Sports Talk: Hoyas Are Hit With the Best Shots

IT'S NOT HOYA PARANOIA if they are really out to get you.

Such has been life for the No. 9 Georgetown Hoyas all year — and it turns out the team is just fine with that.

The preseason favorite to win the Big East took opponents' best shot yet survived to repeat as league champions, earning the top seed in this week's Big East tournament in the process.

And in New York, just as in the regular season, Georgetown will be the team to beat.
"A lot of people may not want a bull's-eye on their back," said Hoyas senior Jonathan Wallace. "We take pride in that. We accept that role."

When Wallace first came to Georgetown four years ago, Hoya paranoia had gone the way of Beta tapes — a bygone relic of the 1980s.

But under John Thompson III, the Hoyas have established themselves as the class of the Big East by thinking small and dreaming big.

After Saturday's 55-52 victory over Louisville to win the regular season title, Thompson reiterated his mantra of getting better each week yet hinted as his true aspirations.

"We have finished one phase of the year; now we go to New York for another phase," said Thompson, whose squad begins defending last year's tournament title against Villanova on Thursday.

"It's a process. We're still in the early stages of that process. We've been fortunate to have some success and we still have some steps where I want this program to be at."

Sounds like a coach with two Big East regular season champions, one league tournament title and a Final Four appearance may be getting a bit greedy.

"It's my job to be greedy," Thompson said. "I'm going to stay greedy in that respect."

With a berth in the NCAA tournament assured, Georgetown's greed could yield a second straight No. 2 seed in March Madness by cutting down the nets at Madison Square Garden.

No wonder the Hoyas are targeted. They wouldn't have it any other way.

"To be the hunted all year and stand here as regular season champions is something very special," said Thompson.

Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post