Remembering Legendary Georgetown Coach John Thompson

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Legendary Georgetown coach John Thompson has died.

Thompson led Georgetown to the 1984 NCAA men's basketball title and 20 NCAA Tournament appearances during his brilliant 27-year college coaching tenure, all at Georgetown

Four of his Hoya players are currently in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame: Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo and Allen Iverson.

Through the years, Thompson's Hoya teams made four trips to the WVU Coliseum in 1975, 1995, 1997 and 1998, winning all but one.

His first triumph over the Mountaineers in the ECAC tournament championship game in Morgantown in 1975 really launched his Hall of Fame coaching career.

Before that, his first two Georgetown teams were two games under .500 heading into his third season that year. The Hoyas, then playing as an independent, qualified for the ECAC tournament with a 16-9 regular season record before knocking off crosstown rival George Washington in the ECAC semifinals to set up a championship game meeting against West Virginia.

Bob Huggins vs. Georgetown 1975

The 14-12 Mountaineers, playing in front of a small but enthusiastic home crowd of 8,027, overcame a pair of six-point Hoya leads to tie the game at 56 on a Bob Huggins jump shot.

WVU eventually led by a point with 10 seconds to go and had an opportunity to make it a three-point game with Earnie Hall on the foul line to shoot a one-and-one.

But Hall couldn't get the free throw to go down, Georgetown rebounded his miss and got the ball to freshman guard Derrick Jackson, who hit a running 20-foot jump shot from the left corner with two seconds left to give the Hoyas a 62-61 victory.

"Earnie Hall, who had long fingernails, tried to steal the ball and it hit his fingernails and broke two of them off," Huggins recalled years later. "If he knocked the ball away, we win. But he overran the ball, Jackson caught it, and he threw up a shot at the buzzer to win it."

The loss cost already-embattled, first-year WVU coach Joedy Gardner an NCAA Tournament bid and some much-needed job security while giving Thompson's career a big boost.

"Man, that song 'West Virginia, Mountain Momma' is really something," an elated Thompson said afterward. "We sang it on the way over here, and in the dressing room. I love it here!"

Thompson's next visit to the Coliseum took place 20 years later on Dec. 2, 1995. By then, he was firmly established as one of college basketball's top coaches.

It was West Virginia's first-ever Big East game and an overflow crowd of 15,193 thought they were witnessing an unforgettable inaugural victory over the sixth-ranked Hoyas when guard Cyrus Jones' two free throws put it ahead 71-61 with just 1:48 remaining.

But in a snap of a finger, a Georgetown flurry reduced West Virginia's lead to one, and after guard Seldon Jefferson could only make one of two free throw attempts, Iverson drove the length of the floor and put up a running one-hander with 5.5 seconds left to tie the game in regulation.

Georgetown outscored West Virginia 10-7 in the extra session to steal a victory.

Thompson was still in game mode during the postgame news conference when it used to be held up in the Jerry West Room on the arena's concourse.

Greg Walker, West Virginia's basketball sports information director at the time, was fishing for some Thompson quotes to use in a story he was writing in Front Row Magazine about the Coliseum atmosphere for WVU's Big East debut, so he planted a question with a young student worker sitting among the media members.

John Thompson 1995

She was the only one courageous enough to ask the imposing Thompson something so trivial and foolish. She asked him to compare the WVU Coliseum to some of the other big-time college atmospheres his Georgetown teams regularly encountered. Thompson, peering over his glasses, looked directly at her, a smile forming on his face.

"Young lady," he began, "have you ever heard of the Carrier Dome?"

He added, "What can you say but welcome to the Big East! I thought it was a great game for the atmosphere. The noise was great, but it was nothing like Syracuse and other large, domed arenas we regularly play in."

West Virginia finally pinned a loss on Thompson the last time he faced the Mountaineers in 1998 on an early January Monday night – the first ESPN Big Monday game ever played in Morgantown.

WVU star forward Damian Owens went for 27 points and 12 rebounds in an 81-70 victory over Thompson's Hoyas.

Afterward, Thompson was gracious in defeat.

"West Virginia has a very good team. I like them physically," he said. "Owens did everything tonight. I wanted him to end his career at West Virginia never beating us, but I'm happy for him."

What an original!

Years later, I once asked veteran coach Gale Catlett about the evolution of college basketball from a free-flowing, freedom-of-movement game when he began coaching in the early 1970s to the physical, hand-checking, slug-it-out defensive game it had turned into toward the end of his career in the early 2000s.

Catlett said one person was responsible for this: John Thompson.

Thompson's Georgetown teams were physical, intimidating and unapologetic – a mirror image of the man coaching them.

He was 78.

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