All year long, Washington, DC has been celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Verizon Center. The state-of-the-art arena has rejuvenated Chinatown and has quickly become a DC landmark. Unfortunately, the resident teams have not faired so well over the past ten years. We already talked about Georgetown’s past ten seasons in their new home, and quite similarly, the Wizards and Capitals have also had some pretty rough years in that span. Also like the Hoyas, though, the two teams have had a recent resurgence and both are poised to make the playoffs for the first time in Verizon Center history.
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2006-07 – Record: 13-2 (Conference 7-1)
Senior Class: Sead Dizdarevic, Kenny Izzo, Jeff Green (Departed GU to enter NBA Draft)

2006-07 was one of the greatest seasons in Georgetown history. The Hoyas won the Big East regular season title, the Big East tournament, and the NCAA Tournament East Region, earning them a spot in the 2007 Final Four. The team started conference play 1-2, and then rattled off 11 straight wins to grab hold of the conference. Late in the season, the Hoyas hosted Marquette. The day was highlighted by the unveiling of the All-Century Team of the all-time greatest players during 100 years of Georgetown Basketball. The legends of the past gathered at center court at halftime, and the full house at Verizon Center got a special opportunity to cheer for these great players one last time on the court. The 2006-07 Hoyas made sure that the second half was a performance that the All-Century team would be proud of, and they prevailed 76-58.
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2005-06 – Record: 10-2 (Conference 7-1)
Senior Class: Ryan Beal, Brandon Bowman, Ashanti Cook, Amadou Kilkenny-Diaw, Darrel Owens (Graduate Student)

The Georgetown Hoyas re-established themselves in the national spotlight of college basketball in 2005-06. The team played very well throughout the year coming up with excellent victories both home and away. The crowds at the Verizon Center continued to swell, and the student body came out with greater numbers than any point in school history. Georgetown advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament before falling to the eventual champion Florida Gators. The season was even more special for the seniors who had gone through a great deal of adversity during their college careers.
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2004-05 – Record: 11-5 (Conference 5-3)
Senior Class: Ramell Ross (Graduate Student)

The new Thompson Era under JTIII began in the fall of 2004. The Princeton offense made an immediate impact, not only on the court. The fans began flocking to Verizon Center, and for the first time since Allen Iverson, there was truly a local buzz about Georgetown Basketball. The season was moving along very smoothly, until the middle of February when the Hoyas hit a poorly timed 5-game losing streak to end the regular season. Still, the foundation for the success in the seasons to follow was laid in the 2004-05 season.
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2003-04 – Record: 10-6 (Conference 3-5)
Senior Class: Omari Faulkner, Gerald Riley, Courtland Freeman (Graduate Student)

Everybody knew going into the 2003-04 season that it would probably be a long one for the Hoyas, but no one could have imagined how bad it would get. The final year of Coach Esherick was the worst in nearly forty years. There were some enjoyable moments at Verizon center, like the St. John’s game when Courtland Freeman scored the game-winning dunk with 2 seconds left. But the happy times were few and far between.
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2002-03 – Record: 11-6 (Conference 3-5)
Senior Class: Trenton Hillier, Victor Samnick, Wesley Wilson, Mike Sweetney (Departed GU to enter NBA Draft)

In spite of having one of the best players in the conference and the nation in Mike Sweetney, Georgetown truly underachieved in 2002-03. The Hoyas had a very difficult stretch in which they lost six games in a row, including three losses by one point and another loss in overtime. There are clear examples throughout this period of miserable officiating working against the Hoyas, most notably the failure of the refs to notice the opponent was playing with six players, but in many ways, the Hoyas could have done much more to help their own cause. The team did manage to end the year in a positive way by making it to the final game of the NIT.
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2001-02 – Record: 8-5 (Conference 4-4)
Senior Class: Kevin Braswell

Georgetown was trying to build on their Sweet Sixteen appearance from one year earlier but had a lot of trouble with consistency. The Hoyas had a great game at home against Syracuse, beating the Orange by 15 - the most ever at the Verizon Center - but there will always be a dark cloud over this season. 2001-02 was the only season in the modern era that the Hoyas were cheated out of an NCAA Tournament berth. They were flat out gypped.

In Kevin Braswell’s senior season, the team had a number of close losses that they should have won, but when the NCAA Tournament field included Boston College, a Big East team with a worse conference record than Georgetown, whom the Hoyas had beaten on the road by 27 points, you can be sure that something was wrong with the selection committee’s judgment. It was a real shame that one of the greatest guards in Hoya History only got to appear in one NCAA Tournament.
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2000-01 – Record: 8-3 (Conference 5-3)
Senior Class: Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje, Nathaniel Burton, Gharun Hester, Anthony Perry, Lee Scruggs

After a strong finish to the previous season, the Hoyas began the 2000-01 season in excellent fashion. Almost all of the key contributing players had returned from one year earlier, and the Hoyas added talented freshmen Mike Sweetney and Gerald Riley. This was the first year that the Verizon Center was actually an imposing place to play, as the fans started to come out in full force and make things difficult for the opponents. The Hoyas made it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in four seasons and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.
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1999-00 – Record: 12-4 (Conference 4-4)
Senior Class: Rhese Gibson, Jameel Watkins (Graduate Student)

In the 1999-2000 season, Hoya fans could begin to see that things were turning around. Craig Esherick began his first full season as head coach, and Sophomore Kevin Braswell took over as the team’s true leader. Georgetown gained momentum during the season but never recovered from an 0-3 conference start. In March, the Hoyas made some noise in the Big East Tournament with a last-second win over West Virginia, and a major upset over the top seed, Syracuse. It was the first time in Big East Tournament History that the #9 seed defeated the #1 seed.
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1998-99 – Record: 8-6 (Conference: 3-6)
Senior Class: Dean Berry, Demian Bolden, Daymond Jackson,
Trez Kilpatrick, Joe Touomou

This was a historic year for Georgetown Basketball as about one third of the way through the season, Coach John Thompson retired, and Craig Esherick became the Hoyas’ new head coach. This team had a number of older players but no real veteran leaders. The young players weren’t quite ready to take over the team, and consequently, the Hoyas struggled mightily all season. To make matters worse, the team never seemed to catch a break, as the team lost six games by three points or less.
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