The 1978–79 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

during the 1978–79

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division 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 athlet ...

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

season. John Thompson, coached them in his seventh season as head coach. An independent, Georgetown played its home games at McDonough Gymnasium on the Georgetown campus in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and finished the season with a record of 24–5. The team won the ECAC South-Upstate Region tournament championship, earning its first NCAA tournament bid since

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

. The Hoyas received a first-round bye and lost in the second round to

Rutgers Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...

Season recap

The Hoyas began the year with an exhibition game against the Chinese national team, a game made possible by co-sponsorship by the National Committee on United States–China Relations of a five-game tour of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

by the Chinese men's and women's teams. Georgetown was the Chinese men's team fourth stop on their tour, and they defeated the Hoyas behind the play of center Mu Tieh-chu, conservatively estimated at in height and nicknamed " The Great Wall of China" by the U.S. players he faced.Georgetown University Library: "Georgetown Men's Basketball, 1906-1907 to 2006-2007: A Spotlight on Ten Coaches, Ten Players, and Ten Decades of Hoops"
/ref>Georgetown University Library: "The 1970s at Georgetown: An Exhibition from the Georgetown University Archives"
/ref> Back from a summer playing overseas with an

Eastern College Athletic Conference The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is a college athletic conference comprising schools that compete in 15 sports (13 men's and 13 women's). It has 220 member institutions in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location from ...

(ECAC) all-star team, junior

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison gu ...

John Duren took the lead on the court as

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the Basketball positions, five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position and is usually the shortest player ...

again this season. He averaged 14.6 points, 5.4 assists, and 35.3 minutes played per game during the season and played eight complete games, setting a single-season school record of 1,024 minutes played, and shot nearly 50 percent from the field and 83 percent from the

free-throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

line. In the final game of the regular season on February 24, 1979, he scored 22 points and had six assists against Holy Cross. Junior forward Craig "Big Sky" Shelton led the team in rebounds and shooting percentage, shooting 60% from the field for the season. Against

Oral Roberts Granville Oral Roberts (January 24, 1918 – December 15, 2009) was an American Charismatic Christianity, Charismatic Christianity, Christian televangelist, who was one of the first to propagate Prosperity theology, Prosperity Gospel Theo ...

on January 31, 1979, he had a season-high 26 points and 12 rebounds. Freshman guard Eric "Sleepy" Floyd did not start in the first two games of the season, but he scored 28 points against

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

on November 28, 1978, in the second game. He started the seasons third game, against St. Bonaventure on December 2, the first of 128 consecutive starts he made for the Hoyas. Against Holy Cross in the regular-season finale, he grabbed 14 rebounds, a record for a Georgetown guard, later matched by Perry McDonald but never exceeded. During the season, he scored in double figures 26 times, shot 81.3 percent from the

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

line, and ended the season with a 15-for-15 free throw streak. He finished the season as the teams leading scorer, and set a freshman record of 480 points scored. Floyd was destined to become one of the great players in Georgetown history, leading the team in scoring in each of his four seasons. Senior forward and team co-captain Steve Martin provided experienced leadership to the team. He scored 20 points against St. Bonaventure and 20 against

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, had 14 points and shot 10-for-11 (90.9%) from the

line against

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

, scored 20 points against

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

, and scored in double figures in each of the teams last six games before its appearance in the

1979 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 1979 NCAA Division I basketball tournament involved 40 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 9 and ended with the championship game on M ...

. Although retaining its status as an independent, Georgetown was in its fifth season as a member of the

(ECAC), a loosely organized sports federation that held three regional post-season Division I basketball tournaments in 1979 for independent Eastern colleges and universities similar to the end-of-season conference tournaments held by conventional college basketball conferences, with each tournament winner receiving an at-large bid to the 1979 NCAA basketball tournament. The Hoyas had won their regional tournament in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

and

to earn an NCAA Tournament bid, but had been knocked out of their ECAC tournament in the semifinals the past two years and had to settle for a berth in the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

. This season, they played in the ECAC South-Upstate Region tournament. After defeating Old Dominion in the semifinal, they met No.6-ranked

Syracuse Syracuse most commonly refers to: * Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; in the province of Syracuse * Syracuse, New York, USA; in the Syracuse metropolitan area Syracuse may also refer to: Places * Syracuse railway station (disambiguation) Italy * Provi ...

in the final. John Duren had 17 points, six assists, and seven steals and the Hoyas scored on 30 free throws to Syracuses six. The Hoyas upset Syracuse to win their third ECAC regional tournament championship in five years and earn their first NCAA Tournament bid since

. In the first of 14 consecutive Georgetown NCAA Tournament appearances, the Hoyas were the No. 3 seed in the East Region of the 1979 NCAA Tournament. They received a first-round bye, but were upset in the second round by the regions No. 6 seed, 18th-ranked

. It was the second straight year that the Scarlet Knights had defeated the Hoyas in a postseason tournament. As a team, the Hoyas shot 51 percent from the field during the season. They finished the season unranked in the Associated Press Poll but ranked 12th in the final

Coaches' Poll In the United States, the Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I (NCAA), Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I (NCAA), Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. ...

. This was Georgetowns 38th and final season of play as an independent after the dissolution of the Eastern Intercollegiate Conference at the end of the 1938–39 season, and it also saw Georgetowns final appearance in an ECAC tournament. In the following season, the Hoyas would play as one of the seven founding members of the new

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

, which held its own end-of-season tournament.

Roster

Sources

Rankings

Sourcesports-reference.com 1978-79 Polls
/ref>

1978–79 schedule and results

Sources.jonfmorse.com 1979 ECAC Men's Basketball Tournaments
/ref> * All times are Eastern , - !colspan=9 style="background:#002147; color:#8D817B;", Exhibition , - !colspan=9 style="background:#002147; color:#8D817B;", Regular season , - !colspan=9 style="background:#002147; color:#8D817B;", ECAC South-Upstate Region tournament , - !colspan=9 style="background:#002147; color:#8D817B;", NCAA tournament

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1978-79 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball seasons Georgetown Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team Georgetown