Player Preview: Greg Whittington

This is the fifth preview of the members of the 2011-12 Georgetown Hoyas. You also can read about Mikael Hopkins, Tyler Adams, Moses Ayegba, and John Caprio.

Freshman swingman Greg Whittington proves that, in the game of college recruiting, small distances can make big differences. Whittington is the product of Oakland Mills (Md.) high school; just 20 miles from local power DeMatha, fellow freshman Mikael Hopkins’ alma mater,  Oakland Mills may as well be 2,000 miles away. The Scorpions compete in the Howard County league which, before Whittington, hadn’t produced a major college basketball player in nearly a quarter century. And, for much of high school, Whittington seemed headed down the same anonymous road, starring in a recruiting backwater while playing summer ball only on local teams.

Then, in the summer after his junior year, Whittington finally played on a high-level AAU team, leading it to the Maryland state title and third in the AAU Nationals. Major college programs, including Maryland, Clemson, Texas, and Georgetown, began to take notice. And Whittington rewarded that attention, tallying an impressive 23.5 points (on 60 percent from the field and 40 percent from three), 11.6 rebounds, 4.4 blocks, 3 steals and 2.7 assists per game in his senior season. One particular game shows his all-around game:

At 6’8″, 190 lb., the reed-thin Whittington had the height to play like a big man but the mobility and touch of a guard. Whittington led Oakland Mills to a Howard County championship and an undefeated regular season and earned the Post‘s All-Met Player of the Year, an award previously won by his Hoya forebears Austin Freeman and Jason Clark. After attending Georgetown’s March Madness event, Whittington rewarded the Hoya staff’s hard work in recruiting him and committed to come to the Hilltop.

Over the summer, Whittington continued to show his diverse skill set in Kenner League, variously taking the lead in scoring, rebounding, the timely steal, or whatever else needed doing, earning the sobriquet the Appetizer Platter. While he made his share of mistakes, often handling the ball too loosely and sometimes disappearing for stretches, the overall impression in Kenner play was positive. Whittington’s ability to play well on the perimeter and inside led to speculation about his natural position: he’s too thin to bang inside, but awfully tall for a guard. But as Marlo Stanfield would say, that sound like one of them good problems. If Whittington’s own coach has options about where to play him, the opposing team will have difficulty guarding him without creating a mismatch, which Whittington proved himself adept at exploiting, coming up particularly big in a Kenner playoff game. In China, he took more of a back seat, chipping in with a block here, a basket there, but in a more complementary role.

While Whittington’s height suggests that he can play down low, his thin frame and the peculiarities of this year’s lineup may give him a better chance to shine on the perimeter. Behind Jason Clark and Hollis Thompson, the presumptive starting shooting guard and small forward, respectively, Georgetown has only freshmen at those positions, including Whittington, Otto Porter, and redshirt Aaron Bowen who, despite seeing limited action last year, will be almost as much of a newbie as the other two. Expect to see III give Whittington some run at each of those positions, which should allow him to show off his outside skills while perhaps exploiting his height advantage over his smaller opponents. Whether Whittington will be able to capitalize on the opportunities given to him remains to be seen, but he’s come awfully far for such a short trip thus far.