock to recruit over them. For those of us who are hoping for instant results, be prepared to look at coaching decisions that have a long-term developmental focus as opposed to a short-term tactical emphasis.

At Princeton, he did not need to rebuild ( I know he lost some kids to baseball, etc. but he had a team that could compete against the Ivy League from day one) whereas at Georgetown he does. On this subject and on the core qualities of leadership, discipline and empathy, I expect that his father will be his role model and his mentor. If he can blend those attributes with teaching half-court offense, valuing every possession and taking calculated defensive risk ( aggression without foolishness) as Carrill and Carmody taught, we will have quite a coach. Having seen how his father approached 73 and heard his cryptic scheduling comment, my tea leaves tell me that upgrading the schedule is far down the list of changes that we will see.

Time will tell whether I am right, but I would be willing to wager on my prediction that any strong teams on the schedule will be there because commitments were made before he arrived.

[hoyarooter]

I think I have been as strong an advocate for an improved schedule as anyone (everyone? I mean really, except for a few exceptions, who hasn't?). Nevertheless, I must differ from those of you who are already jumping into complaint mode over how JTIII may handle the schedule. Give the guy a chance, and a little time! At no time did his Princeton schedules approach the bottom feeder level of the GU schedules. I'm not sure how much flexibility he will have in setting next year's schedule, but I already know it will be better than last year's (what wouldn't be?), based upon the games Esh set up. If we don't have a much improved OOC schedule by 2005-2006, I'll be complaining again, but I see no reason or basis to start complaining now.

[angus]

RaleighHoya said:

I am going to let the man's resume speak for itself. I think he has the ability to be his own man. It is not as if he has not lived in his father's shadow for years, including being a player at Princeton.

I also know that his father will not give a damn if his non conference schedule is the hardest in the country. I do not see how that is undercutting him. I think the best thing to do is to look at the non conference schedule he played at Princeton and compare it to their talent level. I have looked at it a couple of times, and I would like it if we increased it to meet the difference between talent level at the two school.

__________________________
I hope you're right on these fronts. I will give JT III all of my passion, love and support. I have concerns which, as you have pointed out, are largely speculative and just as likely to be inaccurate as accurate. But, on a going forward basis, I will be rallying around that flag. DFW, I hear you about the process, and I naively posted weeks ago that a "National Search" was likely to yield a coach other than a Thompson, but let's put it behind us and support Coach Thompson. He seems to get the fact that WE ARE GEORGETOWN.

[SoCalHoya]

the_way said:

If it isn't in GU, then it is not a trustworthy source.

In this case, the source is MORE trustworthy than a GU insider.

[SaxaCD]

Since even most GU insiders don't know what's going on with the program most of the time, I'd bet SoCal is right here!

[the_way]

I digress.

[TC]

SFHoya99 said:

He was also unlikely to publicly criticize his father. If PU's schedule is any indication, it'll improve.

First off : no need to criticize his father. Here's what he could say : "I want to play a competitive schedule to prepare ourselves for the Big East season. I want to also renew some of Georgetown's traditional local rivalries."

Even a simple "I know how important the RPI is" would give me a blast of hope.

Second, I'm not very impressed by PU's schedule. Compared to UPenn's schedule, there's hardly any local teams on it.

[SFHoya99]

TC said:

First off : no need to criticize his father. Here's what he could say : "I want to play a competitive schedule to prepare ourselves for the Big East season. I want to also renew some of Georgetown's traditional local rivalries."

Even a simple "I know how important the RPI is" would give me a blast of hope.

Second, I'm not very impressed by PU's schedule. Compared to UPenn's schedule, there's hardly any local teams on it.

At the risk of sounding like the_way, I'd give up the local team angle for just having better teams...

[dreamhoya]

when is jtIII's birthday?....

[Big Dog]

TC said:

First off : no need to criticize his father. Here's what he could say : "I want to play a competitive schedule to prepare ourselves for the Big East season. I want to also renew some of Georgetown's traditional local rivalries."

Even a simple "I know how important the RPI is" would give me a blast of hope.

Second, I'm not very impressed by PU's schedule. Compared to UPenn's schedule, there's hardly any local teams on it.

As to part 1 of your preferred statement, isn't that EXACTLY what he said at the press conference? JTIII: "What's paramount for me is that you put your team in a position to have success come league play. "

As for part 2 about traditional rivalries...what traditional rivalries? Yes there are local programs. When in the modern era have we regularly competed with them? I love people act like only Georgetown refuses to play local teams from lesser conferences. This is true EVERYWHERE. Marquette's biggest fear this year is that they'd have to face Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the NIT, which they barely avoided. This is but one example. No coach is going to show up at his introductory press conference and start making proclaimations about specific teams he intends to play. Expecting that is ridiculous. He spoke 3 sentences at a press conference and now we've got four HoyaTalk pages of debate about what those words mean. Absurd.

[angus]

PurpleFilmsInc said:

when is jtIII's birthday?....

_________________________
OK, I'll bite.

Why do you ask?

[PushyGuyFanClub]

March 1966, but LexisNexis doesn't list a exact day in any of their records.

[lulubell]

Clarification: Not the need for a search period per se, but what followed from it.

Until I can meet with some people who are closer to the situation, discretion is probably the best thing for me right now and I hope to speak more about it next week and that's all I'll say.

You can read into that whatever you want.


[/quote]

Can I play?

Look, I'm not unhappy about the result either, but maybe DFW is alluding to the frightening possibility that, at least as far as the university's approach to the problem is concerned, this is Craig Esherick all over again.

Let's assume for the moment (and only for the sake of argument) that the JT III hiring process was a put-up job from the beginning, and that the university never seriously intended to go outside the family (as a sidenote, President Jack's statement that JT III was "brought" to him after the fact is very hard to believe).

If you buy that, how does it differ from the Esherick hire? Any "search" there (nope)? Anything even remotely resembling serious consideration of other candidates (not really)? Quick trigger on the hire (yes, if you believe that the JT III delay was a matter of negotiations)? Extremely close connection with the big guy (yup)? "Keep it in the family" (you bet)?

What DFW may be suggesting, I think, is that he fears that the University learned nothing from the Esherick disasters, that the same flaws in the university's decision making process still exist, and that the only difference is that this time the right candidate happened to fall into their lap.

[SaxaCD]

Hmm, how does it differ? Let's see, this time we went out and got a guy with actual head coaching experience who's taken a Division 1 team to the NCAA tournament before. Pretty huge difference, if you ask me.

[Madgesdiq]

Saxa. If this is the case, what exactly do you think DFW is suggesting when he says "read into it whatever you want." It seems like LuLuBell has identified exactly the "strong, vicseral concerns" that DFW is suggesting.

SaxaCD85 said:

Hmm, how does it differ? Let's see, this time we went out and got a guy with actual head coaching experience who's taken a Division 1 team to the NCAA tournament before. Pretty huge difference, if you ask me.

[TC]

Big said:

As to part 1 of your preferred statement, isn't that EXACTLY what he said at the press conference? JTIII: "What's paramount for me is that you put your team in a position to have success come league play. "

No, that was exactly what Esh's defense for his schedule was.

[KHoyaNYC]

I still don't get it - DFW praised the patient, secretive search process and now says he has problems with it. Ok, fine. I wil lreseve judgment until he gets all the facts. But, he killed a lot of us on this board for not being supportive of Esh, and now when we go out and hire a new coach, he won't even fly the banner on our front page. I think that is poor. Again I say this will all due respect because I think DFW does a great job here, but I thought his statement was inappropriate. It would have been better if he had waited until he got all the facts together. It dampens everything and has spurred unnecessary and potentially damaging controversy on this board.

[SaxaCD]

The difference has been that Esherick's teams weren't ready for league play for the past two seasons, while JT3's teams have been ready for their league season. Talking the talk doesn't do it, but Princeton walked the walk, so I do have confidence that the schedule will improve, even if it doesn't get as good as I'd like it to be immediately.

[hoopsmccan]

I've been converted. Based on one small press conference, I am now convinced that the scheduling problems will never be fixed. He did say that "we are georgetown" and georgetown is notorious for having a cupcake schedule. By saying 'we are georgetown", he was clearly stating that the schedule will, if anything, get weaker. St Leo's is back.

I want to hold a rally to fire JTIII right away. Two days on the job is long enough.