The Calm in the Hoyas' Storm

In practice, he wants everything to be done with precision, from layups to chest passes. Otherwise, he'll make his players run. But he never uses a whistle. Instead, " 'Yo' means stop," junior co-captain Tyler Crawford said.

"Little things are what count; little things like that make a team great," freshman Jeremiah Rivers said. "As a player, you're like: 'Man, why are you getting on us about this? It's just lay-ups.' But by the end of the season, you realize how important it is."

"Young John coaches the way that he feels is best for him," North Carolina Coach Roy Williams said. "I think that team is extremely tough. I'm not saying that this is what their old teams did, but toughness is not just hard fouls and being willing to fight people. Toughness is being 10 [points] down and continuing to do what your coach wants you to do. Toughness is being like [junior Jonathan] Wallace, that got a three-point shot. If you miss that shot, you're probably not going to win the game, but he was tough enough to step up and make that shot."

That toughness and self-assuredness was evident when Thompson was introduced as Georgetown's coach in April 2004, on the heels of one of the program's worst seasons in the Big East era. He took over a team that had won just 13 games (only four in the conference) and a program that hadn't won a league title in eight years and hadn't earned an NCAA tournament berth in three. But at his first news conference, he confidently said, "A few people have forgotten we are Georgetown, and we're going to work our tails off to remind them."

The media coverage surrounding Thompson's hire seemed to focus less on his three Ivy League titles and two NCAA tournament berths in four seasons at Princeton, his alma mater, and more on his lineage -- son of Thompson Jr. and disciple of Pete Carril.

"This thing about Pete being his coach and me being his father, as it relates to his coaching, is getting a little old," Thompson Jr. said earlier this month. "We're in the Hall of Fame, two old fossils. It makes me feel good if somebody does things better than I could do it. . . . Let's give him the things that relate to his accomplishments with his peers, which I thought he deserved this year and didn't get."

Thompson III wasn't named Big East coach of the year, but for the second time in three seasons, he is a finalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year award. And now he has the Hoyas in the Final Four for the first time since 1985.

"Once you get a team to the Final Four, that's an enormous accomplishment, no matter what happens in these next games," Dunphy said. "For our profession, I think that's a phenomenal level to get to. And he's attained that, and he's done it all on his own and been his own man. I'm sure he's learned great lessons from his dad over the years, but right now John is his own man, and I think people who really know the game and know him appreciate that."