The 2013–14 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented Georgetown University in the 2013–14 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. They were led by John Thompson III, were members of the Big East Conference, and played their home games at the Verizon Center, with one home game at McDonough Gymnasium. The team started the season against the Oregon Ducks in the Armed Forces Classic at Camp Humphreys near Pyeongtaek, South Korea, and played in the 2013 Puerto Rico Tip-Off.
This was Georgetowns first season as a member of the newly organized Big East Conference. It had been a founding member of the original Big East Conference in the 1979-80 season and had remained a member for 34 seasons. However, that conferences increasingly unstable membership and uncertain future and what Georgetown and the conferences other basketball-only members believed to be its focus on college football at the expense of the interests of its basketball programs led Georgetown and six other Big East members (DePaul, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John's, and Villanova) to leave the conference after the conclusion of the 2012–13 season. In 2013 they joined Butler, Creighton, and Xavier in forming a new Big East Conference. (The original Big East Conference then added new members of its own and renamed itself the American Athletic Conference for the 2013–14 season.) One immediate effect of the conference realignment was that for the first time since the 1977-78 season the Hoyas did not play Syracuse, Georgetowns great rival throughout the original Big East Conferences 34-season history; Syracuse had itself left the original Big East in 2013 to join the Atlantic Coast Conference for the 2013–14 season.
Season recap
Following the previous season, Georgetown sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr. had left the team for a career in the National Basketball Association after two impressive collegiate years in which he had led the team in virtually all statistical categories, and the Hoyas keenly felt his loss. Without any seniors on the team the previous year, however, Georgetown had lost no players to graduation over the offseason, and the only player to transfer from Georgetown, then-freshman center Brandon Bolden, had had virtually no playing time during his only season as a Hoya. Georgetown returned the rest of its veteran players, with senior Markel Starks at point guard; sophomore D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera at shooting guard; junior Jabril Trawick at guard; senior Nate Lubick, redshirt senior Aaron Bowen, junior Mikael Hopkins, and sophomore Stephen Domingo at forward; and senior Moses Ayegba and sophomore Bradley Hayes at center. Sophomore guard David Allen made the team as a walk-on for the second straight season, sophomore guard Riyan Williams – the son of former Georgetown great Reggie Williams – also walked on and was added to the roster in January 2014,Riyan Williams Bio guhoyas.com Retrieved June 30, 2018 the third time in Georgetown men's basketball history that the son of a former Georgetown player made the team. Senior guard John Caprio, a walk-on in his first three seasons, made the team as a scholarship player for the first and only time. Junior forward Greg Whittington, who had been Georgetown's second-leading scorer and rebounder of the 2012–13 season before he was suspended for academic reasons at midseason and missed the last 19 games of the year, also returned, but he had undergone knee surgery over the offseason and began the 2013-14 campaign sidelined while he recovered.Anonymous, "Hoyas fend off Lipscomb for 70-49 win," Associated Press, November 30, 2013. Retrieved June 27, 2018 Junior center Tyler Adams, sidelined early in his freshman season by heart arrhythmia, spent the season on a medical hardship waiver that allowed him to continue at Georgetown on a scholarship without counting against the team's scholarship total; relegated to the bench for another year, he made the most of the situation, acting as a de facto assistant coach.Kilgore, Adam, "Georgetown's Tyler Adams, his career cut short by heart ailment, gets one last start," washingtonpost.com, March 6, 2015.
The Hoyas welcomed two new players for 2013–14. Power forward Reggie Cameron joined the team as its only freshman, but most attention centered around its only other newcomer, junior center Joshua Smith, who joined Georgetown as a transfer from UCLA. In his freshman year at UCLA in 2010–11, Smith averaged 10.9 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.Conway, Tyler, "Transfer Josh Smith Cleared to Play for Georgetown Hoyas," bleacherreport.com, October 23, 2013 By his sophomore season in 2011–12, however, he had lost the confidence of Bruins head coach Ben Howland, who believed the 6-foot-10 (208 cm) Smith to be overweight and out of shape – Smith arrived for his sophomore season weighing 350 pounds (159 kg) – and had criticized publicly what he saw as immature behavior on Smith's part;Bolch, Ben, "Ben Howland says Joshua Smith needs to grow up," latimes.com, January 11, 2011. Howland did not give Smith much playing time during his sophomore season, as Smith tired easily and played for only two or three minutes at a time, and he averaged only 17.2 minutes per game for the year.Clarke, Liz, "Georgetown basketball preview: Josh Smith is a reclamation project with sizable upside," washingtonpost.com, November 6, 2013. Retrieved June 26, 2013=8. After playing in only six games for the Bruins during his junior year in 2012–13, Smith left UCLA in midseason, transferring in January 2013 to Georgetown, where he began taking classes and practicing with the team during the spring 2013 semester. Normally, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) would have required Smith to sit out two entire semesters before making his Hoya debut, and would have granted him only one more year of eligibility,Parrish, Gary, "Josh Smith cleared to play at Georgetown immediately," cbssports.com, October 23, 2013. Retrieved June 30, 2018. but Georgetown requested a seasons-of-competition waiver from the NCAA, which the NCAA granted, in effect making a controversial decision to give Smith the same status as a redshirt junior and allow him to begin play for the Hoyas with the opening game of the 2013–14 season and with two years of eligibility remaining. Thompson, who had recruited Smith in high school, expected Smith and his low-post offensive presence to play a key role for the Hoyas and constructed a team that could take advantage of his presence. Thompson told the press that signing Smith was "a big risk – literally and figuratively" because of his declining performance during his time at UCLA and questions about his commitment to physical fitness and to playing winning basketball, but that the risk was worth it if Smith worked hard and stayed in shape because of his footwork, agility, and soft hands.Bolch, Ben, "UCLA's Joshua Smith has been a big man on campus since he was 5," latimes.com, January 8, 2011. Retrieved June 29, 2018 Thompson noted that Smith had made a good start with the Hoyas, arriving for the fall 2013 semester in good physical shape.
Nonconference schedule
Unranked Georgetown began its season with a ranked opponent, No. 19 Oregon, in the Armed Forces Classic and in an unusual venue, Camp Humphreys, a United States Army base in South Korea located south of Seoul, with an audience consisting almost entirely of U.S. Army soldiers who cheered enthusiastically for both teams.[Anonymous, "No. 19 Oregon fights off Georgetown in South Korea," Associated Press, November 9, 2013. Retrieved June 26, 2018] Both teams wore special camouflage uniforms, the Ducks light-colored ones with "USA" on their backs instead of the players' names and the Hoyas dark-colored ones sporting inspiring words like "Courage," "Integrity," and "Respect" rather than players' names, and the coaches and staff of both teams wore combat boots and military-style cargo pants. Georgetown took its only lead of the first half by scoring the opening basket, but after that shot poorly and committed turnovers repeatedly, allowing Oregon to build a lead, although the Hoyas battled back to a 37–34 deficit at halftime behind 10 points by Mikael Hopkins and nine first-half points by Joshua Smith. The Hoyas briefly took their second and final lead of the game early in the second half, but Oregon soon pulled ahead for good, although Georgetown closed to within four points with a minute left in the game. Ultimately, the Hoyas missed important free throws and the Ducks made their free throws in the final minutes, and Oregon won 82–75. The Hoyas went only 1-for-15 (6.7 percent) from three-point range and Oregon outrebounded them 40–32. Joshua Smith scored a game-high 25 points – also his season high, as it turned out – but grabbed only four rebounds, Markel Starks made Georgetown's only three-pointer with 7:16 left in the game and finished with 16 points, Jabril Trawick had 11 points, and Mikael Hopkins contributed 10.Georgetown vs. Oregon – Box Score – November 8, 2013 – ESPN Oregon's 82 points were more than any opponent had scored against Georgetown the previous season.[Fendrich, Howard, "Smith-Rivera's 25 lead Hoyas past Wright St. 88-70," Associated Press, November 13, 2013. Retrieved June 26, 2018]
The Hoyas made a brief return to Washington, D.C., to defeat Wright State in their home opener at the Verizon Center, with D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera scoring 25 points and Starks contributing 23. Reggie Cameron scored on each of the first three three-point attempts of his collegiate career to finish with nine points as the Hoyas' three-point game recovered from its dismal showing in South Korea on 10-for-22 (45 percent) shooting from beyond the arc. Georgetown then went on the road again to take part in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In the opening game of the tournament, Georgetown faced Northeastern – a team the Hoyas had faced only once before, in 1979 – and suffered an upset at the hands of the Huskies, leading by 11 points at the half but collapsing in the second half, shooting 23 percent from the field after halftime, struggling at the free-throw line throughout the game, and allowing Northeastern to come from behind for a 63–56 win.Anonymous, "Reggie Spencer sparks Northeastern upset of G'town," Associated Press, November 22, 2018. Retrieved June 27, 2018 Relegated to the tournament's consolation bracket, the Hoyas had a much better outing against Kansas State the following day, shooting 63 percent from the field and leading by as many as 29 points before coming away with a 90–63 victory.Anonymous, "Georgetown bounces back from loss to pound Kansas State," Associated Press, November 22, 2013. Retrieved June 27, 2018 D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera was the only Hoya to score in double figures against Northeastern with 14 pointsBox Score – Northeastern vs. Georgetown – November 21, 2013 –ESPN Retrieved June 27, 2018 and scored a game-high 25 points against Kansas State,Box Score – Kansas State vs. Georgetown – November 22, 2013 –ESPN Retrieved June 27, 2018 while Jabil Trawick had 16, Joshua Smith 13, and Markel Starks 11 points against the Wildcats.