No. 12 Georgetown’s 61-53 defeat of No. 10 Pittsburgh yesterday moved the Hoyas into first place in the Big East and on the brink of their first regular season conference title in a decade. The revival of the once proud program that launched the careers of Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo and Allan Iverson amongst others is unquestionably one of the bigger stories of this college basketball season. Dwill of Sports On My Mind, however, contends “the NCAA™s biggest nightmare is a successful Georgetown Hoyas basketball team.”

How can Georgetown a Jesuit Catholic school with a white student body rivaling those of Marquette and Notre Dame field and all-black team, save for the inter-racial guard Jeremiah Rivers, son of Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers?

Ahhh, it™s the coaches. John Thompson III is black – and the son of legendary Hoya head coach John Thompson. But JTIII came to Georgetown from Princeton where he fielded a predominantly white team, so what™s the deal at G-town?

The answer white people come up with which is often parroted by black people is Thompson III is surrounding himself with players with whom he is comfortable. Oh wait, that™s the answer these people come up with to excuse the whiteness surrounding their own white leaders; not true for black people. For schools like Marquette and Notre Dame and other schools like them, the excuse is high academic standards. Blacks just don™t have the SAT scores to enter schools with such high academic standards like Notre Dame, Marquette, Duke, Vanderbilt, Stanford, etc. They don™t have the ability to match the standards people like Irish alum Paul Hornung say should be lowered to allow black athletes in colleges and universities like Notre Dame.

The apologists for these schools, and they are legion, shrug and say, œIt™s unfortunate, but that™s the way it is. And for JTII and his father before him it is some sort of Underground Railroad and a secret test-lowering standard alliance with the Georgetown academic department that allows the Hoyas to put an all-black team on the court and the bench.

That™s the real reason Georgetown™s recent 11-game winning streak has barely caused a blip – if you discount the local Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area – on the national and Internet sports radar. And if you don™t think it is the reason, it certainly is the reason no one wants to hear or read. It™s the reason the Hoyas entered the week at only #12 in the country a scant one spot ahead of Air Force. To think of the national fervor such a streak would cause if it was happening on Tobacco Road and on the pristine floor of Coach K Court. We™re talkin™ about Air Force! Not North Carolina, not UCLA – Air Force!

Today there are no writings implying academic improprieties at Georgetown, no cries of thuggish, sullen athletes playing defense as if they were committing assault. Today there is no talk of the JTIII-led renaissance of the Hoyas™ program from its ebb time during the Craig Esherick, post œBig John era. And there is certainly little talk of how good a college coach JTIII is, no consideration for national coach of the year – or, for that matter, Big East coach of the year.