John Thompson Jr. built Georgetown into one of the nation's elite basketball programs. His son, John III, is ensuring the Hoyas stay that way. That father-son combination places Georgetown at No. 16 on the list of the greatest college basketball programs.

Sure, the Hoyas have been hoopin' for 100 years, with the occasional standout season (13-1 in 1919-'20 or 12-1 in '27-'28, or most impressively 22-5 and NCAA tournament runner-up in '42-'43), but it wasn't until Thompson arrived in the '70s that the school became a hoops haven.

(Click here for an excellent Georgetown timeline, including a reference to one-time star rebounder Paul Tagliabue.)

From 1975 to 1997, the Hoyas played in 20 NCAA tournaments, reached three Final Fours, won nine Big East regular-season titles, six conference tourneys, had five players honored as consensus All-Americans and won the 1985 NCAA title.

After a slight dip under Craig Escherick, Georgetown has won two Big East titles and reached another Final Four in four seasons under JT III, going 58-15 the last two seasons. Like dad's teams, the Hoyas are athletic, strong defensively and attract NBA-caliber players on the heels of guys like Patrick Ewing, Eric "Sleepy" Floyd, Reggie Williams, Charles Smith, Alonzo Mourning and Allen Iverson.

Unlike dad's teams, nowadays the Hoyas are more focused on offensive precision than being the toughest defensive team around. And man, were they tough.

The Hoyas symbolized the rough-and-tumble Big East in the '80s, a league with plenty of NBA talent, but where teams had to earn those victories. The league, formed in 1979, took shape as Georgetown came to national prominence thanks to three Final Fours berths in four seasons. It wasn't a coincidence that three of the era's most famous NCAA tourney championships involved the Hoyas.

Beating "Phi Slamma Jamma" in 1984 resulted in the school's lone title (and some jaw-dropping plays). This was the matchup the country wanted to see, with Patrick Ewing matching up against Houston's Akeem Olajuwon – a showdown of the top picks in the '85 and '84 NBA drafts, respectively.

But it's probably the least remembered title game of the three.

A loss in the '85 title game to Big East rival Villanova is usually cited as one of the biggest upsets in sports history (though a 1989 first-round escape against 16-seed Princeton could've supplanted it). It marked back-to-back Final Fours and a 69-6 record in Ewing's final two seasons.

And the first culminated with Michael Jordan's jumper and Fred Brown's errant pass in the final seconds of the '82 title game vs. North Carolina.

The sight of Thompson consoling a weeping Brown afterward symbolized Thompson's focus on aspects bigger than the game – like other preeminent black coaches of the time like John Chaney or George Raveling – though he could be tough, too. (Twenty-five years later, Brown spoke out about Thompson's tough love, remarking that Thompson only seemed to form lasting friendships with the future NBA stars.)

Both UNC and UNLV won more games than Georgetown in the 1980s, but no team was more famous. The Hoyas as a brand – black, proud and defiant – became associated with inner-city kids, eager to hoop for Thompson. For all the hoopla surrounding Michigan's Fab Five, Georgetown was first when it came to a larger-than life program (discounting the mythic proportions of UCLA.)

Because, despite all the peripheral noise associated with a good team, Georgetown remained, first and foremost, a hoops powerhouse. No, it never reached another Final Four under Thompson, but they were always among the favorites.

When he stepped down in mid-season 1999, it signaled the end of era, both in style and on-court success. Escherick did take one team to the Sweet 16, but the Hoyas were usually a .500 squad during his tenure.

Now that JT III is in D.C., a new Georgetown era of success has begun. And if it's anything close to what dad did, the Hoyas will keep rising on this list.

Next Tuesday: No. 15 on the list of greatest programs.

No. 17: Arkansas.

No. 18: Ohio State.

No. 19: St. John's.

No. 20: UNLV.

No. 21: Texas.

No. 22: Notre Dame.

No. 23: Temple.

No. 24: Oklahoma.

No. 25: N.C. State.    

Between "The Triplets" and "40 Minutes of Hell," Arkansas was a no-brainer for the greatest college basketball programs of all time.

The Razorbacks, behind their six Final Four appearances, 1,473 wins, 26 regular-season conference titles, 29 NCAA tournament berths and a host of NBA players produced, ended up No. 17 on this list.

They don't excel in any one area, but they don't lag behind anyone either, which is the main reason the Hogs are in the top 20. If not for the dropoff in the last 10 years, they'd be higher.

Still, when it comes to college basketball, Arkansas has two things going for it that few other schools have:

• A true shining moment from the Big Dance in Scotty Thurman's rainbow 3-pointer over Duke's Tony Lang that sealed the school's lone NCAA title.
• A jaw-dropping Sports Illustrated cover of a ready-to-throw-down-a-rim-rattling-dunk Sidney Moncrief that helped introduce Arkansas hoops to the rest of the world.

The rest of the college basketball world should be so lucky.

Sure, the Razorbacks reached the Final Four twice before Eddie Sutton's "Triplets" of Moncrief, Ron Brewer and Marvin Delph did in 1978, but those monster seasons of the late '70s signaled Arkansas' arrival to big-time basketball. (Oddly enough, the "Triplets" moniker wasn't given out until Al McGuire coined the phrase in 1978. It applied for three games, but proved enduring.)

A 26-2 season the year before provided the motivation – because of an opening-round loss to Wake Forest in the NCAA tourney – as Arkansas rolled through the regular-season, reached No. 1 for the first time in school history and even gained a fan in then-gubernatorial candidate Bill Clinton (who would later enjoy the Hogs' title run during his first term in the oval office.)

After dispatching Weber State, UCLA and Cal-State Fullerton, the Hogs ran into future SEC rival – and eventually national champ – Kentucky in the Final Four, where the magical run ended.

(Razorbackexpats.com did a marvelous three-part series on the 1977-78 season for interested parties. For a fabulous recap on the 1977-78 regular-season, click here. For the Final Four, here.)

The next season, Brewer and Delph headed to the NBA, Moncreif earned All-American honors and led Arkansas to a 25-5 record and narrowly missed out on another trip to the Final Four when Larry Bird's Indiana State squad beat them in the Elite Eight.

Sutton's teams were never quite as dominant, but still earned NCAA berths every season until he left for Kentucky in 1985. That would sink most programs, as Sutton is one of five coaches to take four different teams to the Big Dance.

But it simply opened the door for Nolan Richardson, who would led the Hogs to three Final Fours, a title and more wins than any other coach in the school's history (and did it with his eye on more than just the wins and losses).

His Arkansas teams would be famed for their "40 Minutes of Hell," a defensive style that forced teams into turnovers and helped the Hogs run up and the down the court. After a few years, Arkansas emerged as one of the nation's scariest teams to play.

With Todd Day, Lee Mayberry and Oliver Miller leading the way, Richardson's squad stormed to the 1990 Final Four, reached the Elite Eight the next season and won back-to-back conference titles in the process of going 65-9.

Who could've guessed that a version two years later would be even scarier?

Behind Corliss Williamson, Corey Beck and Thurman Arkansas was 63-10 during the 1993-'94 and '94-'95 seasons, reached back-to-back title games, winning one NCAA tournament and an SEC crown.

Indeed, that title squad is usually on the short list as one of the era's greatest teams, though because only Williamson went to a decent NBA career, it's easy for people to forget just how deep and how good they were. Few teams could bring big men off the bench like Darnell Robinson, feature a defensive stopper like Clint McDaniel or a three-point specialist like Al Dillard.

And they could fill it up. Only one champion in the last 35 years (UNLV) averaged more points per game than the Hogs' 93.4.

Yet it took Thurman's rainbow to really give Arkansas the hoops respect it deserved (which Richardson always claimed the media didn't dole out).

The end of the Richardson era – an acrimonious dispute between him and the athletic department resulted in the school buying out the last six years of his contract, him filing a lawsuit and having the suit later thrown out – didn't help Arkansas' hoops fortunes.

Today, things the relations between Richardson and the school have improved somewhat, with some wishing the two would just bury the hatchet.

Under new coach John Pelphrey, the Razorbacks had one of their best seasons in years, finishing 23-12 and 9-7 in the SEC. They also snagged their first NCAA tourney win since 1999. That's a far cry from the "Triplets," but it also gives some hope to one of the country's proudest hoops programs.

Next Tuesday: No. 16 on the list of greatest programs.

No. 18: Ohio State.

No. 19: St. John's.

No. 20: UNLV.

No. 21: Texas.

No. 22: Notre Dame.

No. 23: Temple.

No. 24: Oklahoma.

No. 25: N.C. State.

The handful of football schools on the list of greatest college basketball programs ends with No. 18, Ohio State.

Well, the last of this list's traditional football powerhouses concludes with Ohio State. There are still a couple of teams left that could be considered football schools, but the Buckeyes are a clear-cut football school – with a great basketball legacy.

It's funny, too. At one time, basketball could've been considered THE sport for THE Ohio State University. That's what happens when a school has Final Four runs like the Buckeyes.

They made three straight Final Fours twice (from '44-'46 and '60-62) and reached the NCAA tournament's first title game in 1939. Add Final Fours in '68, '99 and 2007, and only UCLA, North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky and Kansas have played in the Big Dance's semifinals more than OSU's 10 appearances.

Ohio State also scores thanks to 19 conference titles, 24 NCAA tourney appearances, 10 consensus first-team All-Americans, nearly 40 players sent to the NBA and a strong showing in the NIT, boosted by their 2008 title.

So why aren't the Buckeyes higher? Couple of reasons.

They've only claimed one NCAA title during those 10 Final Fours. They struggled mightily for most of the 90s and at the end of Jim O'Brien's tenure in Columbus. And the NCAA vacated 113 games from his time, costing the Buckeyes wins and one of those Final Four berths.

(The gist of the O'Brien mess: He admitted paying a recruit and was fired. However, he sued and won a 2007 ruling that ordered Ohio State to pay him $2.4 million. He was cut a check in May.)

Without that, maybe the Buckeyes would be a few spots higher. Still, recognizing their on-court success is easy.

Harold Olson won 260 games, five conference crowns and reached the school's first four Final Fours.

The Buckeyes won an NIT title under Eldon Miller, while Randy Ayers' early '90s teams, led by two-time All-American Jim Jackson, won back-to-back Big Ten regular-season crowns, not an easy feat in a time when Indiana and Purdue owned the Big Ten and the Fab Fiver were coming into their own.

Thad Matta's 2006 and 2007 squads matched that back-to-back feat, but his freshman-laded squad – stars Greg Oden and Mike Conley among them -- punctuated the second with a spot in the NCAA title game and a school-record 35 games.

But nothing compares to Ohio State's golden years of the early 60s under coach Fred Taylor and his remarkable stars, Jerry Lucas (among the greatest college players ever) and John Havlicek (excellent college player and legendary Boston Celtic). The Buckeyes also had a notable sixth man in one Bobby Knight.

Ohio State was 78-6 during their three-year run of Final Fours in the early '60s, the first of which resulted in the school's lone NCAA tournament title. The Buckeyes reached the title game the next two years, but lost to Cincinnati both times. (OSU was 26-0 entering the 1961 title game, one of the tournament's classic outcomes.)

Three title games and a title in three years? That's elite company (UCLA, Kentucky and Cincy) when it comes to the Big Dance.

The guiding force behind those teams probably doesn't get enough mention today as one of the game's great coaches, especially on defense. But don't just take my word for it.

During Taylor's funeral in 2002, Knight heaped praise on his former coach, remarking Taylor was "was responsible for the basketball we see played in the Big Ten today – and a lot elsewhere in the country."

That's perhaps the best tribute a coach and school can receiver. After all, only the ACC has performed better than the Big Ten in the NCAA tourney, which speaks volumes for Taylor's teams.

Next Tuesday: No. 17 on the list of greatest programs.

No. 19: St. John's.

No. 20: UNLV.

No. 21: Texas.

No. 22: Notre Dame.

No. 23: Temple.

No. 24: Oklahoma.

No. 25: N.C. State.

This ranking of the greatest college basketball programs was incredibly tight. By assigning a numerical value to how schools compare in several categories (NCAA tournament success, number of wins, tournament titles, NBA players produced, among others), it came down to the slimmest of margins.

This is important because No. 19, St. John's, starts off a run of nine programs separated by essentially a great season or two. Perhaps a Final Four berth or a conference crown combined with another team's sub-par season would vault one school ahead of another.

And that's what St. John's has been missing for some time – some semblance of hoops success. It's been to just five NCAA tournaments since Lou Carnesecca retired after the 1992 season and has missed the last six. NCAA penalties for rules violations haven't helped, either.

That's a rough run for one of college hoops' traditional powers.

St. John's was among the most successful teams in each decade from 1930 to 1990 (winning at least 70 percent of its games except for the '50s, when it won a mere 69 percent of 'em), while serving as the East Coast's hoops hotbed for talent.

(The Red Storm has always produced more than its fair share of NBA players, from Dick McGuire to Chris Mullin and Mark Jackson to Ron Artest. Only Kentucky, North Carolina and UCLA have sent significantly more players to the pros.)

St. John's has 27 NCAA tournament appearances, two Final Fours and 1,670 wins in just over 100 years, good for a .6627 win percentage (10^th best in D-I history).

But most impressively, the Red Storm own the NIT.

St. John's has 27 NIT appearances, 6 titles and have another finished among the top four an additional 10 times, by far the best performance of any team in the tournament's history.

Which makes sense, too. Playing in NYC always gave St. John's an edge and usually made it the school's preferred postseason tourney until the 60s. Consider that legendary St. John's coach Joe Lapchick (career record 334-130) had just one NCAA tourney berth, but four NIT titles. The first two, in 1943 and 1944, would've been considered the trophy in college hoops.

Still, quantifying that St. John's NIT success isn't easy. Is it worth an NCAA tournament title? Two? Three? Hard to say. All of which is to say St. John's seems like a program that should be higher than 19^th, but somehow isn't. (Much the same way I thought Temple and N.C. State would've been higher.)

This shouldn't overshadow any of the Red Storm's glorious history.

Starting with the "Wonder Five" and their 24-game win streak in the 20s, coach James "Buck" Freeman set the stage for their hoops tradition. The team was 88-8 in Freeman's first four seasons, and he would finish 177-31 in nine seasons.

Lapchick replaced Freeman and emerged as a larger-than-life figure, both because of his 6-foot-5 frame and his winning ways a coach for St. John's and the Knicks.

Simply put, he was adored by the press and the fans. From Gus Alfieri's book, "Lapchick":

The sports editor of the New York Post, Ike Gellis, was a very good friend of Lapchick's. Gellis once said something like, If Joe Lapchick assassinated John F. Kennedy in Times Square in broad daylight, no one would write about it the next day.Retrieved from "http://hoopedia.nba.com/index.php/St._John%27s_Red_Storm"

 (Of course, this was before 1963.)

Even when Lapchick left to coach the Knicks in 1947, he was replaced by another Hall of Fame coach, Frank McGuire, (that's three, with Lapchick, Carnesecca and McGuire), who led the team to the NCAA title game in 1952. He departed for North Carolina after that and Lapchick returned to St. John's in 1956.

When he retired in 1965, his assistant Carnesecca took over and more success followed. The pair formed the basis for all things St. John's basketball. Even now, it's hard to escape their shadow.

When Carnesecca guided St. John's to its second Final Four in 1985 (his loaded squad included future NBA stars Chris Mullin, Walter Berry and Mark Jackson), a 31-4 season ended with a loss to Big East nemesis Georgetown, who would lose to another Big East team, Villanova, in the final.

St. John's was an elite team in the nation's premier conference and Carnesecca was a beloved figure, much like his old boss, Lapchick.

Between the trademark sideline sweater and affable ways with the press, Carnesecca was a Big East mainstay for years, even if he wasn't a huge fan of having then-independent St. John's joining the new league in 1980. He didn't want to schedule those same teams – Syracuse and Georgetown, for example, every season.

Still, after a few years he recognized how important the league's rivalries would become, and took away many fond memories.

"One time we were playing Seton Hall, everything went in, I had the players,'' he told the N.Y. Times. ''We're up by 40 in the second half, and I mean, I'm using everybody. I feel a tap on my shoulder. It's the Seton Hall manager. He handed me a slip of paper. He said Coach Raftery wanted me to read it. It said, 'I surrender.' He surrendered! And he said, 'P.S.: If you want to work against a zone, I'll do it.' Great personalities.''

Next Tuesday: No. 18 on the list of greatest programs.

No. 20: UNLV.

No. 21: Texas.

No. 22: Notre Dame.

No. 23: Temple.

No. 24: Oklahoma.

No. 25: N.C. State.

Depending on one's politics, being feted at the White House can be a huge honor or a teeth gritting affair. Does seeing President Bush hold up a Kansas jersey aggravate you or bring an even bigger smile to your face?

Maybe I'll leave the politics to someone else…

In lieu of my personal biases (except when it comes to my allegiances to the Jayhawks as a University of Kansas graduate), I'll pose this question: Who knew the President was such a big hoops fan?

"You brought new glory to one of our nation's most storied basketball programs, and you gave your fans all across America one more reason to chant: Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!" Bush said, using the school's famous chant to the delight of a loyal Kansas crowd.

Isn't his attention usually reserved for baseball (as a former owner of the Texas Rangers), football (because it's the American way) and fair play in sports (since he has referenced steroid use in his State of the Union address)?

Then again, not sure it's a question I really need answered. Mostly wanted to post another entry on the Jayahawks…