Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III’s mantra for his team in the 2004-05 season has been simply to get better every day.
“That’s one of those things where you can start talking about projections and big picture, and you drive yourself crazy,” he said. “I just want us to almost methodically, systematically, improve. Be better today than we were yesterday. Be better next week. Let’s just get better and work hard.”
So far, this year’s Hoya team has followed its coach’s plan. During the month the rest of the student body was on Christmas break, Georgetown was not perfect, but few would disagree that it has made great strides since the end of last season.
The Hoyas opened their working vacation in Hawaii with a disappointing 81-63 loss to Oral Roberts in the first round of the Rainbow Classic. The loss to a school with little name recognition probably surprised many. But Oral Roberts is the consensus favorite to win the Mid-Continent Conference this year and will be a tough out for a high seed in the NCAA Tournament should it get there.
Sent to the consolation bracket, the Hoyas rebounded two days later with a sluggish 57-51 victory over Long Beach State, and in the fifth-place game the following day they played one of their best games of the season in a decisive 75-60 win over Clemson to finish the tournament. Junior guard Brandon Bowman had a team-high 22 points, and freshman forward Jeff Green posted a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
The tournament pretty well encapsulated the Hoyas so far this year. While the loss to Oral Roberts showed that there was still plenty of room for improvement, the two wins, especially the victory over Clemson, demonstrated that there is a nucleus in place that can achieve great things.
Georgetown seemed to take a step back on December 28 when they limped to a 78-70 overtime win at MCI Center over Norfolk State. Bowman scored eight straight points in overtime to help the Hoyas avoid their first loss ever to a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference school.
In its final preseason tune-up, Georgetown had a considerably easier time with the second MEAC school on its schedule, cross-town rival Howard. The Hoyas knocked off the Bison 79-56 and entered conference play with an 8-3 record.
The early conference schedule was not kind to the Hoyas. They opened up Jan. 5 at then-No. 16 Pittsburgh, a program with more wins than anybody in the Big East over the last three years, before returning home to face No. 10 Connecticut.
Despite not having beaten a ranked team on the road since 2001, the young Hoyas were not intimidated. Georgetown came out flying and built a 28-9 lead in the first half. Pitt mounted a comeback and took a lead with an early second-half run, but Georgetown was not going to let a chance at an upset slip away.
They tied the game at 64-64, and Bowman drove to the hoop for a lay-up to put the Hoyas ahead. The Panthers never got another good look at the basket, and the Hoyas emerged with a stunning 67-64 victory.
Georgetown dug itself a big hole in the first half Saturday against defending National Champion Connecticut. They trailed 39-19 at the half, and despite clawing back into the game in the second half, they were never able to get closer than six and fell, 66-59.
With last night’s win over Rutgers, Georgetown stands at 10-4 overall and 2-1 in the Big East.
More than halfway through their regular-season schedule but with miles to go in conference play, the Hoyas can still legitimately point to the NCAA Tournament as a goal for the season. The team is inexperienced, and the strength and depth of the conference will make things extremely difficult, but the fact that the tournament is still on people’s minds in the middle of January is a pleasant surprise for most Hoya fans.
