By Steve Giles
 
The many intriguing storylines surrounding the 2006-07 Georgetown Hoyas could easily comprise an entire episode of "SportsCenter." 

There's the father/son coaching dynasty of John Thompson Jr. and John Thompson III -- the first father and son to coach in a Final Four and with the same team. There's also the father/son player duo of Patrick Ewing and Patrick Ewing Jr. who, not coincidentally, wear the same number, 33. 

Freshman DaJuan Summers (McDonogh) averaged 9.3 points per game this season for the Hoyas. (Mitchell Layton/Georgetown)

Then there's Big East Player of the Year Jeff Green. His leadership in the overtime comeback win against North Carolina and the last-second bank shot to help the Hoyas escape against Vanderbilt in the Sweet 16 have skyrocketed him up NBA draft boards.  But the Hoyas’ best-kept secret that nobody really talks about is one of Baltimore's own, freshman forward DaJuan Summers.

Summers is a 2006 graduate of McDonogh School. As a junior, he was widely recruited by several Division I schools such as Maryland, Florida State, N.C. State and Connecticut. He chose to join "JT3" down I-95 at Georgetown.

The 6-foot-8 forward averaged 9.3 points a game in 26.3 minutes during the regular season, but over the last two games he has stepped up in a big way. He scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the last-second win over Vanderbilt and had 20 points and six rebounds in the overtime victory against North Carolina that sent the Hoyas to their first Final Four since 1985.

Despite Summers' excellent freshman year, he did not get the local media attention he deserved. Two other Marylanders, the 7-foot-2 Roy Hibbert and the versatile Green, were both bigger and better topics of conversation between the Beltways. 

For those who don't know about Summers, there are some things to keep in mind when the Hoyas play Ohio State Saturday in the national semifinal game.

As a senior, Summers was the Baltimore Sun's Baltimore County Player of the Year and the Gatorade Boys Basketball Maryland Player of the Year. And if there ever was a question about his versatility, the numbers he put up in his senior year answer it -- 29.2 points, 11.0 rebounds, four assists, two steals and three blocks.

He got his game to the level it's at now by playing for the AAU Cecil-Kirk team, the same team former Archbishop Spalding and UConn star Rudy Gay played for. Summers is on the verge of doing something Gay never got to do, possibly winning a national championship.

It was only a couple years ago that another Baltimore native named Carmelo Anthony was awing fans around the country on his way to winning a national championship for Syracuse. This weekend, Summers will try to follow in the footsteps of his idol and fellow Baltimorean by helping to bring a national title close to home.  

Issue 2.13: March 29, 2007