BASKETBALL some times is a game of shadows, too, and last night John Thompson III took a Ewingesque step out of the giant shadow cast by his father, Big John Thompson, when Georgetown destroya-ed Pittsburgh, 65-42, for its first Big East championship in 18 long years.
Destroyas again.
It will, of course, take a national championship for the sun to shine its brightest on The Son, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned about John Thompson III, it’s that it never has been and never will be a burden coaching at Georgetown with that last name.
” ‘Cause he’s my dad,” said The Son, who would love a No. 1 seed on his 41st birthday today. “He was never ‘John Thompson.’ That’s my dad. I have no point of comparison to what it was like not to be who I am, who I was. That’s one of those questions I don’t even know how to answer. It’s your life. . . . It’s who you are, and what you’re used to.”
In three short years, The Son has brought Georgetown back. He got the Hoyas to the Sweet 16 a year ago, and the Final Four is anything but a pipe dream.
If your father is a big man, you are going to know something about big men, and what makes them tick, and The Son’s work with Roy Hibbert was on display last night for all of New York to see. The 7-foot-2 Hibbert dominated the first half (14 of his 18 points, seven of his 11 rebounds) as if he were some sort of Patrick Ewing-Alonzo Mourning-Dikembe Mutombo hybrid, embarrassing Aaron Gray into a 1-for-13, three-point nightmare, and the Panthers never threatened.
So this much is now apparent: When a Thompson shows up at Georgetown, a Hoya Destroya shows up with him.
On the night Georgetown came back to the top of the Big East, The Son walked into the stands, toward The Father, and they embraced. The Father was asked what he whispered. “I love him,” Big John Thompson said.
Big John Thompson stood and clapped and beamed with pride when his son was called to the podium in the middle of Madison Square Garden to accept his plaque, and the Georgetown crowd chanted. “JT III. JT III. JT III.”
The Father was asked what makes The Son such a good coach.
“I think his demeanor,” The Father said. “He’s calm in situations where I would have been very emotional.”
The Father had sat in his usual spot, two rows behind the Georgetown bench, The Son comfortably and conveniently within earshot.
“He’s gonna shout what he wants, when he wants, how he wants,” The Son said. “But I want to hear what he has to say.”
Spoken like a man truly comfortable in his own skin. Of course, when your father is a Hall of Fame coach with six Big East titles on his resume, why wouldn’t you listen? The Son has the father’s face, but not his height nor his growl nor his glower. If The Father was a pit bull during the old Hoya Paranoia days, The Son is more the poodle. But a tough, smart poodle.
Ask The Son what made his father a great coach and he says: “Pops? We don’t have time for that. I think it’s just his ability to adjust and adapt. People talk about systems and how you do things, but the ability to get your group to believe in collectively what you’re doing is key.”
Asked the best advice his father had given him this season, The Son paused and said: “There was one point, probably at the beginning of the season, he said, ‘Make sure you take your wife out to dinner sometime this week.’ ”
Then he chuckled.
On the night Georgetown came back to the top of the Big East, Ewing, whose son Patrick Ewing Jr. is now a champion, too, stood and applauded and soaked in the sights and sounds he remembered from the glory days.
“I’m very proud, proud of my son . . . proud to be a Hoya,” Ewing said. He was asked about The Son, whom he remembers as a teen. “John has done a fantastic job,” Ewing said. “I’m lost for words. I’m so proud.”