2007–08 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team

The 2007–08 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team was an NCAA Division I college basketball team competing in the Big East Conference representing Georgetown University. The team finished with a regular-season record of 27–5, and won the conference regular-season title on March 8, 2008, the first time Georgetown won the Big East regular-season championship in consecutive years and the only time in the original Big East of 1979–2013. It lost to Pittsburgh in the Big East tournament championship game. It was a number-two seed in the 2008 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, where it lost its second-round game to Davidson in a major upset. The team was ranked No. 11 in the final Associated Press Poll of the season and No. 12 in the postseason Coaches' Poll.

Season recap

Regular season

Non-conference schedule During the previous season, the Hoyas won both the Big East regular season championship and Big East tournament championship and advanced all the way to the Final Four in the 2007 NCA tournament, all for the first time for a Georgetown team since 1989. With four returning starters – senior center Roy Hibbert, senior point guard Jonathan Wallace, sophomore forward DaJuan Summers, and junior guard Jessie Sapp – Georgetown entered the 2007–08 season ranked No. 5,Anonymous, "Hibbert's 23 points lead No. 5 Hoyas past William & Mary," Associated Press, November 10, 2007. the Hoyas′ highest preseason ranking since 1995, even though 2007 Big East Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year forward Jeff Green had left Georgetown during the offseason to enter the National Basketball Association draft, foregoing his senior year. With Green gone, Hibbert became the centerpiece of Georgetown's offense.

Georgetown opened the season with eight straight victories, the first time the Hoyas had opened a season 5–0 or better since 2003.Anonymous, "Hoyas struggle to remain unbeaten in win over Stags," Associated Press, December 1, 2007. The third game, at Ball State, had been scheduled as a rematch between John Thompson III and his younger brother, Ball State head coach and former Georgetown player Ronny Thompson, whose teams had played one another a year earlier at the Verizon Center in the brothers′ first meeting as head coaches, but Ronny Thompson had left Ball State during the summer of 2007, and John Thompson III faced a Ball State team coached by Bill Taylor instead.Anonymous, "Hibbert, Hoyas have little trouble with shorthanded Cardinals," Associated Press, November 22, 2007. The seventh game was against Jacksonville, the first meeting between the teams since a December 1969 game that was declared a "no contest" after Georgetown head coach John Magee pulled his players off the court at Jacksonville out of fear for their safety in the face of a hostile crowd; 38 years later, the result of the meeting was an easy 87-55 Hoya victory.Anonymous, "No. 4 Georgetown too much for overmatched Jacksonville," Associated Press, December 9, 2007. During the winning streak, Hibbert had 23 points and eight rebounds in a come-from-behind win against William and Mary, 12 points against Michigan in a game that began with Georgetown pulling out to a 43–19 lead,Anonymous, "No. 5 Georgetown buries Michigan from get-go," Associated Press, November 16, 2007. 16 points and seven rebounds against Ball State, his first double-double of the season (14 points and 10 rebounds) in 24 minutes of play at Old Dominion,Anonymous, "No. 5 Georgetown overcomes Lee, Old Dominion," Associated Press, November 28, 2007. and 14 points, nine rebounds, and five blocked shots against Alabama.Anonymous, "Georgetown rides 14-1 second-half run past Alabama," Associated Press, December 6, 2007. Over the same stretch, Jonathan Wallace had 15 points against William & Mary, 13 points against Fairfield, and 11 points against Alabama, while Jessie Sapp scored 18 points against William & Mary and 12 points each against Michigan and Alabama. DaJuan Summers had 10 points against William & Mary, 16 points against Fairfield, 18 points against Alabama, and 14 against Jacksonville. Freshman guards Chris Wright and Austin Freeman also showed their potential as their college careers began: Wright scored 10 points against Michigan and 14 against Jacksonville, while Freeman had 10 points against Michigan, 11 points at Old Dominion, 15 against Jacksonville, and 21 points in a very physical 110-51 blow-out of Radford in which Georgetown shot 65 percent from the field for the game and 71 percent in the second half, scoring 100 or more points for the first time since John Thompson III became head coach in 2004.Anonymous, "Ewing Jr., Crawford get techs after Radford's hard fouls in first half of blowout win," Associated Press, December 16, 2007. Sophomore guard Jeremiah Rivers came off the bench to have an outstanding defensive performance and five assists in the Fairfield game.

After opening 8–0, Georgetown faced its first ranked opponent of the season on December 22, visiting No. 2 Memphis, the winner of 36 straight home games. The Hoyas led by as many as eight points in the first half – the last time was 35–27 with 4:40 left in the half – but the Tigers then began to make shots more consistently and came back to take a 41–40 lead with 40 seconds left in the first half and a 43–40 lead at halftime. In the second half, Memphis missed 11 of its first 12 shots and Georgetown took a 46–45 lead with 15:40 left in the game, but the Tigers, who dominated Georgetown in second-half rebounds, then went on a 9–0 run to lead 54–46 with 12:18 left. After that, Memphis's lead stretched to double digits and reached 17 twice, with the Tigers making 17 of their 22 free throws in the second half and four Tigers scoring in double digits during the game. For Georgetown, Austin Freeman had a team-high 14 points, DaJuan Summers scored 13, and Patrick Ewing Jr., contributed 10, but Roy Hibbert only managed a season-low six points. Memphis outrebounded Georgetown 43–30 – a season low for the Hoyas – and won the game 85–71 to drop Georgetown to 8–1 on the year.Anonymous, "Douglas-Roberts, Dozier lead Tigers in top 5 matchup," Associated Press, December 22, 2007.Play-by-Play, Georgetown vs. Memphis, December 22, 2007.

The Hoyas finished 2007 and their nonconference schedule with wins over American – the first meeting between the crosstown rivals since December 1986Anonymous, "Even with Hoyas' rout, 'JT3' finds things to work on," Associated Press, December 6, 2008. – and Fordham. American held a luncheon before its game with Georgetown,Anonymous, "Georgetown shoots 60 percent from field in rout of American," Associated Press, December 29, 2007. now ranked No. 8, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Eagles′ December 15, 1982, upset win over the then-No. 5 1982-83 Hoyas in December 1982 – touted as the biggest win in American's basketball history – but Georgetown dominated the Eagles this time around and won 78–51, with DaJuan Summers scoring 16 points, Chris Wright 13, and Hibbert 14, although Hibbert tied his career-low total of one rebound, the first time he had only one rebound since a game against South Florida in January 2006. The game against Fordham on New Year's Eve was the first meeting of the teams since January 1979, and the Hoyas, who had climbed to No. 7 in the Associated Press Poll that day, routed the Rams with Jonathan Wallace scoring a team-high 19 points, DaJuan Summers scoring 15 and grabbing nine rebounds, Austin Freeman contributing 12 points, and Jessie Sapp and Roy Hibbert adding 11 each. During the Fordham game, Wallace reached two career benchmarks, becoming the 39th Hoya to score 1,000 points in his career and scoring his 190th three-point shot, moving ahead of Kevin Braswell′s team record of 189 three-pointers set between 1988 and 1992.Anonymous, "Georgetown closes non-conference schedule with romp past Fordham," Associated Press, December 31, 2007.

Conference schedule

Georgetown extended its winning streak to five – opening 3–0 in conference play – as it began the Big East season in the new year of 2008 as the best team in the country in points allowed, with opponents averaging only 55.2 points per game, and in field goal percentage defense, with opponents shooting only 35.2 percent from the field against the Hoyas.Anonymous, "Georgetown's defense comes up big in conference opener," Associated Press, January 5, 2008. The season opener saw the Hoyas beat Rutgers for the sixth time in a row and seventh time in eight games, with Austin Freeman scoring 13 points, Jonathan Wallace 11, and DaJuan Summers and Jessie Sapp 10 each. Against DePaul, Roy Hibbert had a double-double (17 points and 11 rebounds) and five assists, while Freeman scored 13 points and Jonathan Wallace and Jessie Sapp had 12 each.Anonymous, "Georgetown grabs 11-0 lead en route to win," Associated Press, January 9, 2008. Four days later in a back-and-forth game against Connecticut, Hibbert had a 20-point, eight-rebound performance that he capped off with a rare three-pointer – making him 2-for-2 in three-pointers during his Georgetown career – with less than five seconds left in the game. It turned out to be the game-winning shot in a 72–69 victory, giving the Hoyas two consecutive wins over the Huskies for the first time since a six-game Hoya winning streak from 1991 to 1993.Anonymous, "Hibbert scores 20 as No. 8 Georgetown defeats UConn," Associated Press, January 17, 2008. Patrick Ewing Jr., scored 14 points against Connecticut.

Entering the game as the best-shooting team from the field in the country at 51.6 percent, the Hoyas went on the road to face their first ranked Big East opponent, No. 15 Pittsburgh, winners of 12 straight games on their home court, on January 14. Ronald Ramón and Keith Benjamin came off the bench to replace injured starters Levance Fields and Mike Cook and scored 18 points each for the Panthers, while Pittsburgh freshman center DeJuan Blair, 7 inches (18 cm) shorter than Roy Hibbert, matched up well against Hibbert, scoring 15 points and grabbing nine rebounds, and the Panthers outrebounded the Hoyas 37–33. Although Hibbert scored 12 points, Jonathan Wallace scored 14, and Vernon Macklin contributed 10, the Hoyas shot only 44.2 percent from the field and 3-for-20 (15 percent) from three-point range and never led during the game; they began the second half behind only 27–26, but Pittsburgh started the second half with a 15–4 run to take a 42–30 lead. Georgetown scored eight consecutive points to close to 47–44 with 9:05 left in the game, but the Panthers responded by scoring six points of their own to stretch their led back to 52–44 with 8:14 left. Pittsburgh went on to upset Georgetown, 69–60, to break the Hoyas's five-game winning streak and drop Georgetown to 13–2 for the year and 3–1 in the Big East.Anonymous, "Ramon, Benjamin score 18 each to lead No. 16 Pitt past No. 6 Georgetown," Associated Press, January 15, 2008.Box score, Georgetown vs. Pittsburgh, January 14, 2008.Play-by-Play, Georgetown vs. Pittsburgh, January 14, 2008.