The three essentials to any good Halloween are of course your costume, your pumpkin, and your candy.

We haven’t got much time until Hoyaween, so let’s get cracking.

Costume

Hoya fans in need of a last minute costume should think about going as a zombie from Thriller. Yeah, it’s an homage to the team’s routine from Midnight Madness, but it’s also good for another reason – the image of a grooving zombie is the perfect symbol for this year’s basketball team. Why?

Wait for it.

Because after last season, the Hoyas are going to come back from the dead and be dancing in March.
 
 
Don’t have enough time to put together a convincing Zombie costume? I got another idea – go as Michael Jackson. No, no. Not that Michael Jackson. (As a general rule, I don’t think it’s good policy to dress up as someone who’s died in the past six months).

No, I mean the Michael Jackson who graduated from Georgetown in 1986 and was honored last year during the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the 1984 National Championship Team. Hard to believe, it’s kind of difficult to find a picture of him online due to his name, so I’ll describe him for you. He was a skinny guy, wore short shorts, had a mustache, and wore number 30. No no, not Ed Sheffey. I said short shorts, remember?

Maybe you should just bag it and go as Miley Cyrus. Or Bonni.

Pumpkin

Once you got your costume planned out, it’s time to decorate your pumpkin.

Now I know there are some of you out there who believe that you should never have anything orange in or around your house. Simply out of principle.

That’s okay. There’s still a way to pumpkin up your holiday. You probably already have your face paint ready for the season, so just go ahead and throw some of that on your pumpkin. See? Festive and Hoya-friendly.

But for most of you, you probably don’t mind a little bit of the bad guys’ color if it’s done right.

I already put this picture at the top, but I’m proud of my carving skills, so I had to post it again.

Now get out your carving knives and cut out the design pictured here to turn your pumpkin into a Georgetown icon.

There’s a reason why they call them Jack O’Lanterns.

Oh, and there’s one more thing all Georgetown fans should do with their pumpkins – leave them outside until they rot.

You see, there’s nothing that reminds you of the importance of a good college education than a deflated pumpkin. Don’t let the sum total of your existence be 8-10 pounds of gross pumpkin innards.

Candy

And the last thing you need to do before Halloween is to stock up on candy for the Trick or Treaters. And you’ve got to make sure you have a good selection because the last thing you would want is a disgruntled dancing zombie.

To appease the Georgetown fan in everyone, I think we should buy candy in honor of the three sophomores on the team this year – Jason Clark, Henry Sims, and Greg Monroe.

So go out and get as many Clark Bars and Oh Henry!s as you can find.

And for Greg? There are a bunch of options. You could get Smarties because he chose to stay in school. 100 Grand for what he’s worth to the team. Or maybe Turkish Delight for those of you who are confused about his nationality. But I’m going with M&Ms because of the simple monogrammed ‘m’ on them.

Or you could just simplify things and get a whole bunch of 3 Musketeers for all of them, or forget the whole thing and get some Rhese’s Pieces in honor of our favorite Gibson.

Since there are only a few hours left, I’d better get going.

New Jersey

Besides kicking-off the new season, celebrating last season’s accomplishments, dancing around with celebrities, and introducing the team’s freshmen and half-freshman, Midnight Madness at Georgetown is a time to honor recent Hoyas beginning their careers in the NBA.

This year, that person is DaJuan Summers.

DaJuan’s jersey will be the 23rd to adorn the back wall of McDonough, but it might not be the last one put up this year.

Brandon Bowman is currently in training camp with the Sixers, and if things go his way, he might be playing professionally in front of an absurd rabbit as opposed to an absurd lion.

Patrick Ewing, Jr. is another Hoya who might break through to the League this year. He was supposed to be on the Knicks summer league roster, but he had to withdraw due to a nagging knee injury. Who knows what will happen when he fully recovers, but it could be the case that there are two Ewing jerseys on the wall before too long.

And finally, Mike Sweetney is impressing people during his time in Boston, and if he can lose some weight and manage to get in shape, he’s another Hoya who might be in the NBA before the season’s over. True, he already has his jersey up on the wall in McDonough, but I think that if Mike makes an NBA comeback, he deserves to have his new team’s jersey up there as well.

Sort of like Grover Cleveland.

Statistical Anomaly

In other news, Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors has recently won a lawsuit against cybersquatter Luis Zavala and his company Hoopology.com. Basically, a cybersquatter is someone who cybersquats.

It means that this guy bought the domain name ChrisBosh.com and put up a website that would trick users who wanted to find Chris Bosh’s real website Chris-Bosh.com. And they were probably asking Chris for a lot of money to get the name back. Which isn’t okay.

But besides just buying ChrisBosh.com, the bad guys also purchased around 800 other basketball-player-related domain names including MikeSweetney.com, RoyHibbert.com, PatrickEwingJr.com, and DaJuanSummers.com. They even went after JeremiahRivers.com.

Even more close to home, though, Zavala and Co. purchased AustinFreeman.com, GregMonroe.com, HenrySims.com, and JulianVaughn.com.

The good news is that as a result of the lawsuit, Bosh was awarded the hundreds of domain names and is offering their return to the players for free.

How does this relate to Midnight Madness? Well, amazingly, before practices have even begun, Chris Bosh is leading the Hoyas with 4 assists.

For those of you who don’t have Facebook accounts or aren’t allowed to visit Facebook at work, let me explain what that link was. It was an invitation to tonight’s game that read

2nd Annual Costume Contest at Georgetown Men’s Basketball!

Georgetown students –

Come on out to the Men’s Basketball game vs. Rutgers on Tuesday, February 3 (7:00 PM tipoff) for the 2nd annual Costume Contest!

Wear your most outrageous costume to the game, garner the fan’s vote, and you’ll be heading to the BIG EAST Men’s Basketball Tournament in New York City this March, courtesy of Georgetown Athletics, complete with transportation courtesy of Amtrak and a game ticket to all games the Hoyas play in at MSG.

We’ll see you there!

For those of you who don’t remember, last year, the 1st Annual Costume Contest at Georgetown Men’s Basketball took place during the home game against St. John’s. From my recollection, that whole night was a lot of fun. Since the Rival Reels promotion seems to have fallen by the wayside, it’s nice to see a little bit of silliness making it’s way to the Verizon Center this year.

If you’re going to the game and you haven’t already figured out what you’re going to wear, here are some suggestions:

George W. Bush

In case you didn’t know, the Georgetown Hoyas haven’t won a game since President Obama took office. That is most certainly change we don’t want to believe in.

Now, we learned our lesson before and have decided to keep politics away from this website – something about Church and State – but I don’t think this costume would be political at all. It’s all about the juju. Maybe the problems with the Hoyas this last month haven’t had anything to do with rebounding, defense, three-point shooting, or refereeing at all. Maybe George W Bush has been Georgetown’s good luck charm, and now that he’s gone, the Hoyas’ power has gone with him. Sort of like Space Jam meets the West Wing.

Unless the real problem is that Barack Obama is Georgetown’s Kryptonite. Then we’re in real trouble.

Will Ferrell’s Wife in Old School

Even if you’ve never seen the movie Old School, you’re probably familiar with the scene where Will Ferrell goes streaking. If you’re cool with getting a Frank the Tank rump shot, here’s a link: [YouTube].

Okay, so what does this have to do with the Georgetown-Rutgers game? Why do I think Hoyas fans should dress up like Frank’s wife / Ari’s wife from Entourage? Well, at the end of the scene, she’s driving along with her friends and she sees Will Ferrell running down the street naked and she makes him get into the car.

She quickly and efficiently ended that losing streak.

I’ll be here all night.

Bonni

And lastly, someone needs to go dressed up as Bonni. Bonni’s the mascot on Brandon Bowman’s team Telekom Baskets Bonn in Germany, and I still think he’s awesome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the answer is? We should not like it. Now I know that Tony’s talked a lot about it and he thinks that DaJuan Summers will be able to show off his mid-range jumper and that opponents will have a tough time coming back from a Hoya lead, but I’m not sold. So in honor of the topic of this discussion, I’m going to give you a three-point argument against the extra foot. Get it? Three-point?

1. It’s confusing.

First and foremost, it’s confusing. And it’s confusing on many levels.

For one thing, look at the record books. We just crowned Jonathan Wallace as Georgetown’s all time leader in three-pointers and in three-point percentage. But now what? Will we have to put an asterisk by his name because he did it the easy way? Or should we just put an ampersand by the next guy because he did it the hard way? I suggest we leave the line where it is and avoid all potential punctuation questions.

But the confusion doesn’t end there. Now look, I like volleyball as much as the next guy, but if there’s one thing that makes a basketball court confusing, it’s extra volleyball lines. I mean, how can you tell which lines mark the lane and which make up the penalty box? Or whatever the heck there is in volleyball? Okay, so I don’t like volleyball as much as the next guy, but the point is, at least volleyball is a separate sport. With this new rule, you could now have like ten different three-point lines just for basketball. (So I didn’t really count, but there’s men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball, the NBA, the WNBA, European basketball’s probably got a different arc, there was that time when they brought the NBA line in a little bit, and then there’s probably a few others somewhere if you look hard enough.)

Now in all honesty, there probably won’t be more than one arc drawn on the Hoya court in Verizon Center. But I’ve been to the Big East Tournament, and I’ve seen how much effort they put into customizing the court. They basically paste a Big East Tournament logo on top of the Knicks’ one in the center circle and draw a college three-point line. I could very easily imagine the people at Madison Square Garden pulling out the same custom court from last year and then realizing their mistake right before tip-off and drawing another line out there in Sharpie. And we don’t need there to be any more confusion with Big East officials involved.

2. Halftime’s not going to be pretty

Last season, the Hoyas were undefeated at home, a feat no Georgetown team had accomplished since the 1995-96 team led by Othella Harrington and Allen Iverson. Rival Reels were back in full effect, and they could be seen on the brand new, HD Diamond Vision scoreboard. Clearly there was a lot going right at the Verizon Center.

But one thing that wasn’t too great, and that hasn’t been too great in recent memory, was the halftime entertainment. From the little kids’ impromptu dunk-offs to the “Deal or No Deal” game where fans get to choose to keep tickets to see the Globbtrotters or to trade them for Yanni tickets, the contests could all use a little work.

And while it can be entertaining to see the five year olds missing layups in enormously oversized Braswell and Perry jerseys, I think it’s fair to say that it’s kind of embarrassing when the students can’t make their jump shots for cash. So I’m not looking forward to the Jettie’s Long Shot or the Chick-Fil-A Party Trey or or whatever it is if the extra twelve inches will add five more minutes of misery.

3. McAlarney likes it.

And lastly, here’s what Notre Dame’s Kyle McAlarney had to say about the new arc: “I don’t think you will see a guy like Roy Hibbert throwing them in any more.” An unnecessary dig at Georgetown’s favorite Pacer? I bet he was just bitter that Roy has a better three-point percentage than he does.

Regardless, if McAlarney likes the new rule, I think it’s good policy for Hoya fans to dislike it.

Tomorrow, the Oklahoma City Whatevers will announce their real name and it won’t be pretty. They’ve narrowed it down to six names: Wind, Thunder, Energy, Marshalls, Bison, and Barons. I’ve written those names in the order in which I like them starting from the worst, and gradually getting better.

The first three names are pretty bad, actually. You never want your team nickname to sound like it could belong to a Planeteer. (Miami, that includes you).

You never want your team name to sound like a department store either, so Marshalls is out, along with one of their preliminary options, the Oklahoma City JCPenneys.

Bison’s actually not too bad since there aren’t enough animal mascots in the NBA. You don’t find too many Celtics, Knicks, or Lakers out in the wild, so having a true American mascot would be good for the League. Then again, how appropriate is it to name your team after an animal that was almost driven to extinction by a bunch of trigger happy Midwesterners? That would be like naming your team the Oslo Seals or the Beijing Great White Sharks.

I think going with Barons would be the best thing for Oklahoma City right now based on their options. At least that way they’d have an excuse to let Count von Count call their games. “Three! Three-point play! Ah ah ah.”

But to me, I think Oklahoma City needs to expand their options. And they should take their cue from the Hoyas abroad. Last year, Jameel Watkins played in the Philippines for a team formerly known as the San Miguel Beermen, then known as the Magnolia Beverage Masters, and currently known as the San Miguel Beermen again. Beermen is an awesome name for a basketball team, kinda like the Milwaukee Brewers, but way awesomer. But then once they changed to Beverage Masters, I don’t know why they switched back. In a league with teams sponsored by Coca Cola and Red Bull, naming your team Beverage Masters seems to be a great way to start your season on top. Oh, and Wesley Wilson also plays in the PBA for a team known as the Realtors. And Oklahoma City Beverage Masters sounds a lot cooler than Oklahoma City Realtors.

Jonathan Wallace just got signed to play for Union Olimpija in Slovenia. Their team name is the Green Dragons, which is pretty cool. And when I started planning to write this article, I thought Brandon Bowman still played for Basket Draghi Novara in Italy. At that time, I thought the ex-Sonics should definitely go with the Dragons because that way Brandon, Jonathan, maybe Tyler, and Jeff could all be on teams named after flying mythical beasts. Which would be cool. Kinda.

But then we got that email saying that Brandon had been traded to play in Germany called Telkom Baskets Bonn. After doing a little research, I found that their mascot is a lion named Bonni. And he is amazing. Not only have I decided that Oklahoma City needs to choose the nickname Lions, but I insist that they hire Bonni to be their mascot. Incidentally, you can also book him.

So there you have it, my best options for Oklahoma City. Tomorrow, we’ll find out that they’ve gone with the Oklahoma City Thunder or Marshalls or Wind and we’ll all be a little bit disappointed. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t go out and buy a Jeff Green jersey and wear it on top of our homemade Bonni costume.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: ‘Hey, isn’t this a Georgetown website? Shouldn’t you be promoting your All-American center?’ Well, when I sat down at my computer, I had set out to write a very different post. I was going to write about all of the good things Roy can do to help a team succeed and all the upside that he brings to the table. But then I thought about it, and I realized that those things that helped Roy at the college level are not enough to earn him a spot on an NBA Roster. So without further ado, I give you the Three Reasons Not to Draft Roy

1. He Disappears

Pundits and bloggers and scouts and fans and everybody with an outlet seem to want to pick on Roy because of his college numbers. He only averaged 13.1 points a game and 6.4 boards! Now, anyone familiar with the Georgetown offense understands that those numbers are misleading, so that’s not going to be a big issue in the pros.

Hibbert’s real problem was that at times he would disappear from the game – an amazing feat for a 7-footer. Sometimes he would disappear due to foul trouble, and even with the extra personal, fouling out will be a problem for Roy in the NBA where refs make it a point of emphasis to call touch fouls on big men near midcourt and to whistle on every illegal screen.

When he didn’t foul out, Hibbert still had some trouble bringing the same intensity game in and game out. To combat that, he had a secret weapon at Georgetown: his undershirt. Whenever Roy didn’t come out with enough energy in the first half, he’d switch undershirts from a t-shirt to a cut-off to nothing at all. But in the NBA, wearing t-shirts under your jersey is against the rules, so he would have no way of refocusing himself. And in a 900 game season, every game is important, so Roy’s tendency to disappear makes him a liability for any NBA team.

2. He Can’t Match Up with NBA Centers

If you ask a complete stranger what they know about Roy Hibbert, most likely they’ll talk about the matchup from the 2007 Final Four between big Roy and future #1 draft pick Greg Oden. Despite getting into foul trouble (see #1), Roy in many ways outplayed the more highly touted Oden, shooting near 70% from the field and scoring 19 points to Greg’s 13.

But if that’s the highlight of Hibbert’s collegiate career, then he’s in big trouble because Oden now has a whole year’s experience of playing in the NBA and those 900 games will have hardened the formerly soft Buckeye to the rigors of big time basketball.

And if instead you think Roy’s game-winning three against Connecticut was his best moment as an undergrad, then I’ve got more bad news for you. The NBA three-point line is much further back than the college arc, so his 100% from downtown is not gonna work. And that should seriously limit Roy’s game since the three-point shot was a major point of his repertoire.

3. He’s Too Tall

This last argument is simple, just pure reasoning. People claim that Roy’s biggest strength is that he has a great work ethic, understands the game, and is eager to learn more to improve. However, this is nonsense. Let me explain:

1. You can’t teach height.
2. Roy is 7’2”.
3. Therefore, you can’t teach Roy.

It’s as simple as that. So basically, what you see is what you get with Roy Hibbert. And I can’t imagine any NBA franchise being interested in that.

Larranaga looks like a fun-loving guy, and I’m not sure if there is more of a fun-loving program than the one right here in Fairfax. When your pep band leader looks like this and has his very own bobblehead, you can be assured your program knows how to have a good time.

I picture the Patriots to be like the 1972 Miami Dolphins. I see them as a group of guys who love their once in a lifetime accomplishment and want to celebrate their moment in the spotlight everyday. So this is what I think happened. I bet Larranaga was with his team at some sports bar – probably a place like Buffalo Wild Wings if the commercials do them any justice – and they were watching the Elite Eight game between Kansas and Davidson. There he was rooting against the underdog to make sure the pundits would still be talking about Mason and wouldn’t start asking “Who will be this year’s Davidson?”. As Jason Richards missed his three-pointer at the buzzer, the whole bar erupted, and Coach Larranaga looked to his left to see that bobble-heady fashion wizard stoke up the band and looked to his right to see the green fuzzy monster Gunston dancing around.

Then a couple days later, he gets a call from his former school. He thinks of all the great things he could accomplish at that program and all of the clear benefits that come with being a Big East coach. But then he remembers that night with his team, and he realizes he wouldn’t be able to live with himself seeing this guy running around at timeouts. And he quickly asks for an extension at Fun Times U.

Since 1982 – the year CBS gained the rights to the NCAA Tournament – CBS has been televising the selection show in which teams are placed into brackets and first learn of their opponents and schedules. In the 27 year history of the show, Selection Sunday has never been later than this year’s March 16th telecast. And in those 27 years, Palm Sunday has never been earlier than this year’s March 16th either. In fact, it won’t be this early again for another 152 years. (I think it has something to do with full moons and equinoxes and vampires). Regardless, it looks like the stars – or moons – were aligned for this year’s special Sunday.

And when you think about it, it actually makes sense for the two days to be celebrated together. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, the final week in the life of Jesus which started with triumph and jubilation and ended shortly after his agony in the garden. Come to think of it, that actually sounds more like last week for Georgetown. But what I’m trying to do is compare Holy Week to this upcoming week of basketball.

I know it sounds blasphemous, but let’s look into it a little bit. Holy Week is all about Jesus’ passion and resurrection. This week in college basketball is about as passionate as you can get in the world of sports, and many teams are thrilled that their seasons have just been brought back to life after losing in their conference tourneys.

In Holy Week, Thursday and Friday are pretty big days, so important that they get their own names: Holy Thursday and Good Friday. In sports, there is nothing that can compare to the thirty-two games played on Thursday and Friday, many of which will inevitably be upsets and several that will end on a last second shot. If there are any days in sports worthy of their own names, it is those two days. And after ESPN has bombarded us with “Rivalry Week,” “Judgment Week,” and “Student Spirit Week,” I don’t think it’s such a bad idea to call the first week of the tournament “Holy Week.”

So, you see, it’s not too far-fetched to combine the two Spring events. March Madness is already being pushed well into April, and Easter has been so commercialized that most people associate it with Peeps, plastic grass, and PAAS. I bet Jesus would prefer college hoops to the Easter Bunny any day.

Think way back to those sleepover parties you used to go to when you were in junior high. Do you remember what happened? Usually, you’d have some food (hopefully with cake afterwards), you’d play some silly games, you’d hang around and watch a movie you’ve seen a million times, and then you’d stay up late chit chatting about personal things. That is basically what happened a few days ago at the Verizon Center.

The Food

Of the 16 home games that Georgetown plays this season, a vast majority of them have been at mealtime. Seven games were scheduled for either noon or 1:00pm, prime time for lunching. And for the night games, there were five games that had their tipoff at 7:00 or 7:30 – dinnertime. What this means is, fans who attend the games have a hard time getting their food on. If you try to eat before the game, you’re going have to do it quick and that means super long lines at Chipotle. If you try to eat after, you’re gonna be pretty hungry by the final buzzer and then you’ll probably get into that long line at Chipotle too hungry to wait until you get home. And don’t even think about eating during the game.

But the game against St. John’s was scheduled for 9:00 PM. A 9:00 PM start gives everybody a chance to eat their dinner wherever they want and still be able to get to the game before the players. I, for one, went to Clyde’s. It took a long time to wait for a table, eat dinner (unfortunately, without cake afterwards), and then pay and leave. But I still got into the Verizon Center with plenty of time to spare. I probably should have waited in that long line at Chipotle and gotten a burrito for dessert.

The Silly Games

For some reason, the marketing people at Georgetown thought that it would be a good idea to have a costume contest during the game and the winner would get a ticket to the Big East Tournament. I still haven’t quite figured out what costumes and Georgetown Basketball have in common, but I’m sure this guy can clue me in.

Anyway, the costume idea turned out better than I expected because instead of it being a popularity contest where the contestants parade through midcourt with the ticket going to whoever earns the most cheers, it was more like a game of The Price Is Right. There were several mini contests and the winners advanced to the Hoya version of the Showcase Showdown, where it became, um, a popularity contest where the contestants parade through midcourt with the ticket going to whoever earns the most cheers.

But seeing a guy dressed like Tigger trying to put on a Georgetown uniform, I couldn’t help but think of those silly games you might play at a slumber party where you make up the rules as you go along, and it doesn’t really matter who wins. And it was good that Steve Alleva was the MC instead of the usual guy because frankly, I’d want Steve at my sleepover and I’m not sold on that other guy.

The Movie

And then there was the game itself. Much like the movies you’d see at a sleepover, this was a game where fans could tell you how it was going to end just from the title: Georgetown vs. St. John’s. Based on the rout from last time, people knew what to expect. It wasn’t going to be as easy as that game, but it also wouldn’t be as exciting.

So what do you get? A mildly entertaining game with lots of sleepy people only half watching the action but keeping themselves amused with each other’s company. Replace “game” with “movie” and you’ll see why I decided to write this article. The fans were unusually jovial at the late night contest, and it seemed that every little thing got people laughing – a common symptom of staying up past your bedtime. There was just a different atmosphere at the game and it seemed a lot more lighthearted than for most Big East contests.

And then there was the other things happening at the game that would have fit in perfectly in a teen movie. The story of the young college student who after years of wishing to be a sports commentator wins the opportunity of a lifetime, calling a game on ESPN. The story of the struggling dance team who after weeks of absence finally make their triumphant return to the spotlight. The story of the hapless blogger who can’t seem to get his computer working.

The Chit Chat

And like any good sleepover, it ended with a lot of personal questions with silly responses. In the postgame press conference, St. John’s head coach Norm Roberts talked first, but he was extraordinarily quick, staying for less than three minutes. Perhaps he was a little tired.

Then Coach Thompson spoke for a while about the team’s performance, until (and I guess I have to admit, that I was the first one starting the chit-chat) I asked him about teasing his players about his high school beating up on theirs.

Then when the players came in, it seemed like all of the questions were about DaJuan’s missed dunks. I thought I’d let everyone have a sneak peek of what was said. (I’m going to be editing and paraphrasing a bit):

 

Camille Powell: “Early in the game you had those two missed two dunks. How do you sort of respond to that?”

DaJuan Summers: “It just happens sometimes, you know? …”

Barker Davis: “Do you get any ribbing from your teammates in a situation like that?”

DaJuan Summers: “No, most of us don’t do that to each other. In practice, I don’t usually miss dunks.”

Roy Hibbert: “He makes everything. And some people have to get out of the way sometimes.”

DaJuan Summers: “Thanks Roy.”

Dedrick Love: “When that ball hit the rim, and you knew it didn’t go in, what went through your mind at that moment? This is a big crowd.”

DaJuan Summers: “‘I should have made it.’ I don’t know. ‘How did I miss it?’”

Bill Shapland: “You can admit DaJuan. You went, ‘DAMN!’”

DaJuan Summers: “Can I say that?”

Bill Shapland: “We’re all adults here.”

 

And with that – the man responsible for helping the players interact with the media in a professional manner having what could be called, ‘an unprofessional comment’ – I think a lot of us agreed it was time for bed.

He was a brand new coach, no more than four days on the job, and there were talks of playing Maryland. Having no objections to the matchup, Coach needed to see how the game would fit into his schedule and to see if it was something worthwhile for his first season. After looking into the situations some more, he was told that he owed Maryland a game at their court. Surprised, Thompson replied, “I’ve only been here four days – how can I owe you a game?”

But why does Maryland think that the Hoyas owe them a game? It all goes back to that Georgetown-Maryland game from years back. No no, not the Hilltopper’s 58-3 crushing of the Terrapins. Maryland doesn’t even count that one in their record books. It’s the game that took place on Nov. 26 1993 at USAir Arena. While that was the home court for the Hoyas for many years, on that day, there were plenty of Terps fans showing their support for the black and red. Now, that’s nothing unusual, playing at larger arenas, Georgetown teams have had a knack of drawing large crowds from the opposing teams. West Virginia and Notre Dame come to mind in recent years, but back then Syracuse and Connecticut had their fair share of travelers as well. So it’s no shock that a local team like the University of Maryland could bring a lot of fans out to Landover.

The thing is, Georgetown and Maryland split the gate that night. Georgetown season ticket holders did not get to maintain their usual seats as this was not a true home game for the Hoyas. All sources agree that after playing at USAir Arena, the two teams were supposed to meet in College Park the following season. However, Georgetown understood that they would have the same deal, allowing many Georgetown fans to attend, and Maryland understood differently. As a result, that second half of the home and home series never took place, and that’s where we stand today.

I’m not going to go into who is right or who is wrong. That debate has been going on for over a decade. The fact is that fans of both teams want it to happen, and if it works for both teams and can fit into their schedules, then a 14 year old grievance shouldn’t get in the way. Look at this way: the 14 year old grievance is only six years younger than the 20 year old Grievis.

So to end this mess, I suggest that Georgetown University takes responsibility, regardless of who’s to blame, and brings back the local rivalry that so many in the nation’s capital crave. The Hoyas should play a game at Maryland to settle the score, and then the two sides can work out a schedule to play in years to come. But to make sure that this match really makes the Terrapins – and Gary Williams – happy, we should look into exactly what this rematch would entail.

First, it’s got to be Georgetown vs. Maryland, and it’s got to be at College Park. Check. Also, Maryland needs to be able to sell tickets to whomever they want, and Georgetown fans will just have to deal with it. That seems like a fair sacrifice from the oldest Jesuit University in the United States. And besides, think of all the karma points and good juju the Hoyas will be getting out of this.

But when I look at it, playing at Maryland with UMD keeping the gate is not good enough. If the Hoyas are really going to make up for the game that never happened, they need to do it right. The game was supposed to have taken place the year after Maryland played at Georgetown, meaning it would have taken place at the beginning of the 1994-95 season. Back then, the Terps were still at their old home, Cole Field House. So it only makes sense that this debt-settling match takes place at what is now known as the Cole Student Activities Building. It shouldn’t be too hard to kick out the indoor soccer players and bring back a couple of hoops.

But we can’t stop there either. If Maryland thinks Georgetown owes them a game. Then give them that game. It shouldn’t be too hard to find players from the 1994-95 season. Give them a call, bring them to Cole Field House, and do this thing right. Fans have been asking for a Georgetown-Maryland game for years. It’s only fitting that the first scheduled game between the two universities in over a decade should involve Exree Hipp.

Take a look at the rosters, and see what you think:

Besides the good karma, it looks like the Hoyas might get a victory out of this rematch.