Georgetown senior forward Julian Vaughn leaned back against his locker stall Thursday and spoke about the new season the Hoyas have entered. Given the four-game losing streak Georgetown endured while senior guard Chris Wright sat out because of a left hand injury — not to mention the team’s most recent NCAA tournament experience — Vaughn is just one of the Hoyas thankful for a fresh beginning.
Wright’s hand responded well to four straight days of full participation in practice, and the plan is for him to start Friday night when sixth-seeded Georgetown (21-10) faces 11th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth (23-11) in the first round of the NCAA tournament’s Southwest Region. The Hoyas hope their performance with Wright back in the lineup will be equally encouraging.
“It’s big,” Georgetown Coach John Thompson III said of Wright’s return. “You know, and on many different levels, not just the tangible stat sheet contributions that he makes, but just to have his presence back out there on the court, to have his leadership is something that we missed.”
Indeed, while Wright offers the Hoyas another scorer (13.1 points per game) and an experienced ballhandler — which will come in handy against a VCU squad that prefers to push the tempo on offense and employ nearly constant pressure on defense — his teammates took equal excitement in the intangible ways they believe Wright will improve Georgetown’s on-court product.
The team’s practices were louder this week with Wright’s chatty nature back in the mix, and more efficient, too. Vaughn said Thompson and Wright “have a connection” that directly effects how the coach gets his points across to the rest of the squad.
“Coach always goes to him for everything,” Vaughn said, “and Chris tells us what Coach said.”
When Wright broke the third metacarpal in his left (non-shooting) hand during the second half of Georgetown’s 58-46 loss Feb. 23 to Cincinnati, that connection was disrupted. The Hoyas dropped their next three decisions, two of which by more than 15 points.
When asked what led to Georgetown’s struggles during that stretch, senior guard Austin Freeman, the team’s leading scorer, eventually pointed to the players not hustling or rebounding with the necessary fervor. But his knee-jerk response was most telling.
“We didn’t have our point guard, our distributor, the guy who helps create shots for others,” Freeman said, referring to Wright.
No single Georgetown player may have suffered more from Wright’s absence than Vaughn, who has missed all 12 shots he has taken from the field since Wright left with the injury.
Wright, a Bowie native, and Vaughn, who is from Reston, have competed with or against each other since they were eight years old. Wright knows exactly where Vaughn likes to receive the ball on the block, and Vaughn knows exactly how to anticipate Wright’s decisions.
“He’s a senior like me,” Vaughn said. “We came through this together. Just having that chemistry. And when he came out, I think [sophomore guard] Vee [Sanford] and [freshman guard] Markel [Starks] do a great job and everything, but Chris is a senior. He’s been there. So I’m definitely happy to have him back.”
Wright called the past three weeks “a humbling experience,” one filled with arduous Stairmaster sessions intended to keep up his endurance. Wright said he’ll be “somewhat in shape” Friday, but is relieved to be able to reassert some authority over his final days as a collegiate athlete.
“It felt good to get back on the court,” Wright said. “It felt good to try to end my career on the court and kind of control our own destiny. You know, one thing that we said beginning of the season is that we want to try to create — finish with our own legacy and not be remembered for the people before us and hopefully not after us.”
The Hoyas’ recent past — at least in terms of the NCAA tournament — is an unsightly memory: a 97-83 loss to 14th-seeded Ohio in the first round of last year’s tournament.
Wright’s initial thought on the lesson Georgetown learned from the loss to the Mid-American Conference foe was concise — “Don’t lose,” he said — but his extended answer included not overlooking an opponent based on said opponent’s league affiliation.
And so the Hoyas swear VCU, which finished fourth in the Colonial Athletic Association this season, has their full attention entering Friday’s game. The Rams will attempt a lot of three-pointers, and they will deny passes ardently, even in half-court settings.
Georgetown has no intention of repeating last season’s NCAA nightmare and believes a fresh start — for Wright, for Vaughn, for all of them — will do the squad some good.
“We are a different team right now,” Thompson said. “We have a different opponent right now, and the group that we have has to be good right now.”