Coach Thompson announced yesterday that freshman Chris Wright, a 6-1 guard, broke his foot while playing pick-up basketball and will miss the early part of the season. No additional details of the snafu have been released by the team, but the incident is likely to be overshadowed by Thompson signing a six-year contract extension for an estimated $900,000 a year, quelling fears that the big guy might leave the Hilltop for greener pastures… filled with money.

Hope Chris looks good in plaster.

-Clare Malone, Sports Editor

It’s certainly too early to say whether or not Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert will enter the NBA Draft, but in their first press conference since declaring, they said some surprising things. Green, apparently, is leaning towards staying at GU more than Roy, though most pundits say Green is the player who is more NBA-ready in a year when the draft has a glut of good centers.

At least they’re good examples to the kiddies, though: “School is only going to be here four years,” Green said. “The NBA will be there forever. You can’t just give up that. That’s a big thought in this process. Either way, I’m going to come back and get my degree.”

The blog is in withdrawal. As you can see, we’ve gone a little quiet now that basketball season is over. Of course, we would love to move on and start looking at next year (or maybe even to discuss the plethora of other things happening on campus), but we’re going to be slow. Why? Because we’re waiting for an answer.

I went to the rally for the Hoyas in Healy Circle yesterday, and after JT III and a few of the guys spoke, President DeGioia came to the podium. I was expecting some sort of announcement, but all he did was give one of his infamous introductions (albeit, a little after the fact). If you believe the Washington Times (and many would say they had the best coverage of the team this year), JT III wants a raise, and DeGioia has been discussing this with the Athletic Director, Bernard Muir.

Thompson has one of the lowest salaries among coaches in the Big East. After the last three seasons, it has become clear that $465,000 he earns each year is a travesty (wish I could say that about myself). If you feel like I do, write President DeGioia and Athletics Director Muir. Tell them to get on top of this, and to lock up the man behind Georgetown’s renaissance for the foreseeable future.

Posted by Austin Richardson, Blog Editor

Leave it to a Voice writer to write a short, definitive history of the men’s basketball program under John Thompson, Jr. Mike DeBonis, an old Editor-in-Chief of this fine publication, now writes for the City Paper and as you will see, occasionally for Slate Magazine. Yesterday, he put up this article, entitled, “The World’s Most Dangerous Basketball Team.” Check it out.

Posted by Austin Richardson, Blog Editor

As Georgetown students prepare to enjoy the game John Thompson III brought them, someone “close to Thompson” is saying he’s looking at a move to the NBA. Terrible news if it were true. But fortunately, it probably isn’t going down for a while, if at all.

The Washington Times reported that the Charlotte Bobcats are making overtures to Thompson, but he said he’s not immediately interested. A blogger on AOL’s campus sports blog points out that it’s a bad idea, for two reasons: JTIII’s best players, Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green, still have another year of playing; and Charlotte’s an awful team.

Here’s another reason for JTIII to stay: the Charlotte logo is terrible. I feel like I’m looking at a Pokemon card, not a reputable team insignia.

Posted by Will Sommer, Staff Writer

While every other U.S. newspaper has been printing feel-good pieces about all the father-son connections at G’town, leave it to the Times to be critical. Friday’s sports section has an excellent and surprising piece about GU Assistant Coach Kevin Broadus’ (recently hired to coach Binghampton) recruiting of Marc Egerson. Egerson withdrew from G’town in December, in the middle of his sophomore season. According to the piece, he got 12 ‘F’s in high school and became a father in February. Egerson’s recruitment is a glaring contradiction to what Georgetown basketball says it stands for, and makes me and my friends on the Ed Board look bad for writing that the Hoyas are all business and focused on the classroom.

However, the article is unfair to Broadus—he bears the blame while his boss, JT III comes out largely unscathed. Broadus and Thompson should have never recruited Egerson, but the article may go a bit far by questioning Broadus’ qualifications for the Binghampton job. I’m sure plenty of assistant coaches have made poor recruiting decisions.

Posted by Keenan Steiner, Editorial Board Chair

While most of us were still caught up in the emotion of the Men’s Basketball team’s backdoor comeback over UNC, 2007 Recruit Chris Wright won the three-point contest at the McDonald’s All-American game in Louisville (Austin Freeman nearly won the dunk contest).

Perhaps the best moment came, however, when the All-American’s gathered to watch the Georgetown-UNC game. All I’m going to say is that there might have been a little trash talk directed toward Ohio State’s recruit Kosta Koufos. With a name like that, though, what’s not to make fun of?

Austin touched on a few good articles about our victories below, but he neglected to mention the excellent work of our own Sports Editor Tony Francavilla—see his takes on the Sweet Sixteen and the Elite Eight. Also, Clare Malone, our features editor, has been contributing to Sports Illustrated.com—here is her re-working of a recent Voice feature on the Hoyas’ male cheerleader and her contribution to SI’s Campus Report.

Posted by Tim Fernholz, Managing Editor

Writing this now, my throat is hoarse and my ears are ringing. If you didn’t make it to New Jersey this weekend, you missed out. Hopefully, though, you made up for it while closing down M St.

There are a ton of articles out there on last night’s game, but I’ll give you the cream of the crop: Andy Katz’s article at ESPN, Tom Knott’s at the Washington Times, and the Post’s most recent piece on Jon Wallace.

All will try and tell you why the Hoyas won, but I’ll tell you the truth right now: it was the face paint my friend Christa put on JTIV’s face (and yes, I mean 4) at the Hilton before the game. Sure, he might still be in elementary school, and he might have wiped the “III” she put on his forehead into a silver smear before he even boarded the bus, but those splotches put the spirit quotient over the top.

We Are!

Posted by Austin Richardson, Blog Editor

In light of Georgetown’s Sweet 16 run, an article discusses Craig Esherick’s feelings about the success of Jeff and Roy, who were actually his recruits. He says he is proud that his boys are doing well. He also mentions that he knew they were talented and coachable when he recruited them, and “they’ve obviously received good coaching.”

But Green and Hibbert were on the way. And even during recruiting, Esherick thought that Green could be a Big East player of the year.

“That’s going to sound crazy, but I’m going to answer the question honestly: Yes, I did,” Esherick said. “When I first saw him play, I thought this kid could be a star.”

But be careful not to become an Esherick-lover. The article also mentions that JT III had to re-recruit these three and convince them to play with him. Often when a coach leaves his post, his recruits defect to another school (Scottie Reynolds accepted a scholarship to Oklahoma, but then Kevin Sampson moved to Indiana and he ended up at ‘Nova) or they follow the coach to his new school (JWall went with JTIII from Princeton to G’town). So, it seems that Jeff Green was attached to Georgetown more than he was to Esherick. Oh, and not to mention that Esherick was 13-15 my freshman year and we didn’t even make the NIT.

Another interesting nugget: Esh is apparently working as the VP of Athletic Relations for CSTV, but “considered pursuing another coaching position after he was fired.” This isn’t exactly true - he did more than think about re-entering the coaching world. In Feb. 2005, less than a year after being sacked, Esh applied for the head job at New Mexico State, saying, “I think, clearly, I wanted to get back into coaching.”

“I’d be a heck of a coach for them,” Esherick said. “But that’s not my call.”

Yea, I bet you woulda been awesome.

Posted by Keenan Steiner, Editorial Board Chair