• Nov. 18-21 — Charleston Classic (3 games; other teams include NC State, Charlotte, George Mason, East Carolina, Wofford, and two teams TBA)
  
• TBA — TULANE
• TBA — @ Old Dominion
• Dec. 9 — @ Temple
• Dec. 23 — @ Memphis
• Big East TBA — CINCINNATI, DEPAUL, LOUISVILLE, MARQUETTE, PITTSBURGH, PROVIDENCE, ST. JOHN’S, SYRACUSE, WEST VIRGINIA
• More Big East TBA — @ Cincinnati, @ Connecticut, @ Notre Dame, @ Rutgers, @ St. John’s, @ Seton Hall, @ USF, @ Syracuse, @ Villanova

• Home: Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Providence, St. John’s, Syracuse, West Virginia
• Away: Cincinnati, Connecticut, Notre Dame, Rutgers, St. John’s, Seton Hall, USF, Syracuse, Villanova

As usual ‘Cuse twice.

Also, Greg Monroe got drafted #7 by the Detroit Pistons, or, as it’s becoming known, Georgetown University Graduate School of Basketball.  Monroe should get a chance to contribute, if not start, immediately for the Pistons, who lacked toughness and hair on the inside last year.  One question: why did he relegate JTIII to the stands at MSG?  Anyway, fourth straight year with a Hoya drafted, and third lottery pick in the JTIII era, which will only help on the recruiting trail.  Good night for Georgetown but, more importantly, a terrific night for Monroe and his family.  Congratulations to the big fella.

• Coaching: In May, Assistant Head Coach David Cox landed a more senior position as Associate Head Coach at Rutgers.  Cox was valuable to the Hoyas primarily in recruiting in the DC area, particularly with members of the DC Assault squad.  Shortly thereafter, Director of Basketball Operations Matt Henry also departed, similarly for a higher-level position, in his case at Mount St. Mary’s, which is coached by former Hoyas assistant Robert Burke.  Filling one of the two open slots, Georgetown reportedly has hired Robert Kirby, a long-time assistant at Mississippi State well-known for his recruiting acumen.  Update 6/21:  Georgetown confirmed that Darryl Prue, previously the video coordinator, as the new director of basketball operations.
  

• Recruiting: 2012 verbal commit Jordan Goodman, current DC Assault member, unsurprisingly  followed Cox, de-committed from Georgetown, and verbally committed to Rutgers.  The Hoyas haven’t picked up any new commits–the summer recruiting period isn’t open until July–but here are  a few names that keep popping up:
  • Daniel Ochefu–2012 big man has picked up several offers, including from Georgetown.  ESPN currently has Ochefu ranked as the 12th best player in the class of 2012.
    
  • Michael Gilbert–2012 big man, ranked as the 11th best center in his class, has said that he likes Duke, Ohio State, and Georgetown.  Unclear whether he just clicked a few buttons on Facebook or whether this is in-depth interest, but here’s hoping.  He’s supposed to be a defensive and rebounding force whose offensive game is “developing.”
  • Cory (C.J.) Blackwell–2011 power forward likes Georgetown and UCLA.  He sounds like a complete, tough-nosed player, but is somewhat lightly regarded — just the 75th-highest rated PF in his class.
  • Tyrone Johnson–the 13th-ranked point guard in the class of 2011 listed Villanova and Georgetown as his two favorites in mid-May, and said that he’ll trim his list of schools in July.

• Scheduling: Most of next year’s slate is still TBD, but a few details have emerged.  Like last season, the Hoyas will play Old Dominion and Tulane out-of-conference, although they’ll host the Green Wave and travel to the Monarchs in the season to come.  They’ll also play at Memphis, continuing that series after a year hiatus. Finally, Georgetown will partake in the semi-oxymoronic Third Annual Charleston Classic between November 18-21; the field for that tournament will also include NC State, Charlotte, George Mason, East Carolina, and Wofford.  Update: Temple announced its 2010-11 non-conference schedule, which includes a return trip from Georgetown.
  

• First, a story on the annual Capital Classic in D.C., in which freshmen-to-be Markel Starks, Nate Lubick, and Moses Abraham all played.  Starks was named the MVP of the game, scoring 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting.
• Also emanating across the interwebs is a brief interview with Lubick, who will probably be the Hoyas’ most important recruit next year, given Greg Monroe’s departure.  Nothing particularly spicy in the interview, but Lubick sounds comfortable with the staff and his teammates-to-be.

• Tuesday night was the annual Georgetown basketball banquet, which Liz Clarke summarized in the Post. Of particular interest were some parting words from Greg Monroe:

“When I got here I didn’t know what was going to hit me,” said Monroe, who was among the nation’s more coveted prep recruits as a standout at Helen Cox High School near New Orleans. “It has been the best two years of my life.”

Above all, Monroe said, he wanted to thank his teammates — every one of whom he regarded as a brother.

“The things we’ve been through, I wouldn’t have wanted to go through with anyone else but these guys,” Monroe said, pausing to wipe away a tear. “I love all of y’all. Thank you for making my experience as fun as it could be.”

• Also, in alumni news, Jeff Green, whose Oklahoma City Thunder currently trail the Lakers 2-0 in first-round NBA playoff action, was recently named to Team USA.  This does not mean that he’ll play in this year’s world championships, or in the 2012 Olympics, but that he’ll have the opportunity to do so.  Next for Green and his national teammates is a July camp in Las Vegas to determine who will travel to Turkey for this year’s worlds.
• Check back over the summer for updates on next year’s roster, recruiting news, and some more in-depth looks at Green and other Hoyas of years gone by.
  

Monroe’s Career

Monroe’s announcement marks the end of a brief college career full of individual brilliance but  middling collective results.  Monroe was Big East Rookie of the Year in 2008-09, but the team crashed after a brief top 10 appearance,  barely cracking .500 on the season, squabbling in the locker room, and petering out in the first round of the NIT.  He made first team All-Big East in this past year,  averaging 16.1 points and 9.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.5 blocks per game. He hit a game-winner against Temple, hung a 24 and 15 on Butler, dished out 12 assists against Providence, and matured markedly from his freshman campaign. Down the stretch, Monroe showed consistency that had eluded him earlier in his career, particularly shining in the Marquette game in the Big East Tournament.

Still, inconsistency plagued his team generally.  On the season, the Hoyas knocked off several top-10 foes including Duke and Butler, both eventual national finalists, and were rated as high as number 7. Georgetown also turned in some stinkers, losing to South Florida and Rutgers in particular. The post-season was a similarly mixed bag: Georgetown made an inspiring and often dominant run to the final of the Big East Tournament but then flamed out in the NCAA tournament, losing badly to Ohio, a 14 seed. In short, Monroe gave Hoya fans plenty to cheer about, but the team, Monroe included, left its fans wondering what might have been.

Fans will wonder further when it comes to Monroe’s future.  Had Monroe returned, Georgetown would likely have begun next season ranked in the top 5 in most polls, while Monroe both would have been a contender for national player of the year and would have had a third opportunity to forge a postseason legacy absent from his first two years. This tantalizing possibility undoubtedly reminds some Georgetown fans of Jeff Green’s protracted draft decision in 2007, when it seemed possible, even likely, that Green would return for another season on the Hilltop and lead the Hoyas to a national championship. Of course, Green had already led Georgetown to a Sweet 16 appearance, a Final Four, and a Big East championship before, as it turned out, departing for the draft.  While Monroe seems like a very decent person capable of brilliance on the floor, he departs school without significant postseason success to his credit. Hoya loyalists will cheer him on in the pros but, years from now, will be left with few signature memories of his time in the blue and gray.

Monroe’s Prospects

Monroe will likely be drafted between numbers 7 and 14 in the upcoming draft, according to most projections.  Which NBA teams will be drafting in that range will not be determined until mid-May, when the lottery drawing is held.  If all plays out according to form (including the Knicks’ trade of their pick), the teams most likely to take Monroe will be the Pistons, Hornets, Raptors, and Rockets. Depending on trades and the winds of free agency, the Clippers, Jazz, Grizzlies, and Pacers, could count themselves among that group as well.

Monroe is a unique talent, less athletic than some of his peers but more skilled and with a much keener understanding of the game than most. NBA scouts, like Hoya fans, sometimes question his passivity, but apparently have been impressed by his development this season.  Monroe still needs to develop his right hand, a more reliable jump shot, and a bit of a tougher attitude around the basket. Still, his court vision and versatile skill set will make him a valuable asset on some NBA roster. If drafted in the lottery, Monroe will be the third such Hoya in four years, following Green and Roy Hibbert.

Best of luck to Greg, more on the remaining Hoyas to follow.

The Answer, Allen Iverson, is the subject of “No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson,” a documentary that aired on ESPN last night.  The titular trial arose out of a brawl at a bowling alley while Iverson was in high school in Hampton, Virginia.  While Iverson’s involvement in that brawl remains in dispute, he and three friends were convicted of a violating a statute that penalized participants in a “mob.”  Both the factual details and the only video of the incident are unclear at best, but, at the trial, three white witnesses who had suffered injuries testified that Iverson and friends, all African-American, were responsible.  Iverson received a 15-year sentence, of which he ended up serving several months before then-Governor Douglas Wilder granted him conditional clemency.

Iverson is only part of the story of “No Crossover.”  The larger story, as told by Steve James, who previously made “Hoop Dreams” and who, like Iverson, hails from Hampton, is the way in which Iverson’s trial brought racial tensions in the larger Hampton community to the surface.  “No Crossover” takes seriously both the views of the African-American community (“views,” as the film reveals some disagreement between African Americans regarding the trial) and those of the white community.   James brings to this story a keen interest in and empathy for the human actors  much as he did to those of William Gates and Arthur Agee in “Hoop Dreams.”  While Iverson and some other key players apparently declined to participate in the documentary, the Answer is present throughout, in contemporary interviews and those given in the years since.  There is little about Iverson’s Georgetown days, but that’s not really the point, either.

Overall, the film was insightful, excellent, and highly recommended.

There are several clips related to the movie here, and you can watch a preview below:

All indications are that Monroe’s decision will be his own, but the fact that all eight players projected ahead of him in the draft have declared their entry certainly doesn’t hurt the odds that he’ll be back on the Hilltop next year.

On the Monroe front, only tea leaves to read:

• The consensus among draftniks (check out here and here) appears to be that Monroe will be roughly the ninth pick in the draft, behind John Wall, Evan Turner, DeMarcus Cousins, Derrick Favors, Al-Farouq Aminu, Cole Aldrich, Ed Davis, and Wesley Johnson. To date, only five (Wall, Turner, Cousins, Aminu, and Aldrich) have declared, and rumors suggest Davis and Johnson may return for another year of school.  Perhaps Monroe will get lured in by rising draft stock if those two opt out of the draft; the prospect of Syracuse getting Johnson back but the Hoyas without Monroe is nauseating.
  
• Recent snippits from ESPN’s various gurus suggest that they’re not convinced that Monroe will go:
  • Andy Katz, assuming the Hoyas will have monroe and projecting them as #7 in the nation next season (probably an under-rate, as long as Ohio isn’t on the schedule): “I didn’t get a sense Sunday night that Greg Monroe is definitely gone.”
  • Chad Ford, “He’s a different kid. Very humble. Likes college. Wants to keep improving. I think it wouldn’t be an awful idea [to return to school]. But if he declared, my guess is that he goes somewhere between 8 and 14.”

*As noted previously,  NCAA rules allow underclassmen who declare but do not retain an agent to provisionally test the draft waters and return to school if they so choose.  The deadline for returning to school is May 8, meaning that, if Monroe provisionally declares, the Monroe Watch may be 32 days from ending.  Given that Monroe’s draft stock is relatively certain, though, the odds of a provisional draft declaration appear to be somewhat lower.