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Georgetown Basketball: August 2012 News Archive

IAC: Bright Future 8/31/12

The speed of fundraising for the Intercollegiate Athletics Center will determine its timeline moving forward, athletic director Lee Reed told The HOYA in a wide ranging interview at the start of the 2012-13 academic year.

Some quotes:

  • On IAC fundraising: "What we learned is that you can get a lot done when you have money in the bank. So when people ask about the timeline for the IAC and how quickly we will be able to build that, that's really all dependent on our success fundraising.”
  • On new Big East commissioner Mike Aresco: "I'm pleased to report that we've got the right person for the job in him, somebody who has a TV background, somebody who's from the Big East footprint — Connecticut — and more specifically, [someone who] understands Big East basketball and its value and what it means to the Northeast and what it means nationally."
  • On the expanded conference: “We're very, very deep, and we will still have multiple — six, seven, eight, nine — bids to the NCAA tournament each year."
So Others Might Eat 8/30/12

Georgetown's basketball team took time before classes got underway to serve lunch at a local community center for some of Washington's poor and hungry citizens.

"It was a great team-building experience for us to come out here and help the people who aren't as fortunate and give back to the community," sophomore Mikael Hopkins told GUHoyas.com. "You see a lot of smiles on their faces. It's good to know that you can help people in just a short period of time by just giving them food."

"The D.C. community supports us tremendously and we didn't look at this as an `experience'," said coach John Thompson III. "We just wanted to come down and help out as much as we can. A lot of times all of us take for granted or lose sight of how fortunate and blessed we are and what we have. Being that we have been given a lot, it's our obligation to help out and give back as much as we can."

Ewing Restarts Shoe Company 8/30/12

During the 1990's, following the worldwide success of Nike and Adidas in NBA player-sponsored shoes and attire, former Georgetown center Patrick Ewing (C'85) marketed his own line of athletic apparel. Now, two decades later, Ewing is bringing back the athletic wear he once promoted.

"Over the years, I've had a lot of people ask me when they'd see me at appearances of when I was coaching, if I was ever bringing the shoes back," Ewing told ESPN. "I just didn't feel comfortable doing it."

Although he wore Nike in his college days, Ewing signed with Adidas as a pro, earning $1 million for wearing its shoes until 1990, when Ewing entered into a partnership with the founder of the Pony brand to develop a line of new shoes under the Ewing name. The company closed in 1996 as Nike took over the market.

Prices for the "33 Hi Retro" shoe will be around $100.

"We're not going to mass produce and try to sell as many pairs as we can in the first year," Ewing said. "We know that if we're patient, we'll do well for years to come."

Florida Game Nears Sellout 8/29/12

Despite a significant reduction in seating, seats still remain for Georgetown's Nov. 9 game with Florida on the USS Bataan, but a sellout is expected, according to Rant Sports.

The game was scheduled to hold 8,000 on the USS Bataan but capacity has now been cut to 4,000, leaving only 1,500 public seats ranging from $1,000 to as much as $50,000. The seating cutbacks were due to the ship's configuration and not to demand.

Track Coach Leaves For Stanford 8/28/12

Georgetown has lost one of its rising stars in coaching, as women's track and cross country coach Chris Miltenberg (C'03) was hired by Stanford.

"We are thrilled to have Chris join us at Stanford," said Stanford athletic director bernard Muir, who hired Miltenberg in 2007 when Muir was at Georgetown. "He will be an excellent contributor and leader for a tremendous group of student-athletes. He is very well thought of and recommended by many. He has had great success at Georgetown, and we expect similar results here at Stanford."

Over his five years, Miltenberg elevated the Hoya programs to national acclaim, including the 2011 NCAA cross country title.

Additional coverage follows in this link to The HOYA.

New Book On Former GU Boxing Coach 8/27/12

The life and times of Georgetown Hall of Fame coach Marty Gallagher (1907-1994) are the subject of a new book.

Gallagher, a Washington native, competed for 17 years as a heavyweight boxer. Managed by the legendary writer Damon Runyan, Gallagher was ranked as high as seventh in the division and scored a TKO versus popular heavyweight Tony "Two Ton" Galento before 25,000 at Griffith Stadium in 1934.

In a 30 year career at Georgetown from 1943 to 1973, Gallagher coached the school's boxing team and became a PE instructor after boxing was dropped as an intercollegiate sport. He was also known for a pair of campus restaurants in his name, first in White-Gravenor and later adjacent to the New South Dining Hall, where "Marty's On The Potomac" existed through the mid-1980's.

Gallagher was selected to the "Washington Hall of Stars", then housed at RFK Stadium, in 1983, and the Georgetown University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008.

The book, "The Irish Warrior", was written by Gallagher's daughter, Margaret Gallagher Colbert, and is available online through Dorrance Publishing.

Boubacar Aw Joins Coaching Ranks 8/18/12

Former Georgetown forward Boubacar Aw (C'98) is entering the coaching ranks, as a girls basketball and football coach at a Wilmington, NC-area high school, reports WECT-TV. Aw, 37, played high school basketball in the region and was a substitute teacher in the school district before this new assignment.

"It has been a wonderful ride,” Aw told the Wilmington Star-News. “And now to coaching girls, the job opened up at Hoggard and they gave it to me. I’m really excited. I wanted to be a teacher and a coach so this is a whole new beginning.”

Georgetown Invited To 2017 Nike Tournament 8/17/12

Georgetown is one of 16 schools committing to participate in a unique tournament to honor Nike Inc. CEO Phil Knight in the 2017-18 season, according to the Portland Oregonian.

The ambitious tournament was conceived by Michigan State University athletic director Mark Hollis, who independently sought out the top Nike-affiliated schools to honor Knight's 80th birthday later that season. The schools will play games over four days, alternating between the 19,980 seat Rose Garden and the 12,888 seat Veterans Memorial Coliseum in downtown Portland. A maximum of two teams per conference will be invited, as teams within the conferences must play on alternate sides of the brackets.

"The Rose Garden and Veterans Memorial Coliseum are attached by a courtyard, so physically, it’s very doable,” Hollis told the Detroit Free Press. “There are still a lot of questions and a lot of details to finalize, but there’s high enthusiasm for this event.”

The tournament could grow to 24 teams with the addition of eight schools who would play preliminary games outside of the Portland locations.

The 2017 date was also chosen for Knight's 80th birthday but also because many of these schools already have made scheduling commitments for the next four years which would interfere with the nature of this event.

Participating schools include Butler (A-10), Connecticut (Big East), Duke (ACC), Florida (SEC), Gonzaga (WCC), Georgetown (Big East), Kentucky (SEC), Michigan State (Big 10), North Carolina (ACC), Ohio State (Big 10), Oklahoma (Big 12), Oregon (Pac-12), Portland (WCC), Stanford (Pac-12), Texas (Big 12), and Xavier (A-10). Syracuse, a Nike school, was not chosen, as the ACC representatives were offered to conference standard-bearers Duke and UNC.

Big East TV: A Bull Market 8/17/12

An important development for the Big East was somewhat overshadowed by Tuesday's announcement of Mike Aresco as commissioner: the hiring of Chris Bevilacqua as a consultant to lead the upcoming television negotiations. Bevilacqua successfully negotiated the Pac-12's $3 billion multi-year deal that changed the dynamics of TV rights negotiations, and led the Big East to decline ESPN's offer of a $1.17 billion deal last fall.

"Everybody has seen what's happened in the media business over the last 24 months with sports rights," Bevilacqua told CBS Sports.com. "Live, scarce sports rights are very valuable and getting more valuable by the day," Bevilacqua said. "On top of that, the Big East is the last college sports franchise into the market for a very long time. There's a very natural supply/demand equation here so they're in a very good position."

As for ESPN, Bevilacqua cautioned that "I'm sure there would be a lot of thoughtful discussion about what kind of relationship could possibly work between the conference and ESPN. But I think suffice it to say, it's pretty hard to these days for any one media company to absorb all this high quality content. I think it's still early to see how this plays out."

Aresco's Big East: "State Of The Art" 8/16/12

Incoming Big East commissioner Mike Aresco wasted no time to get in front of the media, holding his first press conference Wednesday and reasserting his expectation that the Big East remain among the elite conferences in college sports, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

It's a different Big East," Aresco said. "It's not going to be the same northeastern Big East. But I believe, frankly, that gives [it] some significant strength."

Aresco declined to elaborate on the upcoming TV rights negotiations, which begin Sept. 1.

WCBS: Porter To Lead Hoyas 8/16/12

Columnist Jon Rothstein takes a look at the 2012-13 Hoyas at this article posted at New York's WCBS website. He sees sophomore Otto Porter as the key to the hoyas' continued success.

"Porter will be the household name when the Hoyas start next season after Georgetown lost its three top scorers from a year ago in Jason Clark, Hollis Thompson, and Henry Sims," he writes. "In Thompson’s eight years as head coach, replacing key contributors have become an annual occurrence."

Gerard J. Campbell, S.J. (1919-2012) 8/15/12

Gerard J. Campbell, S.J., 44th president of Georgetown University, died August 9 after a long illness, two weeks short of his 93rd birthday. He was the oldest former president in the University's 223 year history.

But for readers under the age of 65, it's likely they have never heard of him. At a school where former presidents routinely have buildings named after them (Healy, Maguire, Nevils, Gorman, Bunn, Henle, O'Donovan, et al.), there was no Campbell Hall. A news release on his passing from Georgetown was surprisingly brief, noting efforts to improve community service in his term as president but little else, as if the public relations department's archives had nothing to offer. (The article was further updated Wednesday.)

In fact, Rev. Campbell presided over three of the biggest changes in the modern Georgetown, and they deserve some further recognition.

Gerard Campbell was born August 26, 1919 and entered the Society of Jesus in 1939. With BA and MA degrees from Loyola-Chicago, and a PhD from Princeton, Campbell was ordained in 1951 and spent six years in his intended calling, that of a history professor, at Loyola College in Baltimore. In the summer of 1963, the Jesuit provincial assigned him to Georgetown and the position of Executive Vice President was created, though Campbell had never held an executive post. The position tapped Campbell, 43, as the heir apparent to the role of University president, as the provincial sought to end Edward Bunn, S.J.'s record 12 year term at the close of the 1963-1964 school year. Bunn, 66, was not yet ready to retire, however, and as an accommodation he was named the school's first (and to date, only) Chancellor, a title he held until his own death in 1972.

Campbell was inexperienced for a college president, and his administration struggled through tuition increases of up to 10% annually to help pay for the large number of building projects Bunn had completed over his term, including four dorms (St. Mary's, New South Harbin, Darnall) and the Reiss Science Center. Deficits were common, and the school's endowment hovered at just $11 million. In 1966, Campbell tapped Bunn to lead the school's first ever capital campaign, the $26 million "Progress Fund". The campaign would endow six faculty chairs, increase financial aid, and assist in the construction of a new library, four Medical Center buildings, and move the Law Center to a new location near the Capitol. The current campaign, "For Generations to Come", is the fourth such campaign since Campbell's groundbreaking effort.

Rev. Campbell was a major force behind the laicization of Georgetown's executive leadership. Campbell was the last of the men known as "Rector-President" of the University, who simultaneously led the Jesuit Community and the school's all-Jesuit Board of Directors (all of whom reported to him as the rector). Campbell sought outside Jesuits and lay leaders to join the board of directors. By the time of his retirement in 1968, the board-not the provincial-selected his successor.

Campbell was also one of the major signatories in a landmark document in higher education, the 1967 Land O'Lakes Accord. The presidents of Georgetown, Notre Dame, Boston College, Fordham, and St. Louis signed a a document that established principles of academic freedom for Catholic universities in the United States outside the direct control of the Vatican. It was controversial then, and now. Supporters hailed it as a step to raise the academic freedom of the Catholic university, opponents saw it as the secularization of schools like Georgetown.

"I saw some academic freedom problems, and it came from Rome - the Vatican," he said in a 2010 interview in The HOYA. "They were trying to control what we could say and do, and I and a number of other university presidents simply said: `We're going to do it anyway'…They said, you have to withdraw it. And all of us at Land O'Lakes simply said no." The Vatican did not challenge the schools further, and the "Land O Lakes schools" began a new era in Catholic higher education.

The Campbell term is memorable for another major change in the Georgetown ethos: coeducation. While women had been admitted in limited numbers in the professional schools, the College remained all-male. In the spring of 1968, the decision was made to offer admission to 50 women annually beginning in the class of 1973,a decision that carried financial as well as egalitarian impact-alumni wanted to see their daughters get a Georgetown education, and adding more students could help meet expenses. Within a few years, the female population reached 50 percent University wide.

Financial problems continued to affect the University and after a $1.5 million loss in 1968, Rev. Campbell retired from the presidency that fall to return to teaching. Over the next three decades he served in the Jesuit novitiate, served at Holy Trinity Church, and retired in 2004 to spend his final years in the Georgetown Jesuit community.

The funeral Mass for Rev. Gerard Campbell will be 10:00 AM at Holy Trinity Church, with internment to follow at the campus cemetery.

New Big East Commissioner 8/15/12

The Big East has announced the hire of CBS Sports vice president Mike Aresco as its new commissioner Tuesday, entering a new era of leadership for the conference.

The story, which was first reported by writer Mark Blaudschun early Tuesday, completes three months of confidential negotiations to select the successor to John Marinnatto and to establish a leadership framework for television negotiations which begin in September. Aresco's experience in TV brings considerable weight to the position.

Among a career which has included work at ESPN, the NCAA, and CBS, Aresco's negotiation of the landmark TV deal with the Southeastern Conference earned him widespread acclaim and respect. The Big east enters a 60-day exclusive negotiation with ESPN on September 1 which will likely to go an open bid process by November, and Aresco's past experience figures to place the Big East in a much more competitive positions for a comprehensive package of coverage across one to many networks.

Media reaction has been uniformly positive, including those networks which will be part of the bidding process. ESPN, which has been seen by some as eager to downgrade the conference to help lower the price of upcoming TV rights, saluted the hire.

Aresco, a graduate of Tufts and UConn Law, will begin his role as commissioner in September.

Additional coverage follows below:

  • Associated Press
  • Big East Conference
  • Business Week
  • CBS Sports
  • Chicago Tribune
  • ESPN
  • Hartford Courant
  • Newsday
  • NY Post
  • NY Times
  • Phila Inquirer
  • Tampa Times
  • USA Today
  • Washington Post
    • New Lacrosse Coach Announced Updated 8/14/12

    Also today, Georgetown has named Maryland assistant coach Kevin Warne as its new men's lacrosse coach, reports the Washington Post.

    "I'm really excited to name Kevin Warne as head coach for our men's lacrosse program," said athletic director Lee Reed in a GU press release. "Kevin's commitment to student-athlete welfare and his passion for the game makes him the perfect person to take over our lacrosse program at this time. He is considered to be one of the top young assistants in the country and he has a terrific track record of success as an assistant coach, including appearances in the last two national championship games. We welcome Kevin to the Hoya family and look forward to working with him to build on the great tradition and success of Georgetown lacrosse."

    Warne, 35, previously was an assistant at Delaware, UMBC, and Harvard before arriving in College Park in 2010.

    Basketball Diplomacy Camp 8/14/12

    Five years ago, Sead Dizdarevic sought to give back to his homeland by inviting a group of fellow Georgetown alumni to host a basketball skills camp in his native Montenegro. For the fifth year, Georgetown University and the Department of State have coordinated the Basketball Diplomacy Camp, which was held in late July and is the subject of this article at GUHoyas.com.

    "The Basketball Diplomacy Camp has been a great experience and has grown year after year," said Dizdarevic. "It's a tremendous experience for the student-athletes from the Balkans and for the counselors from the United States. I'm really thankful to everyone for their support, including Georgetown University and our alumni, and [the] United States State Department."

    A Special Visit Update #3, 8/9/12

    In the midst of his summer vacation, Roy Hibbert (C'08) was scheduled to travel Thursday evening to visit 12 year old Lee Eddins, a basketball fan diagnosed with a few weeks to live, reported the Muncie Star Press. Unfortunately, Eddins died suddenly on Thursday afternoon, according to the Indianapolis Star.

    "I was very saddened and distraught," Hibbert said in an interview on CNN, having been notified of Eddins' passing en route to the Indianapolis airport. "I want to keep his spirit and memory alive and be part of his cause."

    Eddins suffered from leukemia and had been a fan of Hibbert's since his college days at Georgetown.

    As of Thursday evening, Hibbert has flown to Sacramento and will meet with the family.

    ESPN College Gameday To Verizon Ctr. 8/9/12

    A release at ESPN.com has announced that the popular ESPN College Gameday pregame show will broadcast from Verizon Center in advance of the March 9 Georgetown-Syracuse game.

    The game, which will be held on the last weekend of Big East regular season competition, is the last scheduled game between the two schools with Syracuse moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.

    End of season games were commonplace among the two schools in the 1980's. Georgetown hosted Syracuse in three regular season finales from 1983 through 1985 at Capital Centre, winning all three. The Carrier Dome then hosted consecutive season finales with the Hoyas from 1989 through 1991, with the Orangemen winning all three. The last such season finale between the schools was at Syracuse in 1998, a 77-72 Syracuse win.

    Ticket information has not been disclosed for the game.

    Additional coverage follows below:

    NBC To Big East: Let's Talk 8/8/12

    A year or so ago, as the Big East was about to pass on an ESPN offer for $110-$130 million a year among its 16 schools, the "Worldwide Leader In Sports" went so far as to give the signal for Pitt and Syracuse to leave for the ACC, followed by months of doom and gloom scenarios to any conference which would say no to ESPN.

    In 2012, with ESPN's exclusive negotiation window with the conference closing later this year, the New York Daily News suggests that NBC Sports is prepared to offer significantly more, including nearly doubling the TV rights for schools such as Georgetown.

    "If a network such as NBC Sports Group offers the Big East a deal similar to the one reported by the Daily News, it will be comparable with one the Atlantic Coast Conference reached with ESPN in May," writes CBS Sports.com, which referenced the story linked above. "The 15-year, $3.6 billion deal will pay the ACC $240 million annually. With the addition of current Big East members Syracuse and Pittsburgh, the ACC will have 12-members beginning in 2013-2014. The deal with ESPN will pay each ACC program about $17 million a year."

    Neither NBC nor Big East officials can comment on the reports, nor would they--it's all part of the combative world of television negotiations. It is also possible the Big East could sign a multi-network deal where games are broadcast across a variety of networks, including ESPN, NBC, Fox, or other networks.

    The New Leader 8/2/12

    Only two years after they arrived at the Hilltop, juniors Markel Starks and Nate Lubick are the elder members of the 2012-13 Hoyas. For Starks, he will be counted upon to lead the Georgetown backcourt, and recently talked with the Washington Times about that transition.

    “I knew I was going to be in a much bigger role than in my freshman year,” said Starks. “But I think probably this summer in comparison to last summer, I’m not going to say more focused, but I’m more dedicated.”

    Starks averaged 7.1 points per game last season and is the team's leading returning there point shooter, but will need to pick up the pace from outside to compensate for the losses of Jason Clark and Hollis Thompson, who combined for 106 of Georgetown's 186 threes last season.

    Tranghese Talks Big East 8/2/12

    Former Big East commissioner Michael Tranghese recently sat down with reporter Mark Blaudschun for his thoughts on college sports and the changing Big East. Some comments of interest:

    On the state of college football: "I see today fewer and fewer elite programs that can win the national championship. To me there is a big gap between the elite and everybody else. And I used to believe a lot of teams could win the national championship. But I think I could write down the names of 10 schools and I would bet my life that one of those 10 schools would win the national championship."

    On the ACC's 2003 raid of the Big East: "Donna Shalala said that I had over reacted. I remember when a reporter called me about her comment, I said, “I haven't over reacted. This is just the start.” It had an incredible ripple effect. Interesting enough, I think the ACC has already felt it on the football side. Look at it, the ACC is now the bottom now. They are going to be the next target in football. If I need a school, where are you going? I just don't think that's good. I hear people saying we're going to have four super conferences and that's great. All that does is create less winners and more losers."

    On the ACC's 2011 raid of the Big East: "You are not going to convince me they took Syracuse and Pitt just for football. It was pure basketball. They were sick of getting beaten up by the Big East so they tried to destroy the Big East. They said that was not their intention, but it has to be your intention."

    On the end of Big East rivalries like Georgetown and Syracuse: "People say they will schedule each other. No, they won't schedule each other because people who are making those decisions are coaches and coaches won't schedule those games."

    On Syracuse's slogan as 'New York's College Team': "There was some interest in college football in the Northeast. Where’s the interest now? Syracuse is talking about owning New York City. That’s a joke. The only people who own New York City are people who win."

    Yes, recommended reading.

     

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