The last time I can remember Georgetown having to rely on a slightly undersized and skinny power forward was when former Hoya great Reggie Williams was roaming the baseline on the Hilltop in 1987. We now turn to year 2003 where we find another slightly undersized and skinny power forward being asked to do much of the same things in current Georgetown sophomore Brandon Bowman.

Williams came to Georgetown with a lot more advanced billing. He was a consensus All-American, considered the number one high school player in the country by most recruiting publications, and a highly decorated player out of Dunbar H.S. in Baltimore. Although Bowman didn’t arrive with as much fanfare – he was ranked generally in the lower part of the top 100 by most recruiting publications – he will undoubtedly be asked to perform at the same high level that Williams obtained.

Williams averaged 23.6 point and 8.6 rebounds a game in 1987 and was named the Big East player of the year as he lead Georgetown to the Final 8 before bowing out to a Billy Donovan led Providence Friars team in the Southeast Regional Semifinal game in Louisville, KY by a score of 88-73.

That overachieving team was labeled “Reggie and the miracles” because in the words of former Hall of Fame Georgetown coach John Thompson, “Reggie had to sing a whole lot of lead.”

Well with the presence of senior guard Gerald Riley and 3-time co-captain Courtland Freeman, Bowman won’t be asked to sing a whole lot of lead, but he’ll certainly be asked to score and rebound similar to what Williams did.

I think it’s unreasonable to expect Bowman to average 23.6 points a game, but I feel he’s more than capable of collecting 8.6 rebounds a game and leading the team in that category. Bowman has a very long wingspan and he’s almost 6-foot-9 and is very athletic and is a quick jumper with active legs capable of getting off the floor quickly for improbably rebounds that appear to be out of his reach.

Bowman averaged a respectable 7.6 points and 4.5 rebounds a game as a freshman and seemed to have improved as the year went by. However, he never seemed to recover the shooting form that he displayed at Southern California basketball powerhouse Westchester H.S. where he consistently hit at least one or two 3-pointers a game and was perhaps their most consistent long-distance marksman.

He will need to double his scoring and rebounding totals this year to help compensate for the absence of rebounding machine Michael Sweetney, who is waiting near the end of the Knicks bench for an opportunity to show his skills.

In retrospect, perhaps Sweetney would’ve been better served working on some of the deficiencies that are prohibiting him from playing in the NBA at Georgetown instead. But I guess that’s another Random Thought altogether.

Bowman is expected to play more of an inside-out game this year, taking guys off the dribble that are stronger, but perhaps slower than him and scoring inside against shorter opponents. Thus, Hoya fans are expecting to see the full scope of his game this year instead of the wide-eyed freshman just trying to contribute to the team.

His contribution to the team cannot be discussed without bringing up the circumstances that occurred this summer, which seemed like he was going to be apart of a mass exodus of players and coaches leaving the school. In subsequent interviews Bowman hasn’t wanted to touch the topic much or elaborate about the events that led to him asking for and receiving a release from his scholarship at Georgetown.

It appears as though he came to a change of heart and is willing to let bye-gones be bye-gones. This is incredibly good news, because he was the only player involved in the rash of transfers that I felt was a major building block to becoming a NCAA tournament program again. A 6-foot-8 plus athlete that can handle and shot like a guard, rebound and play good position defense don’t come around every day. Which is why I believe he’ll be playing for pay someday, more than likely eventually in the NBA.

But this year is the foundation where he needs to begin to show people that he is one of the better players in the country. He wasn’t named to any of the preseason All-American or even All-Conference teams. So obviously there are still a lot of doubters about his ability. He also was one of the final cuts for the 2003 USA Basketball Junior World Championship Team.

Bowman was one of three team members along with Gerald Riley and Courtland Freeman projected to start by coach Esherick prior to the season until he eventually decided on rounding out the starting five with Ashanti Cook and Darrel Owens. Coach knew the importance of having Bowman in the lineup and perhaps made his best recruiting pitch to date by being able to convince him to give Georgetown another chance over the summer.

He looked really impressive in Georgetown’s preseason game against the Israeli All-Stars while collecting 13 rebounds to go with 15 points. He scored inside with nice moves to the basket, on the break and outside shooting the 3. This was the type of aggressiveness I was expecting out of him. There were a couple of times he was a little too aggressive and got out of control, but for the most part he’s going to have to duplicate this effort for the remainder of the season if Georgetown wants to be able to prove their critics wrong with their preseason prognostications.

The season is scheduled to tip-off this Friday as the Hoyas take on the Grambling State Tigers at the MCI center. The seven previous games in this matchup have been relatively easy victories for Georgetown, but with the new-look Hoyas who will be more perimeter-oriented I’ll take a wait and see approach.

However, there is one thing that’s for certain, I’m expecting Bowman to finally break out of his development stage and begin to show the country that he is one of the very best players in the nation.