See-Saw 2000-01 Season Will Be One to Remember

Hoya File Photo Senior Center Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje didn’t have to carry the rebounding load this year, finishing behind freshman Mike Sweetney. It is too soon to tell how the 2000-01 basketball season will go down in the annals of Hoya history. Georgetown fans, still smarting from the Sweet 16 loss to non-conference rival Maryland, have not yet had the benefit of time to put the year in perspective.

But even in the immediate aftermath of the loss to the Terrapins, some things are evident about the Georgetown program. This is not the team that finished with a sub-.500 record two years ago. This is not the team that had a 6-10 conference record last year. This is a new Georgetown team, with many of the hallmarks of the legendary teams of the past, including imposing bigmen, tenacious play on both sides of the court.

In a season marked with dramatic highs and lows, the Hoyas emerged once again as a team on the national scene, but only time will tell whether this rebirth is permanent.

Georgetown started the season quietly amassing win after win over non-conference opponents. Because most of their early wins came over virtual unknowns like Nicholls State and Coastal Carolina, Georgetown’s early successes didn’t attract much attention. But by early January, with two solid wins over then-top 25 Seton Hall, the buzz about the Hoyas increased. Eventually, with a 16-0 record, Georgetown was one of two undefeated teams in the nation, the other being Stanford.

With the record came national recognition – and a place in the rankings. By January, the Hoyas had gained their first Top 25 spot since the 1996-97 season. As they headed into thei heart of their Big East schedule, the fierce inside presence of senior center Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje and freshman forward Mike Sweetney anchored the team. The bigmen were aided by the backcourt duo of junior point guard Kevin Braswell and sophomore guard Demetrius Hunter as well as a tremendous effort from the bench.

In their first game of the new semester, playing at MCI Center before one of their biggest crowds in years, then-No. 9 Georgetown lost 70-66 to unranked Pittsburgh. For the team and fans alike, it was a sobering moment, but not a disheartening one. Instead, the Hoyas regrouped and prepared for their next two home games against UNLV and Big East West Division rival Notre Dame.

Though they came up with a victory over the Rebels, the Hoyas faltered against the Fighting Irish. In front of an MCI Center crowd that seemed nearly evenly divided between Hoya and Irish fans, Georgetown led for most of the game, using their bigmen to muscle in on Irish center Troy Murphy. When Murphy fouled out with four and a half minutes to play, the victory was within reach for the Hoyas, until something went wrong. With their leading scorer benched, Notre Dame went on a 19-2 run and defeated Georgetown 78-71.

The rest of the season continued in the same see-saw manner: a Syracuse loss followed by wins over West Virginia and Pittsburgh and then losses to Providence and Villanova. Every time the Hoyas seemed to gather momentum, they would lose it the next game.

By Feb. 21 when Georgetown suffered a 73-70 loss to St. John’s at Madison Square Garden, the season was in disarray. The 16-0 record was followed by a 4-7 run, and the Hoyas were in danger of breaking down all together.

At the beginning of the season, Head Coach Craig Esherick had been perfectly honest that Georgetown had one goal for the year.

“Our job is to make the NCAA tournament this year,” he had said in December. After the St. John’s loss, the once-certain tourney berth was all of the sudden in question. Rumors abounded that Georgetown was no longer a tourney shoo-in and the dreaded phrase “bubble team” was heard more than once. In the final stretch of the season, the Hoyas knew they were in a must-win situation up against Syracuse and Notre Dame, both teams that had beaten Georgetown.

The Feb. 24 Syracuse contest at MCI Center marked one of the defining moments in Georgetown’s season. By defeating the then-No. 12 Orangemen 72-61, Georgetown managed to salvage at least part of their season, though they still knew that the Notre Dame contest would be their truest test. The Hoyas had not had a good road victory since defeating Seton Hall at the Meadowlands in January, and because the Pirates’ season had since gone into a tailspin, that victory didn’t carry the same import by arch.

In front of a sold-out crowd at the Joyce Center in South Bend, Ind., Georgetown played their most complete game of the season to defeat Notre Dame 79-72. The Hoya bigmen – Boumtje-Boumtje, Sweetney, senior Lee Scruggs and sophomore Wesley Wilson – stepped up to give the Hoyas a lift over the Irish.

With the win, Georgetown edged out Syracuse for second place in the conference West Division, assuring the Hoyas a bye in the first round of the Big East tournament. With the bye, Georgetown was set to face Seton Hall for the third time this season.

Playing the Pirates in the second round at Madison Square Garden, the Hoyas crumbled. They had jumped to an early lead but with an abysmal 6-for-28 shooting effort in the second half, Georgetown virtually handed Seton Hall the 58-40 win and went back to Washington, D.C. to await their tournament fate.

While Georgetown’s performance in the conference tournament undoubtedly hurt their seeding in the NCAA Tournament, the No. 10-seed in the West Division came as a surprise to many. The low seeding was largely a result of the Hoyas’ strength of schedule, a punishment for the early wins over the same unknowns that helped Georgetown to a 16-0 record. The Hoyas left for Boise, Idaho, where they were set to face No. 7 Arkansas.

In Boise, the squad prepared for the NCAA Tournament, a first for all the players and especially enlightening for a team that started two freshmen, Sweetney and forward Gerald Riley, and just one senior, Boumtje-Boumtje. When the contest, which had been close throughout, reached the final seconds with the Hoyas and the Hogs tied at 61, overtime seemed inevitable until senior Nathaniel Burton made a lay-up with 0.7 seconds on the clock that sent Georgetown to the next round.

In the second round, Georgetown defeated No. 15 Hampton, a Cinderella squad that advanced by stunning No. 2 Iowa State in the first round. But the Pirates were unable to duplicate their upset and with the 76-57 win over Hampton, Georgetown advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1996, set to face local rival aryland on the other side of the continent in Anaheim, Calif.

The hype leading up to the game was some of the biggest of the season, intensified by the rivalry between the two teams that have met just twice in the last 20 years. In the end, No. 3 Maryland claimed a 76-66 victory over Georgetown and advanced to the Elite Eight, then the Final Four with an upset of No. 1 Stanford.

Despite the loss, Esherick said that he needed some time to put things in perspective.

“Probably in a couple of days, I’ll be a little more objective,” he said.

And he has good reason to be positive. With all but one starter returning and an incoming trio of freshmen that were ranked among the best in the country, the future looks bright for Georgetown.