Jessie Govan Interview was a Slam Dunk

Star Georgetown center and one of the top big men in the Big East and NCAA, Jessie Govan, was featured on a Q&A with John Fanta via the live-stream (starts around 2:00) from Big East Shootaround.

Seeing Jessie’s personality shine through—as well as his aspirations to eventually get into broadcasting—is a fun diversion for some news-thirsty Hoyas fans.

Here are some highlights:

• Young guys: “Everybody’s ready to make some noise...”
• So much to learn from Coach Ewing—Jessie has felt a big confidence boost from Ewing’s confidence in him.
• JG has a lot of favorites about Georgetown, but highlights how he enjoys DC and the connections in and outside of basketball.
• Likes watching Russell Westbrook in NBA
• Rivalry with St. John’s: “We don’t like them, they don't like us” (said with a smile!)
• Jessie prefers a good posterizing dunk rather than a big block and identifies that Coach would probably pick the latter.
• Favorite Georgetown jersey was the teal; pleads with coach to have them wear it more.
• Who has dropped by practice? Just Alonzo, Otto, Jeff Green, AI once last year, and Sleepy Floyd.
• Trey Dickerson pranked Jessie pretty nicely by asking him to admit that Jamaica, Queens is better than Queens Village.
• Yurtseven has “all the right tools.”
• Turning the corner? “Our guys are really hungry—few plays that we should have/could have made last year...we have 7 guys that are freshmen or sophomores, but a lot of them will play big minutes”
• Coach Ewing likes to say “You gotta kick ‘butt’ and take names.”

The 15-minute interview is well worth watching. The only true insight into next season’s strategy is that the younger guys will be asked to play significant minutes, but that’s likely not worthy of a breaking news banner.

Govan’s development under Coach Ewing is crucial to Georgetown’s tradition of Big Men, as well as the recruiting of future Centers and Forwards. Recently, Tristan Freeman of Fansided offered that “Georgetown Basketball: Hoyas set up to have ‘elite’ future frontcourts under Patrick Ewing,” saying:

When Patrick Ewing arrived back home, Govan appeared to be the biggest beneficiary. As a full-time starter, his season-averages jumped up to 17.9 ppg and 10.0 rpg while making his teammates better as a result. He put up massive numbers against weak non-conference foes, so there wasn’t much hype in the first half of the season. But the facts showed that he really was that good, going for 16.6 ppg and 8.7 rpg in Big East play.

...

In order for [class of 2019 five-star center Isaiah Stewart] and other potential stars to seriously start considering the Hoyas, the program has to get back in contention in the Big East. Last year was a good start but another jump will be needed. The team has a solid nucleus including some solid freshmen perimeter players coming in but it’ll be Govan’s play that could decide the team’s fate. If he plays like an All-Conference player once again, look for other big men to gravitate towards Georgetown in the future on a consistent basis.

Govan knows that he is more than capable of being an All-Big East Player this season—he just has to “kick [butt] and take names” each and every play.

Jessie presented a nice interview that should make the Georgetown faithful proud and hopefully won over a few more fans with his positive attitude and casual charm.

Nice work, JG.