The Hoya Hoop Club hosted its annual Open Practice with the Georgetown men's basketball team on Saturday, October 29. The Hoya Hoop Club members in addition got a first look at the 2005-06 Hoyas during the practice session, the Junior Hoya Hoop Club members got autographs from the players, and all those in attendance were able to take part in a Q&A with Coach Thompson. Below please find a transcript of the Q&A session.
Hoya Hoop Club: How is practice going so far?
Coach Thompson: Yesterday was not a good day, right Roy? Yesterday was not a good day, so hopefully we can bounce back. It's hard to get things done. But today will be better, right Roy?
HHC: Are you having fun yet?
CT: Are we having yet, Roy? Yeah, I guess so. We have so much work to do and so many things we're trying to get accomplished. This is a bad time for you to ask that. Hopefully, eventually, one day you'll ask that and I'll say yeah, but right now we have so much stuff to do that it's impossible to try and figure out if we're having fun or not.
HHC: Are you playing Vanderbilt?
CT: Vanderbilt is our first home game on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. They are a very, very good team. When you put the schedule together, there are different things that you try and accomplish. You know we're preparing for league play, and Vanderbilt's style is quite similar to our own. This means they're going to be approaching situations in ways similar to our own, so it's going to be harder on our guys. I want them to get used to that. So you put this game together where hopefully we can be in situations in the preseason--which is what I call the pre-league schedule--that will help us get ready the conference season. But it's going to be a tough game. They're a really good team, and they're going to know most of the things that we're trying to accomplish.
HHC: There are a lot of young kids here. What skills would you suggest they work on?
CT: The same things that we tell our guys to work on. I toss a ball to a kid and I ask, what can you do with that? You can dribble it, you can pass it, or you can shoot it. So work on those three things. No matter how small you are, if you can make shots from far away, you're going to play. So just work on your shooting, work on your dribbling, work on your passing. What we do, it's not rocket science. Just work on those things and you'll play.
HHC: What do you think about the new teams coming in?
CT: I'm nervous about all fifteen other teams. The league is very, very tough. You know it always was one of the elite conferences, some years the best, some years right there. And we'll see how things play out this year. There are going to be no easy games. The way that the schedule is structured, and I wish it was not structured the way it is, we play three teams twice--St. John's, South Florida and West Virginia--and we don't play Louisville or Seton Hall. In my perfect world, I would rather play everyone once instead of missing and not playing and doubling up. The TV contract kind of dictated the way it is, but it's tough. It's tough. I remember last year I got the job, and a week later we had the BIG EAST coaches meetings and they say, "Starting next year, the bottom four won't get invited to the BIG EAST Tournament." I'm sitting there like, "Uh, oh". That's tough, that's real tough that we're going to have four teams that are part of the conference that won't be able to go to the conference tournament, that won't get a chance to go to New York. And you know logistically it's a sixteen-team league. I think it's difficult to negotiate, but we'll see. It's a real good conference, real good teams, and as you look around the room at the tradition--the history, the coaches, the players--it's good to be part of it.
HHC: What does each freshman bring to the team this year?
CT: We're trying to figure that out. (Everyone laughs). We have four freshmen, Jessie Sapp, Josh Thornton, Marc Egerson, and Octavius Spann, and they are all pretty competitive. I think that they're going to be in a position where they can give us a little bit of depth. They all have a pretty good feel for the game, but as with all freshmen, they're kind of stumbling around like a drunken sailor trying to figure out how things are going. But that's a good thing. This time last year we had a team full of people stumbling around trying to figure out what was going on, and now we just have that with a couple of freshmen, right Jessie?
HHC: Did you find recruiting easier this year?
CT: Was recruiting easier? You know, recruiting is never easy. I think that recruiting last year was hard because of the timing. The nature of recruiting now is that you're recruiting kids earlier and earlier. I think it's unhealthy, I think it's bad that you're recruiting sophomores and juniors, but that's the way it is. Coming in last year was hard because we hadn't established any relationships or ties with people. From that standpoint, I don't know whether it's easier--it's never easy--but this year we had a chance over the course of the year to start to build the ties and relationships with people that we would eventually want. So I don't know.
HHC: What could the Hoya Hoop Club do to make things better ... within reason?
CT: It would be nice if we weren't waiting for volleyball to finish right now so we can get into our gym. The Hoop Club has been great. The Hoop Club has been great in supporting us, (Georgetown Basketball) down through the years. What can the club do now? You can look around and in some ways we are in a new conference. You're talking about the new BIG EAST. We want to be competitive in this new conference, and although part of what makes Georgetown special is the stuff we go through in order to compete, we're hopeful that sooner or later we can level off the playing field because it's not necessarily level right now.
HHC: Would you say that Georgetown is a good place to play basketball?
CT: This is a very good place to come to, to play basketball, and it will continue to get better.
HHC: Question about the schedule: is there still one more game left this year? And have you thought about who you might want to play?
CT: Who do you want me to play? That would be all over the board. No Maryland questions yet? Yeah, we're done with the schedule this year. We put the schedule together each year. I do not have a template where you say every preseason you should play this; every preseason you should play that; every preseason you have to do this. The schedule we put together, our preseason schedule this year, is pretty demanding and is made up of teams that I think are going to help us prepare for league play. Our preseason schedule for next year may look much different than this year, but it all depends on the team's personality and make up and what I think our team needs to go through to get ready to win in the BIG EAST.
HHC: Will we see much of a difference from last year's offense and defense? Second question, will we see more games against local teams?
CT: In reverse order, possibly, maybe, I'm not opposed to playing local teams. We'll see what happens as we go further. Regarding offense and defense, it's going to be similar to last year. I think we're going to do a few different things because we have a few different pieces. We're a year older so we can try a few different things, so it's going to be different than last year. But at the end of the course it's going to be very similar.
HHC: I just want to thank you. I know last year you said "patience", and I want to commend you because the expectations are so high this year. But I want to know, are we still taking one team at a time?
CT: Yes, we are in no doubt about that. You know we are a long way from where we want to be. Our group last year probably exceeded what people thought we would do. Because of that, people think we're going to do something this year. I don't know if a lot of those expectations are realistic. But, we are. I tell the guys, I firmly believe it, it's not just something I tell you guys--I don't think it's good to look at the big picture and focus on it. You've got to know what the big picture is; you've got to know what you want. However, it's more important that you come and get better. It's more important to make sure that you dot your i's and cross your t's and make sure you work as hard as you can and work together. Hopefully we will continue to get better. We'll figure out at the end of the season how we did. We definitely want to just play games here. Have one practice at a time, not have practice like we had yesterday, right fellas? And just get better and see how things turn out.
HHC: Is there one team you really want to beat?
CT: (Everyone yells out Duke.) The next team we play. The next team we play is Navy. Duke isn't even in our league, so why are we going to get worked up over that? The next game you have to win, the next game you have to prepare for, the next game you have to be prepared to play. Once that goal is accomplished then you think about the next game. That's the nature, that's what I tell these guys. It's easy to have the high highs and low lows and start getting excited about this, but then you have a bad game and you think you stink. You just have to stay steady and stay focused and keep playing along instead of saying, "Oh, let's look at this game in the schedule; oh, that one we should win so let's not worry about that one." That's not good.
HHC: Who do you like in the BIG EAST?
CT: Who do I like in the BIG EAST? I have a coach comment that I'll just keep to myself. I think that if you look at the league, the way the voting was done, you have to think that Villanova is going to be pretty good; you have to think Connecticut is going to be pretty good. I think Pittsburgh is going to be a lot better than the quote experts end quote think. West Virginia has everyone back and they are all seniors and they are feeling pretty good about themselves right now, as they should. Louisville is going to be tough. I think that is the way that the voting turned out. I think that those first couple of teams are probably where they should be.
HHC: Why did your father always have a towel?
CT: Because he sweats a lot. I'll tell you a funny story about that. You know it was about last year; no, it was the year before last. My mom calls and says, "You may or may not want to put a towel over your shoulder for whatever reason, but you look disgusting. At least put one next to your chair." So that's why he always wore a towel, because he sweats a lot.
