During Saturday's NCAA Men's basketball semi-final game between Georgetown and Ohio State, there were sequences when the son of Olympic triple jumper Mike Conley was being guarded by the son of Boston Celtics' Coach Doc Rivers. Georgetwon is coached by a man named John Thompson III, and has a player named after Patrick Ewing, who played for Thompson's larger-than-life father. Tonight's title game is not only a rematch of football finalists Ohio State and Florida, but pits the progeny of tennis star Yannick Noah, Dominican basketball phenom Tito Horford, and UNLV big man Sidney Green against an Ohio State squad "quarterbacked" by the quicksilver Conley. Is this all a coincidence? Hardly.
A decade ago, Mike Kryszewski at Duke and Lute Olson of Arizona built basketball powerhouses largely by recruiting kids who grew up around sports excellence- Grant Hill, Thomas Hill (another son of a US Olympic track and field star) Chris Collins (Doug Collins' son) and Bobby Hurley at Duke, and Miles Simon and Mike Bibby at 'zona. If Thompson III is able, as is being rumored, to bring Michael Jordan's son to Georgetown, the Hoya campus could become the new black, I mean the new Duke. Should that occur, the son will win more NCAA titles tha the father- who made three championship games, but narrowly lost two. And why wouldn't the proud father of a Georgetown recruit not want his boy to play for a man raised by John Thompson? How could a player go wrong lockering next to teammates whose fathers endured the rigors of major sports success? Birds of a feather flock together. Players' and coaches' children come with discipline, basketball camp since they could walk, and court DNA. This trend (which will likely be just as enjoyed by Billy Donovan as Thompson), combined with Georgetown's clever "Princeton" offense, could stymie future Final Four opponents who lack veteran leadership because their McDonald's and "PARADE" All-American recruits are one-and-done for the NBA, under the new 19-year-old rookie age minimum. Ohio State may be great now, but Greg Oden will be wearing a Memphis or Boston uniform next year. Kevin Durant of Texas may be living in Boston, not Austin, a year from now. Players such as Taurean Green, Jeremiah Rivers, and Jeffrey Jordan, who are not as highly recruited, tend to stick around. It is said that Baby Jordan may even have to walk on.
So while revenge of the turf will be foremost on the minds of Buckeye Nation tonight, Georgetown and Florida are building toward the future- by looking to the past.
