This past weekend, amidst the silly celebrations for the beginning of this year’s basketball season, we learned something significant about the program. No, not that the players are hungry to win. Not that Jeff Green was good but is now in the NBA. Not that Roy Hibbert had a good off-season. The most telling sign about the future of Georgetown basketball was not about the current team at all. It was about Greg Monroe.

For those of you who don’t know, Greg Monroe is a 6′10 senior from Helen Cox High School in Louisiana. He is listed as the number one recruit by Rivals.com, and a few weeks ago he gave a short list of schools he was considering attending. Georgetown was on that list, along with LSU, Texas, Duke, and UCONN.

After a visit to LSU, he attended Georgetown this past weekend and was planning trips to Austin, Durham, and Storrs later in the month. But after visiting the campus, he gave a verbal commitment to Georgetown, and it looks as though the other trips will be canceled. This is as clear a sign as any that the program is well on the way to becoming the powerhouse it was in the 1980’s.

Before I go on, let me clarify a few of the terms. Monroe gave what is called a verbal commitment. That means it is a non-binding agreement, so he can still change his mind. Ideally, on November 15th, the first day such commitments are allowed, he will sign a letter of intent to attend Georgetown. Once the letter of intent is signed, Monroe is contractually obligated to attend Georgetown for one academic year, just as Georgetown is contractually obligated to provide him with financial aid, as long as he is deemed qualified by the NCAA Eligibility Board. (And based on the claims that he is a National Honor Society student, I am sure he will have no problems in that department.)

Despite the non-binding nature of a verbal agreement, the significance of recruiting Monroe, should not be overlooked. JTIII and his coaching staff’s ability to persuade Monroe to Georgetown, and perhaps more impressively away from the hometown competition of LSU, shows the strides that the program has taken in the past few years. DaJuan Summers and Vernon Macklin were highly rated recruits, as were Georgetown’s incoming freshmen Austin Freeman and Chris Wright. Monroe is the latest addition to Georgetown ’s recruiting class for 2008, joining 6′8 power forward Chris Braswell, 6′10 center Jason Clark, and 6′2 swing guard Henry Sims, all in the top 100 recruits according to rivals.com. While recruiting highly-ranked players doesn’t win championships, or even help you win games [See: Seton Hall-2000-2001 season], getting high-quality players to come to Georgetown will increase the buzz about the team, the media coverage, which in turn will help recruiting later on. So, while Monroe might not be the greatest player ever to wear the blue and gray, he may lay the foundation for someone else to earn that title further on down the road.

A lot of the hype around Monroe has been along the lines of “Georgetown is going to be really good next year with that incoming class.” But in all honesty, no one knows how good Monroe will actually be in the blue and gray if he does play for the Hoyas next season. It would not be the first time that a high school player’s talents were misjudged. But, that is not entirely relevant. The point is Georgetown tried to recruit Monroe, the prized possession of Duke, the hometown hero of LSU, and they succeeded. So, whether he turns out to be a super star or a flop does not take away from the fact that he was the most coveted player graduating from high school in 2008, and Georgetown was able to bring him to the hilltop. Now that is something worth celebrating.