The recruiting sites have been lighting up with info on two of the Hoyas' primary targets for '08: Michael Dunigan and Greg Monroe.
It looks like Dunigan is officially off the table, as he has committed to Oregon along with his friend Matthew Humphrey. As JTIII never went in for the package deal, it is not surprising that he picked the Ducks. A hat tip to Coach Kent......
On the other hand, the Hoyas are clearly coming on strong for Monroe. Greg has listed the Hoyas first in his list of schools of some time now and scout.com had this from Greg's AAU coach:
Theus did say that he believed Monroe was no longer interested in Georgia Tech, Mississippi State or Baylor, but even then, Theus points out, that doesn’t mean there won’t be renewed interest later. Duke, Kansas and LSU remain very high on his list and Georgetown is one school that he identified as coming on strong. “I really don’t believe that you can really say any schools would be classified as leaders right now,” Theus said, “but Georgetown has certainly gotten his attention of late.”
One interesting point on Monroe: In the past he had said that he was not going to commit too early because of the possibility that the coach to whom he committed would be elsewhere by the time he arrived. This is a wise position in the crazy world of the college coaching carousel. One wonders though if it has anything to do with the JTIII contract situation. To that end, CBS's Gary Parish continues to bang the contract extension drum:
I bumped into John Thompson III at the LeBron James Skills Academy last week. He was careful with his words because he's a smart man, but just trust me when I tell you I never got the impression he thought my column about how he hasn't received a raise despite going to a Sweet 16 and Final Four in the past two seasons was silly.
And:
Negotiations in college athletics -- private or otherwise -- simply do not take this long if everything is fine. They just don't. That's a fact, a fact just like the fact that there's not a coach in the country more significantly underpaid than John Thompson III, and there is no question he is frustrated by it. I've had multiple people tell me as much, none of whom were students. The student I quoted wasn't a source as much as he was a voice to convey the feeling on campus, which is that Georgetown students fear the administration is souring a perfect situation. And trust me, they are.
I think Parish may be being a bit hyperbolic but it is good to have someone out in the MSM keeping DeGioia's feet to the fire. At the end of the day, GU is going to have to pay up--either now, or later, after the alumni run DeGioia out of town on a rail, and the university has to pony-up for a big name coach without any loyalty to Georgetown. I think he's got about 5 or 6 weeks until the students start heading back to campus. At that point, the pressure is going to build significantly. I think DeGioia has done a fine job as president so far but failure on this front will skunk his entire presidency and quite possible end it prematurely. Of course, if the obstacle is the Board, we the alumni have little recourse beyond storming one of their meetings. If I remember correctly, at one point some students did this with success.....
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