As Hoya fans all over campus are throwing away their brackets, using them as placemats or emergency toilet paper, they can take solace in one fact: their Georgetown Hoyas are in the Sweet Sixteen. Who cares if Wichita State is single handedly costing you your plane ticket home for Easter weekend? So what if you didn’t have Bradley making the third round of the tournament for the first time since 1955?
All we have been able to decipher amidst the madness this year is that Facebook’s bracket point system is ridiculous, and that the Hoyas are back in regional semi-final for the first time in five years.
The last time the Hoyas were in the Sweet Sixteen they rode the appropriately named Mike Sweetney and Ruben Boumjte Boumjte to post-season prowess. On campus, Jack DeGeoia had just been named Georgetown’s first lay-person president the month before. And current Georgetown seniors were listening to the British pop band S Club 7 while planning their college visits as high school juniors. Five years is a long time.
Freshmen on the hilltop, who might think the basketball team’s success was no coincidence upon their arrival, are lucky. Seniors (unless they’re on the five or six year plan) have waited their entire college careers to taste the type of sweet success earned by John Thompson III and his boys.
They’ve been waiting for the emergence of the next great Georgetown seven-foot center and the second coming of coaching legend John Thompson Jr. But, now that everything seems to be falling into place, there’s still no talk among analysts like Jay Bilas, Andy Katz, and all the rest about the Hoyas’ chances. Seniors, along with Joe and Jane Hoyas everywhere, have been waiting for the kind of nation-wide attention and excitement that another Sweet Sixteen berth should carry.
Hoya nation has been listening about the resurgence of the old dynasty and heard nothing but silence. The Hoyas have continued their 1980s-themed party of success ever since toppling the all-mighty Blue Devils. They’re just one win away from having a chance at a rematch of the 1985 championship against Ed Pinckney’s Villanova Wildcats, and two wins away from quenching the hilltop’s thirst for a Final Four appearence.
Yet, turn to ESPN and you’ll hear nothing about it. You’ll be bombarded with stats of Coach K’s tournament winning percentage, or goofy inside looks at George Mason’s camera-phobic club.
Search all you want, but no one wants to give the new-look, back-door-cutting, long-armed and defensive-minded Hoyas a chance come tomorrow night.
Florida’s baby Gators will be the point of focus because of the way they easily shredded their first two opponents. And I’m sure that’s just the way the Hoyas like it. Because even though the seniors and the rest of Hoya nation would like to hear their team talked up by Dicky V until he’s blue in the face, why give the Gators further motivation come tip-off?
The Hoyas shouldn’t want anything more than to be overlooked. For a squad focused on returning a winning tradition and a spot in the Elite Eight, the silence is golden.
