Sports
Old Home Week at McDonough
As Georgetown University's Hoyas basketball team readies for China, some familiar faces help prep the team for a new season
It looks a bit like Old Home Week these days at McDonough Gym as the Georgetown Hoyas basketball team, prepares for its upcoming pre-season international trip to China.
First, Pete Carril, the legendary former Princeton coach who was John Thompsion III's coach in college is on the scene to serve as a sounding board for the current Hoya coach.
Second, two well-known former Hoya stars, Othella Harrington and Kevin Broadus, are back after several years serving as assistant coaches.
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And, of course, Hall of Famer and radio personality John Thompson, JT III's dad, is always there to give some advice too, if needed.
As John Thompson III told it Tuesday afternoon on his father's sports talk show on ESPN-980, Carril, now an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings in the NBA, comes to Georgetown for a week every year to work with the Hoyas.
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"We have him in every year and he gives you his opinion as only a former coach can," the current Hoya coach said. "He's someone whose opinion I respect greatly."
As for having Harrington and Broadus as assistants for the upcoming hoops season, that will be a huge plus as well, he added.
"Both of these guys and valuable and have tremendous knowledge of the game," JT-3 said. Othello has 10 years (playing experience) in the league (the NBA)...and Kevin is someone I worked with right from the very beginning at Georgetown."
Broadus is returning to the coaching ranks with the Hoyas after a successful---but highly controversial-- tenure at Binghamton in upstate New York, .
Before coming to Georgetown, where his father achieved stunning success including an NCAA chamionship, JT-3 coached for four years at his alma mater Princeton where he ran Carril's famed 'Princeton offense.'
One of the Hoyas biggest challenges this season will be replacing Chris Wright and Austin Freeman, two stars last season. "Are we going to replace them directly?, JT-3 asked. Probably not, he suggested. "But we are going to have people who will fill their void in scoring," he asserted.
The Hoyas are scheduled leave Aug. 13 for a series of exhibition games in China and they return stateside Aug. 27.
"I hear they have 300-million basketball players over there, the senior John Thompson quipped.
