Our fearless leader, John Thompson III, sat down with the folks at NBE Basketball Report to discuss the prospects for next year's Hoyas.
Not surprisingly, Thompson is very optimistic about next year's team, saying that he thinks it could be better than the 2009-2010 version. I find this hard to believe, considering we beat both Duke and Butler very handily. Then I remembered that we lost to Ohio in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and I thought "Hmm, maybe ol' JT3 is onto something."
That said, replacing Greg Monroe, who was about as perfect a basketball player could be for the Princeton/Georgetown offense, will be challenging. Unless Julian Vaughn magically became a significantly better passer over the summer, this will be Thompson's first team that doesn't have an absurdly skilled passing big man (Jeff Green, Roy Hibbert, Monroe).
JT3 apologists will claim that he does the most with the least resources and compared to what we could attract to the Hilltop, he's far better. I wasn't a student for the Esherick era, so I never saw the depths of how bad it got, but I believe this will be a big year to see what kind of chops JT3 has as a coach. This Hoyas team will look significantly different than previous variations, as we will rely heavily on the triumvirate of Chris Wright, Austin Freeman and Jason Clark instead of a lethal big man. Can he adjust accordingly?
Read more about JT3's feelings on next year's squad after The Jump
Some other interesting tidbits that came out of the article are below, he also called Chris Wright the leader of next year's team.
On replacing Greg Monroe:
"You don't lose the No. 7 pick in the Draft and not miss him," he said. "It's going to be a group effort [to replace him]. There's not any one person that can step in."
What if Nikita hadn't transferred?
On last year's ups and downs:
"With the group we have coming back, they've been through a lot of successes and disappointing losses," Thompson III said. "I don't think that loss [to Ohio] is going to have an impact, but we want to go further in the tournament."
No shit, Sherlock.
On next year's philosophy:
"We're not going to do things a lot differently," he said. "We're still going to share the ball and guard at the defensive end."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it not guarding on the defensive end that allowed #14 seed Ohio to put up 97 points against us?
On the potential versatility of the 2010-2011 Georgetown Hoyas:
"We'll have more depth and we'll be more experienced," Thompson III said. "I think, with our flexibility, we can play big or small, whichever gives us the best chance to win."
No snarky comment there, that just makes sense.