Chris Wright: The Point

This is the twelfth in a series previewing the 2010-2011 Hoyas.  For a complete look at this year’s team, go here.

Regardless of how senior Chris Wright performs his third year as Georgetown’s starting point guard, he should etch his place in the Hoya record books. If he only replicates his production from last year — and Georgetown will need more this year — Wright will finish among the top 15 all-time scoring Hoyas, among the top 10 in three-pointers made, and in the top six in assists. Despite Wright’s gaudy statistics, though, few discussions of #4 among the Hoya faithful will produce such consensus. Too some Wright is the necessary spark plug on a team that’s too often complacent, the beating heart on a squad that might otherwise barely register a pulse. Others see a reckless firecracker who is as likely to irritate teammates as inspire them.

A highly touted recruit out of high school, Wright’s first two years on the Hilltop were spotty. His freshman campaign was interrupted by foot injuries that limited him to just 16 games. In his limited action, Wright impressed, running the point competently, and revealing a style much different than his predecessor, Jonathan Wallace. Whereas Wallace was all control, poise and method, Wright was fire and speed, prone to error but rarely lethargy.

By the fall of 2008, Wallace had graduated, and Wright was to inherit the point.  But Wright’s sophomore season was as frustrating as his first, although for different reasons. Wright’s individual totals the second time around were impressive enough: he was the team’s third-leading scorer and leading assist man, shot a solid .482 from the field, and scored in double figures in 13 of 16 Big East games. But the team collapsed during the second half of the season, and Wright, fairly or not, was drawn into the fray. Rumors of a feud with then-senior guard Jessie Sapp were so pervasive that their truth, although never supported by anything but hearsay, seemed undeniable. While the evidence of a specific incident was lacking, no further proof of a general team malaise was necessary than Georgetown’s sputtering results. As the point guard of a collapsing team, Wright, just a sophomore, caught more than his share of the blame.

In some ways, then, Wright’s junior season was his first normal one on campus.  He was healthy, appearing in all 34 games, and with fellow junior Austin Freeman and sophomore Greg Monroe, assumed leadership of a senior-less team. Although the Hoyas were inconsistent, they rarely seemed like the malcontents of the year before. Wright put on inspired performances, netting 34 against an overmatched Harvard squad, playing nearly flawlessly in wins at Pitt and at home against Duke, and leading a second-half surge in an oh-so-close comeback from a 23-point deficit against Syracuse. It seemed appropriate that Wright left the most indelible memory of the Hoyas’ vanquishing of the Orange curse in the Big East Tournament.  Nominally a point guard, all 6’0″ of Wright patrolled the baseline on offense, breaking Cuse’s 2-3 zone en route to 27 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists and a 91-84 Georgetown victory. For the year, Wright was third on the team in scoring, boosting his average by three points, while also leading the team in assists and steals. He found an outlet for his seemingly boundless energy by stepping up his defense, providing the Hoyas with a reliable counter to the opponent’s best guard.

Despite all of Wright’s progress, though, the Hoyas sometimes got too much of Wright’s yin instead of his yang too often. He failed to reach double digits in listless losses to Rutgers, South Florida, Old Dominion, and Notre Dame. He seemed to disappear for long stretches when veteran leadership was needed. And, most frustratingly, he made careless mistakes in key situations.

Never was all of Wright–the good and the not-so-good–on more prominent display than in the waning seconds of the Big East championship, against West Virginia. Either unaware of the tied score, forgetful of Georgetown’s foul situation, mistaking instructions from the Georgetown bench, or all of the above, Wright inexplicably and purposefully fouled Mountaineer guard Joe Mazzulla near half court with just twenty-seven seconds remaining, sending Mazzulla to the free-throw line, where he made both shots. In one of the more impressive displays of heart from a guy prone to (sometimes ill-advised) displays of valor, Wright immediately atoned for his mistake, taking the ball coast-to-cast for a tying lay-up. Although the Hoyas eventually lost on Da’Sean Butler’s stunning heroics (followed by a missed last-second attempt by Wright), the sequence demonstrated the poles of Wright’s game: maddening inconsistency on one hand, true heart and power on the other.

This season, the Hoyas will count on Wright to lead the team from day one. They’ll need consistent scoring throughout the season, veteran leadership in bringing along seven underclassmen, and thoughtful distribution of the ball. He’ll need to continue to shut down opposing point guards, while providing energy tempered by sound decision-making. Wright drew rave reviews over the summer, both at Chris Paul’s guard camp, and at the Kenner League in McDonough. He was in-shape, motivated, and polished, standing out from the competition at each of his stops.  Increased expectations also have come from Big East coaches, who picked Wright to the preseason second All-Big East team. Hoya fans hope that he fulfills those expectations in the season to come.

Wright’s competitive spirit will always draw admiration from a large part of the Georgetown faithful, and last year he demonstrated leadership qualities in addition to his undeniable talent. But he enters his final season having won just one postseason game, as a back-up, in his freshman year.  Wright and fellow senior Freeman have the perfect opportunity to forge their legacy, the unquestioned leaders of a team with so much possibility, in search of the perfect season.