The 1973–74 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
during the
1973–74 NCAA Division I
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...
college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
season.
John Thompson, coached them in his second season as head coach. The team was an independent and played its home games at
McDonough Gymnasium
McDonough Gymnasium, sometimes referred to as McDonough Arena when hosting a sports or entertainment event, is a multi-purpose arena on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Officially known as McDonough Memorial Gymnasium, it op ...
on the Georgetown campus in
Washington, D.C.
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
A young and inexperienced team, it played inconsistently,
finished the season with a record of 13-13, and had no post-season play.
Season recap
Sophomore
center
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
Merlin Wilson had posted scoring and rebounding statistics unprecedented in Georgetown basketball history during his
freshman year
A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions.
Ara ...
, drawing national attention. Opponents paid extra attention to defending against him this season, and
foul trouble limited his performance in the early games. Thompson moved him to power
forward
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Forward may also refer to:
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* Forward (surname)
Sports
* Forward (association football)
* Forward (basketball), including:
** Point forward
** Power forward (basketball)
** Sm ...
in January 1974, and this allowed him to return to form, with 23 points and 16 rebounds against
Chicago State
Chicago State University (CSU) is a predominantly black public university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1867 as the Cook County Normal School, it was an innovative teachers college. Eventually the Chicago Public Schools assumed control of t ...
and 23 rebounds each in games a week apart against
Holy Cross and
Penn State. He averaged 15.5 rebounds per game for the season, a school record still well beyond the average posted by any other Hoya.
Sophomore guard Jonathan Smith led the team in scoring this season, finishing with 466 points, the third-highest total in a single season for a Georgetown player. He scored 20 or more points numerous times, averaged 25 points per game in the latter part of the season, and scored a season-high 32 points against
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...
on February 16, 1974.
Sophomore forward Bill Lynn had seen little action as a reserve the previous season, but a back injury to forward Mark Gallagher that ended Gallaghers Georgetown career gave Lynn more playing time this year. He finished the season second on the team in both scoring and rebounding with an average of 13 points and 8.1 rebounds per game, including 20 points and nine rebounds against 2nd-ranked
Notre Dame and 28 points and 18 rebounds against
Boston College.
Freshman forward Larry Long scored a career-high 25 points against Boston College and finished the year averaging 7.1 points per game. He started every game, but an injury he suffered at
St. Joseph's was the beginning of many injuries that would hamper him for the rest of his collegiate career.
The 1973-74 squad was not ranked in the Top 20 in the
Associated Press Poll
The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...
or
Coaches' Poll at any time.
[sports-reference.com 1973-74 Polls](_blank)
/ref> It was the last Georgetown men's basketball team to finish a season without a winning record until the 1998–99 season. It also was the last one to have no post-season play in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament or the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) until the 2001-02 team declined an invitation to the 2002 NIT, and the last one to receive no invitation to either the NCAA tournament or the NIT until the 2003-04 season.
Roster
Source
1973–74 schedule and results
Sources2012-2013 Georgetown Men's Basketball Media Guide, p. 62.
/ref>
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References
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Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball seasons
Georgetown
Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team
Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team