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What's Next
By John Hawkes

On March 15, 2004, Georgetown fans "celebrated" the third anniversary of Generation Burton's finest hour.

On March 16, 2004, Craig Esherick was fired as Georgetown's Men's Head Basketball Coach.

Generation Burton was over.

I heard something interesting the night Craig Esherick was fired. This time, instead of an end dorm in Village C, I sat at my desk in a top-floor Henle apartment with my bedroom window open. Watching and reading coverage of the Esherick firing, I began to hear conversations from out in the Henle courtyard, the Fishbowl, and from other apartments with the windows open.

The conversations continued in Darnall and O'Donovan cafeterias, Red Square, the Healy Gates, everywhere the following day. For probably the first time since that Maryland game three years before, and for an entirely different reason, everyone at Georgetown had basketball on their mind again. Whether intentional or not, the firing of Craig Esherick had everyone interested and, in a perverse sort of way, excited about Georgetown basketball for a brief moment in time.

This is how the next generation of Hoya student fans began.

Perhaps it is a slight to the many student fans of the Class of 2004 who were involved with some of the efforts begun during the weeks surrounding the Esherick decision-namely the Save the Hoyas petition and the accompanying Healy Circle rally-to imply that Generation Burton up and died when Craig Esherick was fired. It's not intended to be.

It is, however, undeniable, at least from my perspective, that the decision to fire Craig Esherick was the first in a series of events-the hiring of John Thompson III as Head Basketball Coach foremost among these-that have created a renewed sense of optimism among the returning student fans about the team and, perhaps more importantly, the direction of the program.

This sense of optimism and excitement, I believe, is (at least for now) the "common atmosphere" that defines the student fan base. And, thus, makes them different from the final days of Generation Burton.

This atmosphere presents a great deal of exciting opportunities for the fans of the Class of 2005 and beyond. It does not come without responsibility, however.

It is now clear that with a new coach, new Athletic Director, and presumably a new sense of direction in that vague structure called "McDonough", there are no longer any convenient excuses to sleep on Georgetown basketball this coming season. To paraphrase a famous political one-liner, you won't have Craig Esherick to kick around anymore.

In many ways, Georgetown's basketball program is getting a fresh start from top to bottom-from the A.D. to coaches to players to fans. It is imperative that we work together to make it a good start.

Here's where the "Generation Burton" column series comes in. I hope, over the coming weeks and months, to provide some observations from my four years as a student fan that will help start discussions about how to improve the state of the student fan at Georgetown.

I believe that next season is going to be one of the most crucial seasons at Georgetown in many years, not only for the team but also its fans. The responsibility for creating a strong student fan base next season will be in the hands of a new generation of student fans with a new set of common experiences. Indeed, this year will mark the first time that no undergraduate on a 4-year track at GU was on campus to witness Nathaniel Burton's layup against Arkansas. The new leaders of Hoya Blue and the student section will be working with an entirely different set of tools when it comes to promoting this year's team.

That being said, there are two main themes I will be focusing on throughout the forthcoming columns:

1. The new generation of Hoya student fans can learn a great deal from the successes of Generation Burton when it comes to promoting the basketball team and developing a strong student fan base. Conversely, they must also learn from and beware of the many pitfalls myself and my fellow students fell into by the end of our years at the MCI Center.
2. Every student is significant when it comes to creating a strong fan base, and accordingly any successful strategy for promoting the basketball team (or any sports team) must take advantage of the broadest number of students possible.

My goal is to get as many people involved in the discussion as possible, whether through our own HoyaTalk boards, input from groups like Hoya Blue, or just interested fans sharing ideas by email. While the articles are primarily aimed at current Georgetown students, I welcome input from anyone who has questions, comments, complaints, and especially ideas on how to make Georgetown's student fan base better. I hope to make reader comments a big part of this series.

A final story. During the School of Foreign Service graduation ceremony this year, the students broke out in an impromptu rendition of the Georgetown Fight Song. It certainly felt like a great way to punctuate four great years on the Hilltop-after all, the whole process of learning the Fight Song is one of the annual rites of initiation into the Georgetown community during New Student Orientation.

I had to laugh though when a student sitting in the row in front of me turned to the guy sitting next to me somewhere around the "Loyal Fellows up at Yale" part and said:

"Dude, what song is this?"

He must not have gone to many basketball games.

Hopefully we can make it so there are fewer people with that "problem" by May 2005.