Jonathan Wallace not only could have been watching this game from a dorm room or frat house in Princeton, he also probably should have been. Recruited to the Ivy League by former Tigers coach John Thompson III, he faced a strange decision when Thompson left for Georgetown: Stay at Princeton, where he would have been a standout player in the Ivy, or follow Thompson to Washington and try to make the team as a walk-on. Thompson promised Wallace neither a scholarship nor any playing time.
Wallace followed the coach, and he has started every game in his three seasons at Georgetown. Without him on their side last night, the Hoyas would be watching the Final Four in their rooms on campus.
It was Wallace who slipped Lawson's fierce defensive coverage, pulled up, and calmly hit a three-point shot to tie the score at 81 with 31 seconds in regulation. The shot completed an astonishing Georgetown comeback (or Carolina collapse, depending on your perspective), from 10 down with just over seven minutes left.
"Toughness isn't just hard fouls or being willing to fight somebody," said Williams, his red-rimmed eyes swimming in tears. "Toughness is being 10 down and continuing to do what your coach wants. Toughness is Jonathan Wallace making a three-pointer when he knows that, if he misses, his team probably doesn't win."
If you'll follow the coach from Princeton to Georgetown, you'll follow him in the heat of an elimination game.
Down 10, during a time-out, Thompson was smiling in the huddle.
"He's always like that," Wallace said. "He never gets rattled, no matter what. That calms a lot of guys down in the huddle."
