Georgetown Basketball

Georgetown center Josh Smith, who left UCLA midway through the 2012-13 college basketball season, has been granted immediate eligibility and a two-year waiver to play with the Hoyas, the school announced on Wednesday.

Although Smith played parts of three seasons with the Bruins, he was granted a Seasons of Competition waiver and will be treated essentially as a redshirt junior. 

The school had applied for the special waiver on behalf of Smith, who left UCLA after six games last season. He then transferred to Georgetown in January, sitting out the second semester but attending classes and practicing with the team.     

The NCAA typically forces players to sit out an entire year when transferring. Under typical circumstances, Smith would have been eligible to play for the Hoyas once the second semester began. 

“We are excited that the NCAA has approved the waiver for Joshua,” Head Coach John Thompson III said.  “Now, he has to maintain a high level of commitment on and off the court.  He will provide a significant low-post presence for this team.”

One of the nation's most highly touted and sought-after recruits in the Class of 2010, Smith's career in Westwood didn't go as planned. He averaged 10.9 points and 6.3 rebounds as a freshman, earning All-Freshman honors in the Pac-10, but weight and maturity issues quickly caused a rift between he and then-coach Ben Howland.   

The 6'10" big man, who is listed at 350 pounds, saw his minutes drop to just 17.2 per game when he came to camp out of shape as a sophomore. By the time he left UCLA, Howland was playing him only sparingly and Smith chose to leave rather than finish out the 2012-13 campaign. The Bruins would finish a disappointing 25-10, and Howland would be fired after the season. 

In Thompson, it seems Smith has found a coach who believes his career can be revived. All signs point to the 21-year-old starting at center and junior Mikael Hopkins moving to the bench. Thompson told the Associated Press, via SI.com, he expects the bruising Smith to provide an offensive low-post presence, and that he came into camp in good shape.

Georgetown comes into the 2013-14 season unranked in the USA Today Coaches' Poll. The Hoyas have made the NCAA tournament in each of the past four seasons, but lost key contributors like Otto Porter Jr. from last year's squad.

They open their season against Oregon in the Armed Forces Classic in South Korea on Nov. 8.

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Morley, Mo. — It’s 2:30 p.m. on a sunny Wednesday in the small hometown of Otto Porter Jr., and the legendary coach who tutored both Porter and his father is asleep in his office.

Ronnie Cookson owns a seed shop about three miles down the street from Scott County Central High School in Morley, Mo., population 696, and he wakes up to tell stories of the Porters. Every story seems more unbelievable than the next for a guy who is about to be one of the first picks in the NBA draft on Thursday.

One of Cookson's favorites is how John Thompson III got Porter to Georgetown, or rather how Cookson’s wife got Porter to Georgetown. Porter was interested in the Hoyas, but he wasn’t sure about visiting campus before making a decision.

“Washington D.C. is jammed full of history,” Cookson said. “And Bubba, he’s kind of into history.”

That was all it took for his wife, Dee Cookson, to convince Porter to visit Georgetown. She told him to go to see the sights. It wasn’t the college girls or watching a game that pulled at his heartstrings, but history.  

Bubba, as they affectionately call Porter in his hometown, was president of his high school’s history club. He was salutatorian of his graduating class. When he was home last summer, Porter went to the high school to visit with teachers before a meeting they had in the library. Porter was enjoying catching up with teachers so much that superintendent Al McFerren eventually had to pull him aside.

“After a while I said, ‘Hey, man, we’ve got to start the meeting,’” McFerren remembers.

Every person you talk to in Morley has a story like this about how good a student Porter was or how polite the young man was.

Porter was more nerd than jock, and that makes sense when the first thing most talent evaluators rave about is his basketball IQ. And that comes from an uncommon basketball upbringing.

Most players these days are discovered before they get their driver’s license. Porter avoided the discovery zone—AAU basketball—and instead trained with his father, uncles and cousins and went to summer camps with his high school teammates.

In April 2011 at a party thrown by ESPNU for the Jordan Brand Classic, recruiting analyst Dave Telep asked the players who had been practicing together for days if they knew this guy’s name, pointing at Porter.

“Only half the team knew it was Otto Porter,” Telep said.

They all know now. And the more you learn about Porter and where he came from and who he played against, it all adds up to a once-in-a-lifetime story.

***

Porter’s graduating class at Scott County Central High School was 32. It takes three towns—Morley, Vanduser and Haywood City—to get enough kids the same age to fill a classroom.

Around these parts, they take pride in raising their boys right. Basketball and religion are what most people talk about. Nearly every other radio station on the dial is Christian Talk Radio. How the team is going to be next year is usually the talk this time of year.

“Between me and you and a fencepost, that’s all the boys have got is basketball,” says Jim Tyler, a retired bus driver who now runs the scoreboard at the high school games. Tyler has been going to Scott County Central games since he got out of the Navy in 1968. “They don’t have a lot of money. That’s the only thing they’ve got.”

The area, or at least the school, is on the map because of those boys, particularly the Porters.

In southeast Missouri, the family is royalty.

Scott County Central has won a Missouri state-record 16 state championships and Porter’s relatives have been involved with most of them. His father, Otto Sr., won the first in 1976. Otto Sr.’s brothers, Melvin Porter and Jerry Porter, won state titles.

On Otto Jr.’s mom’s side, his uncle Marcus Timmons won state titles in 1990 and 1991. He is the school’s all-time leading scorer and was Missouri’s Mr. Basketball in 1991. Otto Jr.’s cousin Mark Mosley was the starting point guard on those teams.

Otto Jr. had two cousins start alongside him in 2011. Even his mother, Elnora Timmons, won a state title and was all-state in 1985.

“I don’t really think that there’s very many people who are knowledgeable about basketball in the southeast Missouri area who haven’t heard about the Porters, period,” McFerren says. “The Porter family has been around a long, long time, and as a result of that, it’s been sort of like not recycling but renewing what they started years and years ago.”

When Otto Jr. graduated in 2011 after winning three straight state titles, the team won a fourth straight title in 2012 with two of his cousins in the starting lineup.

“Everybody says we recruit,” Dee Cookson says of the team that keeps winning because of the families, like the Porters, that keep filling talented rosters. “It does sound unbelievable until you live it.”

Ronnie Cookson started the dynasty when he was hired in 1972. He was the second choice then. Now, the school’s gym is named after him.

If Cookson is handing out credit for his accomplishments, he would start with Otto Sr.

Otto Sr. was such an intelligent and gifted player that Cookson says he was probably the best high school player he ever coached.

“If a kid was having a bad night, [Otto Sr.] made sure he would get the ball where he could score,” Cookson says. “He would give up points. You won’t find very many kids doing stuff like that. He didn’t give it to him where he couldn’t score. He’d give it to him where he could score.” 

Unlike Otto Jr., the big-time college coaches never made it to see Otto Sr. play. He went to two junior colleges before landing at Southeast Missouri State (SEMO). At SEMO, Otto Sr. averaged a school-record 25.9 points per game in two seasons. When he graduated in 1981, Cookson tried to get him a tryout in the NBA.

“I called the headquarters of the Los Angeles Lakers,” Cookson says, acting out the phone call. “‘Yeah, this is Coach Cookson of Scott County Central High School, I’d like to… Click. Ehhhhh!’”

Cookson searched for any number for any team he could find. And every time before he could even spit out Otto Sr.’s name, he’d get the dial tone.

“They wouldn’t even ask me what I wanted,” he said. “They’d just hang up. Every one of them did the same thing. I didn’t get the time of day.”

You would think Otto Sr. would have chosen a different path for his son. Instead, as the locals tell it, he moved his family from nearby Cape Girardeau to Morley before Otto Jr. started the seventh grade so he could play for Scott County Central.

Cookson had been retired since 1995, but Otto Sr. helped convince the old coach to come out of retirement Otto Jr.’s freshman year to help coach the boys.

On his first day back on the job, Cookson noticed Otto Jr. was trying to mimic some of the older boys on the team by doing a lot of talking, a luxury he had not earned yet.

“I said, ‘What the [flip] did you say? Would you shut your g------ mouth? I’ve already heard more out of you than I heard out of your dad in four years!’

“And boy, he never said another word the whole time I was there,” Cookson says, chuckling.

Cookson kept Otto Jr. out of the lineup that year until the postseason. He would help the Braves finish third at state.

The next three years, there was no doubt that Otto Jr. was the star. The Braves won three state titles. His exploits are legend now.

“One night out on the floor, the clock was running out and he got the ball inbounds and he underhanded it all the way down the floor through the net,” Tyler says.

Chris Pobst, the sports editor at the paper in nearby Sikeston, said, one game he covered, Otto Jr. scored 47 points, and when asked about it after the game, he had no idea.

“He didn’t look at the stats. He didn’t care about them,” Pobst says. “His game, his demeanor, he was the same every game.”

In his junior year, Otto Jr. broke one of his dad’s records by grabbing 35 rebounds in the state tournament semifinals. Frank Staple, who is now the head coach at the school, remembers tallying the stats that night.

“We came in at halftime and thought, ‘Am I looking at this right?’” Staple says. “Because he had 20-some rebounds at halftime. This dude has 22 rebounds at halftime. You knew he was snatching every board. He always did, but he just made it look so easy.”

“And you’re talking about the Final Four of the state championship,” McFerren says.

As Staple and McFerren share stories in McFerren’s office, it’s like two guys telling tales at the local barbershop.

McFerren says he knew Otto Jr. was special when little Scott County Central was able to stay right with powerhouse Simeon High School out of Chicago.

“I had seen him do some things as a freshman being able to produce,” McFerren says. “I thought, ‘OK, well, we’re a small school. The people we’re going against night in and night out, and he’s tall, they just can’t do anything with that.’ But then when we started playing bigger level schools, larger schools, and it didn’t fall off, then I knew it was something very, very special. And he’s making it look so easy. Effortless. I thought, ‘Gah, are these big schools not preparing their kids very well on how to keep somebody out of the lane?’”

By the time Otto Jr.’s senior season started, the big-name colleges had started to take notice. McFerren had to give up his office so often for coaches visiting that he had to find a second room in the school to get work done.

Coaches from Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Saint Louis and Georgetown, to name a few, eventually found their way to Scott County Central.

Telep and his colleagues at ESPN.com rated Otto Jr. at No. 42 in the 2011 class without ever seeing him play.

“I’m big into the profiling,” Telep says. “And when you peel away the layers of this kid, what he accomplished and the genetics that he has and behind it all is just this strong upbringing and character, you can’t ignore that.”

Still, some of the locals wondered if Otto Jr. could handle the physical play in the Big East with his thin frame.

“We can put that on him,” Georgetown assistant Robert Kirby told McFerren of the weight the Hoyas coaches were sure Otto Jr. would add. “He said what we can’t do is teach him what he already knows.”

Anyone who watched Otto Jr. play could see he thought the game at a different level than his peers, but the competition factor made some skeptical. Jonathan Givony, who runs the site DraftExpress.com, saw Otto Jr. play for the first time at the Jordan Brand Classic in 2011, and Givony says these were his notes:

“Great size. Nice length. Skinny with decent frame. Passive in the drills. Wants to make the extra pass. First time going up against good competition. Physically weak. Struggles to finish. Raw. Inexperienced. Needs to be more aggressive. Talented.”

Porter was worth writing about, but the small-town kid seemed far off from the NBA.

***

McFerren gets upset when he reads that Otto Jr. has less room for improvement in his game than the other prospects at the top of the draft.

“Y’all keep talking about his upside? What’s up with that?” McFerren says.

The people back home have seen how different Otto Jr. looks now compared to two years ago, and they believe it’s just the beginning.

Bubba, always a skinny kid, is chiseled now. Cookson said he remembers Otto Jr. hitting maybe two threes as a senior. Staple laughs and says it was more than that, but he knows he didn’t shoot from outside often. He made 43 last season at Georgetown and shot 42.2 percent.

“When he goes pro, it won’t take him very long to figure out how to play,” Cookson says. “He’s going to really catch on, because look what he did in college.”

Cookson watched every game. He got a $120 cable package so he would get all of Georgetown’s games.

“S---, I’m on a fixed income,” Cookson says. “He’s costing me.”

Cookson plans to get the NBA package next year. He knows it’s not likely, but he’s pulling for Otto Jr. to end up in Memphis so he and his wife can drive to games.

The coach has been watching the Porters for years, and he realized early on in Otto Jr.’s high school career that he had what his daddy had.

Dad and son worked to make his game as close to perfect as possible. Thompson told Cookson that Otto Jr. was the most prepared freshman he ever coached.

“They’re a pair,” Cookson says. “I think ol’ Bubba really likes that.”

“I never sensed that they didn’t want to do it. I just think they truly love basketball,” McFerren says. “When I saw him bring him up here and they start going through those drills, I never heard him have to lay into him or anything like that. They really took those drills very seriously. They wanted to master whatever needed to be mastered in order to get better.”

When Otto Jr. wasn’t with his dad, he was riding a racing bike around town. Part of the reason he was always so skinny was he did so much conditioning.

“I’ve never seen him truly get tired,” McFerren says. 

“I’ve never seen him get tired,” Staple echoes.

“Wherever he’s training right now, he’s working,” Cookson says.

Back in southeast Missouri, they’re preparing to honor their favorite son.  

The court at Scott County Central will be named after Otto Jr. and his jersey will be retired. There are also plans to put up signs in town that read “Home of Otto Porter Jr.”

“One of the things I’m combating in trying to get this together is he didn’t like the limelight that much,” McFerren says. “His dad told him, ‘Look, if Mr. McFerren and the community want to do this, we’re going to do it. We need to do it. We need to let them show their appreciation, because this is a once in a lifetime thing.’

“If it was left up to Bubba, Bubba would say, ‘OK, hi, I appreciate that y’all and I’ll see ya when I get home and I’ll come by and stop, but it isn’t necessary for you to hold a banquet for me. It’s not necessary for us to rename the court.’”

McFerren says he would bet his house that the school will never regret honoring Otto Jr. He’ll never embarrass them, he says.

Otto Jr. has already been an ambassador for the school. At his high school games, he would sign autographs after road games for opposing fans. People from out of town would come to Scott County Central to witness Otto Jr.’s games.

The two years at Georgetown were necessary to become comfortable with a much bigger profile. When Otto Jr. went off to the Jordan game at the end of his senior year, Telep says he sensed the small-town kid was not comfortable in that setting.

“He was head down,” Telep says. “He did not believe he belonged in the room he was in. Most of the guys in that room would like to trade places with him now.”

Now, Telep says he believes Otto Jr. will be a 10-year starter in the league.

“It’s probably going to be a little while before something like this happens again,” Telep says. “There are some guys who don’t play AAU, but most of those guys don’t turn out to be in the upper one-half percent of basketball players in their class. While it’s unusual for a scholarship D-1 guy to not play AAU ball and get a scholarship, it’s very unusual for a guy who didn’t play AAU to end up a lottery pick in the NBA draft.”

A Porter is finally getting his chance. And the family did it their way.

All quotes were obtained firsthand. Neither Otto Porter Sr. nor Jr. could be reached for comment during the reporting of this article. 

The Georgetown Hoyas' recent NCAA tournament failures sound like a broken record.

That doesn't mean coach John Thompson III isn't the right man for the Georgetown job, though.

With JTIII, the positives still outweigh the negatives, despite the postseason struggles.

As difficult as it is to look past NCAA tournament success as a barometer of a coach's ability, far more should be considered when evaluating whether a coach is the right man for the job.

Don't just take it from me, though.

Mark Titus, a former walk-on for the Ohio State basketball team and current writer for Grantland, believes "saying teams or conferences are overrated or underrated based on individual NCAA tournament games is stupid," according to his notes from the second weekend of the 2013 tournament.

"Any team in the tournament can beat any other team on any given night," Titus said (Georgetown fans know that better than anyone in recent years).

He's not the only one to reach that conclusion. In his 2013 Final Four look-ahead, CBSsports.com writer Gary Parrish said that "drawing broad conclusions from [the NCAA tournament] is always a silly exercise."

As someone who attended nearly every home Georgetown basketball game for four years, I completely sympathize with fans who find themselves frustrated with the team's recent postseason struggles.

Becoming only the seventh team in NCAA history to lose as a No. 2 seed to a No. 15 seed in the round of 64 (thank you, Florida Gulf Coast) won't soon be forgotten. It's virtually the most embarrassing fate a program can suffer in the tournament, barring a No. 16 seed finally toppling a No. 1 seed.

To make matters worse, after the loss to FGCU, Georgetown became the first program in NCAA tournament history to be knocked out of the tournament four straight times by teams seeded at least five spots lower, according to Peter Keating of ESPN.com.  

There's no sugarcoating that statistic. It's underachievement, plain and simple.

Before calling for Thompson III's head, though, there are a few things to keep in mind.

First and foremost, Georgetown prides itself on tradition, both as a university and with its basketball team (see: traditions.georgetown.edu).

There's no easier way for the basketball team to use tradition as a selling point than employing the offspring of the most legendary basketball coach in university history, John Thompson Jr.

Think it's a coincidence that you can still find Thompson Jr.'s former players, from Patrick Ewing to Alonzo Mourning to Dikembe Mutombo, on the sidelines of high-profile Hoyas games?

Would that be happening as frequently without the Thompsons?

It's anyone's guess, but it seems doubtful.

Think that tradition doesn't matter to current players who weren't even alive during Big Pat's days at Georgetown? Jabril Trawick, Georgetown's starting 2-guard, tweeted otherwise during the Big East Tournament, when he posted a picture of he and Mutombo giving the infamous finger wag.

Me & the legend Dikembe after the big W today... True tradition right here! @ MSG http://t.co/X3Op1lwl5q

— Brill Ligh☥year (@JT55iVe) March 14, 2013

Being able to meet guys like Mutombo, one of the greatest shot-blockers in NBA history, should be an enticement to all prospective Georgetown players.

Isaac Copeland, a 2014 recruit who committed to Georgetown back in early March, admitted as much to ESPN.com's Reggie Rankin (subscription required):

"I picked Georgetown because of the great academics, great coaching and great tradition," Copeland said. "I didn't know how much tradition they had until I got to the Syracuse game [on March 9]."

Thompson III helped develop that sense of tradition in the players he's coached at Georgetown, as anyone who follows former and current Hoyas on Twitter already knows.

Want proof? Check out this tweet from former Hoya and current Indiana Pacer Roy Hibbert, sent a few days after the upset loss to Florida Gulf Coast.

Had a long chat with one of my Hoyas just now. Gave sum words of advice. Gonna help them get ready for next year. We take care of our own.

— Roy Hibbert (@Roy_Meets_World) March 24, 2013

Seeing the phrase "we take care of our own" from a 2012 NBA All-Star should carry weight with prospects. There's a reason Georgetown's nickname is Big Man U, after all.

Tradition isn't JTIII's only selling point, though. Far from it.

In Thompson III's eight years since taking over as the head coach of Georgetown, he's sent seven players to the NBA (Jeff Green, Hibbert, Patrick Ewing Jr., DaJuan Summers, Greg Monroe, Chris Wright and Henry Sims). Assuming Otto Porter declares for the NBA draft this summer (a virtual lock at this point), he'll soon be the eighth Hoya to join the league in the past eight years.

To a man, the former Hoyas in the league credit their time at Georgetown as having helped them develop the fundamentals needed for the NBA. Thompson III often catches flak for his "PrinceTown offense" being too slow and prodding, but it teaches players to make hard cuts and stay active offensively, even when they're not the primary ball-handler.

Those skills end up proving invaluable at the next level, as no player on a winning NBA team gets to spend his time loafing around on offense.

Thompson III developed that coaching style from his father, as evidenced by a 1980 Sports Illustrated article about Thompson Jr. Even before winning Georgetown's one and only national championship in 1984, Thompson Jr.  "stress[ed] fundamentals (take good shots, fill the lines, look for the open man, don't stand around), intensity in practice, ... tight defense."

Sound familiar?

Thompson III, like his father, follows Georgetown's motto of "cura personalis," which means "care for the entire person." He develops his players into not only NBA prospects, but also into men.

Taken from that same 1980 SI article, Thompson Jr. explains the philosophy that's trickled down to today's Hoyas:

"I don't go in for individual heroes. Everything is directed toward creating a team and winning as a team. A kid who'll work at being a student is going to adjust to this system better than the other kind will. He'll have some habits I need. He's more likely to listen and understand. He's had some experience at doing things he doesn't much like doing. He'll have a sense of what delayed gratification means. I can coach a kid who has decided it is possible to learn things."

In today's me-first AAU culture, finding student-athletes who fit that mold has only become more difficult.

That's what sets Georgetown apart, and what helps attract players like Porter and Monroe.

For those who still remain in the "Fire JTIII" camp, I'd also ask: Who's out there that's better?

If a high-profile school like UCLA can only muster a guy like Steve Alford, do you really think Shaka Smart or Brad Stevens will leave their cushy jobs at VCU and Butler for Georgetown?

As ESPN.com's Andy Katz wrote at the end of March, "leaving a comfortable situation, an athletic director or president that [coaches] get along with, and facilities can be difficult to match."

Until Georgetown completes work on its new practice facility, the Hoyas coaching job may not be as appealing as Georgetown fans might otherwise believe.

God forbid that Georgetown had a coach like Rutgers' Mike Rice, who's on film cursing out his players and throwing basketballs at them (how do we know JTIII isn't like that? This tweet from former Hoya Patrick Ewing Jr. would suggest otherwise).

https://twitter.com/pewingjr6/status/319221250813743106

Again, there's no sugarcoating the NCAA tournament struggles. Thompson III knows this better than anyone.

After the Hoyas' loss to FGCU, Thompson III sounded nothing short of despondent, saying, "I've tried to analyze it, think about it, look at it, think about what we should do differently and I don't know."

Luckily for Georgetown fans, JTIII has nearly a full year to figure it out.

Remember, Georgetown was projected to finish fifth in the Big East conference this season. That's before the Hoyas lost their second-leading scorer in Greg Whittington in January due to academics.

Who could have expected a Big East regular-season championship after starting 0-2 in conference play and losing Whittington for the season? Not even the most delusional of Hoyas fans, that's who.

For a man with three Big East regular season championships, one Big East tournament championship, two other Big East tournament finals appearances and a Final Four under his belt in eight years as the coach of Georgetown, Thompson III continues to deserve the benefit of the doubt.

There's no better coach for Georgetown than JTIII.  

And when he does get the NCAA tournament monkey off his back?

Watch out, world. Hoya Paranoia will be back again.

Don't be surprised if the Georgetown Hoyas are jumping higher and leaping farther in the 2013 NCAA tournament's round of 64 on Friday inside the Wells Fargo Center. According to Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post, the Georgetown players will be wearing a customized version of the Air Jordan XX8s.

Georgetown basketball's official Twitter account tweeted out a photo of the customized kicks on Wednesday:

NCAA Tournament Swag. Thanks to @Jumpman23 for the customized XX8's! #Hoyas pic.twitter.com/FcOjWQOcwE

— Georgetown Hoops (@GeorgetownHoops) March 20, 2013

Hoyas sophomore guard Jabril Trawick wore the XX8s without the Georgetown "G" logo last week during the 2013 Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden, according to Steinberg. 

Here's another look at Trawick's customized pair via @J23app on Twitter:

Man if these Georgetown XX8’s released without the G, I would be all over them. PE via @JT55iVe. pic.twitter.com/wZ2nWFt1vj

— J23 iPhone App (@J23app) March 20, 2013

Georgetown is a No. 2 seed in the South Region this March, but Sportsbook.com has No. 3 Florida (+160) and No. 1 Kansas (+260) as the two favorites ahead of the Hoyas (+450) to reach the Final Four in Atlanta.  

According to Sportsbook.com, Georgetown has the ninth-best odds to win the NCAA tournament this year. The Hoyas last won the national championship in 1984. They finished as runners-up in 1985.

If there's good news for Hoyas fans this spring it's this: Georgetown reached the Final Four the last time it was held in Atlanta in 2007. 

The No. 2-seeded Hoyas will begin their 2013 NCAA tournament run on Friday in Philadelphia where they'll take on 15th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast Eagles, who are 13.5-point underdogs according to Covers.com.

Tipoff is set for a 6:50 p.m. ET on TBS.

Be sure to stay updated throughout March Madness using Bleacher Report's live 2013 NCAA Tournament bracket. And remember to download and print out your own bracket.

Follow all the exciting NCAA Tournament action with March Madness Live.

Follow Bleacher Report Featured Columnist Patrick Clarke on Twitter. 

The Georgetown Hoyas snagged a No. 2 seed in the South region for the 2013 NCAA tournament, and the prospective road to the Final Four in Atlanta doesn't seem unfathomable.

Keyed by the scoring prowess of sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr. and a suffocating Hoyas defense, John Thompson III's squad has all the makings of a deep March Madness run. It's far from guaranteed, though.

Since a Final Four appearance in 2007, Georgetown has failed to advance past the round of 32 (h/t CBS DC). Given how much instability has existed atop college basketball this season, the co-Big East regular season champions will have to truly earn every victory.

Here is a full set of predictions as to how the Hoyas will fare in the Big Dance, and a breakdown of how they will match up with their projected opponents.

Round 2: vs. (15) Florida Gulf Coast Eagles

Two No. 2 seeds lost at this stage of the tournament last year alone, but the odds of a slip-up here by the Hoyas still aren't very high.

With that being said, the Eagles did manage to somehow beat the Miami Hurricanes 63-51 in the home opener. Miami wound up being a second-seeded team in the East region of the bracket.

Since Florida Gulf Coast is content to grind out games defensively in a similar fashion as Georgetown, this could be a nail-biter. The Eagles are led by senior guard Sherwood Brown, who averages a team-high 15.3 points and 6.4 rebounds per contest.

Versatile forward Chase Fieler shoots a very efficient 56.5 percent from the field and has three-point range, while sophomore guard Bernard Thompson pours in 14 points of his own on average.

However, the fatal flaw for the Eagles is their penchant for turnovers, as they cough it up 15 times each game. That's difficult to overcome against anyone, particularly a team like the Hoyas.

Porter should be able to capitalize on his offensive talents, as should Markel Starks, to provide Georgetown with enough to get through. This game may be close for a half, but look for the Hoyas to pull away in the final 20 minutes.

Prediction: Georgetown 70, Florida Gulf Coast 53

Round of 32: vs. (7) San Diego State Aztecs

This has been the stage that has given the Hoyas the most trouble, but the Aztecs aren't exactly on fire. They are 6-6 in their last 12 contests, and should struggle to get by in the round of 64 against No. 10 seed Oklahoma.

All the Hoyas will have to do is neutralize San Diego State guard Jamaal Franklin, who shockingly leads his team in points, rebounds, assists and steals.

Franklin has been forced to do it all, and he's simply not efficient enough to get it done against a stout defense like Georgetown. He only shoots 40.5 percent from the floor and takes too many three-pointers for someone who converts them at just a 27 percent clip.

Shutting down Franklin is easier said than done at times, but what helps is that the Hoyas don't have to worry much about other playmakers on the Aztecs, because they don't have a true distributing point guard.

The Mountain West conference is nothing to scoff at, and that helps explain San Diego State's struggles down the stretch. That doesn't mean it will translate into a strong showing against Georgetown, though.

There is not much reason to believe that an upset could happen here, as the Aztecs simply have no versatility on offense and aren't efficient enough at knocking down jumpers to keep up with the Hoyas.

Georgetown's size will bother the smaller Aztecs and result in a big victory.

Prediction: Georgetown 75, San Diego State 58

Sweet 16: vs. (3) Florida Gators

Unlike what has occurred in recent history, the Hoyas should advance past the first weekend of March Madness, but they won't be able to overcome Billy Donovan's Gators.

This will be a rematch of the regular season opener, which was cut short due to moisture on the outdoor court on the USS Bataan. When play stopped, Florida was leading 27-23 over the Hoyas at halftime. Since the two teams couldn't agree on a date, it was never finished.

Thanks to the magic of March, though, these two premier programs will square off once again, and actually complete a full 40 minutes—or perhaps more. A matchup of this magnitude is going to be an epic battle of defensive titans.

According to ESPN's RPI rankings, the Gators and Hoyas rank first and second respectively in terms of defensive quotient amongst teams in the tournament. The statistic essentially calculates the advantage a team has over their known opponents.

KenPom.com also notes that Florida gives up just 83.5 points per 100 possessions, while Georgetown allows only 84.3.

Considering the fact that their last showdown was on pace to be a 54-46 outcome in favor of Florida, it seems that a similar score isn't out of the realm of possibility.

The Gators are a superior shooting team and have more balanced scoring than the Hoyas' duo of Porter and sharpshooter Markel Starks.

Florida's front line should pose matchup problems, too. Patric Young is an imposing presence on the paint on both ends of the floor, and sweet-shooting 6'10" senior Erik Murphy can spread the floor extremely well and get the Georgetown defense out of position.

This should be a similar pace to the two teams' last encounter, and it will ultimately mark the end of the Hoyas' run.

Prediction: Florida 57, Georgetown 54

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The game may not lead to a major upset, but the Georgetown Hoyas and Florida Gulf Coast Eagles will be playing on Friday night.

The Hoyas had a pretty successful season, finishing the year with a 25-6 record and an impressive 14-4 record in the Big East.  They had big wins against Louisville and Syracuse twice, while also taking Indiana to overtime in a loss.

The Eagles haven’t been on the radar much, but a lot of that has to do with them playing in the Atlantic Sun conference.  They finished the year at 24-10, while going 13-5 in the A-Sun.  They only had one big statement win, and that was against Miami earlier in the season.

For all of the fans of the Hoyas and the Eagles, here’s a complete preview of the matchup on Friday night.

 

Game Information

Where: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

When: Friday, March 22, at 6:50 p.m. ET

Watch: TBS

Live Stream: March Madness On Demand

Betting Line: Georgetown -13 (via Vegas Insider)

Georgetown Injuries (via USA Today): F Greg Whittington, Suspension, Out; C Tyler Adams, Eligibility, Out

Florida Gulf Coast Injuries (via USA Today): None

What’s at Stake?

The winner of this game will move on to the third round of the tournament where they will play either San Diego State or Oklahoma.

For the Hoyas, they will be trying to avoid a humiliating upset against a team that only had one win against a Top 25 team all year.  Only five teams that were a No. 2 seed in the tournament have ever lost to a No. 15 seed, with the most recent coming from Missouri, who lost to Norfolk State just last season.

For the Eagles, they will try to become that sixth team to beat a No. 2 as a No. 15 seed.  Unfortunately, even if they do pull off the major upset, history says that they won’t win in the next round.  All five previous No. 15 seeds to advance lost the very next round.

Other than avoiding humiliation or making history, not much else is at stake.  The next round shouldn’t be too tough for the Hoyas, assuming that they advance.  Overall, the Hoyas have a pretty easy first two games.

Players to Watch

Georgetown: F Otto Porter

There’s a reason that the Hoyas are a No. 2 seed, and his name is Otto Porter.

The sophomore forward has been spectacular for the Hoyas all season, and his numbers show that.  For the season, he’s averaged 16.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.9 steals per game. 

That’s quite an impressive stat line, and it just helps justify his selection as a Wooden Award finalist.

The Hoyas have also had a lot of help thanks to Porter’s defense.  According to Sports-Reference.com, Porter has a defensive rating of 84.5, which is the third best in the Big East.  His defensive presence has been dominant, and makes him an even more valuable player for the Hoyas.

Porter could have a big day on the boards, especially on offense.  The Eagles struggle boxing out, allowing nearly 12 offensive rebounds per game.  With Porter’s strong playing style, he could very well find himself with a lot of second chance opportunities.

Florida Gulf Coast: G Bernard Thompson

If the Eagles want to win this game, they are going to need to play some tough defense.  In order for that to happen, Bernard Thompson will need to continue his great season.

Thompson was named the Atlantic Sun Defensive Player of the Year, and his numbers clearly show why.  He was fourth in the nation in steals per game, averaging 2.8.  He is a true pickpocket on the floor, and could do just that against the Hoyas’ backcourt.

His defensive rating has been solid as well.  He has given up an estimated 91 points per 100 possessions, according to Sports-Reference.com.  That was the second best in the Atlantic Sun this year.

The Hoyas have some explosive players on their team, and Thompson will need to play his best defense to keep the game close.  Even though it will be incredibly difficult for the Eagles to pull out a win, that doesn’t mean guys like Thompson won’t be giving it 110 percent on every possession.

Key Matchup: Battle of the Upperclassmen Guards

In the NCAA tournament, upperclassmen shine as the true leader on their teams.  This is the case for the Hoyas' Markel Starks the Eagles' Sherwood Brown.

Starks has been the floor general for the Hoyas, leading the team with 2.9 assists per game.  He’s also been a terrific scorer, averaging 12.5 points per game on 45.7 percent shooting from the floor and 41.8 percent from behind the arc.  He’s a versatile guard that can do just about anything, including being a leader for this younger team.

For Brown, he has had a pretty solid season as well.  He’s the leading scorer for the Eagles, averaging 15.3 points per game on 46 percent shooting.  He’s also been a solid rebounder for the team with 6.4 total rebounds per game.  He will be looking to keep his college career going for at least one more game, as his senior season is in jeopardy of ending.

When upperclassmen go head-to-head, it always leads to a fun matchup.  Look for these two to bring it, trying to match each other basket for basket.

Prediction: Georgetown Wins

Sorry Eagles fans, but the odds of another No. 15 seed beating a No. 2 seed are pretty small.  The Hoyas are one of the best teams in the country and have one of the best players in the nation in Porter. 

The Hoyas are a dominant team, especially on defense.  They have the size and speed to keep opponents from scoring and robbing them blind with steals. 

Don’t expect this game to be very close, as the Hoyas are on a mission to get to Atlanta.

Score Prediction: Georgetown 75, Florida Gulf Coast 58

 

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The Georgetown Hoyas earned a No. 2 seed in the 2013 NCAA tournament, paving the way for a deep tournament run as they hail from the South division.

Their opponent in the second round, No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast, might not be a household name right now, but upon closer examination it's clear that the Hoyas can't take this team lightly after it went 24-10 this season and won the Atlantic Sun conference.

If you haven't heard of the Eagles this season—don't despair. You're not alone; Steve Kerr (who is broadcasting some of the tournament games this year for CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV) didn't know them either after being the first team to earn a tournament bid on March 9 (tweet courtesy of Adam Zagoria):

Steve Kerr at NCAA breakfast w/ Jim Nantz&Reggie Miller: 'Thank you for not asking me about Florida Gulf Coast. I have no idea about them.'

— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) March 11, 2013

Georgetown doesn't want to become the seventh team to be upset by a No. 15 seed, and that's exactly what the Eagles will be aiming for when this game commences on March 22.

To ensure that you, the fans, are as well prepared for the Eagles as Wooden candidate Otto Porter, Markel Starks  and the rest of John Thompson III's team will be for this game, it's important to know what the Hoyas are up against in the second round of the tourney.

For starters, the Eagles have a nice trio they rely on heavily from game-to-game.

Atlantic Sun Player of the Year and senior guard Sherwood Brown (6'4", 200 pounds) is the big man on campus for FGCU. He averages 15.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game—numbers that don't make your jaw drop but should tell you that he's active on both ends and can make a big impact on offense.

Behind him, sophomore Bernard Thompson (6'3", 166 pounds) and forward Chase Fieler (6'8", 205 pounds) both average more than 12 points per game. Thompson averages 2.8 steals per game, too, a number that places him in the upper echelon of steal men in the entire country.

While the trio makes up roughly 60 percent of the team's 73 points per game, the Eagles aren't a team that only goes six-deep. Nine of the team's players have seen action in at least 32 games, and average more than 13 minutes per game, at that.

Throw in sophomore forwards Eric McKnight (6'9", 210 pounds) and Filip Cvjeticanin (6'9", 212 pounds) and the Eagles have plenty of size to contend with any team that comes their way in March.

It might be a reason why they knocked off another No. 2 seed—the Miami Hurricanes—earlier this season. The rest of their tournament resume (losses to VCU, Duke, St. John's and Iowa State) isn't all that impressive, but the game against Miami was indicative of what the strategy might be against the Hoyas.

The Eagles pounded the ball inside to their bigs in that game, got balanced scoring from guards Brown and Thompson and used the emotion of a sellout crowd to win a huge game in November. While it didn't seem like much at the time, the Hurricanes have gone on to earn a No. 2 seed in the dance, and that win helped spur this school's first-ever NCAA tournament bid (the Atlantic Sun automatic bid).

One reason why you might not have heard of this school is because it hasn't been around for long.

As noted by Chris Sheridan in this useful piece on things to know about Florida Gulf Coast, the school has only been around since 1997. They've only been in Division-I play for five years (starting in 2008) and have played stepson to Belmont over the time before the Bruins left for the Ohio Valley Conference.

Head coach Andy Enfield, who was a former assistant at Florida State, has this team playing great basketball. While the losses have hurt, the Eagles have been in almost every game they've played this season. They erased doubt about being able to beat Atlantic Sun leader Mercer with two straight wins over the Bears (one in the tournament title game) in the final few games of the season.

Georgetown will first have to contend with Brown. He makes the club tick, but the size on the inside is a great complementary piece to the quality guard play on the outside. Since Brown is a senior he'll be highly motivated for both the NBA scouts in attendance and to put this school on the map, while younger guys like Thompson and McKnight are wild cards to go off at any moment.

The Hoyas have a chance to glide through a relatively soft South region. It starts on March 22 with the Eagles, but don't confuse the number next to their name as a precursor to the effort that will be given.

Florida Gulf Coast has size, a mixture of experience and youth and a lot to prove—not to mention nothing to lose. Get ready for a dog fight in the NCAA tournament, because this team is going to be ready to play in the second round.

The Georgetown Hoyas entered this year's Big East Tournament as the No. 1 seed, and actually have a fairly clear path to the championship game. In fact, one can argue that they have what it takes to get there and walk away the winner.

Let's have a look at the team's first battle, set to take place on March 14 at noon. That game will be against the No. 9-seeded Cincinnati Bearcats, which the Hoyas defeated on the road 62-55 on Feb. 15.

All in all, this game shouldn't be much for the team to worry about, even though Cincinnati ranks seventh in the nation in rebounding compared to Georgetown, who ranks 250th. The fact that Georgetown blew a 12-point lead in their game against the Bearcats could be cause for concern, but their superior defense and better effectiveness at scoring should give them the upper hand.

While Georgetown ranks 53rd in the nation in field goal percentage, Cincinnati ranks 306th.

Thus, there is little reason to believe that the Hoyas won't make the semifinals.

Just what team meets them there is another story.

The Hoyas' potential semifinal opponent is going to be one of two teams: Syracuse or Pittsburgh. Georgetown has already defeated the Orange twice this season—on Feb. 23 and March 9—but their fortunes against the Panthers were not so fruitful.

The team's sole game against Pittsburgh was a 73-45 blowout loss at home on Jan. 8, and Georgetown committed 16 turnovers while shooting just 35 percent from the field. It was a bad loss, but the team is still capable of beating the Panthers in the semis.

Pittsburgh may rank higher than Georgetown in most major categories, but consider that head coach Jamie Dixon's offense relies heavily on guard Tray Woodall having a good shooting night, both from beyond the arc and in the lane.

If the Hoyas' defense can slow him and his teammates down, then the Panthers are basically sunk unless Georgetown also has a bad scoring game.

However, head coach John Thompson III is a great basketball mind who almost definitely has his men preparing for the possibility of facing Pittsburgh.

Tape of that loss has probably been watched fairly regularly, and the Hoyas will be better prepared for a potential match. Whether they face Pittsburgh or Syracuse (who Pitt beat on Feb. 2), a semifinal victory is definitely achievable.

That leaves the championship game, where Georgetown will face one of six potential teams: Louisville, Notre Dame, Marquette, Rutgers, St. John's or Villanova.

I won't go into major statistics for each squad, but consider that the Hoyas' record against all of those teams this season was 7-2, the only losses being a stunner against Marquette on Jan. 5 (which was avenged on Feb. 11) and a 10-point loss to Villanova on March 6, where 22 turnovers buried the team.

These teams can only face Georgetown in the title game, and history suggests that fate is definitely on the Hoyas' side. Their Princeton offense may not provide much in terms of scoring opportunities, but their strong and tough-as-nails defense more than makes up for the team being lacking in that area.

The fact of the matter is that the Big East Tournament is Georgetown's to lose. With a fairly favorable draw, it's hard to see them not coming away with the trophy.