When I was just a little obsessive Georgetown fan, I had a shirt that said “Heart Attack Hoyas - #1 in the Big East”. That seems like a lot of text for a T-shirt, but it was the early 1980’s. Somehow I still have the shirt, which my son now wears to the games at Verizon Center. Earlier this season another long-time Hoya fan saw my son’s shirt and said, “Wow, nice shirt!” I guess he thought that maybe I had found it on eBay or some thrift store or something. I told him, “Thanks, it used to be mine about 25 years ago.” The guy responded, “Wow.” I couldn’t tell if he was more impressed or more weirded out. I also don’t know how a shirt that I used to wear when I was 8 years old is now a little snug on my two-year old when the shirt had just been in a closet for over two decades. I like that my son can wear the shirt, mainly for posterity and historical value. But, as it turns out, the team has some Heart Attack tendencies like when I used to wear the shirt at the Capital Centre.

There is a historical debate about why the Hoyas were known as “The Heart Attack Hoyas”. Some say that it was because they used to win so many close games down the stretch that the fans would all have heart attacks while cheering them on. Others say that the heart attack refers to the reactions from the opposing team’s predominantly white fan base when the 12 strong, powerful, black dudes came out onto the court. For our purposes here, we’ll presume the name was from the close games.

The 2007-08 Hoyas have won two games this season in classic Heart Attack Hoyas fashion: Hibbert’s game winning three pointer against UCONN, and the OT thrilling two-point victory on Monday against Syracuse. If you try to remember back a few years, the Heart Attacks have been coming pretty regularly, and with an excellent winning percentage, too. In Coach Thompson III’s second year at Georgetown, the Hoyas made the NCAA Tournament. Since the start of that season (2005-06), the Hoyas have played in 12 games decided by three points or less or in overtime. In those 12 games over the past three years, the Hoyas are 11-1. Eleven wins and only one loss in those close games. That’s an incredible percentage. The wins have come against some great teams as well, including Duke, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Villanova, Vanderbilt, North Carolina, and Syracuse. Four of those wins have come in the post-season.

There’s no way to predict the outcome in a game that goes down to the wire, but like any situation, the more experience you have, the better off you’ll be. The Hoyas have now won six games in a row when the outcome is decided on the final possession, and as mentioned above, 11 out of their last 12. The stats don’t mean that the fans will be relaxed if there’s another game up for grabs with 5 seconds to play. But, with the confidence and courage that the Hoyas have shown with the game on the line, maybe instead of a heart attack it’ll just lead to a slight increase of blood pressure.