Brandon Bowman and Ashanti Cook used to sit in their dorm room during their freshman year at Georgetown and wonder why they were losing so many basketball games.
It was a strange feeling for the two friends, who had come to Georgetown from Westchester High, one of the most successful and well-known basketball programs in Los Angeles. They were used to winning, and they were used to people noticing.
Former high school mates Ashanti Cook (0) and Brandon Bowman (1) have things covered on the collegiate level.
(Toni L. Sandys -- The Washington Post)
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"Coming here freshman year was a blow," said Cook, now a junior. "We were so used to winning, and the losing was a setback. But you have your highs and lows. Right now, this is one of our highs."
Bowman and Cook have helped Georgetown reach its current high. The Hoyas are 13-5, which equals last season's win total, and are 5-2 in the Big East, which surpasses last season's conference total. When Georgetown plays at eighth-ranked Boston College (17-0) tomorrow night, it will have a chance to knock off one of the two remaining undefeated teams in the country.
Last season, Bowman was Georgetown's most exciting player and also its most maddening, mainly for the same reason. The 6-foot-8 Bowman has the skills of a guard, but for every great drive that resulted in a basket, there was another that ended in an unnecessary turnover. Bowman had twice as many turnovers (103) as assists (52). His 63 turnovers in conference play were second-most in the Big East, behind only St. John's Darryl Hill (a freshman point guard who had 68 turnovers but 70 assists).
"Brandon's an aggressive-type player," Cook said. "Sometimes he forces the issue because he's trying to win, but you can't always force the issue, because you'll have turnovers or bad decisions. I think he's trying to figure out in practice when to take his shots and when to pass. I think he's getting better at that, a lot better."
Bowman scored the game-winning basket at Pittsburgh and the game-tying basket at Syracuse, both times creating his own shot. He's averaging 15.2 points on 48.8 percent shooting (an improvement over last season's 42.8 percent). He has 43 assists. Most significantly, his turnovers are down, particularly in conference games (3.9 average last season to 2.3 this season). But he still has his moments, such as when he committed five turnovers in the first 13 minutes against Rutgers.
John Thompson III, Georgetown's first-year coach, won't hesitate to take Bowman out of the game and give him a stern talk when he does something that he shouldn't. In Tuesday's win over St. John's, for instance, Bowman was sent to the bench just two minutes into the game because Thompson wasn't happy with his defense on the previous possession. Bowman returned to the game a minute later.
"Brandon is extremely talented," Thompson said. "He has a lot of God-given abilities, and because of that, he can do things that other players can't. As a player and a coach, you have to figure out when is a good time to try something, and when is not a good time. . . . He's been working really hard. He has a lot of habits that need to be broken, he has a lot of urges that he needs to fight. At the same time, he's been pretty good in trying to figure out exactly what I want."
Bowman's natural instinct is to take the ball and drive to the basket, but that sometimes runs counter to Thompson's offense, which emphasizes passing and movement without the ball.
"It's definitely difficult at times, because I may feel like I can do one thing, but coach wants me to do another," said Bowman, who is 23 points shy of becoming the 35th Georgetown player to score 1,000 points.
But Bowman has been willing to make whatever adjustments necessary because he desperately wanted Georgetown to start winning this season. The Hoyas won only 13 games last year, and the losing -- particularly the nine consecutive losses that ended the season -- seemed to wear on Bowman more than any other player.
Instead of eagerly looking forward to this season's Midnight Madness as a chance to wow the crowd with his dunks, Bowman saw the event as something to get through so the real work could begin. "I was ready for it to be over so I could get some sleep and get ready for practice the next morning," Bowman said.
Cook was also ready for a change. His biggest strides have come with his shot, and he has upped his scoring average from 9.2 points to 11.1 points.
Former coach Craig Esherick often said last season that Cook was the Hoyas' best shooter, a claim that wasn't reflected in Cook's shooting percentages.
"I took a lot of bad shots last year," Cook said. "This year I know when to take shots and when not to take shots, and I think that comes with maturity. Also, in this offense, you're going to get open shots, so you have to concentrate and make them."
In Georgetown's 67-64 upset at then-No. 16 Pittsburgh on Jan. 5, Cook made 7 of 12 shots, including all four from beyond the arc. He finished with a career-high 23 points. Over the past two games, Cook is shooting 50 percent (10 for 20).
"Personally, I think he can shoot better," Bowman said. "I've seen him shoot better."
Bowman should know; he and Cook have been great friends ever since they were 9-year-olds playing on the same basketball team in southern California. They were roommates during their first two years at Georgetown, and they always hang out together, whether it's at the mall or at the movies. (Cook, however, won't watch the horror films that Bowman likes so much, and Bowman can't understand why Cook names "The Notebook" as the best movie he's seen recently.)
During their senior year at Westchester, they helped the Comets to a state championship and a No. 1 ranking in USA Today. Seven players from that team earned Division I scholarships, including Hassan Adams (who now plays for No. 11 Arizona) and Trevor Ariza (who left UCLA following his freshman season and now plays for the New York Knicks).
"Everything is so much better when you're winning," Bowman said. "I get calls, text messages, e-mails all the time from friends who play Division I basketball. So I guess everyone is taking note of how much better we're doing this year."
