Georgetown University men's head basketball coach John Thompson III once told Sports Illustrated that he is "the smartest player I've ever coached."

He continued: "That's a hell of a statement."

"It meant a lot (to me). He's coached a lot of players in his career, so that was just a big confidence boost," the player said.

Ever the unselfish player, he passed a lot of the credit to his teammates.

"It didn't come easy, but they stuck behind me from the day that I got there. And the work we all put in together was big part of it. We worked and worked at it, got to know each other very well. It helped me know the spots they were going to be in on the court. So you know, a lot of the time, they made me look good. A lot of the credit has to go to them, because they were such a big part of why he called me the smartest player he ever coached."

Jeff Green backed up his coach's proclamations with stellar play - seemingly from opening day. He was named co-Big East Rookie of the Year (along with Rudy Gay) after his freshmen campaign, setting the stage for a career spent being named to All-Big East teams and nailing game-winners in both the regular season and the NCAAs.

But they weren't always the top dogs. Coming in to Jeff's freshmen season, the Hoyas were coming off a 13-15 campaign. And even though the coach who recruited Jeff was fired, he stood by his commitment.

"I made a promise to go there - no matter who the coach was. I promised my parents and I saw the whole school and what it represented. It wasn't just about basketball - the education is great at Georgetown. And that's something that I knew I could take with me wherever my career went," Jeff said.

Jeff's on-court education keyed the turnaround for the once-proud program.

"It was just hard work. From Day One when Coach Thompson got there, we were just in the gym working hard, crafting what we had to do best. Learning the (Princeton) offense, learning each other, getting on the same page. We wanted to win and we made that commitment to each other."

The heart of Jeff's game is his all-around style of play - doing whatever it takes to get his team on track to simply winning basketball games. Those skills were on display dating all the way back to his high school days.

"Len Bias played at my high school. Played at Maryland. Got drafted as one of the top picks in the NBA. Just playing at a school with a history like that was a great challenge," he said.

A challenge Jeff would meet.

Senior year at Northwestern High School (Hyattsville, Maryland) proof: 17 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks per game. The year wrapped with Washington Post All-Met and Jordan Capital Regional Game honors for Jeff - and a Maryland 4A State Championship for the Wildcats.

In both high school and college, Jeff was tasked with living up to the decorated history of the players and teams that came before his time. Confidence played a key role in his ability to succeed.

"When you have confidence in yourself, you know eventually you'll have confidence in your team. You can pass it to anybody and have faith that they'll make the play. And I think that comes over time - it's not something that happens overnight. But when you work and you see your teammates work, that's when you become confident in everyone's ability to get the job done. It's something that you just have to continue to work on," Jeff said.

Being able to handle adversity is another key.

"You just have to realize that there will always be ups and down. Neither myself or my teams have ever been perfect, but we always stuck together and kept working to get better. You just have to have the will to want to get better, continue to work and commit to being successful. If you do that, things can change quickly," he said.

And at the end of the day, you learn to not even think about failing.

"I never think about missing. I got comfortable with taking the last shot. But when I was in high school, I didn't have that - I wasn't a pure jump shooter. Over time, after putting in the work, I gained confidence in my game. And now I know: every time the ball leaves my hands, it's going in."