NOT HIS FATHER'S GEORGETOWN THOMPSON'S TACT DIFFERS FROM DAD.

Byline: JILL PAINTER

Staff Writer

ATLANTA - John Thompson III stepped into Georgetown's huddle, flashed a smile and had agood chuckle. He had the North Carolina Tar Heels right where he wanted them.

That's what he told his players.

The only problem was that the Hoyas were down by ninepoints to the East Regional's No. 1 seed with less than seven minutes left Sunday.

It was no laughing matter.

Thompson didn't agree.

"It's just the way he stays composed and never gets antsy," Hoyas forward Patrick Ewing Jr. said. "He's really calm. In that North Carolina game, a lot of people counted us out. He was smiling and said, 'Why are you guys looking down?' "

Said center Roy Hibbert: "He came to the huddle laughing and smiling, and that's what got us through it."

Following their coach's lead, Georgetown rallied and upset North Carolina 96-84 in overtime to earn its first trip to the Final Four since 1985, when Thompson's father -- whose booming voice and 6-foot, 11-inch frame has long been synonymous with the program -- was coach.

But this isn't his father's team, and Thompson III is working his own version of "Hoya Paranoia."

John Thompson Jr. built Georgetown into a national powerhouse by taking the Hoyas to three Final Fours in four seasons during the 1980s. He won the national championship in 1984, but after retiring in 1999, the program struggled.

Thompson III has brought glory back to Washington, D.C., in just his third season.

He doesn't shout or flail about on the sideline. He's unemotional and calm, and that has worked wonders.

"It's just the way he carries himself, his mental attitude and the way we practice every day," guard Jeremiah Rivers said. "It's his work ethic, too."

Thompson III brought Pete Carril's Princeton offense with him, which he ran when he was the coach at Princeton. It's in sharp contrast to the way the elder Thompson ran things. His father's success was because of big men like Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, and Patrick Ewing, along with a gritty, physical defense.

Thompson III, also known as "Young John" and "JT3" has good big men, too. He's running the same system he did at Princeton, but with better athletes. It's an offense that favors precision passing and backdoor slashes, which often result in uncontested layups, over physical brutality.

He has the 7-2 Hibbert, who's improving every year, and 6-9 Jeff Green, who can do anything on a basketball court. Oh, and a stingy defense that holds it opponents to a 38.2 field-goal percentage.

UCLA's defense is awfully good, but Ben Howland -- a stats junkie -- was well aware that it wasn't his team that owned the best opponent field-goal percentage in the Final Four.

Thompson Jr. has had one of the best seats in the house to witness the program's turnaround. For the North Carolina game, he did courtside radio commentary and father and son shared an embrace after the comeback was complete. Thompson, Jr. playfully slapped his son on the head and told him the obvious -- that he could coach.

"I don't know that he's trying to get out of his father's shadow," Rivers said. "He's not trying to live up to his father's legacy. He's trying to create his own legacy."

He can move another step toward that goal with a win over No. 1 seed Ohio State today in the national semifinals. It's expected to be a classic matchup of big men with Hibbert and Greg Oden.

Things are run a little differently at Georgetown in the new millennium, but the results are the same, so far.

"My dad in his old age, you know, he's someone that when he sat in this seat, would never talk about anything," Thompson III said. "So now he's taking to telling the whole world all of my business, wanting to open up and start talking about the family."

At Georgetown, keeping things in the family is all good.

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CAPTION(S):

12 photos, 6 boxes

Photo:

(1) Georgetown coach John Thompson III has led the Hoyas into the Final Four, thanks in part to a calm, easygoing demeanor.

Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

(2) no caption (Taurean Green)

(3) SAPP

(4) CONLEY JR.

(5) WALLACE

(6) BUTLER

(7) SUMMERS

(8) LEWIS

(9) GREEN

(10) HARRIS

(11) HIBBERT

(12) ODEN

Box:

(1) 4 COULD BE HEROES

By Tom Hoffarth

(2) OUR PREDICTIONS

(3) MATCHUPS: GEORGETOWN, OHIO STATE

(4) BENCH

(5) COACH

(6) INTANGIBLES

- Matthew Kredell