Georgetown Gains In Learfield Cup RankingsGeorgetown has improved its placement in a leading all-sports ranking.Georgetown finished 2018-19 ranked 70th in the Learfield Directors Cup, a measure of post-season performance among Division I schools co-sponsored by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and Learfield Sports. The finish was up 23 places from a 93rd place finish in 2017-18 and comparable to rankings in 2015-16 and 2016-17.Points are awarded based on a school's participation and progress through 20 NCAA men's and women's championships events. Basketball, once a regular in the calculation, has not offered any points to the total over the last four years. A total of 295 Division I teams qualified for some post-season competition in 2016-17.Stanford won the award for the 26th consecutive year after winning six national championships and post season competition in 18 team sports. Seven of ten Big East schools saw declines in the rankings, as follows: 1. Georgetown (70th, up from 93rd) 2. Villanova (76th, down from 66th) 3. Marquette (106th, up from 152nd) 4. Providence (131st, down from 107th) 5. Butler (130th, down from 130th) 6. St. John's (149th, down from 136th) 7. Creighton (155th, down from 138th) 8. DePaul (174th, up from 189th) 9. Seton Hall (266th, down from 217th) 10. Xavier (288th, down from 217th) Georgetown's finishes since 1994 are below.
Fan Committee
A positive step forward for men's basketball and the Hoya Hoop Club, as it has established a committee to deal with the interests of fans after a number of lean years around the Georgetown program.Per the release: "Georgetown Athletics is committed to providing the best experience possible for fans when interacting with the Georgetown Men's Basketball brand at the arena, at home, or online. To help us continue to increase the level of positive engagement that fans have with the Georgetown Men's Basketball brand, we are forming a fan development committee to provide fans the opportunity to share their suggestions for improvement and give valuable feedback on new initiatives.Fan committee members will be asked to:
Early Big East Projections
Veteran Big East reporter Jerry Carrino places the Georgetown Hoyas fourth in his off-season projections for the 2019-20 Big East race.The Rundown
2. Villanova 3. Xavier 4. Georgetown 5. Marquette 6. Creighton 7. Providence 8. St. John's 9. Butler 10. DePaul Georgetown's opponent in the Big Ten-Big East Gavitt Games, Penn State, is picked 11th in that projection. "Senior forward Lamar Stevens is a proven star, and the Nittany Lions finished last season strong, but Josh Reaves' intangibles will be missed and a dead home court in a league full of tough venues remains a killer." Connecticut (Re)Joins The Big East
Forty years since the day that former athletic director John Toner signed off to join the Big East conference, the university Dave Gavitt once called a "sleeping giant" returned home.In the worst kept secret in the Nutmeg State, a rapid chain of events led to Thursday's midday press conference at Madison Square Garden, the spiritual home of the conference.
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"On the 40th anniversary of our founding in 1979, we're very excited to welcome back the University of Connecticut, a Big East charter member," said commissioner Val Ackerman. "As a group of schools rooted in basketball preeminence, we can think of no better partner than UConn to join us in perpetuating the rivalries, traditions, and successes that have made the Big East unlike any other conference in college basketball. We know that our competitions and the experiences of our student-athletes, coaches, and supporters across all of our sports will be greatly enriched by UConn's return." Outgoing UConn president Susan Herbst was joined by athletic director David Benedict, men's basketball coach Dan Hurley, and women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma at the ceremonies. Otherwise absent: football coach Randy Edsall, whose program is the odd man out in the restructure and without a home after the 2019 season. "Myself, my staff, and my players will not address this situation in the future as our focus is all on the 2019 season which is right around the corner," he said Wednesday, adding, "so with that being said, we've moved on to Wagner College [its season opener]." "My last two predecessors with the UConn job both won national championships, so when I took the job I believed whatever conference I was in, I could build a program that could compete for that," said Hurley. "Is the Big East the perfect fit for us to make a run and a climb to get back to that level? Absolutely." "The reality is, no one has the travel issues we do", said Auriemma. "And it starts to wear on the student-athletes after a while. So for me personally, yeah, I'm happy because of that. And I'm happy that a lot of our fans get to drive to a lot of our games. I miss those days when 25 buses would pull up in front of Rutgers or Seton Hall." Added Hurley, "The 2020 recruits and beyond are going to be given the opportunity to play on the greatest stage in college basketball. When you've got the history and tradition we have at UConn, the fan base, the quality of the university." "Who wouldn't want to play here now?" And business just got a lot tougher for ten other men's basketball coaches. Online Reaction To Big East Expansion
The Big East Family Tree
How many colleges and universities have been a part of the Big East story? More than you think.
Big East 1.0 (1979)Big East 1.1 (1980-1991)Big East 2.0 (1991-2005)Big East 3.0 (2005-2013)Big East 3.1 (Football Expansion and the AAC)Big East 4.0 (2013-Present)UConn: Winners & Losers
From The UConn Blog, a look at which programs stand to gain (or lose) if Connecticut rejoins the Big East in 2020."The AAC gets rid of its problem child, AAC fans no longer need to hear UConn (rightfully) complain ad nauseam about the conference and UConn finds a more suitable home for its best athletic programs," it writes. "The AAC might even be able to replace UConn with someone like Marshall, UAB, or a number of other schools that offer a better overall fit."Meanwhile, head football coach Randy Edsall had this Twitter post: — Randy Edsall (@RandyEdsall) June 22, 2019 UConn Buzzes Over Reported Big East Invite
Various unconfirmed reports suggest the University of Connecticut will withdraw from the American Athletic Conference and accept a invitation to rejoin the Big East in the fall of 2020.The story was first posted Friday at an unlikely source: a Boston based sports aggregator known as the Digital Sports Desk, owned by Terry Lyons, a contributor to the Huffington Post. The story offered no specifics and caught little or no attention nationally until it was cited in a front page web story in Saturday morning's Hartford Courant, which has stirred up a hornet's nest of activity and confirmation bias.Aside from conjecture, what we do know is the following:
Kenner League
Malinowski Named To U.S. Pan Am Games Team
Congratulations to former Georgetown forward Greg Malinowski (C'19), named to the U.S. men's basketball team for the XVIII Pan American Games.Malinowski is the fourth Georgetown alumnus to represent the U.S in the Pan-Am Games, joining Steve Sullivan (1967), John Duren (1979), and Roy Hibbert (2007).Founded in 1951, the games are presented as an Olympic-style event for the Western Hemisphere, attracting athletes from 41 countries one year in advance of the quadrennial Olympic Games. But the Pan-Am Games, and basketball in particular, have lost its share of luster over the years. The event has been hosted in the U.S. just twice and not since 1987; by contrast, South America has hosted seven times, with the 2019 event scheduled for Lima from July 26-August 11 and in Santiago from Oct. 6-22, 2023. The event went without a U.S. broadcast partner in the early 2000's, and was picked up by ESPN Deportes, its Spanish language feed. The United States was dominant in men's basketball, winning six of the first seven gold medals with a collection of future Olympians and NBA stars that ranged from Oscar Robertson (1959), Willis Reed (1963), and Ralph Sampson (1979) to Michael Jordan (1983), David Robinson (1987) and Grant Hill (1991). In ensuing years, however, interest from aspiring NBA rookies isn't there, and as the quality has ebbed, so have the medals, as the U.S. hasn't won a gold medal since 1983. This year's U.S. team has a distinct feel, however, as it is a collection of players entirely from the Big East Conference. Coached by Providence's Ed Cooley, the team features players from seven of the ten schools, including players such as Seton Hall's Myles Powell, Creighton's Ty-Shon Alexander, and Providence guard Alpha Diallo. Malinowski is one of three postgraduates on the roster. "I am looking forward to getting our squad together next month for the Pan Am Games," Cooley said. "I think our committee did a great job putting together a strong roster to represent our country and our league. As I look through the roster, I think we will display the toughness and skill that defines Big East basketball. This will be an exciting summer for our entire team. When you have the opportunity to represent your country, it is special honor." Congratulations to Greg and the entire team on this honor. 40 For 40: The Best Of The Big East
In conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Big East in 2019-20, HoyaSaxa.com will present "40 For 40: The Best Of The Big East", a series of player profiles running from July 29, 2019 through March 2, 2020.The list will highlight the greatest of the great who have played Big East basketball across 22 different schools and 40 years of play. Over those years, the conference has produced a combined 86 Associated Press All-America selections, 26 Olympians, nine Final Four MVP's and five National Player of the Year recipients.Readers are encouraged to visit the HoyaTalk board and add their thoughts on Georgetown's greats and its most memorable competitors--not just the obvious selections, but great opponents from the current ten team league and from former programs at Boston College, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Miami, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, South Florida, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and West Virginia. From Ray Allen to Josh Hart, Walter Berry to Kerry Kittles, Billy Owens to Doug McDermott, Otis Thorpe to Otto Porter, Terry Dehere to Troy Bell, Pearl Washington to Kris Dunn and everyone in between, join us for the conversation and a salute to the best of 40 years of Big East basketball. Big East: Cumulative Wins & LossesFrom a Facebook post:
Report: Victor Page Accepts Plea DealA report at Yahoo Sports indicates that former Georgetown guard Victor Page has accepted a 20 year prison sentence following a February indictment.Page, 44, was indicted following his arrest in a December 2018 assault on a underage minor in Prince George's County, MD, where a video of the incident found its way to TMZ.com. Page was charged with first degree rape, first degree assault, second degree child abuse, and second degree assault following his arrest.Yahoo cites a report from TMZ that Page accepted a plea deal of first degree assault and fourth degree attempted sexual assault. According to the report, Page will serve 20 years in prison, followed by five years in probation and registration as a sex offender in the state of Maryland. Page, who has accumulated over 30 arrests in PG County following his pro basketball career, was sentenced to 10 years in 2013 on an assault conviction served four years, and was released in 2017. The Washington DC native played two seasons at Georgetown from 1997 to 1999 and left school for the NBA draft, but was not selected. A sentencing hearing is set for July. Schedule Update
The University of Central Arkansas has announced a Nov. 9 game at Georgetown, per the school's Twitter feed Wednesday."In the 80s and 90s, Georgetown was as good as anybody in the country,' said UCA coach Russ Pennell in the schedule announcment. "And I think with Patrick Ewing coming back to coach them, they are trying to recapture some of that glory. They are much improved since he's been there and they continue to recruit extremely well, which you can kind of expect with him leading their program. "You're playing on a big stage in Washington D.C. A chance to go to the nation's capital and see some of the sights. It will be a really nice trip for these guys. We're excited about our whole schedule but those are two, Duke and Georgetown, are particularly marquee names on there." The Bears, who play in the Southland Conference, were 14-19 last season with a NET rating of 298. It is the first meeting between the two schools. |