Top 10 Georgetown Basketball games of our career

This post has been a long time coming and I have waited until the 2009-2010 college basketball season is over.  Though it wasn't something I was actively seeking when I was looking at colleges, and in fact I didn't apply to Duke because I was afraid they'd be too fanatic, having great competitive college basketball has added a ton to my undergraduate experience.  After you attend an exciting college basketball game and get into the cheering and jeering as part of a collective student force, you will never go back to the artificial awkward atmosphere of an NBA arena. See, jumping up on your feet cheering your heart out is an unnatural action and inhibitions generally tell you not to do it.  But when you go to a college basketball school, you find yourself thrust into the action surrounded by people just like you, in the sense that they are on your side rooting for your team, 100% committed to giving all their energy onto the court and forgetting about everything else.  You can't help but cheer as loud as you can, investing your life and soul into the team.  It's a united power that I had felt in high school sporting events, but raised to much higher levels.

It was pretty cool playing at the Verizon Center, the arena that also hosted the Washington Capitals and Wizards. The drawbacks were that it was relatively difficult to reach, resulting in many a supercrowded metro car and several very shoddily attended weekday night games, and that it was toooo big.  Duke's Cameron Indoor fits only 9,000 whereas the Verizon Center seats 20,000 during basketball games. While the increased size may seem awesome, it unfortunately leads to a cavernous environment if the game is not sold out, which is often the case since the entire Georgetown student body, grad schools included, could not fill it.  However, when it is filled, then the effect is something else, which we'll get to.  Though our last 3 years were not met with great postseason success, that is not to say that there were not some fantastic times along the ride. It can be scary entrusting so much of your happiness to 12-15 scholarship players around or below your maturity level, but when they pull through for you, it really is something else. So without further ado:

10) February, 6, 2010 Villanova 90 Georgetown 103
We start off with the blizzard game from this past season.  Friday afternoon, Washington DC was hit by a debilitating blizzard that canceled all bus services and in conjunction with an additional storm on Tuesday night, would cause the federal government and Georgetown University to suspend activity for almost a week.  Nevertheless, that Saturday, we had a home game against Villanova and thousands of Georgetown students, myself included, trekked across state lines in a foot of packed snow to catch the Rosslyn metro.  I remember that Friday night, I had brought an unopened bottle of beer to the courtyard to take part in a snowball fight. The next morning when I left for the game, I remembered that I had brought the bottle out and forgot about it. Disappointed that I had carelessly lost a bottle, I nonetheless went to the spot where I had left it. I reached through 8 inches of snow and lo and behold, my beer was still there chilling. I drank it across the Key Bridge and it was the best beer I have ever had.  My parents also showed up for this game.  The crowd, though sparse because of the travel difficulties, nonetheless brought it and I thought we played as well as we did all season, shooting the lights out of the ball.  The only game all season where we reached triple digits, Austin Freeman and Jason Clark had 25 and 24 points apiece.

9) December 29, 2008 Georgetown 74 Connecticut 63
This is the only game on the list here which I did not view, and also the only game from our junior year (we went 16-15 that year, which is still stunningly horrendous). It was over winter break and I was in New York visiting my brother. I was actually called with an offer of an extra ticket, and I regret turning it down. Nonetheless, we beat an undefeated UConn team ranked #2 at the time. Monroe in one of his first games on national television was terrific, even making a 3, and the scoring was spread out with 4 starters in double digits. We led the entire game, starting 15-1 and never looking back.

8) January 21, 2008 Syracuse 62 Georgetown 64 (OT)
A lot of people have probably forgotten about this game. I remember it well though, as the game where we learned how good Syracuse's Johnny Flynn was, and how good shutdown defenders the famous sons Jeremiah Rivers and Patrick Ewing, Jr. could be.  A tight game the whole way, we tied it up at 60-60 with 50 seconds left on a Jessie Sapp transition layup.  Then the game had a total of 6 points scored in the next 6 minutes.  Freeman forced up a long 3 at the end of regulation, and then Rivers pressured Flynn into doing the same at the end of overtime. Both 3s were actually really close, which was the scary part.  I remember that the game was barely under the over/under after regulation, and miraculously remained so after overtime.

7) March 9, 2007 Notre Dame 82 Georgetown 84 (Madison Square Garden)
And now we get to the good games. This was our freshman year in the Big East semifinals and I was lucky enough to be at Madison Square garden to watch in person. The #1 seed that year, we had polished off Villanova the previous day with a 22-0 run to start the game.  Notre Dame proved feisty though, shooting very hot in the first half and leading by 13 at one point. We managed to close the halftime deficit to 2 and kept it close the entire second half.  Patrick Ewing played great, going 7 for 11 for 15 points while Dajuan Summers put in 6 for 10 and 18 points.  However when Roy Hibbert fouled out with over a minute left and the game tied, things looked bleak. Nothing to fear though because Jeff Green took over, hitting a contested jumper with 13 seconds left to break the tie. Green finished with 30 points and 12 rebounds, his season high, and took tournament MVP honors after we crushed Pitt the following game.  In that game, NBA hopeful Aaron Gray got embarrassed by Roy Hibbert, giving up 18 points and 11 rebounds to him and going 1 for 13 himself. In the bathroom of Madison Square Garden, I heard depressed Pitt fans moaning, "how much money do you think Gray lost tonight?" "How much money is there in dropping 20 picks?"

6) January 30, 2010 Duke 77 Georgetown 89

Duke @ Georgetown was the most highly anticipated basketball game in Washington, DC all season, surpassing all Wizards games. In fact, it might have been the most nationally recognized sporting event in the capital.  In the Verizon Center's first sellout of the year, Barack Obama and Joe Biden were part of the raucous crowd that gave Georgetown a home court advantage that few colleges can match. Like I said, the Verizon Center's size was generally a disadvantage. However, when we did fill the 20,000 seats, the sheer cheer volume was hard to beat, and the atmosphere at the Duke game was the best of any basketball game I had ever attended, rivaling that of Red Sox-Yankees playoff games.  Though not a Big East opponent and only ranked #7 at the time, Duke basketball was nonetheless the most hated team in the nation. In addition to being an academic rival to us, venomous loathing of Duke naturally transferred to the entire Georgetown student body. With moderate snowfall outside, the student body's energy transcended onto a highe level and never let up. Our team rewarded the fans by playing their best game of the year, holding Duke to 37% field goal percentage and shooting a stunning 71.7% ourselves.   Our big 3 of Freeman, Wright and Monroe all scored 20 and after roaring to a strong first half lead, we kept the eventual national champions at bay the whole second half, with the lead never falling to single digits.

5)  January 12, 2008 Connecticut 69 Georgetown 72
During a rare UConn down year, we had a lot of confidence walking into this game. Unperturbed, A.J. Price and Brookline's own Jeff Adrien held UConn close all game and Hasheem Thabeet, while unable to control Roy Hibbert, did manage to block 5 shots. The game was tied at 69 on Georgetown's final possession and our offense kinda broke down. Thabeet drifted off of Hibbert and clogged up the lane, daring anyone to drive.  So instead, Hibbert chilled behind the 3 point line. When he received the ball there, without hesitation he fired it right at the basket and found nothing but net. It was a classic, "Oh no, OH YES" moment. Roy Hibbert had never even attempted a college 3 pointer (he would finish his career 2 for 2) but always had confidence in his stroke and never wavered.  We went nuts beyond belief when he made that shot and UConn had absolutely no answer.

4) January 9, 2010 Connecticut 69  Georgetown 72
Its not your eyes. This is not Deja Vu. We beat UConn by the same score again, and this time they were ranked. I booked my flight back from winter break for January 8th in order to attend this game. That turned out to be a terrific decision to start off a terrific semester. A few days before dorms were even opened, the attendance was relatively sparse and it didn't look good early. UConn turned a 20-19 advantage into 34-19 and we were down at the half 40-25 only because Chris Wright scored 4 unanswered in the last minute.  Austin Freeman had only 5 points at the half.  However, he turned the second half into his own block party, scoring 28 points in a mix of layups, 3 pointers, putbacks, off balanced jumpers and any other method of putting ball in hoop imaginable. UConn went cold and scored only 29 in the second half, or 1 point more than Austin. The final 40 seconds of the game though were crazy and unusually uninterrupted. Down by one, Jerome Dyson missed a contested layup but UConn got the rebound. They missed a three and got the rebound again.  However Chris Wright stole the ball with 13 seconds left. Instead of holding onto the ball and getting fouled, he foolishly dribbled ahead and lost the ball.  Luckily the ball bounced to the man of the day, Mr. Austin Freeman, who alertly found Greg Monroe underneath the basket for an easy layup.  Game, set match.  Freeman was already my favorite player beforehand, but that game cemented his greatness.

3) January 26, 2008 Georgetown 58 West Virginia 57

The only true road game on this list, it is also the closest Georgetown got to a buzzer-beating win during our career. West Virginia had a strong team that year, led by Joe Alexander, DaSean Butler, Darris Nichols and Alex Ruoff.  We didn't have the greatest game, shooting 4 for 17 from 3 point range but made our backdoor cuts and shot 47% overall, enough to overcome a 10 point deficit early in the second half.  Jesse Sapp was the unlikely hero, hitting a clutch pullup 3 pointer with 6 seconds left to put us up one. Undaunted, WVU set up a nifty inbounds play and Nichols raced down court. He dished to an open cutting Butler who got off a fingerroll right before the buzzer whose aim was true.  Then Patrick Ewing Jr. swooped in and blocked the ball just as it reached the top of its arch and saved the day. West Virginia fans cried goaltend, and they may have had a point as close analysis showed that the ball was on its downward descent, but for all of 0.01 seconds. That's too close for a referee to call, especially at the end of the game, and thus Ewing had his buzzer beating block and we have our 3rd best game.

2) March 23, 2007 Vanderbilt 65 Georgetown 66
In East Rutherford, NJ, second seeded Georgetown faced off sixth seed Vanderbilt in a Sweet Sixteen game for the ages. Vandy, who gave eventual national champion Florida its first loss of the season, shot its threes well in the first half and led 32-24. SEC player of the year Derrick Byars led them with 17 points and 5 assists. Though Roy Hibbert shot 5 for 10 with 12 points and 10 rebounds, he struggled on defense and fouled out with almost 4 minutes left. We were left to rely on Jeff Green, who once against stepped it up, going 7 for 11 for the game. Still Vandy took a 65-64 lead with 17 seconds to play. That's when Jeff Green did his magic and according to bitter fans in Nashville, traveled on his way to the basket.  Here at Georgetown though, we just marveled at Jeff Green's nimble feet as he took the Steps of God and squeezed between two defenders in a spin move, took the most off balanced shot and banked it in with 2.5 seconds to play.  This is undoubtedly the best move and basket of our four years at Georgetown.
My own experience watching this game was interesting. I was part of an Ultimate trip to Long Island and we were driving on Friday night as this game was being played. We had all sworn not to look for the score or talk to anyone about the game because it was being taped for us at our destination. However at around 9pm just about everyone in our car got a text message, so I figured something was up. Still, the suspense remained on the delayed viewing and we were enjoyed our unique experience of what would be the second best game of our Georgetown career. Which brings us to...

1) March 25, 2007 Georgetown 96 North Carolina 84
Well we didn't have to wait long for the best game. I think most readers will have seen this one coming.  The game that took Georgetown to its first Final Four in 2 decades and singlehandedly defining our freshman year is undoubtedly #1. UNC was also #1 and though they had 6 losses coming into the game, they were a juggernaut.  The group of Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson, Deon Thompson, Marcus Ginyard and the detestable Tyler Hansbrough would win a national championship 2 years later, and they were aided that year by NBA lottery pick Brandan Wright. The matchups did not look good. However, our stifling defense forced terrible shooting games out of Ellington and Lawson and our big men were able to contain Hansbrough from the field, although he went 14-16 from the line. Still UNC led at the half by 6 and by 10 with six minutes left. Then our offense started clicking, scoring on nearly every remaining possession. Down 3 in the final minute, the unflappable and impossibly smooth Jonathan Wallace stroked in the most important three pointer in Georgetown's recent memory, tying the game with 32 seconds. I can still remember the exact trajectory of that shot and the soft swish it made as it fell through the rim.  Ellington took a poor 3 of his own for UNC's final shot, bricked it, and into overtime we went. Wallace started of our overtime scoring with another layup and we never looked back, scoring the first 14 points of the overtime as UNC went ice cold. We ended up shooting an impressive 57.6% and amazingly held UNC to a dismal 35.2%. My personal story for watching this game was quite an adventure and after consultation with Austin tonight, will be its own blog post later.

So that is our Georgetown basketball career. All told we went 87-39, had four players drafted for the NBA with more to come, won a Big East tournament, went to another 2 Big East finals, and hung a Final Four banner up on McDonough. Not a bad part of the college experience.