John Thompson III

John Thompson III (born March 12, 1966) is the current head coach of the men's basketball team at Georgetown University. He grew up in Washington, D.C. and was named first team All-Metro by The Washington Post while playing for Gonzaga College High School in 1984. Thompson was hired on April 20, 2004 to replace Craig Esherick. Prior to being hired at Georgetown, Thompson was the head coach for four years at his alma mater, Princeton University.

Coaching career

Princeton

Thompson is the son of John Thompson, Jr. (Georgetown's head coach from 1972 to 1999), and a 1988 graduate of Princeton. Thompson, whose nickname is JT3, served as an assistant coach at Princeton under head coaches Pete Carril and Bill Carmody from 1995 through 2000. After being promoted to head coach, he compiled a 68–42 record with the Tigers from 2000 to 2004 and guided the team to three Ivy League championships, two NCAA tournament appearances, and one NIT tournament appearance. Three of his players earned Ivy League Player of the Year honors.

Georgetown

Thompson immediately introduced the Princeton offense at Georgetown, a style of play that he learned from coach Pete Carril at Princeton. The rarity of this style, and Thompson's success at adapting it to work with the brawnier Georgetown players, has been cited by the Washington Post as one of the major reasons for the team's quick turnaround. In Thompson's first year at Georgetown (2004–05), the Hoyas improved from 13–15 to a record of 19–13 and the team reached the quarterfinals of the NIT.

John Thompson III's first notable win with the team took place on January 21, 2006, when unranked Georgetown upset No. 1 Duke. This was Georgetown's first win over a No. 1 ranked team in 21 years. Thompson also achieved his 100th win as a head coach a few nights later with an 85–82 win in double overtime at Notre Dame.

The Hoyas made the 2006 NCAA Tournament as a #7 seed. They defeated the University of Northern Iowa in the first round and upset #2 seed Ohio State University in the second round to make the "Sweet Sixteen", where they lost to the eventual national champions, Florida. In that tournament, the Hoyas were the only team to hold Florida to a victory under 10 points (they lost by four), but also the only team to lead Florida in the second half of a game.

In 2007, after starting with a record of 4–3, Coach Thompson III led the Hoyas to the first Big East Championship since his father did the same in 1989. Thompson also coached the 2006–07 Big East Player of the Year, Georgetown Forward Jeff Green.

Thompson's 2007 NCAA Tournament was one marked with success. The Hoyas were awarded a #2 seed in the East region. After an opening round win over Belmont and a second round victory in a hard fought game against Boston College the Hoyas faced Vanderbilt in the 'Sweet Sixteen.' On March 23, 2007 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Thompson's Hoyas defeated Vanderbilt, 66–65, on the strength of Jeff Green's game-winning shot and advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight for the first time since 1996. Against Vanderbilt, the Hoyas rallied from 13 points down in the first half and held on despite 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert fouling out in the final minutes. Two days later, on March 25, 2007, Thompson led the Hoyas to the 2007 NCAA Final Four with a 96–84 overtime victory against the University of North Carolina. The Hoyas were defeated 67–60 by Ohio State in the Final Four. Despite the loss, John Thompson III led the team on an impressive run to its first Final Four in 22 years.

In September 2007, Thompson signed a six-year contract extension that will keep him at Georgetown until 2013.

In March 2008, Thompson and Georgetown returned to the NCAA Tournament again as a #2 seed. After defeating #15 seed University of Maryland-Baltimore County 66–47, the Hoyas were upset in the second round by #10 Davidson and their star player Stephen Curry by a score of 74–70.

The 2008–09 season started with the Hoyas a Top 20 ranked team and a strong candidate to compete for the Big East title. They got off to a hot start (12–3) and saw their ranking rise as high as No. 9. But then the team went on a terrible slide, losing 11 of their next 15 and finishing the season 16–15, the worst record in Thompson's 5 years at the helm.

Head coaching record

Statistics overview
Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Princeton (Ivy League) (2000–2004)
2000–2001	Princeton	16-11	11-3	1st	NCAA 1st Round
2001–2002	Princeton	16-12	11-3	T-1st	NIT 1st Round
2002–2003	Princeton	16-11	10-4	3rd
2003–2004	Princeton	20-8	13-1	1st	NCAA 1st Round
Princeton:		68-42	45-11
Georgetown (Big East Conference) (2004–present)
2004–2005	Georgetown	19-13	8-8	T-7th	NIT Quarterfinals
2005–2006	Georgetown	23-10	10-6	T-4th	NCAA Sweet 16
2006–2007	Georgetown	30-7	13-3	1st	NCAA Final Four
2007–2008	Georgetown	28-6	15-3	1st	NCAA 2nd Round
2008–2009	Georgetown	16-15	7-11	11th	NIT 1st Round
2008–2009	Georgetown	19-8	9-7	7th	Season in progress
Georgetown:		135-59	62-40
Total:		203-101
National champion Postseason invitational champion Conference regular season champion Conference regular season and conference tournament champion Division regular season champion Division regular season and conference tournament champion Conference tournament champion

References

Davis, Barker (2006). "Hoyas survive big scare", Washington Times, January 25.
Powell, Camille (2006). "Hoyas KO the Big", Washington Post, January 22, p. E-1.
Wise, Mike (2006). "Princeton Offense Keeps Hoyas on the Move", Washington Post, March 23, p. E-12.
Branch, John (2007). "Hoyas' Past Is Becoming Present",New York Times, March 23.
2007 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Results
Heaps, Bailey and Olivia Scott (2007). "JT III Signs on for Six More Years", The Hoya, September 28.
Graff, Garrett "Thompson discusses Georgetown's 2008 season", The Washingtonian, December 4, 2007.

External links

Official Georgetown Profile
Alexander Wolff (2008-03-18). "Cut from the Same Cloth". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2008-03-19.