We're back for our second post in Samsung's "Enhance Your Experience", sponsored by Samsung. Samsung, Samsung, Samsung. If you are watching TV, you are watching Samsung. I love Samsung.
Writing for this blog is, for the most part, a gift. I have become impossibly famous, met numerous women, and live a life I couldn't conceive of just one year ago. Everywhere I turn I hear "Holy Crap! It's JGD!" On top of that, I get to enjoy talking with you fine folks on a daily basis with an easy-to-use, fan-friendly technology.
The one curse of writing for this blog is that internet technology is so sophisticated that everything is archived and easily accessible. I am a very, very irrational human being. My hyperbole knows no bounds, both negatively and positively. For example, in the span of one week last year, we beat Duke, lost to South Florida, and then beat Villanova. In the victories I claimed that we were "one of the top 5 teams in the country." In the defeat to South Florida, which happened IN BETWEEN THESE VICTORIES, I said "We have no chance of winning the Big East regular season, we have no chance at a #1 seed, we have no chance of winning 6 straight games in the NCAA tournament, and at this point this team is almost as Jekyll and Hyde as last year's team." Pretty schizophrenic stuff, I must say.
That said, I feel like all die-hard fans go through magnificent highs and absurd lows through the course of the season. We are schizophrenic because we care. The problem is I have the ability to re-read my mood swings because of this blog.
I have taken no dumber stance than the one I took after we lost to Ohio. In the post game recap I wrote:
Now for the elephant in the room. John Thompson III needs to be reevaluated. Doing well in the Big East Tournament is one thing, but to lay an egg this badly on national TV in the first round of the NCAA Tournament is another. Our last three seasons have finished 2nd round exit, NIT, 1st round exit. It pains me to say, because he has done so much for the program in terms of bringing it back to prominence, bringing in good talent, etc, but at the end of the day, he is judged on his tournament results.
After The Jump, I apologize to JT3.
JT3, I am sorry. That is the most idiotic thing that has been written on this blog in the nearly two years of its existence. I think about it more than I should, and I keep getting more and more embarrassed.
What you have done with this program, bringing it back from the point of irrelevance, is nothing short of spectacular. We have been to a Sweet 16, a Final Four, made four NCAA Tournament appearances, won two Big East regular season titles, won one Big East Tournament, and have made three Big East Final appearances.
You have done all of this with atrocious facilities at a school with rigorous academic standards, while playing "home" games in an NBA arena on the opposite side of the city. The facilities are so poor that all 155 pounds of me lifted weights in the same gym as future NBAers Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green.
Speaking of the NBA, I spend 15 minutes every morning scanning box scores of games to see how Jeff Green, Roy Hibbert, DaJuan Summers and Greg Monroe did the night before. Not to mention Jessie Sapp, Patrick Ewing Jr., Ashanti Cook, Brandon Bowman, and Jonathan Wallace, all of whom continue to play basketball in various professional leagues throughout the country.
On top of the excellent results you've had with current players, you continue to tirelessly recruit. The pipeline of talent coming to the Hilltop is so stacked it makes me pee my pants a little. We have four top tier recruits for 2010, another three for 2011, and are off to a great start in 2012. It's great to see alums of your program coming back to help out with current players (Roy Hibbert and Julian Vaughn), and you have created a family environment that says "Once a Hoya, always a Hoya."
Most of all, throughout your tenure, there has not been a single scandal, recruiting violation, or anything of the sort. Georgetown players are uniformly known as some of the most professional and most articulate athletes in college basketball. It is a pleasure to root for kids that contribute in the classroom and are visible on campus. All of our players came from the same AAU circuits as recruits from other schools, so clearly you and your staff's influence on them is part of their maturity process.
I hope you accept my apology and know that any Hoya fan that truly believes you should be anything other than lauded is a moron. I love you.
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