NCAA: Changes Georgetown Basketball Needs to Make to End Its Sweet 16 Drought

Giants once walked the land of Georgetown basketball. Not just in stature, like 7-footers Patrick Ewing and Dikembe Mutombo, but also in defensive toughness, athleticism and attitude. The Hoyas, three-time NCAA finalists and the 1984 national champions, used to be kings.

But Georgetown in recent years has gone from feared lion to paper tiger. It has become stylish, even profitable, to pick against it in the early rounds of the NCAA tournament. And for good reason. The Hoyas have just three tournament wins since 2008 and have lost to a team seeded 10th or worse in four of their last five appearances.

Their latest defeat came last Saturday, a 75-64 loss to No. 5 Utah.

How did the Hoyas fall so far? And, more importantly, how can they climb back to the top? It's mostly good news for Georgetown's alums and admirers. They don't have too far to go to restore their winning ways.

Here are a few key elements that will help.

Defense

The hallmark of Georgetown's most stalwart teams is defense. Hoya guards relentlessly pressured ball-handlers, while big men sent back anything that came to the rim. Opponents knew that, against Georgetown, a good shot would be hard to come by.

Mark Lennihan/Associated Press

Georgetown brought incredible defensive intensity as recently as 2013, explains Jeffrey Haley of SB Nation. At the time, the Hoyas defense was in the top five in the nation, and it earned them a No. 2 seed in that year's tournament. This season, by contrast, Georgetown ranked 140th in points per game allowed. In order to get back to its winning ways, Georgetown must make stingy defense a top priority again. If it doesn't, tournament woes like these will continue:

Recruiting

In any sport, talent is the biggest separator, and Georgetown has seen promise from this year's freshman class. Tre Campbell, Isaac Copeland, LJ Peak and Paul White comprised one of the more heralded freshman classes in the country, according to ESPN, and they played an increasingly larger role on the team as the season wore on.

Coach John Thompson III also received commitments in the Class of 2015 from 4-star recruits Jessie Govan, Kaleb Johnson and Marcus Derrickson. Thompson expects their length and athleticism to provide matchup problems on offense and help his defense become elite once again.

Forget About the Past

It sounds counterintuitive, but one way Georgetown can return to its illustrious past is to let it go—for now. Current Georgetown freshmen were only about 10 years old when the Hoyas made their most recent trip to the Final Four in 2007. It is barely a memory for them. And the Big East championship seasons of the 1980s and '90s may as well be on microfilm.

So when Georgetown fans stormed the court after a 20-point victory over then-fourth-ranked Villanova in January, it rankled older observers who remember the good old days. Scott Allen of The Washington Post quotes the reaction by D.C.-area radio personality Tony Kornheiser:

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"What has happened to Georgetown that they stormed the court [after] beating Villanova?" Tony Kornheiser said...on his radio show. "I mean, come on. Do people not remember how great Georgetown was? Didn't that make you want to throw up?"

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Recognizing who you once were while admitting that you are not that anymore is a sensible and solid first step toward figuring out how to get back to glory. If observers stop viewing Georgetown through the prism of a past long gone, that can help newer versions of the team break through as they attempt to play in deeper rounds of the NCAA tournament.