Big, bad Hoyas

Sporting News, The, March 25, 1996 by Steve Gietschier

The presence was felt as decisively as a blocked shot. Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo, Alonzo Mourning and Othella Harrington, a menacing quartet coached by a former center, John Thompson, not only stand at the top of the school's list of shot blockers, but also own seven team single-season scoring crowns and 10 rebounding titles. Not bad for 15 years of work.

And yet, the history of big men on the campus located at 37th and O Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C., does not begin in 1981-82, Ewing's freshman year. One can go back to Craig (Big Sky) Shelton, a 6-7 power forward who also wore No. 33 and almost got the Hoyas into the Final Four in 1980, or even Paul John Tagliabue, whose average of nine rebounds per game over three seasons (1959-62) ranks ahead of Mourning, Mutombo and Harrington and just behind Ewing's 9.2.

Herewith are a few post-up notes on some of the 6-5 Tagliabue's pivotal successors:

Craig Shelton ... led the Hoyas in rebounding three straight years and averaged 15.2 points over his career. In the 1980 NCAA Tournament, Georgetown defeated Jim Valvano's Iona team in the second round, 74-71, as Shelton scored 27 points. In the regional final, the Hoyas led Iowa, 46-32, with 18:05 to go, only to have the Hawkeyes shoot 70.8 percent from the floor and 15-of-15 from the line in the second half to pull out an 81-80 victory.

Patrick Ewing ... did more than start the T-shirt-under-the-jersey fad. He led the Hoyas to three NCAA title games in four years: A 63-62 loss to North Carolina in 1982, when Ewing got credit for two blocks but was called for goal-tending five times in the game's opening minutes; a national championship in 1984 vs. Houston's Phi Slama Jama; a 1985 loss to Villanova, as Rollie Massimino's Wildcats shot 78.6 percent.

Dikembe Mutombo and Alonzo Mourning ... played as "Twin Towers" for three years (1988-91) and lost to Duke in the 1989 East Regional final, 85-77. Mutombo sat out his freshman year to increase his familiarity with English, then led the Hoyas in rebounding as a junior and scoring and rebounding as a senior. In Mourning's senior season, he racked up 22 double-doubles and joined Ewing in the career 2,000-point, 1,000-rebound club.

Othella Harrington ... was Big East Rookie of the Year in 1992-93 and Big East All-Tournament in 1993-94. Having ceded the big headlines this season to teammate Allen Iverson, Harrington still will finish his career in the school's Top 10 in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots.