Georgetown Hoyas basketball

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Hoyas coach John Thompson III

The Georgetown University Men's Basketball team (which, like all sports teams at Georgetown University, is named the Georgetown Hoyas) is one of the most well-known and storied basketball programs in the NCAA.

1 Titles and banners
2 Hoyas in the pros
3 Recent years
4 Current team
5 2006-07 season
6 Basketball players famous in other areas
7 Notes and references
8 External links

[edit] Titles and banners

The Men's basketball team is the most successful and well-known sports program at the university. They won the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship in 1984 (over the University of Houston) under coach John Thompson, Jr. The Hoyas also reached and lost the Championship game in 1943 (to Wyoming), 1982 (to Michael Jordan's North Carolina), and 1985 (to Big East rival Villanova).

The team was very successful in the early years of the Big East: it won or tied for the regular-season titles in 1980, 1984, 1987, 1989, and 1992. The team was even more dominant in the Big East Men's Basketball Tournament: it won in 1980, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1989.^[1]

[edit] Hoyas in the pros

The Hoyas have an excellent history of preparing players for the NBA. Two Hoyas were the NBA first overall draft picks: Patrick Ewing in 1985 and Allen Iverson in 1996. Other Hoyas to make the NBA include Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje, Sleepy Floyd, Othella Harrington, Jaren Jackson, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, Don Reid, Charles Smith, Michael Sweetney, Jahidi White, Jerome Williams, Reggie Williams, and David Wingate.^[2]

[edit] Recent years

[edit] Current team

The current coach is Thompson's son, John Thompson III, who took over from Craig Esherick. John Thompson III's first notable win with the team took place on January 21, 2006 when unranked Georgetown upset No. 1 Duke University. This was Georgetown's first win over a No. 1 ranked team in 21 years. An interesting item of trivia is that the last time the Hoyas beat a number one ranked team, John Thompson Jr. was coaching and Patrick Ewing was playing. In their win against Duke, John Thompson III was coaching and Patrick Ewing, Jr. was sitting on the bench (as a redshirt transfer sophomore).^[3]

The Hoyas currently employ their own variant of the Princeton offense, a slow, cerebral style of play that is very rare in the modern college game. The hallmark of the offense is the "backdoor" pass, where a player on the wing suddenly moves in towards the basket, receives a bounce pass from a guard on the perimeter, and (if done correctly) finds himself with no defenders between him and a layup. Coach Thompson learned the style while serving under then-Coach Pete Carril of the Princeton University Tigers. Georgetown has been lauded in the sports media for destroying the "warped stereotype" that "African American kids don't want discipline" as well as for proving that the typically brawny Georgetown team can excel by emphasizing offensive efficiency rather than defense.^[4]

[edit] 2006-07 season

The 2006-07 Hoyas will be led by a pair of Preseason All Big East big men. Forward "Big Mean" Jeff Green and Center Roy Hibbert are highly touted Juniors who, along with Junior starting point guard Jonathan Wallace, will provide the Hoyas with veteran leadership. The three juniors are likely to be the only 3 players who start every game of the season. Rounding out the top five will be any combination of Tyler Crawford, Jessie Sapp, Marc Egerson, DaJuan Summers and Patrick Ewing, Jr.

The Hoyas have one of the NCAA's best recruiting classes for the 2006-07 season. Joining the Hoyas will be DaJuan Summers (Owings Mills, Md./McDonogh), Vernon Macklin (Hargrave Military Academy) and Jeremiah Rivers (Winter Park, Fla.). Summers, a 6-8 power forward, was named the Baltimore City Player of the Year. Rivers participated in USA Basketball's Youth Development Festival as well as the NBA Players' Association Top 100 camp. ^[5] Vernon "The Big Ticket" Macklin has been named a McDonald's All-American.^[6] as well as Mr. Basketball in Virginia. This award goes out to the states best player.

[edit] Basketball players famous in other areas

Several Hoya basketball players are famous purely for their off-court accomplishments:

Brendan Gaughan, who walked onto the basketball squad, is a driver in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series and also raced one season in the Nextel Cup series.
General James L. Jones (SFS '66), USMC, is the former Commandant of the Marine Corps and current Supreme Allied Commander Europe
Paul Tagliabue (C '62), who played for the Hoyas in the early 1960s and was one of the leading rebounders in school history ^[7], was Commissioner of the National Football League from 1989-2006.
Henry Hyde- (C 1943), Chairman of House Judiciary Committee.
Barry Sullivan- (1952 transferred to Columbia)-President, First Chicago Corporation.
William Shea-(C1929), (L1931)-New York Attorney, brought New York Mets to city. Shea Stadium named in his honor.