With Jeff Green playing his first game with the SuperSonics tonight, the 2007-2008 Hoyas have a lot of personnel questions to address: Who will be the fifth starter? Who will provide the missing 14 points per game? Who will take the last second shot? But, to me, the most interesting question is, Who will jump for the opening tip?

Now before everyone starts throwing out their own suggestions - like Hibbert (”He’s 7-2 for crying out loud! He should have been jumping since he committed to the Hoyas in the 6th Grade.”), Summers (He’s Green’s protégé and can jump like 20 feet.”), or Ewing (”Just seeing a #33 jumping it up for the Blue and Gray will make the opposing center cower in fear.) - let me first tell you a little story:

In the two seasons after Patrick Ewing and Ralph Dalton graduated and before Mutombo or Mourning arrived at the Hilltop, Georgetown had one lone center. His name was Ben Gillery. Gillery had a pretty un-phenomenal career with the Hoyas, averaging only 2 points a game - by far the lowest numbers for a Georgetown 7-footer. After a brief stint with the Sacramento Kings, the biggest news Gillery made was an appearance on “Cristina’s Court” - no that’s not a celebrity hoops show hosted by the Latina Oprah, that’s a reality TV show where Judge Cristina is “as likely to hug the plaintiff as she is to pound her gavel.” And yet, despite his unimpressive numbers in the Blue and Gray, Gillery had one job that he did fairly well for the Hoyas. Big Ben would routinely start the games, win the jump ball, and take a seat on the bench after the first whistle.

Looking back at what Coach Thompson did in those seasons, it seems pretty silly that he would put so much effort into the opening tip. So instead, I propose that today’s Hoyas try something a little different. Here’s my suggestion: Let Jonathan Wallace take the jump.

Think of the message that would send: “We’re so confident that we’re gonna win, that we’re willing to put out the smallest player on our team to take the jump ball. You can have it. You still can’t beat us.” And then think how disheartening it would be when Roy, waiting underneath the basket, rejects their first attempt. That might be a more emphatic start than those times when the Hoyas caught their opponents sleeping and Brandon Bowman would get a dunk 3 seconds into the game.

And what’s the risk? The worst that happens is the Hoyas lose the jump. When Dr. James Naismith invented the game, he envisioned the jump ball playing as big a role as face-offs do in hockey. If he had his way, there would be a jump ball to start each half, after every held ball, after every basket, whenever the ball went out of bounds, and for all we know, to settle a tie instead of overtime. Luckily, the game did not evolve as the good doctor planned, and in college ball today, the opening tip has only two implications: who gets the first possession and who gets the possession arrow.

Getting the first defensive stop of the game and having the ball to start the second half seem like two good reasons to me to let Little Buddy take the jump.