Now that the college basketball season is officially over and everybody is looking forward to next season, it’s time to address a potential problem of summer vacation. Fortunately this isn’t a problem that has hurt the Hoyas very recently, but over the past decade or so it has been something that Georgetown has had serious trouble dealing with - transfers.

When you look back at what I refer to as “The Dark Ages” of Georgetown Basketball, you see a startling trend of key players leaving Georgetown. “The Dark Ages” began when Allen Iverson entered the NBA Draft after the 1996 season and ended with John Thompson III’s second season as Hoya head coach. That’s a period of nine years during which the Hoyas only made the NCAA Tournament twice.

In Georgetown’s case, there were three notable players who left school early to enter the NBA Draft - Allen Iverson, Victor Page, and Mike Sweetney. But just like with transfers, it’s the responsibility of the coaches either to keep the good players at school or to be prepared to replace them. Georgetown did a poor job on both of those fronts. Transfers are inevitable, but when players left Georgetown during this time, it wasn’t reserves at the end of the bench who were leaving; it was key players. There were also two coaching changes, and the program lacked the consistency that makes success possible. Without consistency and with unexpected departures of key players, it is impossible to build on the accomplishments from the previous season. Every November, the team in many ways was starting from scratch, which is why they started behind the rest of the teams around the country. It’s also why they had so much trouble keeping up.

Since taking over on the hilltop, John Thompson III has not had any major impact player transfer. Also, even though the recent season was ultimately disappointing, the team and program was far from devastated by the departure of Jeff Green to the NBA. Look around the nation, and every contending team has players leaving school early for the NBA, but the top programs remain among the nation’s elite, and that’s what JTIII did this year.

Next season the Hoyas will have a lot of talented players returning, including three starters. Three key reserves will be eager to see their minutes increase in 2009, and there are some very talented freshmen coming in as well. There was a lot to be proud of and a lot was accomplished in the 2007-08 season for the Hoyas, and as long as none of the players who were in the regular rotation leave school, expect Georgetown to continue to be a force, both in the Big East and nationally.