The 2006–07 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team was an NCAA Division I college basketball team competing in the Big East Conference representing Georgetown University. The Hoyas finished first place in the conference, won the conference tournament, and advanced to the semifinals in the NCAA tournament. The 2006–07 season marked the centennial of Hoya hoops, which was celebrated by honoring some of the team's most famous alumni at the Georgetown-Marquette game on February 10, 2007. The team was led by juniors, forward Jeff Green, center Roy Hibbert, and point guard Jonathan Wallace. The team's freshmen were DaJuan Summers, Vernon Macklin, and Jeremiah Rivers. Other regular players are Tyler Crawford, Jessie Sapp, and Patrick Ewing Jr.
On March 3, 2007, the Hoyas won their first regular-season Big East Championship since 1989. On March 10, 2007, the Hoyas defeated the Pittsburgh Panthers (65–42) to win the 2007 Big East tournament championship, also for the first time since 1989. Jeff Green was named the Big East Player of the year and the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
The Hoyas advanced to the 2007 Final Four before losing to an Ohio State team led by Greg Oden. In the NCAA tournament's first weekend, the Hoyas defeated Belmont and Boston College. The Hoyas' games in the second weekend were some of the closest and most-watched contests of the tournament. The Hoyas defeated Vanderbilt on a last-second bank shot by Jeff Green, then beat North Carolina in the Regional Final when their defense caused North Carolina to suffer an improbable collapse in which the Tar Heels missed 21 of their final 23 field goal attempts.
Season recap
Regular season
Non-conference schedule
Returning three starters – forward Jeff Green, center Roy Hibbert, and point guard Jonathan Wallace – from the previous season, coming off a 2006 NCAA tournament appearance, and boasting their highest preseason poll ranking (No. 8) since 1995, the Hoyas opened the 2006–07 season with high expectations.
Georgetown began the season with consecutive wins over Hartford and at Vanderbilt, in the latter game handing Vanderbilt its first opening-game loss on its home court since November 14, 1990; the Commodores had been 62–4 against non-conference opponents there.Anonymous, "Green scores 19 in Georgetown's win over Vanderbilt," Associated Press, November 22, 2006. Against Hartford, Green scored 17 points, Hibbert had 16, and Wallace contributed 13, and in the Vanderbilt game, Hibbert had a double-double (18 points and 10 rebounds), while Green scored 19 points, despite playing only seven minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, and Wallace and sophomore guard Jessie Sapp contributed 13 and 11 points, respectively. But the Hoyas stumbled in their third game despite a 17-point, eight-rebound performance by Hibbert, when Old Dominion rallied from an eight-point deficit in the second half to beat Georgetown, snapping a 23-game Hoya winning streak at McDonough Gymnasium that dated back to February 1982. In the next game, freshman forward DaJuan Summers scored in double digits for the first time in his college career with 17 points and Sapp contributed 14 in a win at Fairfield.Anonymous, "Freshman's 17 help No. 16 Georgetown tame Fairfield," Associated Press, November 23, 2006.
A game followed against Ball State, coached by former Georgetown player and assistant coach Ronny Thompson, the younger brother of John Thompson III, in the first meeting of the brothers as opposing head coaches. Their father, former Georgetown head coach John Thompson Jr., called the meeting a "stupid" idea, and he attended the game wearing a neutral black ballcap with a "T" embroidered on its front, barely expressing emotion as Georgetown defeated Ball State 69–54 in a one-sided contest in which Jeff Green scored 14 points, DaJuan Summers scored 12, and freshman forward Vernon Macklin contributed 10 points. After the game, John Thompson III discussed a rematch scheduled for the following season, saying "We may cancel that...This is hard. I knew it would be difficult, and it was much more difficult, to tell you the truth, than I ever thought it would be. That's my brother. I want them to have some success. I want to watch their tapes in a manner in which to help them rather than figure out to beat them." But the rematch between the brothers was not to be, because by the time the teams met again a year later, Billy Taylor had replaced Ronny Thompson as Ball State's head coach.
After the Old Dominion loss, Georgetown had fallen from No. 8 to No. 14 in the AP Poll, and the Hoyas fell farther to No. 18 by the time they played Oregon to close out November. Although Jonathan Wallace scored 17 points, the Ducks overcame their own poor shooting to defeat Georgetown in Oregon's first win in eight tries over a Top 25 team in a game played on the United States East Coast.Anonymous, "Oregon fights through poor shooting to move to 6-0," Associated Press, November 30, 2006. Next up was a game at No. 10 Duke on December 2, Georgetown's first ranked opponent during the season. The underdog Hoyas shot 57.7 percent in the first half and led 34–27 at halftime, but the game was very different in the second half, during which Georgetown shot only 26.1 percent (6-for-23) and committed 11 turnovers. With 11:28 to go in the game, Georgetown still led 43-39, but scored only two more field goals. Meanwhile, Duke sophomore guard Greg Paulus and freshman guard Jon Scheyer scored all 13 and all nine of their points, respectively, in the second half, combining for 16 straight points at one point. Hibbert had 11 points and six rebounds, Jeff Green had eight points, 10 rebounds, and five assists, Jessie Sapp had 13 points, and Georgetown led 49–47 on a Hibbert drive with 6:27 left in the game, but Duke took the lead for good at 4:55 and won 61–52. The Blue Devils lengthened their home winning streak against nonconference opponents to 46 games, the second-longest such active streak in the United States, and gave head coach Mike Krzyzewski his 760th career win.
After the back-to-back losses to Oregon and Duke, Georgetown's record stood at 4–3, and the Hoyas fell out of the Top 25, not to return for two months. However, the Hoyas promptly embarked on the first of two lengthy winning streaks. It began with a win over James Madison on December 5 in which Jeff Green – who had scored in double digits only once in the previous five games – had 17 points and five assists, Jessie Sapp scored 15 points, Jonathan Wallace contributed 14 points, and Georgetown – which had gone a collective 3-for-23 (11.5 percent) from three-point range against Oregon and Duke – tied the school record for three-pointers when junior forward Patrick Ewing Jr., a newcomer to the team, hit the Hoyas′ 16th three-pointer of the game with 3:56 left to play, tying the 16 scored at Davidson in November 2004.Anonymous, "Georgetown 89, James Madison 53," Associated Press, December 5, 2006. As the winning streak continued, Green scored 15 points against Oral Roberts and 12 against Towson and had 20 points and nine rebounds against Navy;Anonymous, "Georgetown 69, Towson 41," Associated Press, December 20, 2006Anonymous, "Hibbert's double-double powers Georgetown," Associated Press, December 9, 2006.Anonymous, "Georgetown 65, Navy 44," Associated Press, December 23, 2006. Hibbert had his second double-double (23 points, 11 rebounds) of the season in the Oral Roberts game, 10 points against Winston-Salem State,Anonymous, "Georgetown 76, Winston-Salem 32," Associated Press, December 16, 2006 15 points and seven rebounds against Navy; and 14 points against Michigan;Anonymous, "Hibbert, Hoyas send Michigan to season's third loss," Associated Press, December 30, 2006 Jonathan Wallace scored 12 points against Oral Roberts, 14 points against Towson, and 12 against Michigan; DaJuan Summers scored 14 points against Winston-Salem State and 18 against Towson; junior guard/forward and team co-captain Tyler Crawford, who had missed several games due to a bout with strep throat that resulted in a hospital stay, had 12 points vs. Wilson-Salem State; and sophomore Marc Egerson had 11 points each against Oral Roberts and Michigan. Other highlights of the streak included a 70-percent Georgetown team shooting performance from the floor during the second half of the Winston-Salem State game and the defeat of Michigan to close out December, which dealt the Wolverines their first loss in their last 14 nonconference games at Crisler Arena; Georgetown shot 23-for-44 (52.3%), becoming only the second team at the time to shoot better than 50 percent against Michigan.
Conference schedule Marc Egerson left the team for "personal reasons" (he later transferred to Delaware)Thamel, Pete, "Georgetown Player′s Ignominious Mark," nytimes.com, March 30, 2007. before Georgetown, with a 10-3 record and a six-game winning streak, opened its Big East season with a game against No. 17 Notre Dame on January 6 and thoroughly dominated the Fighting Irish on offense and defense. Notre Dame shot 1-for-10 and committed six turnovers during the game's first 8½ minutes, and Georgetown jumped out to an 18–2 lead and then extended it to 29–9. Notre Dame closed to an 11-point deficit by halftime, but the Hoyas went on a 14–0 run early in the second half that pushed their lead to 29 points. Hibbert scored a game-high 18 points on 8-for-9 (.889) shooting. The Hoyas held Notre Dame, which averaged 88 points per game and was shooting 41 percent from three-point range entering the contest, to 4-for-22 (18 percent) in three-pointers, and the Fighting Irish finished with fewer than 50 points for the first time since joining the Big East in 1995. Georgetown won in a 66–48 upset, ending a 12-game Notre Dame winning streak and extending Georgetown's to seven.Anonymous, "Hibbert, Hoyas handle Notre Dame, ending a 12-game win streak," Associated Press, December 3, 2006.
Georgetown stumbled in its next game, losing to Villanova – despite DaJuan Summers′ 16 points, with the team′ leading scorer, Hibbert, getting only two points – before facing No. 7 Pittsburgh. Jeff Green and Jessie Sapp each had 15 points against Pittsburgh – Green reaching 1,000 points for his college career – and Patrick Ewing Jr., contributed 12 points, while Hibbert had 11 points and two rebounds. With the teams shooting a combined 60 percent from the floor and Pittsburgh outrebounding Georgetown, the Hoyas led 18–17 halfway through the first half, but Pittsburgh then went on a 20–8 run to take the lead for good and won the game 74–69.Anonymous, "Pitt gets 18 points from Cook to stay undefeated (11-0) at home," Associated Press, January 14, 2007. The loss left Georgetown with a 1–2 conference record, but the Hoyas were destined to lose only two more games during the entire remaining season and postseason combined.