NEW YORK:Since then, Greg Monroe committed in Georgetown - before they played their first game in the Verizon Center - it seemed inevitable that the talented big man would one day walk across the stage in the theater at Madison Square Garden and shake David Stern's hand as the NBA pick in the first round. The question has always been at the beginning of his career, he would come - and how at the beginning of the project will leave Monroe. The answer came Thursday when the Detroit Pistons' chose sophomore from Georgetown ? 7 overall pick.
"I am very grateful, and it was a long time," said Monroe.
Monroe became a high select Georgetown since Jeff Green went number 5 in 2007. After manufacturing project takes only 2 of 8 seasons between 1999 and 2006, Hoyas already sent NBA players in each of the last four seasons.
"We've had kids who listened to the children who worked," coach John Thompson III said by telephone from New York. Among the players in the NBA, former Georgetown swingman DaJuan Summers, who was the second round to choose Detroit in 2009 and may again divide the locker room with Monroe.
"I spoke with him recently, and over the past couple of months," said Monroe, "but he just texted me and told me:" Welcome ", and I'll talk to him more clearly."
The most heralded recruit to commit Thompson spent two seasons with Hoyas, averaging 16.1 points and 9.6 rebounds during his second year. He never went past the first round of the tournament NCAA, but he was dominant at times - including 29 centers and 16 points in a Jan. 17 loss Villanova when installed in a crime in Georgetown.
He tried to build a force with Hoyas NCAA tournament loss to Ohio, showing that he was "a little more steaks." Indeed, Thompson waited Monroe more than an hour later, after Monroe had chosen to eat a steak dinner.
The holiday celebration will begin before work begins Monroe. He should move to an offense different from the Princeton-style system, which is installed on Thompson of Georgetown. Monroe acknowledged the changes will be adjustments, and it came in his pre-draft interviews with front-office staff in Detroit.
"They ask me about Princeton, and my family, and what they liked about me," said Monroe, "and, of course, relates to the defense and my athleticism. But they loved me enough to me, and I wanted to come and work , and the choice is.
Thompson was a project with Monroe, and expressed his anxiety to Monroe and his family. Monroe did not go beyond its expected range, becoming the fifth big man chosen after two guards led the project. It need not wait long, though he would have to wait longer than some of its preliminary draft of the competition.
"All together, it was a circle," said Monroe. "My name was encountered around, and it is in full swing, so is the range that I expected.
But Monroe was in the center of public attention, because it is one of the key from the perspective of the preparatory Louisiana, long before he even played in the Big East. He turned 20 years old on June 4, and what he did for two years for the Hoyas might just be precursors for the fact that come with the pistons.
"There's no doubt about that," said Thompson. "He will continue better still, to become stronger. Its best ball, of course, come."
