By Chris Sortwell
July, 2005

In the following series I attempt to expand a bar conversation that has raged between my Georgetown friends and I for the past 25 years or so, specifically, who are the greatest Hoya players and why?

This conversation had taken on a particular specificity a couple years ago when it was not clear if Mike Sweetney would stay for his senior year and, if he did, might he force his way into the top 5 Hoya players of all time? This list attempts to rank order the 50 best players of the John Thompson era, and provide comments, some detailed and some less so, about their skills, their successes and their failures, and the times in which they played. The period covers the 33 seasons between 1972-73 and 2004-05, encompassing the reigns of Thompson the Elder (Big John), Thompson the Assistant (Craig Esherick) and Thompson the Younger (JT III). Not coincidentally, this period roughly covers my exposure to the Hoyas as I arrived at Georgetown in the fall of 1974, just in time for the Hoyas first trip to the NCAA tournament since 1943.

A few notes on the criteria that I used in putting this list together. I considered any Thompson era Hoya eligible, even if they did not finish their senior season, provided that they did not transfer to another school. Thus, for example, Victor Page and Michael Graham are eligible while Tony Bethel and Shernard Long are, in the words of another poster on the Hoyatalk board, 'dead to me." Treason will not be tolerated.

Injuries have also played a role in my thought process. To the extent that players clearly establish a level of performance at the College level and then see their performance decline because of injury, I give them the benefit of the doubt. This helps Hoyas such as Merlin Wilson and Fred Brown. Alternatively, if injuries prevent a player from demonstrating his true capabilities such as in the case of Jonathan Edwards, well you can't evaluate something that you have never seen.

The duration of a player's career matters as well but not in a formulaic manner. Thus the fact that Allen Iverson only played two years is a negative for his career relative to Sleepy Floyd, but it is one factor, albeit an important one, among many.

Ultimately, this list reflects my judgment as to where each Hoya should rank in the Hoya Pantheon. I shared my initial list with my classmates John and Peter over a large number of beers and they helped me clarify my thinking in a number of instances - and no, I still can't explain what John Jacques was doing on my first pass at this ranking. Special thanks go out to this site, which is an invaluable reference source. I cannot begin to imagine the amount of work that went into putting the History information together. Where possible, I have attempted to verify my information, but I am certain that there must be a few "facts" contained herein that are a product of a faulty memory. Of course any of my judgments may be faulty as well.

My motivations in putting this ranking together are threefold. First, thinking about where individual Hoyas might rank is an act of affirmation with a school and a basketball program that have meant a tremendous amount to me since I stepped on to the Hilltop for my freshman year 31 years ago. In a way it has been like writing a diary, although perhaps not as cathartic. Second, I hope in some small way to educate a number of readers for whom much of this history occurred before they were born. In particular, I hope to at least somewhat illuminate the pre-Ewing years during which the foundations of future greatness were laid. Finally, I hope to spark a fact based discussion with fellow board members as we all anxiously wait for the season to begin.

I look forward to hearing your opinions on my ranking. Enjoy.


1. Patrick Ewing (1981-85) - Patrick is, of course, the easy choice for the top Hoya of all time, although had Allen Iverson stayed four years that ranking might have been challenged. His list of honors is staggering: 3 time Big East first Team and consensus All-American, 4 time Big East defensive player of the year. He is also a member of perhaps the most exclusive club in college basketball history as a 3 time member of the NCAA all tournament team - the other two members, Lew Alcindor (back before he was Kareem Abdul Jabbar) and Bill Walton.

Patrick was the consensus High School player of the year coming out of Boston - a city that never forgave him for leaving. He was outplayed by both Stuart Gray (UCLA) and Greg Dreiling and Greg Dreiling (Wichita State) in the McDonald's AA game, and there was some doubt as to whether he deserved the #1 status in the class. By early January of his freshman year, all doubts had been put to rest as he led the Hoyas to a 41-9 lead (at one point) in the first half against St John's at Madison Square Garden. He cemented his reputation in a nationally televised destruction (from McDonough) of Missouri and highly regarded center Steve Stipanovich a month later and, from that moment on, was at the center of the college basketball universe, leading the Hoyas to a one point loss in the national championship game. For his freshman efforts Patrick was named a second team All American, which only highlighted the idiocy of naming him second team Big East. As a sophomore, his match-up with Virginia's Ralph Sampson was probably (at that time) the most anticipated regular season college basketball game ever played.

Patrick's defense was a given, but for me his offense was a source of constant frustration. Just as Dean Smith earned the reputation as the only man who could hold Michael Jordan under twenty, so should John Thompson have earned that reputation with Patrick. For Hoya fans who were introduced to Patrick as a New York Knick who scored almost 25,000 points mostly on 8 to 15 foot jump shots, they would be surprised to learn that he only took that shot once or twice a game at Georgetown - we always wanted more. In fact, Patrick was probably the second best mid-range jump shooter to ever play for the Hoyas - only Derrick Jackson was better. For his career, Patrick averaged only 9.7 shots per game - by comparison Allen Iverson averaged 17.4.

Patrick was intense and intimidating and an entire generation of college basketball fans grew up either loving or hating the Hoyas largely because of him. While he was a mere two baskets away from three national championships, some of his detractors thought it an indictment that he only got one. They simply didn't get it. After the heartbreaking one point loss to 'Nova in the 1985 National Championship game Patrick led the applause for the winners - leaving the college game with the class and style that had epitomized his career.


2. Reggie Williams (1983-87) - If choosing a greatest Hoya is easy, sorting out numbers 2 through 5 is largely impossible. I lean to Reggie as #2 because of his big game impact and his sublime 1986-7 performance as the leader of "Reggie and the Miracles."

Reggie was the consensus #1 player in his high school class, one of four - Patrick, Reggie, Zo and Othella - to have signed with the Hoyas (A.I. probably would have also been #1 had he played his senior year in high school). Listed at 6-7, he played taller, with the wingspan of a 7 footer. As a player he arrived with his game fully formed, complete with the soft mid-range jump shots, the silky smooth drives, the sneaky-quick weak side rebounds and the dagger-like 3-pointers. As a freshman he was the MVP and best player on the floor in the 1984 championship game win. His scoring average rose year by year (9.1, 11.9, 17.6, 23.6) not because his game developed dramatically, but rather because he was asked to do progressively more.

Few players have been asked to do more and fewer have responded in as spectacular a fashion as in Reggie's 1986-87 senior season, the year of "Reggie and the Miracles." In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, the Hoyas were Big East regular season and tournament champions and lost in the regional final to a Providence team that they had beaten twice earlier that season. By the end of the season, the line-up most often on the floor for the Hoyas was both very young and very short, featuring three guards (FR. Mark Tillmon, FR. Dwayne Bryant and SO. Charles Smith), a 6-4 center (JR. Perry McDonald), and Reggie.

Reggie's 1986-7 season ranks with Allen Iverson's 1995-96 season as the greatest in Thompson era history, as can be discerned by a review of the relevant statistics.

AI slightly outscored Reggie (25.0 - 23.6) while Reggie was responsible for a slightly higher percentage of his team's points (.303 to.300).

Overall, their shooting percentages were almost identical (Reggie .482, A.I. .480) with Reggie shooting better from beyond the arc (.386 to .366) and AI better from 2 point range (.546 to .532).

The entire difference in scoring average was accounted for at the free throw line where A. I. made 59 more free throws, but needed 123 more attempts to do so. Reggie had a far better percentage (.804 to .678).

A forward, Reggie outrebounded guard A. I. by more than 2 to 1 (294-141) while AI had almost twice as many assists as Reggie (173-92). Defensively, AI was the superior player, setting a single season record for steals (124 to Reggie's 71) and recording almost as many blocks (16 to Reggie's 19).

If an edge were to go to Reggie in choosing a greatest season it would be based on a category that is admittedly hard to measure - leadership. In addition to A.I. the 1996 team featured three frontcourt players (Othella, Jerome, and Jahidi White) who have gone on to have longish NBA careers and Victor Page, who certainly had NBA skills. That team finished with a somewhat disappointing 29-8 record, a close loss in the Big East Final and a 9-5 record against ranked teams. Like the 1996 team, the 1987 squad lost in a regional final. But playing with far less talent (only reserves Jaren Jackson and Ben Gillery ever played in the NBA) the 1987 team finished 29-5, won the Big East tournament and was a stunning 9-1 verses ranked teams that were in every case much bigger and generally much more experienced. The lasting memory from 1987 is Reggie gathering in his younger teammates for on-court huddles that seemed to take place after every whistle - and for that team to come out of those huddles and execute at a higher level than any Hoya team since.


3. Eric "Sleepy" Floyd (1978-82) - As Hoya fans looked forward to the 1978-79 season, there was an enormous question mark as to who would be John Duren's backcourt partner? The options did not look enticing. Steve Martin was a possibility, but if he was a guard then who would play the 3? John Duren's brother Lonnie was on the roster but his 0.0 scoring average from the previous year was somewhat of a negative. Juco transfer Terry Fenlon had joined the squad, but it was apparent that his older sister Mary had all of the athletic talent in the family. Finally, there were two unheralded freshmen from North Carolina, Ron Blaylock and Eric Floyd. Of the two, Blaylock had the bigger reputation.

Our worrying was misplaced because no freshman, not even Patrick Ewing or Allen Iverson, had a more immediate impact for the Hoyas than Sleepy Floyd. In his second game he led the Hoyas to a three point victory over Maryland in what was John Thompson's first win over the Terps. Eight days later he was instrumental in a six point win over Indiana. In both games his key shot was a high arching jumper from the corner that would now be a three point shot. As the season went on it became apparent that his game was more than taking long jump shots, that he could hit them while moving from closer to the basket and that he could run the floor. Best of all was his ability to drive and finish, often in spectacular fashion. A great leaper with long arms, he played taller than his height.

He led the Hoyas in scoring that season as he would for the subsequent three years. He was first team Big East as both a junior and a senior, and his omission from any Big East team in his sophomore season, the Big East's first, was worthy of a congressional investigation. A consensus All American and member of the NCAA all tournament team his senior year, in a career filled with highlights, his biggest highlight play was, perhaps, the one he never got a chance to make. Sleepy was alone in the right corner, poised to either shoot or drive, when Fred Brown made his fateful pass. Every Hoya fan believes that he would have scored.

His career scoring record of 2309 points would have been well over 2700 in the three point era. As it is his 17.7 scoring average still ranks third in Hoya history.

Sleepy was taken as the 13th pick in the 1982 draft. The first few years of his NBA career were a little rocky as he was converted from a shooting guard to a point guard, but in 1987 he had a breakout season for Golden State in which he averaged 18.8 points and 10.3 assists and made the All Star team. He played thirteen years in the league, seven as a starter, and ranks 41st in career assists. I always wondered about the conversion to point guard, because Sleepy's value always seemed to be as a scorer. He showed the world in a 1987 game against the Lakers with NBA playoff records of 29 points in a quarter and 39 points in a half.


4. Alonzo Mourning (1988-92) - Alonzo Mourning had Patrick Ewing's career minus the Final Fours and the National Championship. Alternatively, Zo can be thought to have had Patrick's career without the teammates. Both were the most highly recruited (nationally, not just by the Hoyas) big men of their time, both would have been four time Big East Defensive players of the year except that Zo missed out in an injury plagued junior year, and their career statistics for points, rebounds and blocks per game are superficially close to being identical. Closer analysis of both of their careers, however, provides some potential insights into why Patrick was able to achieve greater success.

As background, a great site for detailed pro and college statistics for Hoyas who have played in the NBA is http://www.basketball-reference.com/. Looking at Patrick's career, you see an amazing consistency. With the exception of his sophomore year in which his shooting percentage dropped precipitously (.631 to .570) at the same time as his scoring increased (12.7 to 17.7 ppg) while playing with a much less experienced group of players, Patrick made his shots at an exceptionally high rate (.630, .570, .658, .625). His blocks per game (3.2, 3.3, 3.6, 3.6) grew modestly and his rebounding improved from his freshman year (7.5, 10.2, 10.0, 9.2). His junior year was modestly better than his senior year, but he was always very efficient.

Alonzo had much more statistical variability in his performance. His freshman year was extremely similar to Patrick's in scoring (Zo 13.1, Patrick 12.7) and rebounding (Zo 7.3, Patrick 7.5). Patrick shot a little better (.631 to .603) but Zo blocked shots at an awesome rate (5.0 to Patrick's 3.2). For the next two season's, Alonzo's overall game deteriorated (at least statistically) in a number of key areas even while his scoring output continued to grow. His shooting percentage plummeted (.603 to .525 and .522) and his blocks fell off the face of the map (5.0 to 2.2 and 2.4). At the same time his scoring average increased, primarily because he was taking a lot more free throws (from 5.7 attempts per game as a freshman to 9.1 as a sophomore) and making a higher percentage of the free throws he took (.783 verses .667).

So, what happened? Looking back, I can offer two related theories as to what was going on that I will call "Dikembe Got in the Way" and "Basketball as Rugby." In Alonzo's freshman year he played 28 minutes per game. Dikembe Mutombo played 11 per game as Alonzo's backup and they were almost never on the floor together. In Zo's second season his minutes increased to 30 per game and Dikembe's soared to 26 per game, which meant that they must have been on the floor together for almost half of each game. The same 'twin towers" approach was the focus of the offense in Zo's third year.

In the two years that Dikembe and Zo were on the floor a lot together, Alonzo's game was not the same. My memory of the time is that the offense looked bad with opposing defenses collapsed way down into the paint, and it pretty clearly had an impact on Zo's shooting percentage. What is more surprising was the impact on the defense, at least statistically. In both Alonzo's second and third years, years in which both he and Dikembe were on the floor together more often than not, their total blocked shots actually declined from the year in which they did not usually play together. My hypothesis would be that Alonzo was most effective defensively when he was playing the opposing center under the basket and that much of his effectiveness was lost as he was pulled farther out on the floor.

Dikembe went away for Alonzo's senior season and Alonzo's game got a lot better with both his shooting percentage (up to .595) and blocks (5.0) rising back to freshman levels. He averaged 21.4 per game, a full 40% of which he earned at the free throw line where he made 272 of an amazing 359 attempts. While often effective, the free throws were also a symptom of the "Basketball as Rugby" approach which had a nasty side effect - Alonzo was often in foul trouble. "Basketball as Rugby" reflected the John Thompson offensive approach to the game that prevailed after the 1989-90 team until the arrival of Allen Iverson in 1994-95. Under this approach the Hoya center would plant himself in the low post and the ball would be tossed lackadaisically around the perimeter, eventually leading to a telegraphed pass into the low post.

Since everybody on the opposition knew where the ball was going, many of them would arrive to greet the entry pass and the ensuing offensive move would often resemble a rugby scrum with lots of contact and lots of fouls. Usually, the fouls would be called on the defender, thus all the free throw attempts, but enough of them were called on Alonzo that he seemed to be in foul trouble a lot in big games and it sometimes kept us from winning. In Zo's senior season he averaged 3.6 fouls per game (by comparison, Patrick averaged 2.9 in his last year.) That extra foul in two out of every three games meant quite a lot.

Would Zo have won a national championship if he had played a full career with teammates of the caliber of Patrick's? I believe the answer is yes, but that just reflects wistful speculation on my part. In the meantime, his consolation prizes include two first team Big East mentions, to go with one second and one third, as well as Big East player of the year and consensus All American as a senior.


5.Allen Iverson (1994-96) - With all due respect to Michael Jordan (and, given the fact that he is a Tar Heel, I don't believe that all that much is due), Allen Iverson is the most amazing athlete to ever play the game of basketball. Every reader of this board is fully aware of the stunning combination of speed, leaping ability and overarching toughness that he brings to every game he plays. Had he stayed on the hilltop for four years, he would have obliterated the career records for scoring (by the end of his junior season), steals, rebounds by a guard and probably assists. Yet he remains fifth on this list of greatest Hoyas for two reasons, the obvious one of which is that his career was only two seasons long. Of somewhat lesser importance to me is the issue of whether the team he led achieved to the level that they should have given their, and his, talent.

My basic answer to the above question is no, the team underachieved. Given the level of since-proven talent on the roster, a 29-8 record in A.I.'s second season was insufficient. My basic memory of the 1995-96 season is of Allen Iverson dominating the ball and reluctantly getting rid of it if an opportunity wasn't available. Consequently the team failed to develop offensively and had difficulty winning in those games (such as the U. Mass. loss) when Allen had an off game.


6. Mike Sweetney (2000-03) - You can make a very strong case that Mike Sweetney is one of the top 5 Hoyas of all time, I just can't figure out who to bump out. Consider merely the statistical evidence: Had Mike replicated his junior stats in a fourth Hoya year (which seems a conservative assumption) he would have finished his career as the leading career Hoya scorer (by more than 250 points over Sleepy Floyd) and the second leading rebounder. Not known, particularly, as a defender, he would have placed 15th in steals and an amazing 4th in blocked shots.

Mike Sweetney is clearly the best low post offensive performer to have ever played for the Hoyas - in a college context. By "college context" I mean that given the caliber and size of the players who generally defended against them, that Mike had the greatest collection of moves and shots that would be effective once he received the ball. And, with the softest hands of any Thompson era Hoya, he was able to corral almost anything. In a professional context, his relative lack of height means that he takes a back seat to both Patrick and Zo.

I resolve the dilemma of where Mike falls on the list with the following logic. Despite Mike's surprising defensive stats, nobody ever accused him of changing the opposition's game plan with his defense as generally happened with both Patrick and Zo. Iverson was clearly better offensively and defensively than Mike, his projected scoring total through three seasons would have been higher than Mike's projected total through four.

That leaves both Sleepy and Reggie. In Sleepy's case, the three point shot would have put him back in the scoring lead even beyond a fourth Sweetney season. In Reggie's case, my sense is that Reggie would have put up far higher numbers had he played with the far less talented teammates that forced Sweetney to be the whole team. Of particular importance, I think, is that both Reggie and Sleepy could get their own shots, whereas teams had success shutting Mike down late in games by doubling the post and forcing other Hoyas to shoot.

That's my logic. But I am not completely convinced that it is correct.


7. (Tie) John "Ba Ba" Duren (1976-80) - There is only one ranking position that is tied in the 50 greatest Hoyas - I don't have a clue how one can reasonably decide between John Duren and Craig Shelton. High school teammates out of Dunbar in D.C., they arrived to lead Georgetown to top 20 rankings (for the first time ever except for one lonesome week in 1953) in each of their sophomore, junior and senior years. John Duren is the best "pure" point guard to ever play for the Hoyas, prior to Mike Sweetney, Big Sky Shelton was the best power forward. In 1979-80, The Big East's first season both Shelton and Duren were first team all conference. Both were conference MVPs that year as well, Duren for the regular season and Shelton for the tournament.

Tall and extremely well-muscled for a point guard, Duren was the less recruited of the two players. Although he was a gifted scorer with range out to about 20 feet on his jump shot - and ranks 11th in career points - he was a pass first point guard. With his big hands and wide body, it was hard for defenders to get at the ball. In his last two seasons he became a very effective penetrator - his 7.4 assist per game average in 1979-80 remains the high water mark for Thompson era guards. He ranks third all time in Hoya assists.

Duren seemed to treasure economy of effort in his game. He would almost never dunk often barely leaving the ground on breakaway lay-ups. His pull up jumper on the break felt like an act of disdain, as in "OK I guess I nobody is open so I will have to shoot" and then the ball would be away with one quick flip of the wrist. Appearances were deceiving however as John was a fierce competitor - his dominance of alleged Holy Cross All-American guard Ron Perry at McDonough in 1978 was one of the most delightfully cruel things I have ever watched in basketball.

Ba Ba was selected 19th in the first round of the 1980 NBA draft. He hurt his knee in training camp, missed half of his first season and only played two years more. The hilltop has been waiting for a worthy successor ever since his departure.

7. (Tie) Craig "Big Sky" Shelton (1976-80)- I have never seen a recounting of how Craig Shelton came to be a Hoya, but reasonable speculation may provide some insights. Craig Shelton was in a different class than any athlete John Thompson had ever recruited. In the fall of his senior year he had been featured in Sport Magazine as one of the five top players in his class. He had a perfect basketball body - with broad shoulders tapering to a narrow waist he was as physically far from Mike Sweetney as one could imagine, although. A 6-7 power forward, Big Sky was a leaper who got off the floor from a standing start faster and higher than any athlete I have seen before or since. Beyond the physical skills Shelton had a low post game, the best part of which was a turnaround jumper from 6 to 12 feet that seemed to be released at about hoop level. He was recruited by basically every high major program in the country. And then, late in his senior season he suffered a horrific injury, a badly dislocated kneecap that led to speculation that he might never play again.

In retrospect, it seems that John Thompson was there to pick up the pieces. He would have been at many of the Dunbar games trying to land Duren but without much hope of landing Shelton. After the injury, most of the big schools decided to look elsewhere. Big Sky became a Hoya.

He missed most of his freshman year with the injury, playing sparingly in 7 late season games. The first time we saw him play in McDonough, he limped out onto the floor, took an entry pass, dribbled once and jammed. It was the start of a career filled with highlight film moments.

Two plays in particular stand out. After being ranked the previous five weeks, the Hoyas had fallen out of the top 20 with an overtime loss on the road at Loyola of Chicago in February of 1978. They faced a #17 ranked Detroit team that featured 3 future NBA players (Terry Tyler, John Long and Terry Duerod). The game remains by far the best game I ever saw in McDonough. Late in the game, with the Hoyas down by one, John Duren penetrated and shoveled the ball over to Shelton who went up over renowned leaper Terry Tyler. A picture on the front page of the Washington Post captured Shelton's head at hoop level as he jammed the ball and Tyler's hands back through the basket. The Hoyas won 83-82.

Later that year in the NIT semi-final in Madison Square Garden the Hoyas trailed by 2 in the last few seconds to N.C. State. This time Duren took a jump shot from the free throw line that bounced high off the rim to the left of the basket where two Wolfpack players were waiting. All of a sudden, Shelton was there between them, snatching the rebound a foot above the rim, laying the ball down off of glass as he was hacked on the arm. He made the free throw to give the Hoyas the lead. The fact that we lost the game on a half court shot three seconds later has done nothing, almost 30 years after the fact, to diminish the magnificence of Big Sky's play.

Shelton was drafted 31st in the 1978 draft by the Atlanta Hawks. Too small to be a power forward (listed at 6-7, he was probably no taller than 6-6) and without the ball handling skills to play the three, he had a two year NBA career, notable mostly for a 29 point outburst against Dr. J.


9. Derrick Jackson (1974-78) - In this site, the notes below Derrick Jackson's statistics state that DJ was John Thompson's first major recruit from outside of Washington DC. While this might conjure up visions of a Vernon Macklin-like recruiting coup, in fact, Georgetown was one of only a couple of schools to show any interest in Derrick and he only signed a Georgetown letter of intent midway through the summer after his senior year. While not major before the fact, DJ's decision to come to Georgetown can be seen, in retrospect, as among the most important college decisions in the history of the program.

The fact that Derrick was even going to play basketball was a major surprise. A center fielder with speed and power, DJ had been a fifth round draft pick of the Texas Rangers and everyone in his high school class in Wheaton, Illinois (of which I was a proud member) expected him to go play baseball. Although Derrick had also been a high school basketball star, the operative words were high school since his game would not have appeared to translate well to the college level. A 6-0 center who was not a particularly good ballhandler, he averaged about 22 ppg for a team that averaged about 45 per game while finishing fourth in an eight team conference. What the recruiters failed to notice, was that he was putting up these statistics in a league which graduated 4 high D-1 big men that year. A Chicago alum alerted John Thompson to Derrick's potential and Big John took a chance with his last available scholarship.

His first home game as a Hoya showed where he fell in the Hoya pecking order. He was the fifth guard into the game, behind starter and stud guard Jonathan Smith, behind starting freshman defensive specialist Mike Riley, behind steady sophomore Mike MacDermott and behind sweet shooting freshman Craig Esherick. DJ quietly scored a few points in limited minutes on some baseline jump shots. And he did it the next game and the next until it began dawning on Hoya fans that he might be something special. For the season he averaged 10.1 points a game, mostly off the bench, and hit the winning last second shot against West Virginia that sent the Hoyas to the NCAA for the first time since 1943.

It seems that DJ's game was perfect for the Hoyas. The Hoya offense of the 1970's was patterned on the Celtic offense that John Thompson had learned from Red Auerbach - lots of motion revolving around a strong low post presence. Nobody moved more than Derrick. A great athlete, he just seemed to slither between defenders without the ball, catching and shooting a low trajectory shot, often off glass, with a quick, high release - from the base line, the foul line and all points in between. Because he had grown up as a center he was completely unphased by large defenders. At his best in big games, he led the Hoyas in scoring for the next three seasons and left the school as its career scoring leader with 1673 points, most of them 15 foot jump shots in traffic. Not surprisingly, he continues to hold the Hoya single season record for free throw percentage (88.1% in 1977-78) where his 15 footers were unguarded. Of the great Hoya scoring guards in the pre-three point era, he would have benefited the least from the rule change because the trajectory of his shot was so flat. Ironically, the winning shot over West Virginia - supposedly from 22 feet - might have been the longest shot he hit in his college career.

It is impossible to underestimate just how important that shot was. While it is always dangerous to speculate about the course of history, it is not unreasonable to believe that had we not made the NCAA in 1975 that we would not have been able to beat out North Carolina and Notre Dame for Parade All-American Al Dutch and without Al Dutch that we would not have made the NCAA in 1976 thus inducing mega-studs Craig Shelton and John Duren to come to the hilltop the next year. And without the visibility of the close regional final loss in Shelton and Duren's senior year, would we have been able to recruit Patrick Ewing?

After college, Derrick starred with Athletes in Action the Christian based ministry and played on the U.S. team in the 1978 World Championships. He is remembered by Coach Thompson as the "finest all around person I have ever coached at Georgetown."


10. David Wingate (1982-86) - Perhaps the most complete Hoya defender of all time. He was long and quick and almost impossible to take off the dribble. He was a great, physical defender away from the ball (see Mullin, Chris, contusions, multiple). Best of all, he defined the role of the weak side defender on the Hoya press when that press was the most feared weapon in college basketball, turning errant passes into easy lay-ups. Because of all the bunnies, Wingate probably has the highest percentage of uncontested points of any Hoya in the top 20 career scorers.

Beyond the freebies, Wingate could beat you off the dribble - the most memorable example of which was his nationally televised undressing of Kentucky's Jim Masters - or with the mid-range jump shot. The form on the jump shot was never pretty - it was generally off balance - but it went in a fair percentage of the time. With his combination of defense and offense, Wingate was named to the Big East second team twice and the third team once. David went on to play 15 years in the NBA-- his lack of range on his jump shot keeping him from starting, and his defense keeping him from leaving.


11. Charles Smith (1985-89) - His Hoya career read like a script from a bad Disney movie. Recruited as a defensive specialist and told by John Thompson that he was never going to start, he averaged 3.0 in his first season and was scoring at a similar pace more than halfway through his second year when he apparently woke up one morning and decided that it was time to be a star. I believe that I had flown in to DC for what became his breakout game (it might have been De Paul or Syracuse) and remember being among the stunned that first, he had the guts to be putting up such strange looking shots in such a big game and second, that they were actually going in. I'm guessing that he averaged in double digits for the last 12 or so games of the 1986-7 season, scored 15.7 as a junior and 18.7 in a senior season that saw him named Big East Player of the Year and second team All American. He also played well as a member of the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.

Charles Smith was second only to Allen Iverson in his creativity as a scorer. Where Iverson did it with athleticism - he simply had more options available to him than any player of his size had ever had - Smith did it with guile. His shot never seemed to have the same trajectory. He hit leaners in the lane, fallaways from the side and an assortment of junk high off of the glass. He had nice form from beyond the arc, but you were always surprised that the ball would get to the rim. The one constant was that his release was quick and extremely confident. As an added bonus, he learned how to pass as a senior and averaged almost 5 assists a game.

Charles loved to take the big shot. In the 1988 NCAA game against Ohio State he dropped a 30 foot bomb at the buzzer - it is unclear if he actually called glass. Perhaps the most dramatic last second basket was at Syracuse in the dome in 1988. With the Hoyas down one and time running out, Billy Packer informed the nation that Charles Smith was going to take it all the way. He did, single handedly shredding the Orange defense, scoring, and continuing straight down the tunnel with his index finger held aloft before a stunned, and silent Syracuse crowd.


12. Dikembe Mutombo (1988-91) - It is ironic that Patrick Ewing, the epitome of college shotblocking excellence, might only have been the third best Hoya shotblocker of all time, and, with further apologies to Alonzo Mourning, it is crystal clear that Dikembe Mutombo was the best. This fact is not readily apparent from the list of Hoya career blocks - Patrick leads with 493, Zo is next with 453 and Dikembe trails with 354. But blocks per 40 minutes played tells a very different story. For his career, Patrick averaged 4.8 blocks per 40 minutes played which is good enough to lead the nation in most years. Zo was even better with 5.0 blocks per 40 minutes. Dikembe's rate was a truly awe inspiring 6.3 blocks per 40 minutes.

Each of the three centers had a different shotblocking style. Patrick tended to get to the ball with lateral movement and had more blocks from the weak side. He would get to the ball high on its arc and tended to get more goaltending calls, often he would knock the ball viciously out of bounds. Alonzo, the quickest leaper of the three, blocked the ball lower, often just after it had left the shooter's hands. His blocks tended to come right back at the shooter. Dikembe, the tallest of the three at a long-limbed 7-2, used his wingspan to almost catch opponent's shots and those blocks often fell gently to the floor.

Recruited from Zaire and relatively new to the game, the rest of Deke's skill set developed at a slower pace than his shotblocking. In his first Big East game, he set a Big East record with 12 blocked shots against St. Johns - and filled out his stat line with 2 points and 2 rebounds. Eventually, his offense sort of caught up and he was able to average 15.2 points, mostly on dunks, while earning first team Big East honors in his final year.

Dikembe currently stands third on the list of NBA career block leaders and has an outside chance to get to second as his career winds down. Patrick is 6th and Zo is 14th.


13. Othella Harrington (1992-96) - Othella was, without question, the most misused and misunderstood Hoya of the John Thompson era. The top high school player in the country as a center out of Jackson, Mississippi (and the MVP of the McDonald's game with a 19 point 21 rebound performance), he was destined to disappoint a legion of Hoya fans who expected a power center in the Patrick and Zo mode.

Othella had a lot of skills that were not particularly appropriate to the way the Hoya offense had evolved by the early 1990's. He was a finesse player with the softest inside shot to ever play for the Hoyas. His lay-ups seemed to just drift over the rim, barely disturbing the net as they went through. He was a great face up shooter from 10-15 feet in those few instances when he was allowed to play away from the basket. And he was a finesse rebounder who always worked hard for position.

Those skills were not enough for what the Hoya offense had become. When Patrick was center he was surrounded by athletes and by movement. By Zo's last two years all of the movement was gone, and the concept had become "lets throw it into the center and watch him bull his way through the defenders." This worked a good part of the time with Zo since he was one of the strongest basketball players on the planet. It did not work with Othella. Not a power player, Othella did not go up strong. Instead, he pump faked, sometimes three or four times, sometimes scoring, often getting the ball thrown back in his face by one of the myriad defenders who knew exactly what the Hoya offense was trying to do. Othella must be the most blocked player in the history of college basketball - it would not surprise me if 20% of his shots were blocked. Despite the blocks, he shot 56% for his career. Do you know how good a shooter you have to be to shoot 56% with one shot in five being sent back at you? In Othella's junior year Allen Iverson arrived to dominate the ball, and he was an almost forgotten man for his last two years. Perhaps more than any other Hoya, Othella's game cried out for an overlay of offensive structure and flexibility and it simply wasn't provided.

Despite these enumerated problems, Othella's resume is a strong one. 5th in all-time scoring, 5th in blocks, 4th in rebounding and first, yes first, in career offensive rebounds. He was the Big East rookie of the year and made both second team and third team once. He has had a solid ten year career in the NBA. Ironically, he may very well have been the best high school player in what was a very weak class of 1992, only Jason Kidd and Corliss Williamson have been better as pros.


14. Michael Jackson (1982-86) - Michael Jackson was probably the most consistent of all of the Hoya guards. A four year starter and three time third team Big East selection, he was an excellent outside shooter who generally subordinated his offense to the passing role expected of a John Thompson point guard. He holds the single season assist record (242 in 1984-5) although John Duren had a higher per game average (7.4 to 6.4) in 1979-80.

Jackson would often go games without ever seeming to look for his shot - there were so many options available it just wasn't necessary. When challenged, he was quite deadly. In one game at the Carrier Dome, Syracuse apparently decided they would collapse completely on the post people and he scored about 30. He shot 50% from the field as a senior and 45% for his career, most of his shots coming from the outside and often from what would now be behind the arc.

Jackson had a quiet cockiness to his game that seemed to show up at crucial times. Trailing Kentucky 29-20 in the 1984 NCAA semi-final with time running out in the first half and Ewing in foul trouble, he beat his defender, drew both of Kentucky's big men and dished to Michael Graham who almost ripped down the rim with his jam. Jackson then ran off the court with a smile more appropriate to a team up by 13, which, come to think about it, we were by the end of the game. As an added bonus he led the Hoyas that day with a career high 10 rebounds.


15. Merlin Wilson (1972-76) - As the 1974-75 basketball season approached during my freshman year, I knew but a few things about the Hoya basketball team. I knew that my high school classmate, Derrick Jackson, was on the team, and I wondered what position he was going to play. I knew that junior guard Jonathan Smith had averaged almost 18 ppg as a sophomore and was thought to have a promising future. For me, however, the most exciting prospect was looking forward to seeing Merlin Wilson, a junior center who had finished among the national leaders in rebounding with averages of 14.1 and 14.3 in his first two years. The man was a beast. Take a look at the list of the best individual game rebounding efforts by a Hoya. Wilson has five of the top nine of all time with efforts of 25, 24 and 23 (three times).

And I never really got to see the beast play. After watching my first five or six Hoya games I reached the conclusion that Wilson (now averaging a mere 9 rebounds a game) would be a much better rebounder if he would just put his arms above his head. Satisfied that I "knew" why his stats had gone down - it took several years for me to understand that he played his final two years with debilitating back trouble which made it hard for him to raise his arms.

Still, his career stats are overwhelming. He is one of only three Hoyas to exceed 1000 points and 1000 rebounds (Patrick and Zo are the others). His career rebounding average of 11.4 per game is more than two rebounds better than Patrick's, despite the pain and despite the clueless fans like me who didn't understand the effort he was putting forward.


16. Victor Page (1995-97) - A great player who, unfortunately, could not handle the Georgetown academic load, he left school after two seasons.

He is probably the best long range shooter while moving laterally that the school has ever seen, and he was almost as good going to the basket. His 1996-97 performance, in which he averaged 22.7 and led the team to the NCAAs is among the best single season performances in school history.

Had he averaged the same 22.7 during hypothetical junior and senior years he would have left school as the Hoyas all time leading scorer.


17. Mark Tillmon (1986-90) - There is a strong tendency to evaluate HS All American rankings (of which Mark was one) through the prism of the players (sometimes) subsequent NBA careers. Mark Tillmon is the classic example of a player whose career needs to be evaluated for what he did as a Hoya, since, at 6-2 (maybe), he was too short to play a single NBA game as a shooting guard. His Hoya credentials are very strong - 4 year starter, All Big East rookie team, and a stunning 1989-90 senior season in which he earned first team Big East honors with a 19.4 per game scoring average.

Tillmon was a good 3 point shooter, but the key to his offensive game was his ability to hit the mid-range baseline jumper, a capability that has been MIA since his departure.


18. Kevin Braswell (1998-02) - Braswell, the Hoya's seventh leading career scorer and all-time leader in assists and steals, was probably the most maligned player in the top 20 of this Hoya ranking. As much as anything else, this is because he serves as a Rorschach Test for Hoya fans of his era - they look at his game and see Craig Esherick's offense. Braswell could hit 3's, mid-range floaters and drives in traffic. His career shooting percentage was less than 40% because he took way too many of these shots, many of them with no time left on the shot or game clock. In looking back on his career, it is important to understand that he didn't design these "plays" for himself, rather they were a function of an offense that seemed to say "you know what we are going to do, prove you can stop us." Unfortunately, many teams, most notably Notre Dame in a quadruple overtime loss, proved they could do so.

Because of some of the disappointments there is a tendency to forget the great games, most prominently, his 40 point explosion in the triple OT NIT win at Virginia which is right there with Mike Sweetney's great game in that same ND loss as the best Hoya individual game performance since AI left the hilltop.


19. Bill Martin (1981-85) - Billy Martin had a hard career to evaluate. He stands 16th on the career Hoya scoring list and ninth in rebounds. He won a national championship, made second team Big East as a senior, and was generally regarded by TV announcers and fans alike as a fine player. But one is left to wonder if there might have been more there than he showed.

He had a great set of skills, combining truly superior leaping ability with wonderful shooting touch. His best shot was a jumper from the deep corner that would be three points today. He shot 50% or better from the field in each of his four seasons. He never, ever, forced the action.

And that might be a big reason that his memory has faded with me today. If you are going to wait around for your turn on a team that features Ewing, Williams, Wingate, Michael Jackson, and Michael Graham, not to mention Broadnax, Dalton, Gene Smith and Fred Brown, well you just won't get a lot of turns.


20. Jerome Williams (1994-96) - Possessed of a truly unique combination of abilities and deficiencies, Jerome Williams was a perfect fit for Allen Iverson with whom he shared his two years at Georgetown. A Juco transfer who had grown late in his basketball development, Williams had the running, dribbling and passing abilities of a much smaller player. His key skill, however, was his brilliant, active rebounding where his 9.3 per game career average ties Patrick Ewing for second in the Thompson era. As an added bonus, he was a tireless defender. He was third team all Big East in each of his two years as a Hoya.

He averaged 10.5 ppg as a Hoya almost all of it on the offensive boards or in transition, for both of which there were profuse opportunities during the Iverson era. He had no jump shot and no low post game. Most confusingly, he must have been the weakest finisher of any great rebounder at any level anywhere. The single play that most stands out in his Hoya career was his failure to convert a follow up rebound as time ran out in the 1996 Big East final verses UConn.

Jerome graduated to the NBA where his run of active defense, more active rebounding, and missed lay-ups just recently came to an end. His NBA career was also notable for a commitment to community service (like Dikembe's and Zo's) that made us all proud to be Hoyas. He remains the most likely Hoya basketball player of the Thompson era to be elected to Congress.


21. Eric Smith (1978-82) - The smartest Hoya player ever? Maybe, and certainly on the very short list for best team player as well. Eric Smith was the co-captain for the 1982 national runner up team.

Eric arrived at Georgetown as a two sport star (football was the other) from Potomac, Maryland. Raw at first, his game seemed to improve weekly. An excellent defender, he was especially effective on the weak side of the full court press. Offensively, he ran the floor well and hit the open jumper out to about 15 feet. Mostly, though, he would do whatever he was asked to do. His scoring average progressed from 2.7 to 6.8 to 10.8 points in his junior year and he was named second team Big East.

In 1981-82 things changed. The 1981-82 recruiting class included, along with Patrick Ewing, two other heralded recruits in Anthony Jones and Bill Martin, who needed time to develop, much of which would come out of Eric Smith's minutes. His minutes went way down, especially in the early season laughers that littered the Hoyas' schedule. His assists more than doubled as he shot less. And his scoring average declined to 9.7 ppg in his senior year. He was not named to a Big East all star team.

But his importance did not decline. His line for the championship game, 35 minutes, 6 for 8 from the floor, 2 of 2 from the line, 14 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists. Alone among the Hoyas, he had the presence of mind to take off after James Worthy and foul him as he tried to run out the clock after Fred Brown's ill-fated pass.


22. Jonathan Smith (1972-76) - Ultra-athletic shooting guard who came with John Thompson from St Anthony's High School in Thompson's fist recruiting class. He had both range and quickness and led the Hoyas in scoring for his first three seasons with averages of 13.0, 17.9 and 10.9. The 10.9 scoring average remains the lowest total for a Hoya team scoring leader, as the Hoyas had 6 payers with scoring averages between 9.4 and 10.9 ppg in what has to be close to the most balanced team scoring performance in NCAA history.

He did not seem to adjust well to the general influx of talent into the program, and that, coupled with some injury problems caused his average to fall to 7.3 in his senior season. He rallied in his last Hoya game, as he and Derrick Jackson both scored 28 or so points to keep the Hoyas close in a first round NCAA loss to Arizona State.


23. Fred Brown (1980-84) - I can't imagine what it must be like to have the greatest mistake of your life replayed on TV year after year. Yet Freddie has had to repeatedly relive his errant pass to an out of position James Worthy as that game has taken on added importance over time since the winning basket was scored by "The greatest player the game has ever seen." Ironically, two days earlier he had been the MVP of the national semi verses Louisville, a game that remains, for me, as the most intense defensive basketball game that I had ever witnessed. More ironically, Freddie was probably the best passer to have ever played for the Hoyas.

Tall for a point guard (6-5) Freddie was perfect for a John Thompson system that never placed much of a (any?) premium on point guards who could penetrate and dish. His entry passes were things of beauty, crisp and accurate, delivered to places where the post player could actually do something with them. Had Othella Harrington played with Freddie it might have been worth an additional six points a game to him. He was an excellent ball handler and, with his height, very hard to press. Not much of a shooter (he could hit the open 15 footer - sometimes) he was an exceptional rebounder for a guard and defensively very solid.

Freddie blew out his knee before his junior season and was never the same player. He wore an enormous brace on his knee and it was painful to watch. Competitive to the end, he tried to make up for in chippieness what he had lost in speed - his subtle push-offs under the basket were a thing of beauty, if you like that sort of thing. His embrace of John Thompson after the 1984 national championship victory provided a neat symmetry with the consoling hug that Thompson had provided after the loss to North Carolina two years before.


24. Gene Smith (1980-84) - Gene Smith was, without question, the worst outside shooting guard (starter or reserve) of the Thompson era. His jump shot had less rotation than a knuckleball, twisting and soaring on whatever currents were available inside the arena (one shudders to think what it must have looked like on the playground). This fact, as any Ewing era fan of the Hoyas knows, is completely irrelevant since Gene Smith was about one thing - masterful, physical, relentless lock down defense.

Gene was 6-2 and stocky, with quick feet and quicker hands. As a one on one defender he got low and wide - opposing point guards must have felt like they were trying to dribble the ball on his head. Smith would literally turn these guards into the rest of the Hoya help. And, if perchance you happened to get past him you were really in trouble, because he would come at you like a rocket from behind often diving and skidding at the ball at your feet.

With its inclusion of Gene Smith, this list now has six players - Smith, Ewing, Wingate, Mourning, Mutombo and Iverson - who would probably each rank as the best defensive player to ever play for most other Division 1 schools. Basketball teams can only play 5 at a time (unless you are Seton Hall against the Hoyas). Who doesn't make the first team?

My favorite Hoya moment ever? 1984 National Semi-final, second half, and Kentucky is melting down under the Hoyas' pressure in the midst of a ten minute scoring drought that Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall would attribute to "extra-cerrestrial" forces. Smith knocks the ball away from Kentucky guard James Blackmon and out of bounds for about the fifth time in the preceding minute, looks over at Billy Packer who is doing the color commentary and...WINKS.

One of the reasons a lot of people hated the Hoyas is that they said we were arrogant. And we were. And it was awesome.


25. Perry McDonald (1984-88) - If a book was written about the Georgetown-Syracuse rivalry during the 1980's, the only appropriate title would be "Only the Ball was Orange." Georgetown-Syracuse was as big then as Duke-NC is today with every single game on national TV and with the Hoyas generally coming out on top. Between 1978-79 and 1988-89 the Hoyas were 20-10 verses the Orange who were generally ranked and often ranked higher than the Hoyas.

Among the highlights of the rivalry:

• In 1979 Ed Spriggs and Jeff Bullis come off the bench to spell a foul plagued Hoya front line and the Hoyas upset the 6th ranked orange in an NCAA play in game.
• In 1980, the Hoyas rally from a double digit second half deficit to end the nation's longest home winning streak at 57 in the last game played at Manley Field House. John Thompson declares that "Manley Field House is officially closed" endearing himself to Orange fans everywhere.
• In 1981 the Hoyas lose to the Orange in the Big East semi-final, played at the new Carrier Dome, but still get an NCAA invite. Despite winning the tournament, the Orange stay home.
• In 1984, 1987 and 1989 Georgetown beats Syracuse in the Big East final. The 1984 final features a quasi-brawl between Michael Graham and Syracuse's Andre Hawkins. At the press conference after the game, Jim Boeheim throws a chair.
• In 1988, Charles Smith goes end to end at the buzzer to beat Syracuse at the dome and runs straight down the tunnel in celebration.

(We will avoid mention of the 1990 game in which Sam Jefferson sets the Hoya record for Foul-Stupidest when he inexplicably grabs at Billy Owens 45 feet away from the basket as time expires. Owens two free throws send the game into overtime and the Orange win.)

No year better exemplified the frustration of Syracuse fans than 1987. To be fair, Syracuse did make the national final that year, losing to Indiana when they forgot how to call time out after going down late in the game. That Syracuse team was loaded with Sherman Douglas, Rony Seikaly, and Derek Coleman. And that Syracuse team lost to Reggie and the Miracles three times. Against Syracuse no Miracle came up bigger than Perry McDonald.

Perry McDonald was listed on the Hoya roster as a 6-4 guard and came to the hilltop as the leading scorer in New Orleans high school history. In his first two seasons he struggled to find a role as a shooting guard, a role for which he was ill-fitted since he had significant difficulty hitting outside shots. In 1986-87, his junior year, he was reincarnated as a low post presence to great success. His signature move was catching the ball about 12 feet from the basket in the lane, taking one large step and launching his body towards the basket, taking contact and laying the ball in high off the glass. He was also an exceptional offensive rebounder and scored a large number of points on follows. He averaged 13.0 as a junior and made second team Big East, and then finished his career with a 10.1 ppg senior season.

Perry's most visible victim was 6-11 Syracuse center Rony Seikaly. During the "Miracles" year, McDonald had three big games against Seikaly, who was in constant foul trouble. In his best game, an 83-81 win, he scored a career high 23 points including the winning basket at the buzzer. Matched up with McDonald, Seikaly resembled nothing so much as a cartoon elephant confronted by a mouse. By the Big East tournament Seikaly was actively avoiding contact with McDonald and the Hoyas won easily in the final.


26. Brandon Bowman (2002-06) - Should move up a few more positions on this list with a good senior season. As athletic a player as the Hoyas have had at his size, and a great jump shooter with almost unlimited range when he squares up to the basket, he was a major beneficiary of the change in offensive philosophy last year, as his shooting percentage rose from 42.8% as a sophomore to 50.1% as a junior.

A big reason for the increase appears to have been in essentially eliminating the back to the basket post up moves where his off balance shots would generally be thrown back in his face.  


27. Al Dutch (1975-80) - Sometimes life gets in the way. Al Dutch holds an important and under-recognized place in Hoya history as the first truly national recruit - even though he was from Washington D.C. the Hoyas beat out North Carolina and Notre Dame (back when D.C. was prime recruiting territory for N.D. e.g. Austin Carr and Adrian Dantley) for his Parade All-American services. With a game very much like Billy Martin's - featuring sweet jumpers with range from the baseline and smooth drives in traffic - Al had an immediate impact scoring 27 in an OT home win against 12th ranked St Johns, for John Thompson's first win over a ranked team. After the game, St Johns' coach Lou Carneseca was quoted as saying that Dutch had played 'like a derned pro." In his first two years, Al averaged 11.6 and 13.3 points respectively.

Then, trouble. As his junior year began, his game seemed to have fallen apart as if his mind was elsewhere. Turns out it was, as he had a series of personal issues (including having a child) and his scoring average plummeted to 5.0 ppg. He missed the entire next season, but returned as a solid starter (but without his former aggressiveness) on the 1980 regional final team.


28. Joey Brown (1990-94) - Joey Brown epitomized everything that was both good and bad about the program in the early 90's. A four year starter as a 5-10 point guard, he was active and effective on defense, generating a breakaway lay-up or two a game. He was fine on the break and generally made the right pass in those situations - indeed, he ranks second all time in Hoya assists. Joey always hustled and made the occasional big play - his last second steal and winning basket against Connecticut in 1992 is one of my fondest Hoya memories.

Emblematic of the program, though, his game had two major issues - he couldn't make wide open jump shots and he couldn't make the entry pass in half court situations. The fact that he threw up bricks from the perimeter simply affirmed that he was a Hoya, but the entry passing was a big issue since the post player he was trying to feed was first Alonzo and then Othella. By the time most of the telegraphed and looping passes reached their target, the defense would generally have enough time to triple or quadruple team the post. Trying to go one on three or one of four, Zo would often commit an offensive foul and end up on the bench, Othella would just get stuffed.

Had Joey been a 10-15 minute a game backup at point guard for his career, I might remember him as a personal favorite. He did a lot of good things and his effort was ever inspiring, but there were 75-100 Division I point guards who could have run the offense better. John Thompson was not, however, interested in recruiting any of them.


29. Dwayne Bryant (1986-90) - Fifth all time in assists and ninth in steals, this McDonald's All-American was somewhat of a disappointment until his senior year when John Thompson finally figured out how to use him.

It seems that Dwayne had a schizophrenic skill set. He was a good ballhandler and passer and a good long range shooter, but he was only a good shooter while catching and shooting not off of the dribble - which can be a problem if you are the point guard with the ball in your hands. The arrival of David Edwards at point guard in 1989-90 allowed him to play off of the ball more often and his scoring average surged to 12.3 as a senior. 

30. Michael Graham (1983-84) - He only played one season and averaged a whopping 4.7 ppg but it was the loudest sub 5 ppg in Hoya history. He made the NCAA all-tournament team in the Hoyas' championship year and was scary good (and just scary) in the Big East tournament as well. Twenty years after his one college season he made an ESPN.com list of the most intimidating figures in all of sports.

Graham was big, mobile and a violent finisher in traffic. He took to his studies with substantially less enthusiasm and left before his sophomore season. His absence arguably cost the Hoyas national championships in 1985 and 1987. His was the greatest Hoya career that could have been.


31.Jaren Jackson (1985-89) - Spent the first 3 years of his Hoya career looking for a position, but kept working at it and emerged as a starter as an undersized small forward in his senior season. A great defender, his career included an inordinate number of highlights in relatively limited time, including a spectacular payback dunk over Pitt's Jerome Lane and a then Big East record 38 points against Seton Hall during a junior season in which he averaged less than 9 points.

The work ethic served him well at the next level where he was able to parlay his defensive intensity into an 11 year career. He is the only former Hoya to have earned an NBA championship ring, averaging 8.2 playoff ppg with the 1999 San Antonio Spurs.


32. Jeff Green (2004-07) - Already working on a wonderful career, Jeff is certainly the best passing big man the Hoyas have ever had and among the very best outside shooters among that group as well.

While it is appropriate that early departures can earn a fabulous living in the NBA, one cannot help but regret the extent to which his likely early exit to the League will stop him from cracking the very top echelon of Hoya greats.


33. Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje (1997-01) - A three year starter and two time Big East third team performer, Ruben had the physical tools - a well-muscled 6-11, he was a good leaper for his size - to have truly dominated the center position. His struggles to master the position were supremely documented in an MCIGuy Hoyatalk epistle that should be permanently archived in the Hoya History site.

A Big East Scholar Athlete in 2001, he had a universal reputation for unusual intelligence and reflection. He might have been a better player, however, if that reflection had not been so readily apparent on the court.


34. Gerald Riley (2000-04) - Gerald Riley's Hoya career is perplexing, in that his place on many of the Hoya all time lists is quite high (scoring 13th, steals 12th), but one is left with the sense that he put up a lot of these numbers because of the general dearth of talent in the program in the program when he played - he got a lot of minutes because there was literally nobody else. He could hit the jump shot and make the occasional steal but his game was otherwise pretty limited.

A comparison of Gerald's game to Jaren Jackson's, who was stuck for the first 3 years of his career behind Tillmon, Bryant and Charles Smith and did not start until his senior year is illuminating. Physically similar (he was a little taller than Jackson) Gerald was a poorer rebounder, a poorer passer, shot worse (.403 verses .439) from the field and was not in Jackson's class as a defender. One place where Gerald did shine was at the free throw line where his career 82.2% shooting is the best in Hoya history.


35. Steve Martin (1975-79) - The first of a long line of Louisiana Hoyas (including Perry McDonald, Jonathan Edwards, Jaren Jackson, Joey Brown and Duane Spencer), Steve Martin steadily progressed, playing sparingly at both guard and small forward as a freshman and sophomore, assuming a key role as sixth man and occasional starter in his junior year and blossoming into a 12.7 ppg scorer at small forward as a senior. The 1978-79 team was an incredibly well balanced scoring team as Martin's average ranked him fourth behind Sleepy (16.6), Sky (16.2), and John Duren (14.6).

Martin was a competent rebounder, a great passer and a good mid-range shooter. A smart player he scored a lot on cuts to the basket and strong finishes. The Hoya whose game he most closely resembled was Eric Smith, who would have spent most of his freshman year on the bench watching how Steve Martin played the game.


36. Don Reid (1991-95) - Don Reid went after rebounds like a pit bull goes after steak and with the same subtlety. His offensive game was largely limited to put back jams, but his put back lay-up to beat Weber State in the 1995 NCAA's was one of the prettiest Hoya plays of an entire decade. 

That he was drafted 29th in the NBA draft was a miracle. That he lasted eight years in the league was a tribute to heart and Hoya defense the way it used to be played.


37. Robert Churchwell (1990-94) - Robert Churchwell could run. Robert Churchwell could jump. Robert Churchwell could make jump shots. Robert Churchwell made the Big East all-rookie team and was a four year starter. His failure to develop as a basketball player beyond his freshman year is among the most frustrating careers in Hoya history, particularly since he played against defenses that were collapsing around first Zo and then Othella and there were a lot of open shots available.

Churchwell is the leading nominee ever for least assertive Hoya. It was if he was in an FBI Witness protection program and didn't want to get noticed.


38. Billy Lynn (1972-76) An athletic, long-armed 6-9 forward who was part of John Thompson's first recruiting class, Billy always looked like he was on the verge of stardom but never quite got there. In part, it might have been that he was fighting for space in the key with Merlin Wilson as part of the ongoing inability that John Thompson had in getting two big men to play together effectively. Nevertheless, he ranks 25th in scoring and 12th in rebounding among Thompson era players.


39. Boubacar Aw (1994-98)- Always a good defensive player, Boubacar's development on offense (he shot over 50% in each of his four years and averaged 11.4 as a senior) was a pleasant surprise in the generally dismal late 90's. His best shot was a mid-range jumper that had basically been extinct among the Hoya's since Mark Tillmon's graduation.


40. Ralph Dalton (1982-86) - It is probably a good thing that the internet did not exist in the summer of 1981 or it is likely that the Hoya Talk board would have imploded from excitement.

Not only did the Hoyas have the consensus #1 in the class coming in the fall (Patrick) but both Anthony Jones and Bill Martin were consensus top 10 high school recruits. Surprisingly, much of the buzz that summer concerned a fourth (and lesser known) recruit named Ralph Dalton who was big (a legitimate 6-9), mobile, and ripping up the Kenner league.

Then the buzz ended as quickly as it started when Ralph incurred a terrible achilles injury that caused him to miss the entire 1981-2 season and play the rest of his career with one foot drooping. His career stats - over 500 points and almost 500 rebounds - don't look that impressive, although it was kind of hard to put up points when you played behind Patrick Ewing for your first three seasons. The numbers are pretty good, however, for a one-legged player.


41. Jahidi White (1994-98) - You know that your college career is not going well when the adjective most used to describe you switches from "imposing" when you are recruited to "oft-injured" by the time you are a junior. It's worse when those injuries are often to your wrists and hands, hands that have a hard enough time catching the ball when they are completely healthy. Still, through the first 12 games of his senior season he was averaging 10.5 points and 8.4 boards until he got hurt yet again - this time for good.

He had serious rebounding skills though, good enough to be among the NBA leaders in rebounds per 48 minutes for several seasons in the seven years he has played so far. And he has earned over $25 million in a pro career that has continued to feature the adjectives imposing and oft-injured.


42. Ed Hopkins (1974-78) - On the short list - along with Tom Skates and Jahidi White - for worst Hoya hands ever. One of the best parts of watching Hoya basketball during the 1977-78 season was identifying "Hop-assists" which consisted of perfect entry passes bouncing off Hopkin's body to Big Sky Shelton who would proceed to jam the ball.

We often speculated as to whether John Duren was trying to make "Hop-assists" for fun. When he did manage to catch the ball, however, this 6-9 forward was a surprisingly fluid scorer with either hand. His 29 point performance at Dayton in the 1978 NIT quarter finals was a classic.


43. Horace Broadnax (1982-86) - A great long range shooter trapped behind a long list of quality guards during the Ewing years. Born a few years too soon, he would have been a major beneficiary of the 3 point shot (along with Sleepy, Jon Smith, Michael Jackson and Craig Esherick). He finally got a chance to start in 85-86 and had a surprisingly underwhelming senior year.


44. George Butler (1993-95) - Muscular and aggressive juco transfer whose game resembled that of World B. "Lloyd" Free, complete with the foul inducing leg kick on the jump shot. He left school in the middle of his senior season under "mysterious" academic circumstances.


45. Anthony Perry (1998-01) - Anthony Perry had a hard career to come to grip with. It makes no sense that a player could go from High School All-American to a team leading 14 ppg in his first (sophomore) year to almost not playing his senior year, especially a player who seemed to be trying so hard. Maybe the signs were there in his 33.8% shooting percentage in the first year. Still, I don't really know what to say.


46. Larry Long (1973-77) - A quick, tough forward from the mid-seventies Hoyas, he had a nice 10 foot jump shot. Like many of the Hoya big men of his time he seemed to be perpetually fighting injuries which detracted from his career.


47. Tom Skates (1975-79) - For the first three seasons of Tom Skates' tenure, he looked like a wasted scholarship. He looked scary enough, 6-11, muscular and hulking, but he was arguably the worst offensive player to ever start for the Thompson era Hoyas. Tom was a quadruple threat who could not catch, pass, dribble or shoot. But he worked at it, hard, and emerged in his senior year as the first of the intimidating shot-blocking Hoya centers. His signature game was in a victory at Penn (which went to the final four that year) in which he recorded 7 blocks and also scored - including an up and under double pump scoop reverse layup straight out of Dr. J that remains to this day the most incomprehensibly bizarre thing I have ever seen at a Hoya game.

And then he got hurt at the worst time possible, near the end of the NCAA play-in blowout of Old Dominion. Without him, we were unable to control Rutgers All-American center James Bailey and we lost in the first round of the NCAA. Had we prevailed, we would have been in a regional final four along with Penn (who we had beaten), St John's (who we had beaten) and Syracuse (who we had beaten.) For a program that had never been to the mountaintop this felt like a massive missed opportunity.

In reality, injuries played a significant role in thwarting Hoya NCAA hopes from 1977 through 1989. A brief chronology:

1977 - The entire Hoya starting frontline is unable to play or plays injured during the NCAA play-in game against Old Dominion.
1978 - Leading scorer Derrick Jackson comes down with what was thought to be appendicitis on the day of the NCAA play in game vs. Virginia Commonwealth.
1979 - The Skates injury.
1984 - Gene Smith is unable to play in the NCAA championship against Houston. Fortunately we win anyway.
1985 - Reggie Williams, playing on a bad ankle the entire game, is ineffective in the NCAA final verses Villanova.
1986 - Reggie again hurts his ankle early in a second round loss to Michigan State.
1989 - Leading scorer Charles Smith is hurt early against Duke in the regional final loss.

48. Cheikh "Ya Ya" Dia (1993-97) - Like Tom Skates, a non-factor his first three seasons, Ya Ya improbably led the Big East in rebounding his senior year and captained an over-achieving Hoya team to an NCAA bid. At times he seemed to be outmanned on the boards three or four to one. His 96-97 effort is a sleeper nominee for most courageous season by a Hoya.


49. Lee Scruggs (1999-01) - Frustrating. Lee Scruggs should be 25 places higher on this list - at least if talent would have had anything to do with it. The 6-11 juco transfer was a wonderful three point shooter and had a feathery touch with the mid-range jumper. Despite his pencil thin stature he was an OK rebounder and a surprisingly adept shotblocker - his shot blocks per minute probably would rank him fourth behind the holy trio of Deke, Zo and Patrick.

Despite the skills, Scruggs never really seemed to find his role with the Hoyas. Although it is easy to suggest coaching malfeasance, it often seemed as if Lee was determined to float and play farther away from the basket than directed. In the 2000 Big East Tournament upset of #1 seeded Syracuse he showed what might have been with 20 of the smoothest points ever put up by a Hoya.


50. Ed "The Mailman" Spriggs (1978-82) - Ed was nicknamed "The Mailman" not because he always delivered but because he had actually been a postal carrier before coming to the Hoyas. Center was a position generally manned by committee during the two pre-Ewing seasons, and Spriggs was as important as anyone in that largely defensive slot.

Upon Ewing's arrival in 1981-2 his role was reduced, but he still played an important role in the 1982 NCAA run.


Note: My ranking of the Fifty Greatest Hoyas of the Thompson era was constantly evolving. Both Ashanti Cook and Darrel Owens would likely squeak their way onto the bottom of the list with good seasons and I believe that Roy Hibbert is destined to achieve a much higher position. Even a cursory glance at these rankings makes it clear that most of the best players to have worn the blue and gray are a decade or more removed from the Hilltop. Hopefully, we are now entering a renaissance period that will see new and wonderful careers added to this listing.