Georgetown vs. N.C. State: Writing new history
Blake Jenkins #2 of the Belmont Bruins shoots over Jason Clark #21 of the Georgetown Hoyas in the first half during the second round of the 2012 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Nationwide Arena. (March 16, 2012) Credit: Getty Images
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- If the past is prologue, both Georgetown and North Carolina State might be able to count on an osmosis effect from their school's championship histories. Unless such legacies cancel each other out.
Both No. 3 seed Georgetown (24-8) and No. 11 North Carolina State (23-12) will be trying to live up to their enviable, if slightly fading, basketball heights in today's Midwest Regional game.
In Georgetown's case, there is one national title and three runner-up finishes in its previous 27 NCAA Tournament appearances; North Carolina State twice won the championship in 22 trips through March Madness.
Does that help? "I hope so," said Georgetown coach John Thompson III, whose father coached the 1984 champs.
In recruiting to further the Georgetown tradition, he said, "You hope that people want to be a part of something special. You hope that people want a connection to all the stories and the successes."
Mark Gottfried, in his first season coaching the Wolfpack, has found a similarity to his years as an assistant at UCLA, which has spent recent decades trying to replicate some of the glory that John Wooden brought with a record 11 titles.
"We had John Wooden come around," Gottfried said, "and, while most of the kids we recruited had heard of him, they never watched his teams play" in the 1960s and 1970s. "Might as well have been in the 20s as far as the kids were concerned.
"This is similar. We have recruited guys who don't know who Derek Whittenburg is. That was 29 years ago, a long time ago. But here's the key, I think. It has been done at this school . . . And I think, since it's been done, there's more of a belief that it can be done again. And that's what we try to sell our guys."
Championship banners hang in their gyms. But key starters Lorenzo Brown and Richard Howell both admitted they "didn't know much" about N.C. State's basketball history. Teammate C.J. Leslie did because "the school is 15 minutes from my house."
So, rather than ancient history, what the players heard about yesterday was the current personnel and strategy of their opponents. For instance, Georgetown's use of the so-called Princeton offense, with its sometimes sneaky "backdoor" passes.
"It's difficult because you don't see it all the time," Gottfried said. "And it's tricky because, on a backdoor cut, sometimes we feel like it was an eight-point play, and it hurts worse, when it's still only two."
The backdoor play tends to produce outsized crowd reactions as well, but Thompson denied it unduly "energizes" his team or "demoralizes" the opponent, saying "I do think it's important to get points in the paint, backdoor cut, post-up or second shots."
Something like the championship teams did it.
