At Georgetown basketball's media day Tuesday, five Hoyas players squeezed in behind a podium, sat shoulder to shoulder and fielded questions about new coach Patrick Ewing for the better part of 12 minutes.
A nasty, booming cough coming from the back of the room occasionally peppered their answers: Ewing was still giving one-on-one interviews for TV cameras just a few feet away. The message was clear: The story, at least for now, is going to be all about the first-year coach.
Both Ewing and his players are fine with that.
"I feel like it's just great for us," junior forward Marcus Derrickson said earlier this month. "It takes a lot of attention off."
The spotlight shone bright on Ewing from the moment he decided to play college basketball at Georgetown, and it helped shape his college experience. In 1981, Ewing was viewed as a boon for the burgeoning Big East conference — a rival to Villanova's recently-signed superstar, Ed Pinckney, and a player transcendent enough that the conference felt it was ready to move its league tournament to Madison Square Garden.
As Georgetown's coach, Ewing is happy to shield his players from anything close to that level of attention as they try to rebuild after consecutive 18-loss seasons in which the Hoyas missed the NCAA tournament.
"I hope so," Ewing said Tuesday, when asked if the attention he receives lessens the spotlight on his players. "It's my goal to take a little bit, if not a lot, of the pressure off them while I'm pushing them and driving them to be successful. The players that have been here had two poor years, and that's why I'm sitting here today. It's my goal to alleviate some of the pressures while we become a more cohesive team and work towards being a much better team. Just keep on getting better.
"You're asking me about something that's been a part of my life for a lot of years. That's my life since, what, 14, 15? That's been a way of life for me, so I don't see it as anything new."
The team appreciates that they can work essentially in the dark.
There are plenty of adjustments to be made under Ewing, not the least of which includes acclimating to a more up-tempo style and so much running in practice that it's "to the point where you just want to pass out," said Derrickson, who was joined at the podium Tuesday by junior center Jessie Govan, senior guard Jonathan Mulmore, junior guard/forward Kaleb Johnson and sophomore guard Jagan Moseley.
The Hoyas are without last season's two leading scorers, L.J. Peak and Rodney Pryor, who combined to average 34.5 of Georgetown's 74.7 points per game. That leaves Govan and Derrickson to fuel the offense even has Ewing has been stressing defense in practice. He said Govan and Derrickson, two big men Ewing looks forward to mentoring throughout the season, will be keys to the Hoyas' success.
A handful of newcomers — including highly-touted freshmen forwards Jamarko Pickett and Antwan Walker, and center Chris Sodom — will be expected to contribute as well.
"I use it as motivation," Derrickson said of the lack of media attention on the players, "because a lot of people don't know about us, know about me. We can do our behind the scenes work without all of the media attention, we can work hard, then once we come on the court, there's maybe lower expectations for us, so we just play our hardest. I feel like we just have a clean slate."
Georgetown was picked to finish ninth out of 10 teams in the Big East preseason poll this year, ahead only of DePaul. A light non-conference schedule begins at Capital One Center on Nov. 12 against Jacksonville.
In the meantime, Ewing will field questions about his favorite Halloween candy while allowing his team to practice, and theoretically grow, without too much outside attention.
"Right now, we're just learning a lot of new information on the court that can make us better," Derrickson said. "A lot of small details . . . the juniors — me, Kaleb, Jessie, we haven't won anything since we got here. So we know the bad feelings of not making it to the postseason, and we try to display that sense of urgency to our younger players. The players, we definitely have high expectations for each other — in practice."