Prior to being hired at Georgetown, Thompson was the head coach for four years at his alma mater, Princeton University.

The following year, the Tigers went 16–12 (11–4) to finish in a three-way tie for the Ivy League title, which resulted in them having to play in a tiebreaker tournament, which they lost to Yale.

Esherick (as had been the case with his predecessor John Thompson) had utilized an offense built on quick and physical play; however, Georgetown had not made the NCAA Tournament in six of the last seven years.

Thompson III immediately introduced the Princeton offense at Georgetown, a style of play that he learned from coach Pete Carril at Princeton as a player and assistant coach; the offense is cited as more deliberate in nature with establishing scoring opportunities through ball movement alongside passes and backdoor cuts.

They beat Northern Iowa and Ohio State to reach the Sweet Sixteen against Florida, where they lost 57–53 to the eventual national champions.

The Hoyas would go on a tremendous run that year, as they won twelve of their last thirteen games en route to a Big East championship.

Facing the top seed in North Carolina, the Hoyas trailed by as much as eleven points with twelve minutes remaining before rallying to win 96–84 and reach the Final Four for the first time since 1985.

They faced Ohio State in the Final Four; the game was tied with nine minutes remaining, but the Buckeyes went on a 23–16 run to beat Georgetown 67–60.

They managed to beat three ranked teams (including eleventh-ranked Butler in January), but the Hoyas lost seven of their last eight games to finish below .500 for the second straight year, which was the first time Georgetown had suffered back-to-back losing seasons since 1972–1973.

[3] Thompson's 13-year tenure as head coach is the second longest in Georgetown history, and his 278 wins are also second all-time in school history–in both cases, only behind his father.