Georgetown coach John Thompson III was patiently taking questions Saturday about his third-seeded Hoyas team that meets 11th-seeded North Carolina State in a third-round game today.
An enterprising writer from Carolina had a question about a lingering grudge from when the teams met in the NCAA Tournament’s East Regional semifinals.
“I’m not sure what your memories are of the 1989 game between Georgetown and N.C. State,” the reporter began, “but there’s a significant portion of the people in Raleigh who think Alonzo Mourning fouled Chris Corchiani at the end of that game instead of the travel that was called. Do you remember any of that?”
Thompson laughed.
His father, John Thompson Jr., was the coach of the Hoyas when they edged the Wolfpack 69-61 before falling to Duke 85-77 two days later in the round of eight.
Just two games before the Hoyas-Wolfpack game in 1989, the Hoyas almost became the first and only No. 1 seed to lose to a 16th seed when Georgetown held off Princeton 50-49. In that game, Princeton had two chances to win in the final seconds, but Mourning blocked two shots. Many thought then the Hoyas star had fouled the shooter.
“I do not remember that game specifically,” JT3 said of the N.C. State-Georgetown game. “When you were asking that question, the first thing that went through my head was that there are a lot of people in Princeton, N.J., that think Alonzo Mourning fouled Bobby Scrabis on the last shot of that game. So that must have been the theme that year.”
From behind a nearby curtain came a booming voice: “Both of them were wrong!”
It was John Thompson Jr.
