Jan. 1, 2008

2007 Photo Gallery

By any stretch of the imagination, the year 2007 was a monumental and memorable one for Georgetown basketball.

It was monumental first and foremost because alumni and fans joined together in celebration of 100 Years of Georgetown Basketball.  The year-long festivities culminated on February 10^th, when the Hoya community welcomed back over 100 of the basketball alumni who helped write the history of the first century of Georgetown basketball, including many of the twenty-five members of the Georgetown All-Century Team.  I recall seeing my Hoop Club Blog co-writer Mike Karam at the 100^th Anniversary Gala celebration that evening and remarking how lucky we were to be even a small part of the Georgetown basketball tradition, and that we'd likely never see another night like that this as long as we lived.

We were also, I recall, happy that Georgetown had defeated #11 Marquette that afternoon.

There were many historical memories shared on February 10^th to be sure, but the 2007 season as a whole was memorable for the history the Hoyas made on the court.  The accomplishments are almost too numerous to mention, but consider that within a roughly four week span in March, Georgetown earned their:

--Third solo Big East regular season championship

--Eighth Big East Player of the Year (Jeff Green)

--Seventh Big East Tournament Championship

--Fifth Big East Tournament Most Outstanding Player (Jeff Green again)

--Fifth Final Four appearance

I find it almost impossible to do justice to the sheer volume of monuments, memories, and experiences we've all experienced as Hoya fans during the past year.  As I look back though, I'll remember two things above all about 2007:

First, I'll remember the Georgetown basketball family.  One year while I was a student, the pre-game Jumbotron video at the MCI Center included a slide that said "Georgetown Basketball Is a Family."  I'm not sure I got the point at the time--I assumed it had something to do with old highlights of Patrick Ewing dunking on some poor guy from Boston College.  The further away I get from my undergrad years though, the more I appreciate how we become a family of sorts as fans of the basketball team.

The Georgetown basketball family includes those hundred-plus former players who celebrated 100 Years of Georgetown Basketball in February.  But it also includes the thousands of fans at the Continental Airlines Arena on March 25^th that willed the Hoyas to victory over North Carolina.  It includes the hundreds of fans--some wearing We Are Georgetown shirts, some wearing Hawaiian shirts, at least one wearing a bulldog mask--that took over Madison Square Garden and Café 31 during the Big East Tournament.  It includes the 46 members of Hoya Blue who I rode with on the David Wingate Bus (how's that for a sense of history!) back from Philadelphia.

Chances are you've got your own Georgetown family tree that has branched off over the years.  For me, nothing makes for a better family gathering than Georgetown basketball, and there was never a better time for a reunion than in 2007.

The second thing I'll remember about the 2007 Georgetown basketball season is the unpredictability of it all. 

On January 1, 2007 the Hoyas were riding a six-game winning streak but still a modest 10-3 and unranked with little to suggest the crazy ride in store for fans over the next few months.  On that New Year's Day I may have thought about Georgetown's Big East opener the following weekend against Notre Dame--but never could I have imagined that in the next 90 days I'd travel to five states often on a few days notice, and witness a Big East Tournament final, two NCAA tournament games, and a National Semifinal.

I wouldn't have dreamed 365 days ago that in the name of Georgetown basketball I would have:

--Stayed in a hotel co-located with a school of cosmetology

--Made it to Union Station with less than 2 minutes to spare to catch a train to New York for the BET Final.

--Won a free banana pudding at a place called "Prissy Polly's" for knowing who Ben Howland was.

--Almost been thrown out of the Verizon Center for cursing at Tom Crean

--Stared at a Verizon Center Jumbtron reading "Congratulations Hoyas Big East Champions"

--Seen the Daylight Savings Time "spring forward" from the bar at Café 31 in New York City

--Hugged Jeff Green's mom a few minutes before the "spring forward"

--Eaten at Waffle House about a billion times

--Seen a Georgetown basketball game in a football stadium with more than 53,000 people

--High-fived dozens of Hoya fans I didn't know in MSG as the Hoyas cut down the nets

and most importantly...

--Had my picture taken with Kevin Braswell

(If we've got this Blog thing working properly, there should be a link on the top of this post to a photo album with quite a few of those memories above).

The weird thing is that so many of those moments could just as easily never have happened. 

If Jeff Green doesn't hit a pull-up baseline jumper in the dying seconds against Villanova, that Jumbotron might have read "CO-Big East Champions".  If Jeff doesn't power in that fadeaway over Luke Harangody on Friday night, I'm sitting in Arlington, Virginia on Saturday rather than racing to catch a train to New York City.  If he doesn't bank home the game-winner over two Vanderbilt defenders with 2.5 seconds to go...those thousands of Hoya fans in East Rutherford probably would have sold their Elite Eight tickets to Tar Heel fans, and we all would have only seen the Georgia Dome on TV.

That I suppose is the essence of unpredictability, and it's what makes me treasure all of those memories just a little more I suppose.  As it was last New Year's, I sit here with absolutely no idea what's in store over the next 365 days of Georgetown basketball--the only thing I can be confident about is that Jeff Green isn't making any game winning shots for the Hoyas this time.

I can't wait to see what the next year will bring.

John Hawkes (SFS '04)

Proud Member of Generation Burton