George Mason basketball’s Corey Edwards diverges from his father’s path

During last year’s Kenner League, the summer basketball jamboree at McDonough Gymnasium, George Mason’s Corey Edwards introduced himself to John Thompson Jr., the retired Georgetown coach.

“I’m Dave Edwards’s son.”

Thompson shook his head and broke into a broad grin.

In recalling the conversation this week, the Patriots sophomore said Thompson told him, “Your dad was a maniac!”

“My dad,” the young Edwards said, “definitely gave [Thompson] some of the gray hairs he has.”

More than 20 years after David Edwards’s only season at Georgetown, there is another Queens-bred point guard who fails to reach 6 feet and carries the family name at a local program. Only this one isn’t as brash and doesn’t play at a furious pace.

Corey Edwards will probably start for the 10th straight time Saturday when the Patriots (10-7, 3-2) host Hofstra (5-12, 2-2) in a Colonial Athletic Association game. He is posting modest numbers (4.5 points and 2.7 assists) but playing smart defense and getting the team into an improved offensive flow.

He shoots infrequently but efficiently: 53 percent overall and 10 of 15 on three-pointers.

Patriots Coach Paul Hewitt knows both father and son well. He was coaching in high school in the late 1980s when the elder Edwards, now 41, stacked up with NBA-bound Kenny Anderson and starred in Manhattan’s high-flying Rucker League.

Hewitt, 49, ran a summer league on Long Island and invited teams from the city to compete.

“He was Little Dave,” he said of the 5-foot-9 dynamo. “He was a dynamic little scorer, quick, very fancy. Nothing like Corey.”

When Hewitt replaced Jim Larranaga in the spring of 2011, one of his first tasks was to ensure 5-11 Corey Edwards, then a senior at Christ the King High School, would honor his letter of intent to play for the Patriots.

He and David Edwards reconnected one afternoon in the South Jamaica neighborhood.

“Corey wasn’t home yet,” Hewitt said. “Dave and I were sitting there talking about the old times, games we might’ve been at even though we didn’t know each other at the time. Corey comes walking in and rolls his eyes, as if to say, ‘Oh man, I’ve got to listen to my dad’s old stories again?’ ”

David Edwards arrived at Georgetown with a 41-point high school average, playground flash and attitude. He appeared in every game of the 1989-90 campaign, but his style clashed with a disciplined system emphasizing the prized big men, Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo.

“I wasn’t a complete player,” David Edwards said. “I wish I could’ve been more mature after high school. I could’ve listened more.”

He transferred to Texas A&M, where he averaged 13.5 points and set program records for career assists and steals that still stand today. Each year, the Aggies present the David Edwards Assist Award. In his final season, Edwards was runner-up for the Naismith Award, given to the nation’s best player 6 feet or shorter.

After college, Edwards said he played in Iceland and Lithuania before settling back in New York.

Corey Edwards said his father was a “big influence. He watches more film of me than I do.”