Georgetown head coach John Thompson III loves his school’s hoop tradition.

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AP / Nick Wass

WASHINGTON, D.C. — At first blush, you’d think John Thompson III has it all.

The 42-year-old owns his dream job in coaching, following in his famous father’s footsteps at Georgetown. He works at one of the country’s preeminent academic institutions and sells a brand name that resonates in every corner of the country. His basketball team has players from as far away as New Orleans and others who grew up only a few Metro stops away.

In each of the last two seasons, Thompson’s Georgetown Hoyas won the Big East regular-season title. Not Louisville or Pittsburgh or Connecticut. Georgetown.

“We’ve had good players and players who believe in what we’re doing,” he says. “The stars have aligned themselves properly, and that has to happen in this league.”

When the Big East expanded four years ago, predictions of doom settled over the so-called Catholic schools. Without bigtime football to generate bigtime cash, their ability to compete was now in jeopardy. That negative forecast specifically hovered over longtime Big East members Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Villanova and Georgetown.

Thompson has heard such talk, of course, but his team (and Villanova’s) hasn’t listened. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t believe some of the talk, too. After all, Georgetown’s program is housed in McDonough Gym, an ancient building whose shelf life ended a decade ago. The Hoya offices are very nice, as is the team’s locker room. But this is no shiny, bells-and-whistles practice facility that so many other national powers work out of. Georgetown almost never gets to practice where it plays its games, the Verizon Center. Unlike many other Big East schools, the Hoyas do not fly to and from every game in a chartered plane.

Despite these limitations, expectations are sky high at Georgetown. While PC aims to return to the NCAAs, Georgetown fans take those trips for granted. You can win the Big East, but if you lose on the first weekend of the NCAAs, people wonder what went wrong. That equation is never going to change.

“This is how I function. I don’t worry about everybody else,” Thompson said. “This is who we are, this is what we have, and we have to figure it out. If I get caught up in looking around at what all the other teams in the league have, you may go jump off the Key Bridge. I have to focus on what we have, and we have a lot of positives and a lot of strengths.”

How does Georgetown do it? For starters, Thompson just may be the best pure coach in the league. He’s young enough to relate to his players, uses a unique system that can confound opponents, and is smart enough to not worry about the weight of trying to win titles in a league as strong as the Big East.

“Every job, every school, has its own unique set of positives and challenges,” he said. “Being at a small Catholic school is not necessarily different in that regard. I am fortunate to be at one of the top academic institutions in the country. I’m fortunate to be here in Washington, D.C., the most powerful city in the world. We’re fortunate to have a terrific basketball tradition and history here.”

Those positives are what separate Georgetown from Providence, St. John’s and Seton Hall. It’s funny to hear Thompson call his employer a “small, Catholic school.” PC (3,800 students) is a small, regional college. Georgetown is a national powerhouse. The D.C. area is also teeming with hoop talent. The last two national players of the year (Kevin Durant, Mike Beasley) are locals. Georgetown can’t get them all, but Thompson and his staff are keen recruiters.

Georgetown’s national cache (created by Thompson’s legendary father back in the 1980s) allowed the coach to nab star freshman Greg Monroe out of New Orleans. “We made a connection,” Thompson said. “He has a terrific appreciation for everything that Georgetown entails. The academic component was key for him.”

Much more than the pros, college sports are focused on the head coach. Georgetown may be fighting the tide a bit in the collegiate arms race, but in Thompson they have the key building block. The other pieces of success are in place, even if the Hoyas may not enjoy some of the bells and whistles of other schools. Very few schools that don’t feed the football beast enjoy consistent national basketball success. Georgetown does, but it’s far from easy.

kmcnamar@projo.com