Hardy And Sutton In, Hunter Out As Assistant Coaches

John Thompson III filled open vacancies on Georgetown's coaching staff today, hiring longtime Northwestern assistant Tavaras Hardy and George Washington assistant Kevin Sutton.

Georgetown has hired Northwestern assistant Tavaras Hardy, per sources. Quality pickup for JT3 and the Hoyas.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) June 5, 2013

Georgetown hired Northwestern assistant Tavaras Hardy earlier -- and JT3 will also bring GW's Kevin Sutton on staff -- per source.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) June 6, 2013

Hardy spent eight years as an assistant at Northwestern, is well-versed in the concepts of the Princeton offense and is known as an excellent recruiter. When the Northwestern head coaching vacancy opened this spring, Hardy was considered a candidate for the job that ultimately went to Duke assistant Chris Collins. Be sure the check out that link for what Northwestern fans have to say about him.

Per his bio on NU Sports:

Recognized as an outstanding recruiter, Hardy helped mentor John Shurna during his record-breaking career as he became a first-team All-Big Ten selection, the conference's leading scorer and Northwestern career leader in scoring. In addition, Drew Crawford was named the 2010 Big Ten Freshman of the Year by the league's media members.

Hardy helped lead Northwestern to four consecutive postseason appearances from 2009-12 as well as consecutive school-record 20-win seasons in 2009-10 and again in 2010-11.

A two-time all-Big Ten selection, Hardy is one of the all-time greats to don the purple and white. He ranks second in Northwestern history for most games played in a career with 118 and 113 games started and ranks in the top 20 in seven major categories. He ranks fourth with 101 blocked shots, 10th with 640 rebounds, and 23rd with 1,122 career points--one of only 29 Wildcats to eclipse the 1,000-point plateau. His mark of 113 starts was a program record at the conclusion of the 2002 season before Jitim Young broke that mark in 2004 with 117.

Hardy enjoyed his best year as a senior in 2001-02 when he helped lead the Wildcats to a 16-13 overall mark. He was second on the team 12.3 points per game, scoring in double figures 19 times, while grabbing a team-high 6.4 rebounds--good for sixth-best in the Big Ten. That same year he was awarded the Billy McKinney Leadership Award, which honors the Northwestern student-athlete who best demonstrates outstanding leadership and sportsmanship on and off the court. Hardy then went on to play professionally for one season in Finland with the KTP Basket Oy in one of the top professional leagues in Europe.

The addition of Hardy is key to Georgetown's bench as it opens up the Midwest as a new recruiting ground for the program. With Broadus recruiting the DC-Maryland-Virginia areas and now Hardy in the Midwest, expect the Hoyas to get in on a number of new recruits across the country in the 2014 and 2015 classes and beyond.

Kevin Sutton brings extensive coaching experience and another major recruiting presence to Georgetown's bench. Per his bio at GW:

Sutton has 27 years of coaching experience including a pair of two-year stints as an assistant coach at both James Madison University and Old Dominion University.

Sutton was the head coach at three very successful basketball programs at Montrose Christian in 1999, Bishop McNamara from 2001-03 and at Montverde Academy from 2004-11. At Montverde, he coach seven nationally ranked teams, including the 2007 National Champions. His record was 186-33, while turning out 55 Division I scholarship athletes and three All-Americans.

Sutton's career includes serving as the Associate Head Coach and Head Junior Varsity Coach at three nationally ranked high school programs, Flint Hill Preparatory from 1988-90, Harker Preparatory from 1990-92, and at St. John's Prospect Hall from 1992-98. At all three schools, Sutton amassed an overall coaching record of 303-69 (.815). He has been a part of two undefeated seasons. In 1993-94, his JV team went undefeated at 17-0 and in 1998 he was the Associate Head Coach on the USA Today Super 25 National Championship team that also was undefeated at 25-0.

Sutton also has more than 20 years of coaching experience at every level of basketball camps and clinics, including camps at George Washington. Along with his speaking experiences at camps, Sutton was the director of the Stu Vetter Basketball Camp for 10 years and also ran the Five Star Developmental Camp as well as his Circle of Success Camp for five years.

Some of the notable players that Sutton has helped develop include: George Lynch (North Carolina), Arron Bain (Villanova), Randolph Childress (Wake Forest), Cory Alexander (Virginia), Exree Hipp (Maryland), Serge Zwikker (North Carolina), Cameron Dollar (UCLA), Nate James (Duke), Jason Capel (North Carolina). Lynch, Bain, Zwikker, James, and Capel were all voted McDonald's All-Americans. Lynch, Childress, Alexander and Zwikker were all drafted by the NBA.

Sutton is an excellent recruiter and with local experience as well as ties to Florida, he helps extend Georgetown's recruiting network to the Southeast.

As of now, the coaching staff consists of Kevin Broadus, Kenya Hunter, Tavaras Hardy and Kevin Sutton as assistants, with assistant Director of Basketball Operations Othella Harrington also in the mix as the potential new Director of Basketball Operations. However, today's hires seem to indicate that one of either Hunter or Harrington may be on the move or have to accept some other position on the bench. Unless Sutton is being brought on as DOBO or as a "special assistant", Georgetown now has four very capable assistant coaches for three spots. Given that it would be logical for Harrington to take the next step into the DOBO spot (unless he's fine with spending another year as the assistant DOBO), it would seem that Hunter, JT3's longest tenured assistant, might be on his way out.

Though the picture of Georgetown's coaching staff will undoubtedly become less cloudy in the upcoming days, tonight let's welcome Coaches Hardy and Sutton to the Hilltop.

Hoya Saxa.