Hobbs Won't Sit Quietly

His Methods and His Players Are Under Fire, But GW's Head Coach Isn't Backing Down

Karl Hobbs says he doesn't care.

He says he doesn't care about the critics who belittle George Washington's soft nonconference schedule, a contributing factor to the Colonials receiving an unforgiving eighth seed in the NCAA tournament despite the best record in Division I.

He doesn't care about massaging the media, once taking time away from discussing his team's early-season victory over Maryland in the BB&T Classic to take issue with a days-old newspaper headline. He doesn't care about massaging his fan base, which he publicly reprimanded after boos were heard at Smith Center during an overtime win over Saint Louis in January. He doesn't care about the persona he projects, stomping and screaming on the sidelines, taking technical fouls at inopportune moments and increasingly referring to himself in the third person, once talking about "the greatness of Coach Hobbs."

The man responsible for the best men's basketball season in George Washington history says he doesn't care, either, about criticism of his recruiting decisions. This last indifference, though, is impossible to believe. After recent newspaper stories questioned the academic backgrounds of several George Washington players, the man who says he doesn't care has launched counterattacks on battlefields ranging from hotel lobbies to television studios, from media teleconferences to arena hallways. He has constructed his argument using the rhetoric of race and politics and opportunities at a time when most coaches are talking about zones and brackets and fadeaways.

"What am I supposed to do, go run?" he said when asked about his strong response. "I spoke up because my mentors, they spoke up. They didn't back down, they spoke up on what they believed. All you have to say is, 'Coach Hobbs believes in his heart that he's doing the right thing.' "

The Colonials already have won more games than any other George Washington team, achieved their best national ranking in a half-century and received the highest NCAA tournament seed in school history. But the 44-year-old coach, who often cites media reports about himself and his program, said he still hasn't recovered from stories in The Washington Post and the New York Times that scrutinized his players' academic backgrounds.

Other school officials said they were embarrassed about the negative publicity but supportive of their admissions policies. They said they might have made a different decision about admitting one of the players had they known then what they know now, but that the school followed every NCAA rule and had done nothing wrong.

Hobbs has never equivocated. He has told reporters they are welcome to criticize him, his university, the NCAA, its academic certification process and the American educational system, but has pleaded with them not to attack his players. He has defended his right and his obligation to help young black men who came through failing inner-city school systems. He has accused media outlets of being opposed to racial diversity and has said he is fighting the same battles for educational opportunity once waged by former Georgetown coach John Thompson and recently retired Temple coach John Chaney. He has ignored advice from friends and assistant coaches to disengage from the media and has taken every chance to defend his players and his recruiting choices.

"I'm not 'turning it into' a social issue," he said this week. "That's what it is. I believe that. I know that."

'He Was on a Mission'

The Post reported earlier this month that forward Omar Williams, one of the most beloved and approachable members of the team, attended four high schools and prep schools over the course of seven years before arriving at George Washington. Williams's former coach, Darryl Schofield, was the subject of a Feb. 12 Post article about possible academic misconduct at Lutheran Christian Academy in Philadelphia, a school GW guard Maureece Rice attended. Williams and Hobbs have declined to discuss Williams's academic background, but Hobbs repeatedly has compared himself to Williams this month, while arguing that the player just needed a chance.

"I understand the system is flawed; I understand all that," Hobbs said during an impassioned 30-minute monologue on social and educational issues he delivered to reporters during a recent teleconference, which was ostensibly scheduled to discuss the Atlantic 10 tournament. "I lived it. I grew up in Boston. I grew up in the inner city. And if you investigate my past, when I was 16, 17 years old, I'm guaranteeing you'll find out I missed a lot of days of school. Oh yeah, by the way, I went to a couple of high schools, too. Imagine if Dom Perno [Hobbs's coach at the University of Connecticut] had turned his back on me."

Indeed, when Hobbs transferred to Cambridge Rindge & Latin School in the fall of 1979, joining a state championship team guided by future GW coach Mike Jarvis and starring future Georgetown and NBA legend Patrick Ewing, it ignited a controversy that eventually contributed to the reform of Massachusetts athletic transfer rules. The 5-foot-8 point guard initially was declared ineligible, with the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association ruling that Jarvis had recruited Hobbs against association rules. After two MIAA hearings, another with the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Council and extensive media coverage, Hobbs finally was allowed to play, although some council members continued to maintain that Hobbs had been recruited.