A Georgetown season opener at Tulane makes perfect sense for two reasons.
First, the Washington-area basketball ties are strong, as former Maryland player and assistant coach Dave Dickerson is entering his fifth season as head coach of the Green Wave.
Second, it’s a convenient homecoming for Hoyas sophomore center Greg Monroe. As Georgetown’s most important player, as well as a potential NBA Draft lottery pick, what may likely be his only New Orleans appearance in a Hoyas uniform becomes mighty compelling.
“I didn’t feel like I was ready to make that move at all,” said Monroe when asked about considering entering the draft after earning Big East rookie of the year honors last season. “I made my decision on the first day so I wasn’t causing any distractions to my teammates or anything.”
Monroe will face a similar decision this spring, but in the meantime, the No. 15 Hoyas certainly welcome back his 12.7 points, team-leading 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. This year they also need the supremely gifted and unselfish 6-foot-11, 247-pounder to exert more influence, both on and off the court.
“It’s plenty of times we might tell Greg, ‘Look, man, you’ve got unbelievable talent. You can help make this team better. You can make yourself better,'” said sophomore guard Jason Clark. “He listens. He listens. His responses are more, ‘Alright, alright.’ He doesn’t have much to say. But I think he knows.”
Monroe averaged only eight shots per game as a freshman, but that number should increase given the departure of DaJuan Summers to the NBA, which left the Hoyas without a single senior. Georgetown head coach John Thompson III said it won’t be abnormal to rely on Monroe, who is still just 19 years old.
“You will see,” said Thompson, “that with him — and we have seen it, just in terms of the intangibles as many of the things that you don’t see on the court — just his role in the locker room, his role within the unit is much, much different.”
