- Associated Press: #20
- USA Today: #21
- Regaining Momentum
- Williams: A Coaching "Bridge"
- He Got Game
- Women's Team 8th In Pre-Season BE
- NBA: Bowman, Sweetney Cut
- Big East Media Day
- Big East Writers Poll<
- Midnight Madness
- Media Day
- Bill Bolger (1931-2009)
- Sagarin Historical Rankings
- Williams Named Coach At Chesapeake Coll.
- The Comeback Trail
| Associated Press: #20 | 10/30/09 |
Georgetown is ranked 20th in the initial Associated Press poll of the season, one of five Big East teams in the top 25.
Other conference teams in the initial poll include Villanova (5), West Virginia (8), Connecticut (12), and Louisville (19).
| USA Today: #21 | 10/30/09 |
Georgetown is ranked 21st in the initial USA Today/ESPN coaches poll of the season, one of a six Big East teams in the top 25.
Other conference teams in the initial poll Villanova (6), West Virginia (9), Connecticut (14), Louisville (23), an Syracuse (25).
| Regaining Momentum | 10/27/09 |
The Associated Press takes a look back at the Hoyas' poor finish in 2008-09, with the team confident that it will not repeat the same mistakes in 2009-10.
"More so than any other time that I’ve been a coach, when it got to the close games, we didn’t make the plays," said head coach John Thompson III. “We didn’t make the plays - offensively, defensively, rebounding. You can go across the board. Every game was a different thing.”
For 2009-10, sophomore Greg Monroe will be a key.
"He needs to understand - and I think he’s doing a lot better of job of understanding - when to take over games," said junior guard Chris Wright. "It’s just a matter of him knowing, 'When the game is on the line, we need you to score, Big Fella. We don’t need you kicking it out.'”
| Williams: A Coaching "Bridge" | 10/27/09 |
From earlier this month, a reader sent in this link to a review of Reggie Williams' coaching hire at Chesapeake College.
"I viewed this as a great opportunity for me," Williams said in a news release. "I just want players who love the game, want to work hard and do well in school."
| He Got Game | 10/26/09 |
Former Georgetown guard Jessie Sapp (C'09) is off to a strong start in the British Basketball League, averaging 21 points, 6 assists and 3 steals a game for the Glasgow Rocks, with a 48 percent mark from the three point arc.
Earlier this summer, Sapp was the subject of a feature from his home neighborhood in New York in anticipation of an overseas opportunity. The video can be viewed at this link to Vimeo.com.
| Women's Team 8th In Pre-Season BE | 10/23/09 |
Following upon the men's media day in New York, the Georgetown women's basketball team was picked eighth in the conference's pre-season media day, also held in New York. The women's team earned a WNIT bid last season and is aiming for its first NCAA appearance since 1993.
| NBA: Bowman, Sweetney Cut | 10/23/09 |
A pair of former men's basketball standouts were dropped Wednesday in their hopes of joining an NBA roster. Brandon Bowman (B'06) was cut by the Philadelphia 76ers while Mike Sweetney (ex '04), was cut by the Boston Celtics.
| Big East Media Day | 10/22/09 |
Villanova was chosen as the pre-season favorite at the annual Big East media day Wednesday. Georgetown was selected fifth in the poll. Sophomore Greg Monroe was named to the all-conference team.
Here's the rundown of the poll, with first place votes in parentheses:
|
1. Villanova (10) 2. W. Virginia (5) 3. Connecticut (1) 4. Louisville 5. Georgetown 6. Syracuse 7. Cincinnati 8. Notre Dame 9. Pittsburgh 10. Seton Hall 11. St. John's 12. Marquette 13. Providence 14. S. Florida 15. Rutgers 16. DePaul |
Links from various dailies follow below.
A behind the scenes look at the men's media day was provided by sports information director Mex Carey in this link to the Hoya Insider blog. The site contains regular updates across various sports from the athletic department staff, coaches, and players.
| Big East Writers Poll | 10/21/09 |
The Syracuse Post-Standard held its annual pre-media day poll of Big East writers, with Georgetown placing fourth in the poll. The results are as follows, with the team's 2008-09 finish in parentheses:
- Villanova (4)
- West Virginia (7)
- Connecticut (3)
- Georgetown (12)
- Louisville (1)
- Syracuse (6)
- Notre Dame (10)
- Cincinnati (9)
- Pittsburgh (2)
- Seton Hall (11)
- St. John's (13)
- Marquette (5)
- Rutgers (15)
- South Florida (14)
- Providence (8)
- DePaul (16)
| Midnight Madness | 10/19/09 |
Georgetown held its annual Midnight Madness event Friday, but much of the campus-based coverage focused on an unrelated incident just outside the gymnasium's doors.
A Georgetown student was accused of stealing a handgun from a Park Police officer attending the event, firing one round at a toilet in a rest room at the gym, and leaving the scene. The suspect was apprehended at his dorm within a half hour and there were no injuries reported.
Additional coverage follows in the Georgetown Voice and The HOYA.
| Media Day | 10/14/09 |
Georgetown held its annual media day Oct. 14 in advance of the start of the 2009-10 season. Links to coverage follow below:
| Bill Bolger (1931-2009) | 10/11/09 |
William J. Bolger (C'53), a charter member of the Georgetown University Athletic Hall of Fame, died this past Thursday at the age of 78.
Bolger, a basketball standout at New York's Xavier High School, arrived at Georgetown in the fall of 1949 as a member of one of the University's most heralded recruiting classes of the classic era, which included Barry Sullivan, Dennis Murphy, and Hugh Beins, among others. Standing only 6-5, he played center and forward for coaches Buddy O'Grady and Buddy Jeannette, averaging double figures in 22 of 25 games as a junior and scoring 38 points in a win over Mount St. Mary's which set a school record.
As a senior, Bolger led the Hoyas to its first ever NIT bid with an 18.0 scoring average, and almost as many rebounds. (Rebounds were not an official statistic in 1953, but a contemporary account indicated Bolger averaged 17 rebounds a game that season. By contrast, only two players have ever averaged more than 13 in a season since.)
For his career, Bolger's 15.9 points per game currently ranks 12th all time in career scoring average and second among players from the 1950's. He was the first Georgetown player to reach 1,000 points in less than four seasons.
The 12th selection in the 1953 NBA draft, Bolger played a season in the NBA with the Baltimore Bullets before beginning a business career, and was the last Georgetown alumnus that played in the NBA until the 1980-81 season. Bolger was selected to the Georgetown University All-Century Team in 2007.
A biography of Bolger's career on the Hilltop is found at the Georgetown Basketball History Project site.
| Sagarin Historical Rankings | 10/6/09 |
Jeff Sagarin's mathematical rankings of teams in a season has its share of followers, but an attempt to quantify past seasons has met with considerable skepticism.
As part of an ESPN book on college basketball, Sagarin attempted to rank 330 Division I teams on a historical basis, and as noted in this link to the Washington Times, there is a wide variance among local teams, with Georgetown listed at #42.
Even ESPN columnists are raising questions, with Pat Forde asking why Northwestern, a school which has never earned a single NCAA bid in the 70 years of the tournament and last won its conference title in 1933, outpoints Providence College, with two Final Fours, 15 NCAA berths, and 16 NIT appearances.
| Williams Named Coach At Chesapeake Coll. | 10/6/09 |
In other news, former Georgetown forward Reggie Williams was named head coach at Chesapeake College, a two-year school on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Williams had been named coach at Towson Catholic before the school abruptly shut its doors this summer.
| The Comeback Trail | 10/4/09 |
Sunday's Boston Globe looks at the comeback effort of Mike Sweetney (ex'04), where weight problems and concerns about his work ethic sent him out of the NBA two years ago.
"I think, right now, it’s more of me understanding [the NBA], and I just gotta get it back," Sweetney said. “I want to prove to people, prove to myself that I can still play. I’m not washed up. I’m not old. I just want to play basketball again. I’m 26 years old. I say I got another 10 years if I keep my body right, keep myself ready mentally and physically. I’ll be OK."
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