Nov. 17, 2008

Hoya Hoop Club Blog - 2008-09 Opener vs. Jacksonville

I’m so Excited and I Just Can’t Hide It

I’m about to Lose Control and I Think I Like It!!

With props to the Pointer Sisters, their spot-on lyrics aptly describe my feelings as the beginning of the 2008-09 Men’s Basketball Season approaches with Jacksonville coming to town!  The Hoya basketball adrenalin, which begins at Midnight Madness and is enhanced by an injection of Open Practice, is now ready to burst forth in a series of WE ARE GEORGETOWN!! and HOYA SAXA chants.  The Great Class of 2008 is now graduated, and the Hoyas will sport a decidedly new look this year!  And I can’t wait!!

The new look 2008-09 Georgetown Hoyas will be led by three-year starters, senior Jessie “New York City” Sapp and junior DaJuan Summers.  The remaining starters will be the sophomore tandem of Austin Freeman and Chris Wright and freshman Greg Monroe.  Monroe, 6’11” McDonald’s High School All American from Harvey, Louisiana, has, of course, generated considerable excitement as he was viewed by some last year as the best high school senior in the country.  But, he is a FRESHMAN, so for now I will watch and hope for his, and our other incoming players, rapid transition to the college game, and rely on the other more experienced starters.  Looking at the box score for last year’s Jacksonville game, a 87-55 Georgetown rout, I see that Freeman led the scoring with 15 points and Summers and Wright followed with 14 points apiece.  Sapp added eight points, so, in total, the Hoyas return 51 points from last year’s game.  The players whom I will be especially watching this season are Sapp, the tough as nails kid from Harlem with a knack for clutch play, and Freeman, who, in my view, possesses an exquisite game.  Coming off his injury-plagued season last year, Wright will be out to show Hoya fans the flash and verve that he demonstrated consistently at St. John’s College High School in D.C.  And Summers, it is sincerely hoped, will finally recognize and understand how good he can really be!!  One other player in whom I am intrigued is last year’s D.C. Metro Player of the Year, freshman Jason Clark from Bishop O’Connell High School.  I liked what I saw of him in the Kenner League this summer and think that he could be a real key to the Hoyas’ success this season.

Jacksonville promises to be a much improved squad over the team we belted last season.  Following a brutal December, where they played Florida, Michigan State, and Georgetown, the Dolphins came on to notch an 18-13 record and finish a close second in the Atlantic Sun Conference behind Belmont, which almost sent the Dookies packing in the first round of the NCAA tournament.  Jacksonville returns all of its starters and most of its key reserves from last year’s team, so the Dolphins present an experienced and deep squad against the Hoyas and their five new players.  Jacksonville is paced by its point guard, 5’10” Ben Smith, who led the team in scoring and assists and scored in double digits in 26 of the team’s 31 games.  They opened their season on Saturday night with a 59-57 home loss to Florida State.  The Hoyas will have a substantial size advantage, and this year’s Hoya squad could be even deeper than last year’s quintet IF the new players play up to potential.  And with the best coach in the country on our bench, I believe that the Hoyas will take the necessary “baby steps” in this game and “figure out” a way to win!!

No discussion of a game between Georgetown and Jacksonville is complete without some reference to the contest or no-contest as it were between the two squads on December 18, 1969, at Jacksonville’s tiny Swisher Gym.  With Jacksonville leading 41-26 and time winding down in the first half, a fight broke out between the Georgetown and Jacksonville players.  Jacksonville fans stormed the court and, in the words of former Hoya Sports Editor and now Illinois Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn F ‘71, “the Jacksonville lynch mob decided the Hoyas were not the peoples’ choice of the evening and chased Magee [former Hoya Coach Jack] and Company permanently into the locker room.”  Fearing for his players and himself, Magee refused to return his players to the court for the second half.  The game originally was termed a forfeit in favor of Jacksonville, but, according to hoyasaxa.com, the NCAA subsequently termed the game a “no contest,” and removed the loss from the Hoyas’ record, thereby aiding that year’s team successful effort to make the NIT.  The Jacksonville team of that year, led by Artis Gilmore and featuring two seven footers in the starting line-up, Gilmore and Pembroke Burrows, ultimately reached the NCAA Finals at Cole Field House in College Park, where they lost 80-69 to the UCLA Bruins, who were in the midst of their record-setting NCAA Championship run under coaching legend John Wooden.  (As imposing as Gilmore and Burrows were, I remember Hoya Captain Jim Higgins, B ’70, telling me that the toughest big man that the Hoyas faced during their two-game swing through Florida that year was Florida State Center and later Boston Celtic great Dave Cowens!!)  

So let the games begin in this the 25^th Anniversary of the Hoyas 1984 National Championship Season.  And mark your calendars for the weekend of February 20-21, 2009, when the Hoya Hoop Club will honor that very special team in a weekend of activities, including a dinner-auction on Friday, February 20, and a Saturday game against Marquette on February 21, 2009.  Stay tuned for more details.  As with the 100^th Anniversary of Georgetown Basketball celebration two years ago, the celebration of “that Championship Season” of 1984 promises to be quite memorable. 

WE ARE GEORGETOWN!!

Respectfully submitted,

Michael Karam F’72, L ’76, L ‘82

Proud Member of Generation Laughna