When the seedings for the NCAA tournament were unveiled last year, T.J. Thompson was sitting in his dorm room on the George Washington campus, watching with envy as Atlantic 10 rivals Saint Joseph's, Xavier, Dayton and Richmond received bids.
Yesterday, Thompson watched the selection show while sitting in a leather recliner in Coach Karl Hobbs's basement. When a bracket popped on the screen revealing that the 12th-seeded Colonials will face fifth-seeded Georgia Tech in a first-round game Friday in Nashville, the school's all-time leader in minutes played broke into a smile and pumped his fist.
GW Coach Karl Hobbs and point guard T.J. Thompson are all smiles after learning that they received a No. 12 seed in the NCAA tournament.
(Lucian Perkins -- The Washington Post)
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"I just remember last year seeing all those teams getting in and all I was thinking was, 'Next year, we're getting to the tournament. I don't care what we have to do, we're getting to the tournament,' " said Thompson, whose clutch three-pointer helped George Washington clinch a 76-67 victory over Saint Joseph's in the Atlantic 10 tournament championship game Saturday night. "To see GW up there, to know we're in, it's the greatest feeling in the world."
While the selection committee did the Colonials (22-7) no favors by matching them up with Georgia Tech (19-11), runner-up in last season's NCAA tournament, the Colonials won't be complaining.
Despite shocking the basketball establishment with victories over Michigan State and Maryland in the BB&T Classic in December, George Washington played the last month of the season knowing that an NCAA tournament invitation was no sure thing.
Those wins over Michigan State and Maryland elevated George Washington into the national rankings and raised expectations in what was a down season for the rest of the Atlantic 10.
At times, Hobbs's team appeared to be feeling the pressure. Instead of playing the loose, freewheeling style that put the Colonials into the rankings in the first place, they looked tight in damaging losses to Xavier and Saint Joseph's.
Those losses put the Colonials squarely on the tournament bubble and likely would have kept them from receiving an at-large bid. However, the Colonials avoided the agony of having to sweat it out with the other bubble teams yesterday by beating Fordham, Temple and Saint Joseph's for the first Atlantic 10 tournament title in school history.
"I don't know if we would have gotten in" without winning the conference title, said junior forward Mike Hall. "And I'm glad we didn't have to find out."
For Hobbs, getting to the tournament is the latest sign that his program is growing into something special. Thompson and reserve forward Rock Battistoni are the team's only seniors, and the season offered several lessons for a team that according to Hobbs "is still learning how to win.
"The thing I'm most proud of is the way we overcome some difficult obstacles," Hobbs said. "Opening the season at Wake Forest, losing two close home games [to Massachusetts and Xavier] in the final second, playing with the pressure of expectations that was put on them. This is an excellent reward for how my team handled all of those things this season."
The matchup with Georgia Tech could provide one of most entertaining games in the first round. Both teams like to push the ball in transition and as a result, both teams have scoring averages in the 70s.
Georgia Tech guard Jarrett Jack is one of the game's most explosive players and swingman Ismail Muhammad has built a reputation as one of the game's best dunkers.
George Washington forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu became a highlight-show regular with his thunderous dunks this season, while Hall, swingman J.R. Pinnock and forward Omar Williams also attack the rim with regularity.
"You're going to see both teams getting up and down the floor, flying around and making things happen," said Pinnock, a McDonough, Ga., native who knows Muhammad from when the two played high school ball. "This will be the kind of game the fans will want to watch."
