In October of 2009, any curious Hoya fan would have had a tough time finding any sort of national coverage of the Georgetown women’s basketball team. Picked to finish eighth in the Big East after a 20-win season and a surge in the 2009 WNIT, the Lady Hoyas still had not earned any respect, especially playing in the same conference as the reigning national champions (UConn), the national runner-up (Louisville) and the champion of the WNIT (South Florida).

Flash forward to the present day, March 2010, and the women wearing blue and gray have taken center stage, garnering coverage from ESPN and CBS, along with the rest of the sports world.

So what happened? Well, the Hoyas didn’t exactly start off on the right foot, losing two of their first three games to eventual tournament teams Dayton and James Madison, both by three points. With 10 underclassmen on the team, perhaps the Hoyas were still a little bit too young.

Then, after defeating Seattle, the Hoyas upset then-No. 23 Purdue on the Lady Boilermakers’ own turf – by 14 points no less – in the first game of what would become a program-record 16-game winning streak. During that historic run, the Hoyas handed losses to WNIT rival Wake Forest, 2010 NCAA tournament team NC State, then-No. 23 and arch-rival Syracuse (an overtime win) and DePaul, one of seven Big East teams in the tournament this year. The streak was ended after a road loss to Marquette.

The Hoyas started a new streak immediately, defeating Rutgers and then-No. 25 St. John’s in a span of three days. Yet the most sensational win of the season came on Feb. 20. Notre Dame, ranked fourth in the nation, brought a huge fan contingent with it to McDonough Gymnasium, but the Hoyas defeated the Fighting Irish by 10 points to rise to No. 11 in the ESPN/USA Today Poll and waved to a record crowd of over 2,000 people afterward, smiling wide about a crowning victory that announced Georgetown’s status as a tournament contender.

But the Hoyas were perfect throughout the season. Late-game threes by James Madison and then Rutgers in the Big East tournament cost the Hoyas two losses. A terrible 23-percent shooting performance by the Hoyas cost them a chance at beating then-No.8 West Virginia. Late-game turnovers allowed Marquette to pull away from the Hoyas and end their 16-game winning streak.

But these struggles have also proved that the Hoyas are tough. For such a young team, they’ve managed to learn from those mistakes, not letting themselves fall into trap games and showing improvement where they need to, especially on the rebounding end.

The accolades are impressive: 25 wins, the most in program history; 16 consecutive wins, a program record; finishing third in the Big East conference to earn a double-bye; finishing the regular season ranked No. 13 in the nation, after being ranked for just one week (during the 1992-1993 season) prior to this season; leading the nation in turnover margin (plus-8.3); going undefeated at home (13-0), including two wins over ranked opponents in McDonough, the first time for either the men’s or women’s teams since 1981.

Finally, there was the bid 17 years in the making, the selection to the NCAA tournament and a No. 5 seed, the highest in program history.

Then there were the individual accomplishments: Freshman guard Ta’Shauna “Sugar” Rodgers was named Big East Freshman of the Year, just the third Lady Hoya ever to earn that honor and the first in nine years. Rodgers led the team in scoring in 23 of the Hoyas’ 31 games and earned a spot on the All Big-East first team, the only rookies on the roster and the first rookie in Hoya history.

The excitement was evident on Monday night, when the Hoyas received the official news of their selection during ESPN’s “Selection Monday.”  

“We’re really in! My heart was pounding,” junior guard Monica McNutt said. “We’ve worked really hard to get here. I knew [Georgetown would be in the NCAA tournament] when we hit our 20-win mark. I thought to myself, `This was a good team.”  

“It sunk in a couple of weeks ago, once we started getting ranked,” Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “At that point, we knew [we were in]. I think it’s still great for the girls to see their names pop up on the screen.”  

“I mean I was just excited [and] more excited for the seniors,” Rodgers said.  

For Georgetown’s three seniors and Williams-Flournoy, it has been a very long road. From 2006 to 2008, the Lady Hoyas managed a losing record of 28-30 without any postseason appearances. In Williams-Flournoy’s first four seasons on the Hilltop, she amassed just 50 wins. But in the last two seasons, all of that has changed, with the Hoyas compiling a record of 45-20 and earning two consecutive postseason appearances.  

“I think anytime you can have a winning program, anytime you can be in the Top-25, anytime you can get to the NCAA tournament, that just builds your resume on why kids should come to Georgetown. Kids have every reason for coming to Georgetown in the first place. They’re going to get great academics, play great basketball. Our resume looks extremely [good] right now,” Williams-Flournoy said.  

Despite the team’s emergence into the national spotlight, Williams-Flournoy is not taking the credit.  

“I can’t say that it’s something I did on my own,” the sixth-year coach said. “Yes, I’m at the leadership of it, but I have some great players; my coaching staff has been in place and consistency in the coaching staff has been great. And that goes down to our team. It makes you feel good that you’ve accomplished something but it’s not something ,you do all on your own, by yourself.”

cNutt then took a moment to assess the big picture.  

“I definitely hope it’s a foundation for a program,” McNutt said. “I was here when we didn’t make the tournament, when we went to the [WNIT]. We want to be known for the women’s side of basketball at Georgetown, in addition to the men’s.”  “