Above and Beyond
Hoyas' Wallace Dispels Doubts in Becoming a Big-Time College Star

By Camille Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Jonathan Wallace has grown somewhat weary of recounting how he found his way from tiny Harvest, Ala., to the back court of fifth-ranked Georgetown. But tonight's game brings the tale full circle, as the Hoyas face Alabama at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center as part of the inaugural Big East/SEC Invitational.

When Wallace came to Georgetown in 2004, he was a freshman walk-on who had followed the Hoyas' new coach, John Thompson III, from Princeton. He returns home today as one of Georgetown's stars, a senior leader on a team that played in the Final Four.

"Too much has been talked about how and why Jon ended up at Georgetown," Thompson said. "At the end of the day, Jonathan Wallace is a terrific basketball player. At the end of the day, despite the doubts and concerns that others may have had, he never questioned himself, and he's made himself into one of the better guards in the country."

Wallace was a second-team all-state guard at Sparkman High and dreamed of playing big-time college basketball. Luther Tiggs, the coach at Sparkman, thought Wallace was mentally ready to play at the major college level -- "He had the savvy; he could be a tremendous CEO of a company, because he doesn't just know what to do, but why you do it," Tiggs said -- but he wasn't sure if the 6-foot-1 Wallace had the physical strength to compete against bigger guards.

Those who shared Tiggs's opinion counseled Wallace to set his sights on smaller programs. Alabama didn't recruit Wallace, choosing to focus on another guard in the state, Ronald Steele (the all-American candidate is sitting out this season because of knee injuries). But Jimmy Tillette, the coach at nearby Samford University, wanted Wallace for his team, which runs a Princeton-style offense. Tillette soon realized, however, that Wallace was not interested in playing in the Ohio Valley Conference.

"Jonathan was not going to be dissuaded; he wanted to play at the highest level," Tillette said. "Doggone if he wasn't right. We thought he was our level. . . . It's like the American dream."

Said Wallace: "I had to be confident to pursue that dream. And I managed to get here."

Thompson encouraged Wallace to follow him to Georgetown, because he felt that "when you're starting a program, or even when you have an established program, you want people around you like Jon Wallace." But Thompson also warned Wallace that he might never play.

Wallace now has started every game of his college career, and he most likely will finish his career as the program's career leader in three-pointers made and three-point accuracy. He was voted to the coaches' preseason all-Big East team, an honor that delighted his teammates, who affectionately refer to him as everything from "Little Buddy" to "Cornbread" to "Big Head" (the latter a reference to the actual size of his head -- "When he dribbles, it wobbles," center Roy Hibbert explained -- and not his ego).

Opposing coaches have taken notice of his play. Michigan's John Beilein said that "Wallace has always been my guy . . . he just makes things go so well and he doesn't miss," and Fairfield Coach Ed Cooley called him "the best guard in the nation" and "the silent assassin."

In last season's postseason run, in which the Hoyas won the Big East tournament and advanced to the Final Four, Wallace shot 55 percent from beyond the three-point arc (22 of 40). He made one of the biggest shots of the season, a three-pointer from the left side against North Carolina in the NCAA East Region final that tied the score at 81 with 31 seconds to play and sent the game into overtime.

Some of the Hoyas joke that if they had a jump shot like Wallace's -- "That high arc, that rainbow," in Hibbert's words -- they would shoot all the time. But Wallace's selectiveness is one of the things that makes him so effective. He's averaging eight shots per game this season, two more than he did during his first three years.

"I definitely have a lot of respect for the things that he does on the court," said Marquette guard Jerel McNeal, the reigning Big East defensive player of the year. "He's one of the smartest point guards that you're going to find in the nation. Incredible shot selection. . . .

"He's always looking for the best shot for the team. He's more of a pass-first kind of guy, trying to get everybody else involved in the offense. But at the same time, when it's time for him to take that shot, most of the time he's going to be wide open, and he's going to make a move to get space."

During the offseason, Wallace spent a lot of time shooting off the dribble, "because people think of me as a spot-up three-point shooter and defenders key on that." He was Georgetown's primary ballhandler for much of his first three seasons, but this season, the Hoyas have three other capable ballhandlers in junior Jessie Sapp (who will be available to play tonight after getting kneed in the head Saturday), sophomore Jeremiah Rivers and freshman Chris Wright.

"People try to give [Wallace] a position, but he has the ability to be a very good point guard and a very good shooting guard," Thompson said. "When he lets the ball go, I think it's going to go in, and most of the time I'm right. At the same time, he can manage a game, manage the flow of the game and place people in the right spots."

That's one reason Thompson trusts Wallace so much. When the senior men's and women's basketball players bungled Thompson's favorite call-and-answer "We are Georgetown" cheer at Midnight Madness in mid-October, for instance, the coach handed the microphone to Wallace and commanded, "Jon, fix it."

Wallace still is a popular figure at Sparkman High, where he was the student government president and his father, Manuel, is the principal. Tiggs estimates that 150 to 200 members of the school and local community will make the 90-minute drive to Birmingham for the game, and Wallace managed to scrounge together more than 20 tickets to cover the various family members who will attend.

They'll see someone who has matured both on and off the court. Wallace, an English major, already has been accepted to Georgetown's law school, which is considered to be one of the best in the country.

"He's still Jonathan," Tiggs said. "What makes us proud of him is Jonathan the person. . . . He's still an ol' country boy from Alabama. I think we're all excited for the opportunity to have him back home."