JTIII Foundation: September 18 and 19

This weekend, the John Thompson III Foundation is hosting charity events to benefit the Washington Jesuit Academy, an all-male middle school in DC. A part of the Third Annual Foundation Weekend, the benefit dinner will take place on Friday night at WJA, and there will also be a JTIII Community Fest going on on Saturday. For more information, check out GUHoyas.com, call 202-508-8250, or email info@jtiiifoundation.org.

The V Foundation: October 14

Also, one month from today, Coach Thompson will be a part of the 15th Annual Jimmy V Basketball Classic New York Dinner/Auction for Cancer Research. The event is held each year with the coaches who will be participating in the Jimmy V Classic in New York City later on in the season. Tickets to the event are $350, but if you can’t make it to NYC, there are other ways to contribute by purchasing ad space in the program. For more information about this event, you can check out the Jimmy V website, call 919-380-9505, or email jaschenbrenner@jimmyv.org.

N.C. Literary Festival: Yesterday

And finally, though not an upcoming charity event, I found this article online today, and thought it would be good to share with the Hoya faithful. Apparently, Sleepy Floyd was in Chapel Hill yesterday, helping out at the N.C. Literary Festival. The article talks a little bit about the program and briefly mentions Sleepy’s son Evan who’s entering Georgetown as a Freshman but is not involved with the basketball program…yet. Check it out over at the Herald Sun website.

[GUHoyas.com: Events Planned for Third Annual John Thompson III Foundation Weekend]
[JimmyV.org: Jimmy V Basketball New York Dinner Auction]
[HeraldSun.com: Hoops stars tout books]

So when the Hoyas beat Maryland, it was a big deal for me even if it wasn’t so important outside this area. You may think that the DC-Maryland battle is over as Georgetown’s next opponent, American, is also from the District. But as it turns out, the DC vs Maryland showdown is about to reignite as the Washington Redskins take on the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.

So how should Hoya fans feel? It’s up to you, I guess. I know Coach will be cheering for the Skins, while DaJuan and Henry will probably be routing for the Ravens. Hopefully Austin, Chris, and Jason will all be siding with Coach, DC, and Hoya Hoops on this one.

So even though we won’t technically announce who we support, we feel like it should be pretty easy to read between the lines. For example, if it comes down to supporting a tall black man who is considered to be the rising star of his profession, or a short, balding, white guy who has been doing the same job for 30 years and often comes across as whiny and annoying, who do you think Hoya Hoops would support?

The only other possible exception is college basketball. Like many urban areas around the country, the Metro area has always been a hot spot of basketball talent. When local college basketball teams are good they can create a buzz in D.C. unlike the Wizards or Capitals. Back in the early 1980s, Patrick Ewing helped create such a buzz and became one of the greatest sports figures in the history of Washington D.C.

Georgetown University was just making its way on to the national scene as an upper echelon university in the late 1970s. The basketball team was starting to emerge as well. The Hoyas made it to the Elite Eight in 1980, and then came Ewing who changed everything. From Day 1 Ewing was something special. About midway through his freshman year, the Hoyas played the 4th ranked Missouri Tigers in a game at McDonough Gymnasium. Missouri was led by All-American Steve Stipanovich. The Hoyas won the game with relative ease, and the national television audience was introduced to the phenomenon that was Patrick Ewing.

Around the city the Hoyas were a unifying force, and as the team’s exposure increased, there were more and more people outside of Washington that started to dislike the Hoyas, which just galvanized the team’s popularity in the city. During his time as a Hoya, there was a kind of changing of the guard in college basketball. The established programs like UCLA, Kansas, Kentucky, and St. John’s were starting to lose their superior status.

Ewing helped to bring a relatively unknown University onto level terms with those top programs, eventually surpassing them by winning the National Championship, defeating Kentucky in the process. No school from Washington D.C. had ever managed to even compete with the top teams in the country, much less beat them. Basketball was still the sport played on playgrounds all over the city, and for once, a D.C. school showed that it was just as good as the top teams from Chicago, New York City, or Los Angeles. Over the course of his four years in the nation’s capital, Patrick Ewing became a national icon, and he put Georgetown firmly on the map as a top flight basketball program.

There has never been and will never be another college player in D.C. like Patrick Ewing. Ewing was a pioneer. The athleticism for a 7-footer, the ferocious defense and shot-blocking, and the intensity and intimidation were unheard of at that time. Patrick Ewing set the standard for college hoops in the D.C. area, and whatever other superstar players or dominant teams come through Washington D.C., they all owe a debt of gratitude to what he did to shape the city’s basketball future. Anybody who saw Patrick play in person while he was at Georgetown owes him a thank you also.

With the exception of the Nationals, who may never reach the playoffs, all of D.C.’s professional sports teams reached the postseason and bowed out at the first opportunity.

As you probably know, the Wizards lost to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers for the third straight year, and the Capitals lost a heartbreaker to the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 7 at the Verizon Center.

Last year, the Redskins defeated Dallas in the last game of the season to earn themselves a wildcard spot but couldn’t handle the Seattle Seahawks, falling 35-14 in Qwest Field.

Then there’s D.C. United. Much like the Hoyas, the Black and Red pulled off an amazing feat of winning back-to-back Supporters Shields, but the regular season winners couldn’t take their success to the playoffs, falling to the Chicago Fire in their opening series.

Like United, Georgetown’s crowning accomplishment – winning the Big East Regular Season – though impressive, was overshadowed by their two losses in the following weeks.

I guess I don’t know what my point is in writing this article. It’s actually kind of depressing. D.C. natives can only hope that the 2008-2009 campaigns will be better.

This past Saturday, four weeks after Georgetown claimed the Big East Regular Season title, the Washington Wizards defeated the Miami Heat in Miami, clinching an NBA playoff berth.

Then, the next day, the Washington Capitals defeated the Florida Panthers 3-1 at a sold-out Verizon Center, clinching their first trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2003 in their last game of the season. It’s the first time since 1988 that the Caps and “Wizards” have made their respective postseasons in the same year. Of course, back then the Capitals had their old logo, the Wizards were still the Bullets, and both teams were still playing in the Caps Centre in Landover, MD.

Both teams have some of the best players in the world, and any Hoya fan living in the DC area should try their best to go out and support Georgetown’s Verizon Center roommates as they face the postseason. Gilbert Arenas is returning from injury for the Wizards, and Agent 0 always gives forth maximum effort to ensure victory for Washington. And on the ice, Alex Ovechkin has just picked up the Art Ross Trophy and the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy for being the leading scorer and point-getter in the NHL. The soon-to-be MVP and the rest of Bruce Boudreau’s boys are an exciting bunch to see, and the atmosphere in downtown DC should be terrific.

We know Georgetown fans wish their team was still competing tonight, but once the College Basketball season is over tomorrow, be sure to check out the other local teams, who are trying to bring more trophies back to Georgetown’s home court.

Everybody remember about the theory of relativity? Here’s the theory in a nutshell: time is relative. For example: watching a five minute highlight package of Georgetown’s Big East Tournament Championship run from last year will seem like it lasted about 30 seconds, whereas those same five minutes spent listening to Jim Boeheim talk about the importance of Gerry McNamara will seem like 30 minutes.

Now then, the season starts in four weeks. Four weeks isn’t that long if you’re told that’s how long your dog has to live, but if you’re anxiously awaiting the Hoyas’ first game it seems like the day will never arrive. Here’s some advice that an old coach told me once…just take it one week at a time. The following are some options to keep yourself occupied over the next three Saturdays until the big day, especially if you live around the District.
 
 
Tomorrow, October 20:
D.C. United vs. Columbus Crew
Soccer doesn’t really register with a lot of hoops fans, especially without David Beckham, but the interesting note about this game is that there is a pre-game exhibition match paying tribute to the career of Marco Etcheverry. He’s one of the All-time great sports figures in Washington, as he brought three championships to the nation’s capital in the first four years of the league.

Next Saturday, October 27:
World Series Game Three
The World Series doesn’t start until next Wednesday, so this will be the first weekend of the fall classic. Game Threes are always important, and nothing helps ring in the new year of college hoops like the completion of the baseball season. No matter how many games it takes to decide the World Series winner, this will be the last baseball weekend until April.

The Following Saturday, November 3:
Washington Wizards vs. Orlando Magic
The NBA is the next best thing to college basketball. Some of the NBA’s newest stars will finally be taking the court, and the Wizards will be happy to warm up the floor at Verizon Center for when the Hoyas get going only one week later.
 
 
I hope this helps to keep you distracted until the Hoyas begin, if not…keep coming back to Hoya Hoops!