In the Shadows, Hoyas Drive On

It was well after midnight when the Georgetown men's basketball team finally returned to campus Monday morning with a berth in the NCAA tournament round of 16 safely in hand. A few hours earlier and roughly 15 miles away, nearly 800 students and fans greeted the George Mason Patriots -- the other team to emerge out of the Dayton sub-regional with two wins -- at a hastily arranged pep rally.

So what was waiting for the Hoyas as they pulled up to McDonough Arena? Two people: the wife and the sister of Coach John Thompson III.

"It was kind of late, and it was a school night," sophomore forward Jeff Green explained. "I don't think kids would be out that late. I think they were in the library."

Wherever they were, they were undoubtedly still buzzing from their team's performance in Dayton, Ohio. Georgetown (23-9) earned its first berth in the round of 16 since 2001 with wins over Northern Iowa and Ohio State, and the Hoyas will face Florida (29-6) in a Minneapolis Region semifinal Friday night at the Metrodome.

Georgetown's run has been overshadowed by that of their Fairfax neighbor -- and perhaps rightfully so, considering that this is the Hoyas' 10th round-of-16 appearance and the Patriots' first.

But the Hoyas put together what was arguably one of the most impressive wins of the second round, dominating second-seeded Ohio State, the regular season Big Ten champion, in front of a highly partisan, sellout crowd at University of Dayton Arena. Four Georgetown players scored in double figures as they handed the Buckeyes their most lopsided loss of the season, 70-52.

"To win in that region and that venue was a great accomplishment for that team," said ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, who predicted that the Hoyas would reach the region finals before the tournament began. "That it didn't come down to the end, that they played well for 40 minutes was a tribute to that team. Not many teams in the second round had to play what was essentially an away game."

The Hoyas don't necessarily mind that the media's attention has been focused elsewhere, because it allows them to go unimpeded about their business -- getting ready for a Gators team that won its two tournament games by an average margin of 19.

"The spotlight not being on you, it allows you to pin your ears back and go play as hard as you can," sophomore guard Jonathan Wallace said. "You don't have anything to prove to anybody, you're just playing your style of basketball. It's like you have nothing to lose, so you just go and play as hard as you can."

Roy Hibbert, a 7-foot-2 sophomore center, was dominant in Dayton, averaging 18.5 points and 11.5 rebounds in just 28 minutes per game.

"The way Roy's been playing, I'm lovin' it," Green said. "The more he plays well, the better our team will be. If he keeps playing well, I'm going to keep throwing it down to the big fella. If they start doubling him, we have to be prepared to knock down our shots and that's what we've been doing the past two games. If we keep doing that, we're going to be pretty good."

Senior guard Ashanti Cook has also played with a new intensity and assertiveness. The difference, he said, was that he was playing with a sense of urgency and purpose because he realized that every game could be his last. He also wanted to push the memory of the Big East tournament semifinals -- in which he committed two turnovers in the final 30 seconds in a 58-57 loss to Syracuse -- out of his mind. In the two NCAA games, Cook averaged 15.5 points on 58 percent shooting (including 4 for 7 from three-point range), and he had seven assists to just three turnovers.

"Our senior group -- all of our guys, in fact -- are experiencing something that we have not experienced," Thompson said. "I thought the way that [Cook] responded last week was good. We're going to need that type of response this week. . . . He performed like you come to expect a senior to. We're going to need that production this week."

The players were given a day off Monday, and Cook spent most of the day sleeping. When he did venture out, he was stopped by well-wishing students. Everyone on campus, it seemed, took note of the Hoyas' accomplishments.

"Madeleine Albright talked about the tsunami of sound that rushed down to 34th Street when the Hoyas beat the Buckeyes. That's how she opened class yesterday," said junior Craig Kessler, who is a student in Albright's American foreign policy class. "She's excited for the Hoyas. We tried to get her to promise no final exam if we made it to the Final Four, but she said no to that."

George Mason has dominated the media attention, both locally and nationally. Reporters from USA Today, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Baltimore Sun were in Fairfax on Monday; there were no out-of-town writers at Georgetown on Tuesday, just the usual assortment of local television and print reporters.

But neither the Georgetown players nor the students begrudge the Patriots for the attention they've received. Said Green: "I walked down M Street and saw a few headlines about them. But the teams that they beat to get to the spot they have -- they deserve it."