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I have given a lot of thought to where Jeff would rank in updating the greatest players and offer up this selection that I have written for a reranking of the greatest players of the John Thompson era.

6. Jeff Green (05-07) (6-9) (4, 3, 5) – It is difficult to write history in real time, and in assessing Jeff Green’s place in Hoya history one cannot help but be afflicted by “irrational exuberance” from the Final Four season just past. Multitalented (he could score from all over the floor, rebound, and he may well be the best passer in Hoya history) supremely unselfish and blessed with a great basketball mind, Jeff will likely remain the favorite Hoya of all time for an entire generation of fans for whom he will epitomize the renaissance of Hoya Basketball. At the same time, I am more comfortable assigning Jeff a specific ordinal place on this list – sixth – than I am in assigning any other position other than Patrick’s number one. Said another way, Jeff ‘s early departure for the NBA probably kept him from forcing his way onto a top five list that may be almost permanently unassailable if the very best players are all going to leave before four years. In the following paragraphs I will attempt to place the specifics of Jeff’s Hoya career in the context of each of the top five (Patrick Ewing, Reggie Williams, Sleepy Floyd, Alonzo Mourning and Allen Iverson).

Freshman Year – Jeff burst onto the Big East scene to share the Big East Newcomer of the Year award with UConn’s Rudy Gay, and should probably have been the sole winner of the award. Despite this, his Hoya competition had generally better freshman seasons. Each of Patrick,’ Zo and AI were also Newcomer’s of the Year, each for more nationally significant teams and Sleepy (there was no Big East) might have been the biggest impact freshman in the nation in his first year. Statistically, all but Reggie were better and Reggie’s minutes were restricted on a deep, National Championship team. Reggie’s freshman consolation prize – MVP of the national championship game. Rank: 1.- Patrick; 2.- Sleepy; 3.- Zo; 4. – AI; 5.(tie) – Jeff and Reggie.

Sophomore Year – We tend to remember Jeff’s sophomore year as reflected in his brilliant destruction of Sheldon Williams and Duke, but a not often noted fact about Jeff’s career is that he did not have a particularly strong sophomore year. His three point and free throw shooting percentages and scoring all declined and he often seemed to disappear from the offense. It was at this time that the “Jeff Green is too unselfish” meme began to take shape and there were increasing references to Jeff being a nice complimentary player but not a go-to guy. In contrast, each of the top five had very strong sophomore seasons. Statistically, all but Reggie were much better, and Reggie had essentially identical numbers to Jeff in far fewer minutes and without the three point shot. Rank: 1. AI; 2 Patrick; 3. Zo: 4. Sleepy; 5. Reggie; 6 Jeff.

Junior Year – Jeff’s junior year was really two separate seasons. Through eighteen games, he was averaging the same 12 points as he had in his sophomore year. What was worse was the reality that he had averaged a mere 10 points and 7 shot attempts in the Hoyas five losses up to that point. Far from putting the team on his back, he seemed to be taking a back seat as the Hoyas stood at 3-2 in conference and had fallen completely out of the top 25. Then, almost magically, Jeff reinvigorated his game and became the player his freshman year had foretold he would become – over the next 18 games Jeff played the game at as high a level as any Hoya in the John Thompson era and led the team to its first Final Four since 1985. Over that 18 game stretch Jeff raised his scoring to 17.4 a game – which given the Hoyas’ pace of play was the equivalent of just less than 20 a game – and raised his rebounding, his assists and most of all his leadership as the Hoyas roared to Big East regular season, tournament and NCAA East regional championships. In three of the games – at Villanova, against Notre Dame in the BET and against Vanderbilt in the NCAA round of 16 - Jeff hit game winners, all from half court sets in the last 15 seconds of the game.

One cannot understand the wonder of the three game winners without appreciating the relative scarcity of last second shots to win games during the Thompson era. Looking back through 35 years worth of scores, I would be surprised if there were 25 such shots in the period. Three in the course of 11 games by the same player is other-worldly. Without those shots we (at best) share a BE regular season championship and there is no BET win and no chance to beat North Carolina to get to the Final Four.

Jeff’s third year is right in the mix with the best junior seasons ever. Patrick’s national championship run ranks first and you can probably throw a blanket over the rest. Rank: 1. Patrick; 2.(tie) Reggie, Sleepy; and Jeff; 5. Zo (injured); NA AI.

Senior Year – Rank: 1. Reggie; 2. Patrick; 3. Zo; 4. Sleepy; NA Jeff and AI.

Best Season – Each of the big five were consensus first team All Americans, Patrick three times. Jeff was a third teamer in his last year which, on the basis of full year performance seems about right. Rank: 1. Reggie; 2. AI; 3. Patrick; 4. Zo; 5. Sleepy; 6.) Jeff.

Team Performance - Interestingly, Jeff was the only one of these players to ever miss the NCAA tournament, as a freshman in JTIII’s first year. Use a scale of one point for making the NCAA tournament and one for every NCAA win. Rank: 1. Patrick (19); 2. Reggie (18); 3. Sleepy (10) 3; Zo(10); 5. Jeff (8); 6. AI(7).

Adjusted Scoring – Jeff’s career statistics were obviously depressed by the Hoya’s pace of play and by the missing senior year. Similarly, other Hoyas had missing seasons or games or played parts of their careers without the three point shot. What might the Hoya career scoring list look like if each great Hoya had played a complete career under the current scoring rules and with roughly equivalent possessions?
Patrick – Actual points 2184 – No adjustments, although it would have been nice if Big John would have let him take a few more jump shots – Adjusted Total 2184.
Reggie – Actual points 2117 – Add 150 points to compensate for the absence of the three point shot until his senior year. One could also add a bunch of points for reduced minutes on the stacked teams of his first two seasons – Adjusted Total 2267.
Sleepy – Actual Points 2304 – Add 300 points to compensate for the absence of the three point shot for his whole career – Adjusted Total 2604.
Zo – Actual Points 2001 – Add 142 points for the 9 games he missed with injury in his junior year – Adjusted Total 2143.
AI – Actual Points 1539 – Add 1852 for hypothetical junior and senior seasons at his sophomore scoring rate – Adjusted Total 3391.
Jeff – Actual Points 1339 – Add 201 points (+15%) to bring the Hoya’s number of possessions up to the NCAA median and a further 607 points which would reflect a senior year equivalent to his junior year at this higher possession rate. Rank: 1.) AI(3391); 2. Sleepy(2604); 3. Reggie(2267); 4. Patrick(2184) 5.Jeff(2147); 6. Zo(2143).

Defense – The contrast between the big five and Jeff is most pronounced on defense. Sleepy is second overall in career steals and still ranks as the fourth best defender among this group. Each of Patrick, Zo and AI were multiple Big East Defensive players of the year, and Reggie was also a strong defender. Jeff was good but not great in college. Interestingly, he seems to really be concentrating on his D as a pro. Rank: 1.(tie) Patrick and Zo; 3. AI; 4. Sleepy; 5.Reggie; 6. Jeff.

Big East Player of the Year – Herein lies the best case for Jeff’s inclusion in the top five. Jeff won the Big East Player of the Year award as a junior and would have been the favorite to win it again had he returned as a senior, unless voters had decided to give it to Roy as a senior in a fashion equivalent to the Glenn Davis/Doc Blanchard split for the Heisman among Army running backs in the 1940’s. Other than Patrick, no other Hoya has been a multiple POY year winner, indeed neither Sleepy nor AI even won the award. In context, however, Jeff’s POY award seems less determinative due to the lack of elite talent that he beat out for the award – his biggest competitors were Aaron Gray and Demetrius Nichols, both of whom were only second round draft picks.

NBA Draft Position – 1.(tie) Patrick(1) and AI(1); 3. Zo(2); 4. Reggie(4); 5. Jeff(5); 6. Sleepy(13).

Summary – The Hoyas have produced five consensus All-Americans and those five players hold the top five positions on the list of the greatest Thompson era Hoyas. Through the mid-point of his junior year Jeff Green’s career might barely have qualified him for the top fifteen. The second half of his junior season, replete with a spectacular run of game winning shots, catapulted him over a strong group of four year Hoyas to just outside the top five. A second POY year would have forced his way at least past AI and possibly higher on the all time Hoya list.

Random memories of 1984.

I was there. For whatever reasons the sight lines in the Kingdome were much better than the sight lines in the other two domes in New Orleans and Atlanta.

Ran into Dick Vitale walking into the Kingdome. We reminded him of the great game in McDonough against Detroit - he was the former coach and then AD - and he reminded us about blowing us out at their place the subsequent year.

My memories of the semi are crisper than of the final which happens - I think - with near death experiences. We were getting beaten pretty badly in the first half by Kentucky and Patrick had gotten a couple early fouls. Late in the half we scored a couple of baskets, the last one pretty close to the buzzer on a play where Michael Jackson drove and dished off to Michael Graham for a slam. Side note, Michael Jackson never penetrated.

The second half of that game was my favorite twenty minutes of Georgetown basketball ever as Kentucky could not score for more than ten minutes. Our defense was otherworldly.

We went to a brunch at the Hoya fan hotel the next morning and spent about 3 hours watching the TV replay of the game. That was back when Billy Packer was on the top of his game and his analysis of the game was really crisp. His thoughts on the impending disaster for Kentucky when Jim Master went to man defense against David Wingate are hillarious.

The remarkable thing about the final was the high level of offensive execution in a game without a shot clock and with two dominant defensive centers. Reggie was brilliant in repeatedly slashing to the basket.

I could only stay at the victory party for about twenty minutes because I had to catch the redeye back to Chicago to close on a co-op the next morning. Missing the subsequent three hours of that party is one of my life's greatest regrets. On the plane my seat was next to Dana Kirk the then coach of VCU (and later convicted for tax evasion for funneling money to players at Memphis). He wiShut uplly spoke of what it must be like to coach players as talented as John Thompson's which is pretty ironic since he later went to jail for buying them.

....and John Feinstein celebrates the dominance of the Big East over the ACC. The money quote:

"In other words, the ACC has become Conference USA with a better reputation -- Carolina in the role of Memphis and the rest of the league playing UAB, Tulsa and UTEP."

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/27/AR2009032703549.html

Georgetown and the coaching staff are showing amazing restraint in not offering a more accurate view of what actually happened.

I don't think conditioning will necessarily save him, since it is relatively hard to prepare one's back for repeated contact.

Jeff has been a Sportscenter highlight 4 or 5 times this year and it has all been the same sort of dunk - a ball extended fly in from about 10 feet from the basket. In that position, he is extremely vulnerable to contact with his arm, which has a strong tendency to flip him over onto his back.

I am starting to really worry about Jeff's career because he is taking a tremendous physical beating - he recently sat out four games because of back spasms.

His scoring has gone up as he has become much more aggressive going to the basket but the downside is that he is enduring an unsustainable amount of contact. Last night he was knocked down five times and on four of the drives he landed on his back.

After De Paul:

Dajuan has 1101 points.
Jesse has 942 points.
Austin has 629 points.
Chris has 454 points.
Greg has 378 points.

Jesse feels a long way from 1000. If he gets there, it will likely mean that something good happened in the post-season.

If all three of Syracuse, Providence and West virginia lose their last games then Providence would be the sixth seed by virtue of their win over Pitt.

If only one of the three win then the winner is obviously sixth. Otherwise if two of three win then, among the winners:

Providence would finish ahead of Syracuse;
Syracuse would finish ahead of West Virginia and;
West Virginia would finish ahead of Providence.

Barker.

washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/01/georgetowns-defense-brings-it-back-to-life/