They played a frenetic game, a collage of runs and dunks and discombobulating defense that would have held the court at any park or recreation center. The Almighty could not be immediately reached for comment, but if church-league basketball is your thing then the George Washington University Colonials may be your team.
On a Sunday afternoon in December, MCI Center shook like the site of a first-round NCAA regional in March. Horns from the band blared, mascots perspired and the top seed went down hard. J.R Pinnock dunked on the head of Maryland's Ekene Ibekwe, and an itty bitty guard from Germantown named T.J. Thompson squared, fired and made almost every shot.
George Washington, the giant-killers who took out Michigan State on Saturday, conquered Maryland in the BB&T Classic championship game. The Colonials lured Maryland into their own helter-skelter game before pulling away, 101-92, knocking off two top-15 programs on consecutive days.
GW seems like unadulterated fun, free of Final Four expectation or mid-term booster pressure. It's got this stop-and-pop backcourt of Thompson and Pinnock, who dropped 49 points on Maryland. Thompson could not miss a mid-range jumper when his body was squared to the basket, and Pinnock was gold in the open court. They've got a 6-foot-9 junior from England named Pops Mensah-Bonsu.
T.J., J.R. and Pops. It's not Scientific Mapp or Baskerville Holmes, two of the greatest college hoop names of all time. But the Colonials' trio has a ring to it, no?
Gary Williams will never view such a game as anything more than a lose-lose proposition for Maryland. His big, bad Terps beat GW, they're supposed to win. They get knocked off, and George Washington Coach Karl Hobbs makes his career against the guy who couldn't get his perennial powerhouse ready.
But that's short-sighted. Here's the real problem with this tournament. Of the eight college basketball programs within an hour's drive from downtown Washington, only two were supposed to be represented until George Mason bailed out Providence, which canceled late.
The most conspicuous absentee is Georgetown, long ago the king of college hoops and now in serious refurbishing mode. The Hoyas should be here. Yet because of silly, old grudges dating back 10 and 20 years, no G-Town.
Some say the Hoyas still owe Williams a home game from way back, and he's sore about it. Others say tournament organizers won't extend the Hoyas a bid because John Thompson Jr. used to feel his program was so far superior to the other local schools, including Maryland.
But who knows and who cares? John Thompson III, Georgetown's new coach, is big enough to say he would like the Hoyas to play in the BB&T. So it's time to bury the hatchet and bring in Georgetown. Why not make it a three-day affair and throw in Navy, American, Coppin State and Towson?
Of course, Williams thinks this may be the stupidest idea ever hatched.
"It's tough playing local teams when you're supposed to be the best team, to be honest with you," Williams said, knocking the notion of an all-area tournament.
"What does that do? It makes the basketball fans of Washington happy, but we have to do what's best for our program. That's not being selfish. We always went out of our way to play [smaller] schools and we'll continue to do that. But I'm not sure a tournament format with just local schools would be best for us. I remember Georgetown wouldn't do that for 20 years."
But what about the flip side, the notion that playing some of these teams is real preparation for the NCAA tournament? Advancing to the Final Four is not merely about breaking down North Carolina's interior defense or neutralizing Connecticut's perimeter game. Before a Maryland or Michigan State ever gets to those teams, they have to find a way to not get knocked out by the lower seeds that run and run and scratch and claw their way to the Sweet 16.
"I know it's no-win, but I think seeing some of these teams early does help," said Tom Izzo, whose Michigan State team was taken out by George Washington on Saturday and was a few bad possessions away from being done in by George Mason yesterday. Izzo once heard Al McGuire's college coaching credo: "Scheduling is number one, recruiting is number two and coaching is number three."
"We might get knocked down in the ratings for some of the schools we play," Izzo said, "but my thinking is I've got to do what's best to prepare my guys for the long haul. I can see both sides of the argument when it comes to playing small schools."
With respect to Michigan State and Maryland, there are few better adrenaline rushes in sports than seeing an underdog rattle a heavy favorite and watch the favorite parry each run with one of its own.
John Gilchrist was indefatigable yesterday, stopping, starting, dominating the ball. He goes harder to his right than Donald Rumsfeld. The Maryland junior guard does not put the ball on the floor as much as he dents the wood with his dribble.
But when it became Gilchrist against the world late in the game, and Maryland forgot how easily it was exploiting George Washington inside, the Terrapins faded. They got caught up in not losing the last game at the park instead of just establishing an inside-outside game that would have put GW away.
Pinnock spoke afterward about growing up watching Michigan State and Maryland, and how he had a moment or two right in the middle of the court.
The kid from the Atlantic 10 program, dunking on the heads of the powers that be. It's not a particularly pleasant image for Tom Izzo or Gary Williams. But we appreciate their sacrifice for the good of college basketball.
