1967–68 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team

1967-68 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball
Conference Independent
1967-68 record 1112
Head coach John Magee (2nd year)
Assistant coach Bob Reese (2nd year)
Captain Dennis Cesar (1st year)
Captain Bruce Stinebrickner (1st year)
Home arena McDonough Gymnasium

The 1967–68 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented Georgetown University during the 1967-68 NCAA Division I college basketball season. John Magee coached them in his second season as head coach. The team was an independent and played its home games at McDonough Gymnasium on the Georgetown campus in Washington, D.C.. It finished with a record of 11-12 and had no post-season play.

Season recap

Only five lettermen returned from the previous season '​s 12-11 team, none of them taller than 6 feet 4 inches tall (193 cm). After a strong season on the freshman team, sophomore center Charlie Adrion joined them on the varsity this season. In mid-December 1968, Magee moved sophomore forward Paul Favorite to center and moved Adrion to forward. The switch was successful; at forward, Adrion excelled on both offense and defense. In the third game of the season, at Syracuse, he led the Hoyas in scoring for the first time with 18 points. He followed this up with 21 points and 19 rebounds against Loyola, 15 points and 13 rebounds against Rutgers, 18 points and 17 rebounds three days later against Xavier, and, in arguably the best performance by a Georgetown player in a single game, 30 points and 29 rebounds on February 22, 1968, against George Washington. He scored 20 or more points in six of the last eight games of the year and finished the season averaging 17 points and 10 rebounds a game.[1]

Eight games into the season, senior guard and team co-captain Bruce Stinebrickner was shooting 63% from the field among the top ten in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and he averaged 12.4 points and 6.2 rebounds per game this year. He scored in double figures in 16 games, twice scored a career-high 23 points, and against New York University (NYU) had 16 points and 13 rebounds, a rebounding effort matched by only two other Georgetown guards. He finished the year shooting 51.7% from the field for his career still the second highest for a Hoya guard never having shot under 50% for a season.[2]

Like Adrion and Stinebrickner, senior guard and team co-captain Dennis Cesar, known for his free-throw-shooting prowess, got off to a hot start this season, leading the team in scoring in six of the first 10 games. His 25-point performance on December 6, 1967, against St. Joseph's at the Palestra in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the second game of the season, including shooting 9-for-9 from the free-throw line, led Georgetown to its first victory over the Hawks since 1956. The long-awaited win prompted about 250 Georgetown students to meet the team '​s bus for an impromptu celebration when it arrived at McDonough Gymnasium at 2:45 a.m. after the drive back to campus.[3]

Junior forward Jim Supple scored in double figures in 16 games, including the last seven games of the season. Among the latter were 20-plus-point performances against NYU and Fairleigh Dickinson.[4]

The 1967-68 Hoyas were the first Georgetown team to play at the new Madison Square Garden, meeting Manhattan there on February 15, 1968, four days after the new arena opened.

The team played inconsistently all season, finishing with a record of 11-12 the first losing record by a Georgetown men's basketball team since the 1959-60 season and had no post-season play. It was not ranked in the Top 20 in the Associated Press Poll or Coaches' Poll at any time.[5][6]

Roster

From the 1958-59 season through this 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. (The following season, this practice was discontinued, and players wore the same number at home and on the road.)[7]

Source[1][2][3][4][7][8]

# Name Height Weight (lbs.) Position Class Hometown Previous Team(s)
10 Jerry Pyles N/A N/A G So. Oxon Hill, MD, U.S. Oxon Hill HS
12 Bruce Stinebrickner 6'1" 180 G Sr. West Hempstead, NY, U.S. St. Agnes Boys HS
14 Dennis Cesar 6'1" 180 G So. Clifton, NJ, U.S. Clifton HS
20 Jim Higgins 6'1" N/A G So. Dumont, NJ, U.S. Don Bosco Preparatory HS
24 Paul Favorite 6'8" N/A F So. Moorestown, NJ, U.S. Saint Joseph's Preparatory School
30 Bernard White 6'1" N/A G Jr. Ann Arbor, MI, U.S. George Mason University
34 Mike Laska 5'11" N/A G So. Worcester, MA, U.S. Assumption Preparatory School
40 Rick Cannon 6'4" N/A F Sr. Elwood, IN, U.S. Wendell Willkie HS
50 Bill Stewart N/A N/A C Sr. Villanova, PA, U.S. Saint Joseph's Preparatory School
52 Jim Supple 6'4" 185 F Jr. Summit, NJ, U.S. St. Peter's Preparatory School
54 Charlie Adrian 6'8" 225 C So. Hillsdale, NJ, U.S. Don Bosco Preparatory HS

1967–68 schedule and results

Sources[9][10][11][12]

Date Rank# Opponent# Result Record Site
Regular Season
Sat., Dec. 2, 1967 American L 6780  0-1 McDonough Gymnasium
Wed., Dec. 6, 1967 at St. Joseph's W 8674  1-1 Palestra
Tue., Dec. 12, 1967 Syracuse L 7895  1-2 McDonough Gymnasium
Sat., Dec. 16, 1967 at Saint Peter's L 7882  1-3 Jersey City Armory
Mon., Dec. 18, 1967 Columbia W 6563 2OT 2-3 McDonough Gymnasium
Thu., Dec. 21, 1967 Fairfield W 7861  3-3 McDonough Gymnasium
Fri., Dec. 22, 1967 Holy Cross W 9359  4-3 McDonough Gymnasium
Wed., Jan. 3, 1968 Loyola Maryland W 6953  5-3 McDonough Gymnasium
Fri., Jan. 5, 1968 Army L 5960  5-4 McDonough Gymnasium
Sun., Jan. 7, 1968 Catholic W 7876 OT 6-4 McDonough Gymnasium
Wed., Jan. 10, 1968 St. John's L 6165  6-5 McDonough Gymnasium
Sat., Jan. 13, 1968 at Seton Hall L 5777  6-6 Walsh Gymnasium
Sat., Jan. 27, 1968 at Fordham L 6784  6-7 Rose Hill Gymnasium
Thu., Feb. 1, 1968 Rutgers W 8062  7-7 McDonough Gymnasium
Sun., Feb. 4, 1968 at Xavier L 6887  7-8 Schmidt Field House
Wed., Feb. 7, 1968 at Navy L 8589 OT 7-9 Halsey Field House
Sat., Feb. 10, 1968 George Washington W 7649  8-9 McDonough Gymnasium
Thu., Feb. 15, 1968 at Manhattan W 7877  9-9 Madison Square Garden
Sat., Feb. 17, 1968 at Boston College L 79103  9-10 Roberts Center
Thu., Feb. 22, 1968 at George Washington L 6165  9-11 Fort Myer Gymnasium
Sat., Feb. 24, 1968 New York University W 8169  10-11 McDonough Gymnasium
Mon., Feb. 26, 1968 Fairleigh Dickinson W 10474  11-11 McDonough Gymnasium
Sat., Mar. 2, 1968 at Maryland L 6068  11-12 Cole Field House
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from AP Poll. ( ) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

References