![]() That he already has a postgraduate game is not surprising to those who know Floyd's roots, who have seen him more than hold his own for years against James Worthy. Sleepy has been wide awake on the court ever since the slightly older Thomas Wilson taught him technique and included him in playground games as a preteen. He figured Thompson was no fool, that he would not offer a scholarship to anyone who couldn't at least pass most basketball tests. ![]() That merely certified for freshman Floyd what he had sensed for weeks, that he belonged at the highest level of his sport. He was in one of those streaks that have become so familiar: 11 for 18 from the field, 28 points in all. It was a very big deal for the Hoyas to beat Buck and Albert, Ernest, Greg and Larry Gibson by three points in Capital Centre that night, and the grandest debut anyone could imagine for a baleful, bashful bomber we soon discovered was called Sleepy. The Terrapins were the area toughs back then, Georgetown just beginning a surge that would include three straight NCAA tournament appearances, one of which ended frustratingly short of the final four, and Thompson leaving Lefty Driesell in his recruiting wake. That was against Maryland, ancient history it now seems. C., the Hoyas kept under wraps all the way to the second game of the '78 season. No outsider made a quicker impact on Washington college basketball than the freshman from Gastonia, N. People who know me, are around me a lot, know I'm not that way, that I'm a really aggressive person on and off the court."Īs Coach John Thompson says, Floyd hit the ground shooting. But you learn to adjust people identifying you with it. At a young age, I guess, you take it kinda negatively. "At first, it took awhile to adjust to it. I was with a recreation team, playing second base when a ball got hit past me and somebody in the stands said: 'This guy's asleep get him outa there.' From then on, it just stuck. "Baseball," said Floyd, tracing the Sleepy silliness to its origin. But Sleepy? He might look the part he hardly acts it. Or Vanguard, for all those on-target missiles he started launching shortly after arriving on the Georgetown campus four years ago. Better it should be Radar, in appreciation for his special defensive skills. Few nicknames make less sense than Eric Floyd's: Sleepy.
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