2001–02 Georgetown Hoyas Men's Basketball Team

The 2001–02 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented Georgetown University in the 2001–02 NCAA Division I college basketball season. The Hoyas were coached by Craig Esherick and played most of their home games at the MCI Center in Washington, DC, although they played some home games early in the season at McDonough Gymnasium on the Georgetown campus. The Hoyas were members of the West Division of the Big East Conference. They finished the season 19–11, 9–7 in Big East play. They advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2002 Big East men's basketball tournament before losing to Miami in overtime. Missing an at-large bid to the 2002 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, Georgetown instead received an invitation to play in the 2002 National Invitation Tournament (NIT), but declined it and had no postseason play, the first Georgetown men's basketball team since the 1973–74 season to appear in neither the NCAA Tournament or the NIT.

Season recap

Georgetown entered the season anticipating that sophomore power forward Mike Sweetney, freshman forward Harvey Thomas, and junior center Wesley Wilson would make up an imposing frontcourt. Thomas, who averaged 5.2 points and 2.5 rebounds a game, and Wilson, who averaged 12.2 points and 6.2 rebounds, played inconsistently all season, but Sweetney remained as dominant as he had been the previous season. He improved his free-throw shooting from 61% the previous year to 79% this season, that change alone accounting for an average of an additional 2.7 points per game. He had 14 double-doubles, including 26 points and 13 rebounds against Rutgers in January 2002. He would complete the season averaging 19.0 points and 10.0 rebounds a game, the first Georgetown player to average at least 15 points and 10 rebounds a game since Alonzo Mourning.

Senior point guard and team co-captain Kevin Braswell was a leader of the team, starting all 30 games and completing his string of starting all 128 games of his collegiate career. Inconsistent play dogged him during the year as it had throughout his career, however; he shot over 50 percent from the field in only one Big East game during the season and finished the year shooting only 37 percent from the field in conference play.

Sophomore forward Gerald Riley started all 30 games – as he would all 125 games of his collegiate career – and improved his play in many ways from that of his freshman year. His average minutes played per game increased from 17 to 27, and his average points per game increased from 6.7 to 10.3. He shot 81.3 percent from the free-throw line, and in 13 games made every free throw he attempted. He had a 21-point game against West Virginia and scored 18 points against Syracuse.

The team opened the season 9–1, but went 9–9 the rest of the way. Its record stood at 14–7 overall, 5–4 in the Big East, when Notre Dame came to the MCI Center for a conference game on February 9, 2002. In the first half, Georgetown focused on getting the ball inside to Sweetney, who had 18 first-half points, and Wilson, who scored 10 in the first half, and as a team scored 35 points inside during the half. Notre Dame, meanwhile, emphasized rebounding and accurate shooting, shooting almost 60 percent from the field in the first half, and opened a 12-point lead. The Hoyas made a 7–0 run to end the half and trailed 48–43 at halftime. In the second half, Georgetown continued to close the gap until tying the score at 61–61 with 13:24 to play. Notre Dame then made a 7–0 run of its own to lead 68–61, but Georgetown closed to a four-point deficit with eight minutes to play, to one point behind on a three pointer by freshman guard Drew Hall (who shot 3-for-3 from beyond the three-point line during the game), and tied the game again on a free throw with 7:29 to play. Over the rest of regulation, both teams played tough defense and shot a combined 3-for-20 (15.0%) from the field. Georgetown had an 84–82 lead when Notre Dame junior guard Matt Carroll sank a two-pointer to tie the score. When the Hoyas managed to stop a late Notre Dame rally, the game went into overtime.

In overtime, Notre Dame built a lead, Georgetown caught up, the Fighting Irish took a lead again in the last two minutes, but the Hoyas surged back to tie the game. With 17 seconds left and Georgetown holding the ball for the final shot, Braswell brought the ball down the court, and instead of passing, chose to take a long shot that missed. The second overtime played out the same way, with Notre Dame taking the lead, Georgetown coming back, and Notre Dame again gaining the advantage with under two minutes left. The Hoyas again tied the game and held the ball for the last shot, and Braswell again had the ball; this time he ignored chances to pass the ball inside to Sweetney and to freshman guard Tony Bethel and instead took a low-percentage 30-foot (9.1-meter) shot that missed. The pattern repeated itself in the third overtime; Notre Dame led, Georgetown closed, the Fighting Irish got the lead back in the final two minutes, and the Hoyas came back to tie and had the ball for the last shot. Notre Dame senior forward Ryan Humphrey blocked Gerald Rileys shot, deflecting it to Braswell, who launched a 20-foot (6.1-meter) shot that went through the basket just after the shot clock expired with less than seven-tenths of a second left to play.

By the fourth overtime, Wilson had fouled out, junior center-forward and team co-captain Courtland Freeman had been injured, and Riley and Braswell soon also fouled out – Braswell leaving having shot only 5-for-19 (26.3%) from the field and 0-for-4 at three-point range, part of a slump in which he shot 2-for-17 (11.8%) in three-point attempts over a four-game stretch. The final blow to the tiring Hoyas came when Sweetney fouled out after a 35-point, 20-rebound performance, leaving Georgetown with only one of its starting five players still available to play. Notre Dame, with its starters still on the floor, finally pulled away in the last minute to win, 116–111. The 60 minutes of play over the course of regulation and four overtimes had seen the two teams combined take 190 shots, grab 108 rebounds, and take 72 free throw shots, all while committing only 13 turnovers each. The loss dropped Georgetown to 14–8 overall and 5–5 in the Big East, and in retrospect was a turning point in the Esherick era at Georgetown; in the previous 100 games, Eshericks teams had posted a 64-36 (.640) record, but after the loss the Hoyas went 37-33 (.529) under Esherick, who departed after the end of the 2003-04 season.

A week later, Sweetney shot 11-for-15 (73.4%) from the field and scored 31 points at Villanova, but the rest of the team shot only 11-for-57 (19.3%) from the field as the Hoyas lost another overtime game, 83–72. After losing to Connecticut three days later, the Hoyas embarked on a four-game winning streak in which Sweetney averaged 16 points and 11.5 rebounds. Braswell, meanwhile, scored in double figures in nine straight games to end the season and had a school-record 16 assists against Rutgers in the regular-season home finale, and he finished the year averaging 14.4 points per game for the season and 13.5 points per game for his career.

Georgetown finished the regular season with a three-game winning streak, posting a record of 18–10 overall, 9–7 in the Big East, and finishing tied for third place in the conferences West Division. In the 2002 Big East tournament, the Hoyas beat Providence in the first round to stretch their winning streak to four games and raise hopes that they had an outside chance of receiving an invitation to the 2002 NCAA tournament. However, they lost in the quarterfinals to Miami in overtime despite Gerald Rileys 15-point performance, knocking them out of the Big East tournament and out of consideration for an NCAA bid.

With no NCAA bid, Georgetown instead received an invitation to play in the 2002 National Invitation Tournament (NIT), but Esherick declined it. He explained his controversial decision by saying that Georgetowns home court, the MCI Center, was booked to host the East Regional of the 2002 NCAA Tournament, meaning that accepting the NIT invitation would have required the Hoyas to play on the road in the West for two weeks, forcing his players to miss many of their classes. After playing a similar schedule the previous season during the 2001 NCAA tournament, Esherick had concluded that missing so many classes to play in the NCAA Tournament would have been worth it because of the chance to win a national championship, but that missing them to play in the NIT, a tournament which did not offer a chance for a national championship, was not in the best interest of Georgetowns players. Georgetown became only the second team in history to turn down an NIT bid, and the first to do so since Louisville turned down an invitation to the 1987 NIT.

The 2001–02 team had a frustrating year, losing all three overtime games it played and three other games by only one point, and on five occasions it entered the final minute of a Big East game with a lead and lost. Eshericks decision to turn down the NIT bid made it the first Georgetown men's basketball team since the 1973–74 season to appear in neither the NCAA Tournament or the NIT.

Roster

Source

Rankings

Source

2001–02 Schedule and results

Source2012-2013 Georgetown Men's Basketball Media Guide, p. 66.
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* All times are Eastern

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Notes

References

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Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball seasons
Georgetown Hoyas
Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team
Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team