Georgetown Hoyas Basketball - Recent Seasons

Recent Seasons

The 2006–07 season marked the centennial of Hoya hoops, which was celebrated by honoring some of the team's most famous alumni at the Georgetown-Marquette game on February 10, 2007. The team's freshmen were DaJuan Summers, Jeremiah Rivers, and All-American Vernon Macklin. Besides juniors Green, Hibbert, and Wallace, other regular players are Tyler Crawford, Jessie Sapp, and Patrick Ewing, Jr. The Hoyas won their first regular-season Big East Championship since 1992 and defeated the Pittsburgh Panthers to win their first Big East Tournament Championship since 1989. Jeff Green was named the Big East Player of the year and the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

In the NCAA tournament's first weekend, the Hoyas defeated Belmont and Boston College. The Hoyas' games in the second weekend were some of the closest and most-watched contests of the tournament. The Hoyas defeated Vanderbilt on a last-second bank shot by Jeff Green, then beat North Carolina in the Regional Final when their defense caused North Carolina to suffer an improbable collapse in which UNC missed 22 of their final 23 field goal attempts. The Hoyas then advanced to the 2007 Final Four where they fell to an Ohio State team led by Greg Oden.

The 2007–08 Hoyas finished with a regular season record of 27–5, and again won the conference regular season title on March 8, 2008. They lost to the University of Pittsburgh in the conference championship game. This placed them as a number two seed in the 2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, where they lost their second round game. After the season, Roy Hibbert, Jonathan Wallace, and Patrick Ewing, Jr. all graduated, while Vernon Macklin and Jeremiah Rivers both transferred from the school.

The Hoyas began their 2008 season ranked #22 AP/#18 ESPN, based equally on the reputations of their two upperclassmen, DaJuan Summers and Jessie Sapp, and their recruiting class, led by Greg Monroe. The Hoyas were highly successful in non-conference games (9–2) and saw their ranking rise as high as #9. However, college basketball's toughest strength of schedule eventually wore down a team that was also one of the youngest. The Hoyas were 7–11 in Big East play for a 12th-place finish, followed by a first-round loss in the Big East tournament, the worst record in Thomson's five years at the helm.

In 2009–10, the team finished the season 23–11, and 10–8 in Big East play. They advanced to the championship game of the 2010 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament before losing to West Virginia. They received an at–large bid to the 2010 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, earning a 3 seed in the Midwest Region, where they were upset by 14 seed Ohio in the first round. Greg Monroe entered the NBA Draft as a sophomore and was selected by the Detroit Pistons. The 2010-11 team was led by Austin Freeman and Chris Wright, both now seniors. The team scored multiple early wins over ranked teams, including an overtime win at #9 Missouri, but their stumbles at the end of the season coincided with Wright breaking his hand and missing three games. The team received an at-large bid, but lost in their first game of the 2011 NCAA Tournament to eventual Final Four team Virginia Commonwealth.

Prior to the 2011–12 season, the Hoyas made a goodwill trip to China for several matches with local teams. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden attended their first game, a win over the Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons. Their second game, against the Bayi Rockets, however ended in a brawl, causing the team to leave the court while Chinese fans threw garbage and debris. Georgetown won their final games, against the Liaoning Dinosaurs and the Taiwanese national team without incident.