Postcard from Georgetown

I was sitting courtside in an empty Verizon Center last Thursday night in Washington, D.C., and discussing with Georgetown coach John Thompson III the three-hour workout the Hoyas had just completed. As we talked, a lone figure in a black tank top and shorts dribbled onto the floor and started hoisting jump shots at one of the baskets. It was Gilbert Arenas, the Washington Wizards' workaholic point guard, ready to begin another night at the office. "He's here all the time, working out hard by himself," Thompson said with admiration. "I like that our guys get to see that."

Unfortunately, his guys don't get to see it very often. Even though the Hoyas will play all but two of their home games at the Verizon Center this season, Thursday's session was just their second on that floor since practice began last month. This year's roster includes Patrick Ewing and will be coached by John Thompson, but that moment late Thursday night underscores why these are not your father's Georgetown Hoyas anymore.

In many ways, playing at the Verizon Center just a couple of miles from campus is a step up from the days when Georgetown used to play at the Capital Centre way out in Landover, Md. But that was before the great "arms race" that led many elite programs to erect mammoth arenas and state-of-the-art practice facilities. Georgetown has neither. Because of its location in the city, it is doubtful there will ever be enough space (not to mention money) to construct a new arena on campus. There has been some muttering around town about a new practice facility, but so far that is little more than a gleam in coach Thompson's eye.

So you have to give the 40-year-old Thompson credit for assembling a team worthy of being ranked No. 8 in the nation, even though the Hoyas lost two starters (guard Ashanti Cook and forward Brandon Bowman) and its sixth man (forward Darrel Owens) from last year's 23-10 squad. I must say, there are some early signs the ranking is a tad too high. Georgetown does have two preseason All-Big East players in 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert and 6-9 forward Jeff Green (both juniors), but outside of 6-1 junior guard Jonathan Wallace, the Hoyas have no perimeter players with significant experience. Thompson did recruit a very good freshman class, but the two players who have a chance to make an immediate impact are also frontcourt guys -- 6-8 DaJuan Summers and 6-9 Vernon Macklin. Next year's class will include one of the nation's top point guards (6-foot local product Chris Wright), but by then Hibbert will most likely be wearing an NBA uniform.

Since we all know you win in college hoops with good guard play, this is no small concern. Thompson is the first to recognize his perimeter stable is filled with lots more questions than answers right now. "We lost our pure shooting [from last year]," he told me Thursday. "More important, we lost all our perimeter passing. We also lost our best perimeter defenders. Our frontcourt is very good, no two ways about it. Once our guards get some more experience, we'll be fine."

Still, while there are very few programs that can win with that kind of personnel, Georgetown is one of them. The Hoyas are far less reliant on three-point shooting than a lot of teams -- last year they were ranked eighth in the Big East in both three-point percentage and threes made per game. They don't win by running and gunning you. (Of all the practices I've visited this preseason, Thursday's was the least amount of fast break work I've seen.) Rather, they win by limiting the number of possessions in a game and grinding out opponents by running their Princeton-style offense for 25-30 seconds each possession. It gets very tiresome trying to defend that over 40 minutes of game time.

Another thing Georgetown has going for it is the collective intelligence of this team. One of the reasons I love watching practice is it gives me a feel for a program's personality. Georgetown and Notre Dame are the most prestigious academic schools in the Big East, and you can tell by the way the Hoyas communicate and interact during practice that they will be as mentally prepared for each game as any opponent. Thompson, who is an Ivy League graduate himself ( Princeton '88), calls Green the smartest player he's ever been around. And you certainly need a lot of smarty pants to be able to master the intricate offense of screens and back-cuts that Thompson learned while playing for Pete Carril. Some people will say the Hoyas need to win ugly this year. I say they'll need to win smart.

One thing that is sure to change from last season is the Hoyas' continuity. Last year, Georgetown started the same five players in all 33 games. I'll bet there aren't five teams in America you can say that about. As long as Hibbert, Green and Wallace are healthy, I'm sure they'll start every game, but Thompson told me he will probably rotate several players through the other two spots. "I'll get a comfort level with different guys as the year progresses," Thompson said. "We're all just going to have to figure this thing out together."

Herewith, my breakdown of the Hoyas:

Heart and soul: Green. Thompson and his assistants tried to convince me 6-3 junior guard Tyler Crawford, who played all of 94 minutes last season, is the team's heart and soul. Watching practice I could see why -- Crawford is energetic and emotional, and he is exactly the kind of vocal leader so many teams are missing. But the fact is, Green, who led the Hoyas in scoring (11.9 pg) and assists (3.27) while finishing second in rebounding (6.5), is by far this team's most important player. He's also one of my favorite players in all of college basketball. He is all substance and little flash, which means he may be the best player in the country who will never be shown on Sports Center this season. Even when Green grabbed an offensive rebound and dunked it with both hands during Thursday's practice, it looked rather pedestrian. That's my kind of guy.