1961–62 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team

1961–62 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball

Conference	Independent
1961–62 record	14–9
Head coach	Tommy O'Keefe (2nd year)
Assistant coach	Tom Coleman (1st year)
Captain	Paul Tagliabue (1st year)
Home arena	McDonough Gymnasium

The 1961–62 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented Georgetown University during the 1961-62 NCAA Division I college basketball season. Tommy O'Keefe coached them in his second season as head coach, but Georgetown's head coaching position paid so little that he could only coach part-time and held a full-time job outside of coaching in order to make ends meet, impairing his ability to recruit players.^[1]^[2] The team was an independent and played its home games at McDonough Gymnasium on the Georgetown campus in Washington, D.C.. The team finished with a record of 14-9 and had no post-season play.

Season recap

Sophomore guard Jim Christy joined the team as point guard this season. Early in the season he scored 25 points against VMI in the Richmond Invitational Tournament and was named the tournament‍ 's Most Valuable Player. He scored on a layup with five seconds left in overtime to defeat Seton Hall, and he had big games against George Washington and Rhode Island and in an upset of highly regarded Niagara.^[3]

Senior center Bob Sharpenter scored 25 points against Fairfield, had a combined 44 points and 32 rebounds during the two games of the Richmond Invitational, and had 17 points and 13 rebounds against Seton Hall. On February 7, 1962, he had one of the top performances in Georgetown history in the game against St. Joseph's, shooting 16-for-28 from the field to score a Georgetown-record 40 points and grabbing 17 rebounds. Before the season ended, he went on to score 32 points and pull down 11 rebounds in the upset of Niagara, have a 27-point, 22-rebound performance against New York University, and score 30 points and get 18 rebounds against Rhode Island. He led the Hoyas in scoring and rebounding for the season and was named the team‍ 's Most Valuable Player.^[4]

A good outside shooter, senior guard Jim Carrino shot 48% from the field for the season, the highest average on the team. He scored a career-high 30 points against Maryland, 22 in the upset of Niagara, and 25 in the season finale against Saint Peter's.^[5]

Senior forward and team captain Paul "Tag" Tagliabue missed the December 15, 1961, game against Manhattan at Madison Square Garden in New York City to participate as a finalist in the Rhodes Scholarship competition. He averaged 11.3 points per game, with highs of 18 points against George Washington and 13 rebounds against St. Joseph's. He ended his collegiate career as one of Georgetown‍ 's great rebounders, second in history in both number of rebounds and average rebounds per game.^[6]

The team played a then-record five overtime games during the season, winning four of them.^[4] It finished the season with a record of 14-9, the greatest number of wins by a Georgetown men's basketball team since the 1946-47 season, but not enough to earn it an invitation to a post-season tournament. It was not ranked in the Top 20 in the Associated Press Poll or Coaches' Poll at any time.^[7]^[8]

A school-record eight seniors graduated from the team after the end of this season,^[9] including every starter except Jim Christy.^[3] The departing players had been responsible for 79.9% of the team‍ 's scoring.^[9] The next season would be a rebuilding year.

Roster

From the 1958-59 season through the 1967-68 season, Georgetown players wore even-numbered jerseys for home games and odd-numbered ones for away games; for example, a player would wear No. 10 at home and No. 11 on the road. Players are listed below by the even numbers they wore at home.^[10]

Senior forward and team captain Paul Tagliabue later became Commissioner of the National Football League.

Sources^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[10]^[11]

#	Name	Height	Weight (lbs.)	Position	Class	Hometown	Previous Team(s)
4	Vince Wolfington	6"4"	N/A	F	Sr.	Haverford, PA, U.S.	Malvern Preparatory School
10	Jim Christy	6"1"	185	G	So.	Brooklyn, NY, U.S.	Saint Pascal HS
14	Jay Force	6'0"	N/A	G	Sr.	West Orange, NJ, U.S.	West Orange HS
20	Joe Mazelin	6'2"	N/A	G	So.	Indianapolis, IN, U.S.	Sacred Heart HS
22	Tom O'Dea	6"3"	N/A	G	Sr.	Westwood, NJ, U.S.	Saint Cecelia School
24	Charles "Buddy" O'Donnell	6'3"	N/A	F	So.	Upper Darby, PA, U.S.	Monsignor Bonner HS
32	Paul Tagliabue	6'5"	200	F	Sr.	Jersey City, NJ, U.S.	Saint Michael's School
34	Ed Lopata	6'5"	N/A	F	Jr.	Vandergrift, PA, U.S.	Vandergrift HS
40	Chuck Devlin	6'5"	N/A	F	Sr.	Philadelphia, PA, U.S.	Germantown Academy
42	Jim Carrino	6'3"	190	G	Sr.	New York, NY, U.S.	Archbishop Molloy HS
50	John Kraljic	6'4"	N/A	F	Sr.	New York, NY, U.S.	Bishop Dubois HS
52	Dan Slattery	6'4"	N/A	F	Sr.	Washington, DC, U.S.	Gonzaga College HS
54	Bob Sharpenter	6'7"	230	C	Sr.	Aurora, IL, U.S.	Marmion Military Academy

1961–62 schedule and results

Sources^[12]^[13]^[14]^[15]^[16]

Date	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site
Regular Season
Sat., Dec. 2, 1961	at Loyola Maryland	W 91–73	1-0	Alumni Gymnasium
Wed., Dec. 6, 1961	at Maryland	L 70–83	1-1	Cole Field House
Sat., Dec. 9, 1961	Fairfield	W 98–82	2-1	McDonough Gymnasium
Mon., Dec. 11, 1961	American	W 71–68 ^2OT	3-1	McDonough Gymnasium
Fri., Dec. 15, 1961	at Manhattan	L 73–79	3-2	Madison Square Garden
Mon., Dec. 18, 1961	at New York Athletic Club	L 97–102	exhibition	New York Athletic Club Gymnasium
Fri., Dec. 29, 1961	at Richmond (Richmond Invitational Tournament)	W 76–65	4-2	Richmond Arena
Sat., Dec. 30, 1961	vs. VMI (Richmond Invitational Tournament)	W 67–59	5-2	Richmond Arena
Wed., Jan. 3, 1962	Mount St. Mary's	W 86–70	6-2	McDonough Gymnasium
Sat., Jan. 6, 1962	at George Washington	L 65–82	6-3	Fort Myer Gymnasium
Wed., Jan. 10, 1962	Maryland	W 79–78 ^2OT	7-3	McDonough Gymnasium
Sat., Jan. 13, 1962	at Seton Hall	W 84–83 ^OT	8-3	Walsh Gymnasium
Wed., Jan. 17, 1962	at Navy	L 56–64 ^OT	8-4	Halsey Field House
Sat., Jan. 20, 1962	George Washington	W 87–78	9-4	McDonough Gymnasium
Thu., Feb. 1, 1962	at Fairleigh Dickinson	W 84–77	10-4	Campus Gymnasium
Sat., Feb. 3, 1962	at Fordham	W 76–72	11-4	Rose Hill Gymnasium
Wed., Feb. 7, 1962	at St. Joseph's	L 70–81	11-5	Palestra
Sat., Feb. 10, 1962	at Boston College	L 77–84	11-6	Roberts Center
Wed., Feb. 14, 1962	Niagara	W 96–91	12-6	McDonough Gymnasium
Sat., Feb. 17, 1962	New York University	L 72–70	12-7	McDonough Gymnasium
Wed., Feb. 21, 1962	at #7 Duquesne	L 52–72	12-8	Civic Arena
Sat., Feb. 24, 1962	Rhode Island	W 93–71	13-8	McDonough Gymnasium
Wed., Feb. 28, 1962	La Salle	L 76–78	13-9	McDonough Gymnasium
Sat., Mar. 3, 1962	Saint Peter's	W 100–68	14-9	McDonough Gymnasium
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. ( ) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

References

hoyabasketball.com The Georgetown basketball History Project: Assistant Coaches

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