1937–38 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team

1937–38 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball

Conference	Eastern Intercollegiate Conference
1937–38 record	7–11 (5-5 EIC)
Head coach	Fred Mesmer (7th year)
Captain	Mike Petrosky (2nd year)
Home arena	Tech Gymnasium

	Conf				Overall
1937–38 Eastern Intercollegiate Conference men's basketball standings
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
Temple	9	–	1	.900	23	–	2	.920
Penn State	6	–	4	.600	13	–	5	.722
Pittsburgh	5	–	5	.500	9	–	12	.429
Georgetown	5	–	5	.500	7	–	11	.389
Carnegie Mellon	3	–	7	.300	3	–	7	.300
West Virginia	2	–	8	.200	6	–	13	.316

The 1937–38 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented Georgetown University during the 1937-38 NCAA Division I college basketball season. Fred Mesmer coached it in his seventh and final season as head coach.^[1] The team was a member of the Eastern Intercollegiate Conference (EIC) and played its home games at Tech Gymnasium on the campus of McKinley Technical High School in Washington, D.C.^[2] The team finished with a record of 7-11 overall, 5-5 in the EIC,^[3] and had no postseason play.

Season recap

Senior Harry Bassin was lead forward for the team and averaged 6.8 points per game. In the last game of his collegiate career, the season finale at Yale, he scored a career-high 16 points in Georgetown‍ 's overtime loss.^[4]

Junior forward Joe Murphy scored 18 points at Madison Square Garden against New York University and led the team in scoring. He finished the season averaging 7.8 points per game.^[5]

Senior forward Mike Petrosky was the team‍ 's second leading scorer, with only three fewer points for the season than Murphy, and averaged a career-high 7.7 points per game. He was also among the best rebounders, although rebounds were not yet recorded as a game or career statistic.^[6]

During conference play, Georgetown finished with a 5-5 record and was the only team to defeat Temple. Temple finished the season at 9-1 in conference play, 23-2 overall, and went on to win the 1938 National Invitation Tournament.^[3]^[7] Overall, the Hoyas finished with a 7-11 record and had no postseason play.

When Elmer Ripley, who had served as Georgetown‍ 's head coach from 1927 to 1929 during Mesmer‍ 's time as a Georgetown player, expressed interest in returning to Georgetown for a second tour of duty coaching the Hoyas, Mesmer stepped aside at the end of the season to allow Ripley to take over the program the following year. Mesmer had coached Georgetown for seven seasons with an overall record of 53-76, that record partly reflecting the university‍ 's reduced emphasis on sports during his coaching years. Although his teams had gone 36-20 (.643) at home, they had managed only a 17-56 (.233) record on the road, and this had led to only two winning seasons during his tenure. Despite this, he was a popular figure in Georgetown sports throughout his time both as a player and as head coach.^[1]^[8]

Roster

Sources^[5]^[6]^[9]^[10]

Senior guard Tom Nolan would go on to serve as Georgetown‍ 's head basketball coach from 1956 to 1960, and as the school‍ 's baseball coach until the end of the 1978 season.^[9]

Sophomore guard Francis "Reds" Daly was killed in action in the Battle of Iwo Jima on February 22, 1945, during World War II military service.^[11]

#	Name	Height	Weight (lbs.)	Position	Class	Hometown	Previous Team(s)
3	Joe Murphy	6'0"	N/A	F	Jr.	West New York, NJ, U.S.	Memorial HS
53	Ed Kurtyka	N/A	N/A	G	Jr.	Washington, DC, U.S.	Eastern HS
54	Harry Bertrand	N/A	N/A	F	Sr.	N/A	N/A
55	Mario Gregorio	5'8"	N/A	G	Sr.	Washington, DC, U.S.	Central HS
60	Francis "Reds" Daly	6'3"	N/A	G	So.	Washington, DC, U.S.	McKinley Technical HS
80	Tom Nolan	N/A	N/A	F	Sr.	Washington, DC, U.S.	Eastern HS
81	Johnny Frank	N/A	N/A	F	Sr.	Tuckahoe, NY, U.S.	Horace Greeley HS
82	John Schmitt	5'11"	N/A	F	So.	Syracuse, NY, U.S.	St. John's Preparatory School (New York, NY)
84	Harry Bassin	N/A	N/A	G	Sr.	Washington, DC, U.S.	Eastern HS
85	Mike Petrosky	6'4"	N/A	C	Sr.	New London, CT, U.S.	Bulkeley HS
N/A	Bill Burke	N/A	N/A	G	Sr.	Washington, DC, U.S.	Central HS
N/A	Harry Leber	N/A	N/A	G	Sr.	N/A	N/A
N/A	John Riches	N/A	N/A	G	Sr.	N/A	N/A

1937–38 schedule and results

Sources^[12]^[13]^[14]^[15]

Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Site
Regular Season
Thu., Dec. 16, 1937*	Western Maryland	W 55–31	1-0	Tech Gymnasium
Wed., Jan. 5, 1938*	at New York University	L 41–49	1-1	Madison Square Garden
Mon., Jan. 10, 1938	vs. Temple	W 39–22	2-1 (1-0)	Ritchie Coliseum
Wed., Jan. 12, 1938*	Maryland	W 57–39	3-1	Tech Gymnasium
Fri., Jan. 21, 1938	at Pittsburgh	W 50–47	4-1 (2-0)	Pitt Pavilion
Sat., Jan. 22, 1938	at Penn State	L 23–42	4-2 (2-1)	Recreation Hall
Sat., Jan. 29, 1938*	at Syracuse	L 26–43	4-3	Archbold Gymnasium
Tue., Feb. 1, 1938*	at Fordham	L 36–38 ^OT	4-4	Rose Hill Gymnasium
Wed., Feb. 2, 1938*	at Army	L 30–50	4-5	Hayes Gymnasium
Sat., Feb. 5, 1938	Penn State	L 33–34 ^OT	4-6 (2-2)	Tech Gymnasium
Mon., Feb. 7, 1938	West Virginia	W 40–36	5-6 (3-2)	Tech Gymnasium
Fri., Feb. 11, 1938	at Carnegie Tech	L 31–54	5-7 (3-3)	Skibo Gymnasium
Sat., Feb. 12, 1938	at West Virginia	L 39–47	5-8 (3-4)	WVU Field House
Sat., Feb. 19, 1938	Pittsburgh	W 34–22	6-8 (4-4)	Tech Gymnasium
Mon., Feb. 21, 1938*	New York University	L 27–33	6-9	Tech Gymnasium
Wed., Feb. 23, 1938	Carnegie Tech	W 45–41	7-9 (5-4)	Tech Gymnasium
Fri., Feb. 25, 1938	at Temple	L 34–51	7-10 (5-5)	Philadelphia Convention Hall
Sat., Feb. 26, 1938*	at Yale	L 38–39 ^OT	7-11	Payne Whitney Gymnasium
*Non-conference game. ( ) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

References

Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball

Venues	Washington Light Infantry Armory (1906–1907) Convention Hall (1907–1908) Odd Fellows Hall (1908–1911) Arcade Rink (1911–1914, 1927–1928) Ryan Gymnasium (1914–1927) Clendenen Gymnasium (1928–1929) Tech Gymnasium (1929–1940, 1942–1943) Riverside Stadium (1940–1942) Brookland Gymnasium (1945–1946) Uline Arena (1946–1947, 1949–1951) D.C. Armory (1947–1949) McDonough Gymnasium (1951–2009) Capital Centre (1981–1997) Verizon Center (1997–present)

Culture & lore	History Hoya Saxa Jack the Bulldog There Goes Old Georgetown

People	Head coaches NBA draftees

Seasons	1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15

NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics