“Greg will return when he is 100 percent healthy,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said in a statement. “I feel for Greg because he’s worked extremely hard to prepare for the coming season, on and off the court. I’m confident this is just another setback that in the end will make him even stronger. At this point, there is no specific timetable for his return.”

The news was previously reported by CasualHoya.com and ESPN.com.

Whittington averaged 12.1 points and 7.0 rebounds last season, but was ruled academically ineligible Jan. 12. He was expected to return to the team this season and was a major reason why SNY ranked Georgetown No. 1 in our Preseason Big East rankings.

Without Whittington, Georgetown now falls to No. 3 behind No. 1 Marquette and No. 2 St. John’s.

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Tre Campbell

The 6-foot-2 2014 point guard from St. John College High School in Washington, D.C., committed to Georgetown.

“I have officially Committed to Georgetown University,” he Tweeted.

Campbell also considered Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Joe’s, La Salle, VCU, N.C. State and Xavier, Team Takeover coach Keith Stevens told SNY.tv.

“I think he brings a solid point guard that doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, can defend their position and is going to make open shots,” Stevens said.

Asked why Campbell pulled the trigger now, Stevens said, “The biggest thing is knowing he’s going to a quality program close to home and knowing his family is going to be able to see him play.”

Campbell joins Isaac Copeland, a 6-foot-9, 205-pound junior forward out of the Miller School in Charlottesville, Va., in Georgetown’s 2014 recruiting class.

Copeland pledged in March.

“I think [Campbell] is one of the better point guards in this class,” Stevens said. “I think he’s underrated and by the end of the summer everybody will recognize.”

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The 6-foot-8 Porter Jr. is projected as the No. 8 pick by DraftExpress.com.

He was named Big East Player of the Year and was also selected as a John R. Wooden All-American and was a finalist for the Wooden Award and the Naismith Trophy.

“It was a tough decision. I love Georgetown, my coaches and my teammates,” Porter Jr. said. “I’m going to come back and finish up my degree, but during the season I’ve been trying to focus on the season. After the season, I started thinking about my decision and I spoke to my parents about it. I knew it was coming down to it, but my coaches, my teammates and my parents have helped prepare me for this next step.”

Added Hoyas coach John Thompson III:

“I think he’s ready, as much mentally and emotionally as it relates to basketball,” Thompson III said. “I thought he went about the process in an educated manner. He had good choices. He could come back to school which is a very good choice or he could head to the NBA, which is also a very good choice. In our many conversations, he has said, much like Jeff (Green) did and Greg (Monroe) is doing, he’s going to come back and finish his degree. It’s a process – and he’s prepared.”

Earlier this year, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim called Porter Jr. the best small forward he’s ever seen in the Big East.

“I don’t see a weakness in his game from a perimeter point of view of a guy that I’ve seen in this league over the years,” Boeheim said.

“There’s been so many great players, but centers, power forwards, point guards, two guards, but I don’t think I’ve seen a better small forward in this league. He’s just a complete player.

“If we were still in this league, I’d be saying that to get him out. But we’re not.”

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The magnificent game played between Syracuse and Georgetown Friday night inside an electric Madison Square Garden should have been the championship, a fitting coda to the end of the Big East as we know it.

The last one before Syracuse and Louisville and Pitt and Notre Dame are replaced in the new Big East by the Butlers, Xaviers and Creightons.

“This game was like a final game, this should’ve been the championship game,” Syracuse legend Dwayne “Pearl” Washington told SNY.tv courtside after the Orange avenged two losses to the Hoyas this season and prevailed, 58-55 in OT, in the semifinals.

Instead, Syracuse will play one more time in the Big East Tournament before heading off to the ACC.

The Orange will try to win their sixth Big East championship on Saturday night against defending champion Louisville — a 69-57 winner over Notre Dame in the second semifinal.

“We got a huge game [Saturday] night but, you know what, this was one for the ages right here, playing against Georgetown our final time in Madison Square Garden,” former Syracuse big man Derrick Coleman said after high-fiving the Syracuse players and coaches on their way off the floor.

Coleman and The Pearl, their cohorts Billy Owens and John Wallace, and the thousands of Syracuse fans who packed the Garden one last time in the Big East Tournament will get one more night of magic.

The same cannot be said of Georgetown legend Patrick Ewing, who watched his alma mater go down as the No. 1 seed from the opposite side of the arena.

“It’s a great opportunity for us,” said Coleman, who has attended numerous Syracuse games this year. “We’re trying to hit our stride and getting us ready for the NCAA Tournament.

Added Washington: “We got one more game, whether it’s Louisville or Notre Dame, we gonna win it because if we come this far, this far, we gonna win it.”

In the post-game interview, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim was asked why Syracuse would walk away from all this, from the Big East it has been a member of since the conference’s inception.

“It’s got nothing to do with basketball, you know that,” he said. “You’re way smarter than that. This is just to do with football. You know that. It’s just where everything is going. Just wait a few more years. Everything will be gone.”

Still, Boeheim had to concede that Georgetown — from the days of John Thompson Jr. through today with JT3 — was Syracuse’s greatest rival in Big East history, more so than UConn, more so than St. John’s or anyone else.

“We’ve had other rivals, we’ve had other great games,” Boeheim said. “Connecticut’s been great in this league but there’s something about Syracuse and Georgetown, there really is. There’s something about it.”

Asked about the future of the rivalry in the non-conference, Boeheim didn’t sound optimistic.

“I think it will be a little hard to get that done,” he said. “We’re gonna try, we’ll see.

“They’ve got obligations, we’ve got obligations.”

If this was the last dance it sure lived up to the hype.

But it should have been the final.

Photo: Peter Robert Casey

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NEW YORK — Jim Boeheim

Georgetown’s Otto Porter Jr.

“If I’m picking, I pick him first in the draft,” Boeheim told a small group of reporters in the hallway at Madison Square Garden “I don’t even look at anybody else. I pick him first in the draft. I think he’s the best. I think he’ll be a great pro.”

Boeheim made the comments after the Syracuse defense held Porter Jr., the Big East Player of the Year, to 12 points on 4-of-13 shooting as the No. 5 Orange upset No. 1 Georgetown, 58-55 in OT, in the Big East Tournament semifinals.

Porter entered averaging 16.4 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists, but did not have a big game in the last meeting between the teams in the Big East.

DraftExpress.com currently has Porter Jr. at No. 8 in its Mock Draft, with Nerlens Noel, Ben McLemore and Shabazz Muhammad 1-2-3.

Boeheim also said that he thought Porter was the best small forward in the history of the Big East.

“I don’t see a weakness in his game from a perimeter point of view of a guy that I’ve seen in this league over the years,” Boeheim said on the podium.

“There’s been so many great players, but centers, power forwards, point guards, two guards, but I don’t think I’ve seen a better small forward in this league. He’s just a complete player.

“If we were still in this league, I’d be saying that to get him out. But we’re not.”

Asked to elaborate on whether Porter Jr. ranks ahead of Carmelo Anthony, who led Syracuse to the 2003 NCAA championship, Boeheim said, “Yeah, I think so. Carmelo played three and four and he was the best scorer. I’m talking about a guys that’s really a multi-purpsoe guy, the best all-around, not necessarily the best player.

“That would be hard to get by Carmelo and Derrick Coleman and Chris Mullin and then the centers, Patrick [Ewing] and those guys,

“Just an all-around guy the guy does everything. I mean, really, the guy does everything.”

Photo: SI.com

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NEW YORK

Porter Jr. was named Big East Player of the Year, while Thompson III is the Coach of the Year.

The 6-foot-8 Porter Jr. led the Hoyas to the Big East regular-season crown and was the only unanimous selection.  In league games, he was second in the Big East in scoring with an 18.1 average, fifth in rebounding with a 7.3 mark and tied for third in steals with a 1.8 average.  He made 44.1 percent from 3-point range, which ranked second in the league.

“He’s the best player in college,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said last month after Porter Jr. dropped 33 points in a Hoyas win at the Carrier Dome. “There’s no question in my mind.

“Georgetown is certainly the surprise team of the league and Porter’s the reason,” he added. “He’s the most versatile player that I’ve seen in a long time. He can dribble the ball, pass the ball, rebound it, he can block a shot, he can shoot the 3.

“He’s the most versatile player we’ve seen in this league in a long time.”

Porter Jr. is projected as the No. 11 pick in the NBA Draft by DraftExpress.com.

Despite the midseason loss of talented sophomore Greg Whittington to academic issues, Thompson III led a Georgetown team that was picked fifth in the Big East to a 14-4 record, a share of the Big East regular season crown and the No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament.

Should the Hoyas win the tournament this week in New York, they would be in position for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

This is his first Big East Coach of the Year award; his father, John Thompson Jr., won the honor three times.

Photo: Georgetown Athletics

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By JACK LeGWIN

Special to ZAGSBLOG

John Thompson III has another versatile big man coming his way.

Isaac Copeland, a 6-foot-9, 205-pound junior forward out of the Miller School in Charlottesville, Va., committed to Georgetown on Sunday, the morning after he attended Georgetown’s 61-39 victory over Syracuse at the Verizon Center, a game that sealed the No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament for the Hoyas.

“I chose Georgetown because I felt it was the right place for me,” Copeland told SNY.tv. “The tradition was one of the reasons, the feel of the campus, the academics and talking to the coaches also were factors that helped me make that decision.”

Copeland chose Georgetown over Boston College, Cincinnati, Florida State, Memphis, Miami, N.C. State, St. Joseph’s, West Virginia and many others.

Copeland said Georgetown’s tradition was a major factor in his decision.

“It makes everyone play hard, I like playing for teams that win,” he said. “I think that message will push me, and help to motivate me.”

Ranked 37th in the class of 2014 by ESPN, Copeland is a stretch 3 who can run the floor with ease, score and has comfortable mid-range accuracy. He said he believes he compares to Georgetown star Otto Porter Jr., the presumptive Big East Player of the Year.

As for the future of Georgetown as it heads into the new Big East/Catholic 7 next season, he said he’s excited.

“I think it will be really nice,” he said. “I don’t exactly know what it will look like yet, but what I’ve heard it will be really good, playing against good teams every day, so I like that a lot.”

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The Hoyas are now tied with Marquette and Louisville at 13-4 atop the Big East, and close things out with Syracuse at home on Saturday.

Lunardi also moved Villanova — which got 20 points from Brooklyn’s JayVaughn Pinkston — up to the “Last Four Byes” group along with Colorado, Virginia and Iowa State.

Jay Wright’s Wildcats are 4-2 against Top 25 teams this year, but because all four wins came in the Philadelphia area, Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com isn’t convinced they should be in.

“No, not with the losses that they have,” Palm told SNY.tv Thursday, pointing out that Villanova lost to Columbia (by 18) and Seton Hall. “You’re not going to really feel that comfortable and almost all of their good wins are at home.”

Among Top 25 opponents Villanova has beaten Louisville, Syracuse, Marquette and now Georgetown at home, while losing at Syracuse and at Pittsburgh.

“I mean Virginia’s 4-2 [against Top 25] and they have seven bad losses,” Palm said. “Look, this is a team that lost to Columbia. They’ve got bad losses and all those wins are at home.”

Still, Villanova is now 19-12 overall, 10-8 in the Big East.

According to the Big East, among active league members, 124 of the 130 teams (94.6 percent) that won at least 10 Big East games went on to reach the NCAA tournament.

Palm believes Villanova can’t have any bad losses next week in the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.

“Until I see their conference tournament bracket, I don’t know,” he said. “I can tell you what they can’t do, they can’t take a bad loss.”

Lunardi and Palm both have seven other Big East teams in — Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Cincinnati.

“Cincinnati would be the only one at any level of trouble, but I think Cincinnati’s probably in,” Palm said.

Palm also said that St. John’s “isn’t even on my board” but that “Providence just got on my board today of the list of teams that I look at.”

The Friars (17-12, 9-8 Big East) have won seven of eight, and need to make some serious noise next week at MSG.

“At a minimum they need to beat good teams,” Palm said. “They need to beat some of those tournament teams and probably plural.”

Palm has Duke, Indiana, Gonzaga and Louisville as his No. 1 seeds, while Lunardi has Duke (replacing Georgetown), Indiana, Gonzaga and Kansas.

Photo: Villanova Athletics

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Lunardi has Indiana (Midwest), Gonzaga (West), Kansas (East) and the Hoyas (South) as his top four seeds. Georgetown replaced Miami after the No. 5 Hurricanes lost at No. 3 Duke, 79-76, when Ryan Kelly returned from injury to pour in 36 points on 7-of-9 3-point shooting.

“I mean, me saying `spectacular’ or whatever doesn’t do his performance justice,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “One for the ages. Probably as good a performance as any player has had – a Duke player has had – in Cameron.”

As for the Hoyas, they won their 11th straight game when Porter — the presumptive Big East Player of the Year — went for 28 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals.

“The Hoyas are one of the hottest teams in the country, they’re the outright leader of the Big East whereas Duke and Miami — the two contenders of the ACC — have split their regular season meetings and may yet meet again in the ACC final,” Lunardi said on ESPN. “That team could move up, where Georgetown could win the Big East outright.”

The Hoyas (23-4, 13-3 Big East) lead Louisville and Marquette — both of whom won Saturday — by one game with two games left before the Big East Tournament next week at Madison Square Garden.

Photo: Georgetown Athletics

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