Return to Tobacco Road!

It has been 21 years since I last headed to Durham, North Carolina to see a basketball game. In 1985 I was going to visit friends and attend the Duke-UNC game. I was looking forward to seeing a game in which I had no vested interest. You do not feel any pressure. Georgetown was the defending national champion at the time, and the undisputed king of the college basketball world. In the 1984 NCAA championship win over Houston, the Hoyas had captured the title that had eluded them in 1982 against the University of North Carolina. My Tar Heel/ACC friends could not ride me the way they had in 1982.

After the 1982 championship game, the next year featured the most hyped basketball game in Georgetown History: Georgetown vs. the University of Virginia, aka Patrick Ewing against Ralph Sampson. Like the Lew Alcindor vs. Elvin Hayes game in the Astrodome, this was one of the Games of the Century. Georgetown fell way behind shooting very poorly with a team made up mostly of freshman and sophomores, somewhat like today's team. Then the team made a furious second half comeback almost tying the game. The team made their comeback through sheer determination and effort that night. As coach Thompson said, it was really Georgetown against Virginia, and not just Ewing against Sampson. If you saw the advertisement in the Wall Street Journal on November 29th, or the picture in our Hoya GAMEDAY Program, you will see a picture of what is arguably the greatest dunk in college basketball history. At one point in the game Ralph Sampson spun around Ewing to do a baseline dunk. To that point in time, Sampson had completely dominated any center he had played against, including the Russians and other international competition. When the Hoyas went down the court, Ewing was begging for the ball. He was not happy that Sampson had gotten the dunk on him. From quite a distance to the basket Ewing turned towards his right and through down a thunderous dunk to the disbelief of the Capital Centre crowd. Many an NBA GM in the crowd had said later that they now knew the true power of Patrick Ewing. I knew at that game this team would one day be NCAA champions.

Tomorrow, I will once again travel to North Carolina to see a big game. This time it will be the Hoyas of Georgetown against Duke University. Duke has been arguably the top program in college basketball over the last dozen years. They will be highly motivated after their loss to Georgetown last year in the MCI Center. That win has been the most highly visible signature win of the John Thompson III era. It will be a true test to see how our young team reacts to the hostile crowd in Cameron Indoor Stadium. It makes me think about the old days of the BIG EAST against the ACC. Last year's Duke contest was like the old days, when they were like a heavyweight fight. Although we have had some tough losses this year to ODU and recently to Oregon, we are moving towards exciting times. We have a very young team this year, and did lose three seniors from last year's team. I can see the day when we will again be the top program in college basketball.

If you are not as fortunate as I am to attend the game please consider going to a Game Watch party to root on the Hoyas. If you haven't gotten your "We are Georgetown" shirt for the year, or seen our 100th anniversary apparel please go to our web site where you can order them: www.guhoyas.com.

The 100th anniversary apparel is a must for true Hoya fans: T-shirts, baseball hats, Dry-Fit Nike Polo shirts, and other items yet to come. Please visit our 100th anniversary web site at: www.guhoyas100.com

Here is a current listing of GAMEWATCH Parties for the December 2nd game against Duke:

Washington, DC