For the second straight year and only the third time in the program’s history, the Georgetown women’s basketball team is going to the Big Dance.
On Monday night, at the selection party in the Faculty Club, the Hoyas (22-10, 9-7 Big East) learned that they had received the No. 5 seed in the Philadelphia region for the 2011 NCAA Tournament. The team will make the trip to nearby College Park, Md. to take on the 12-seeded Princeton Tigers (24-4, 13-1 Ivy) in the first round on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
The excitement of the evening was high from the start, as the Georgetown players were joined by family, friends, and fans during the selection special. But those present only grew more anxious as the first three regions were announced without mention of Georgetown. When the team’s seed was finally revealed, the room erupted into raucous cheering.
“It’s what we expected—anywhere from a 4 to a 5 seed,” head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “We didn’t end extremely well, so I knew that we could have been a four, but we’ll take the five. We’re just happy to be here.”
With two consecutive NCAA appearances and three straight 20-win seasons, the Georgetown program has taken a major step forward under Williams-Flournoy. The Hoyas will look to continue their success by building on last year’s experience in the tournament, where they lost in the second round to Baylor.
“Last year we had to get over the excitement of being there,” Williams-Flournoy said. “It was the first year we had been to the NCAA tournament, so now we’re over that excitement. This year we know exactly what we want to do. We had our goal, we’ve reached it, and now let’s continue to go further.”
Georgetown will face a well-balanced Princeton team that dominated the Ivy League and has four players averaging in double figures. Though the assistant coaches immediately took off from the Faculty Club to start preparing for Princeton, the team believes it can beat anybody if they just play their game.
“If we can get down and play defense the way we’re capable of playing, it’s a hard day of work for anybody,” All-Big East Honorable Mention and senior guard Monica McNutt said.
The Hoyas enter the tournament in somewhat of a slide, having dropped five of their last seven games. The team will look to McNutt and fellow captains Sugar Rodgers and Rubylee Wright to help turn it around and make a deep tournament run. Rodgers was a unanimous First-Team All-Big East selection and the second-leading scorer in the conference, while Wright was tied for first in the conference with 5.3 assists per game.
“Coming off of the Big East Tournament and how we closed our season, we’re ready to go again,” McNutt said. “We’re ready to prove that we’re still a good team.”
great article go hoyas!