It was a number-two seed in the 2008 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, where it lost its second-round game to Davidson in a major upset.
[5] The seventh game was against Jacksonville, the first meeting between the teams since a December 1969 game that was declared a "no contest" after Georgetown head coach John Magee pulled his players off the court at Jacksonville out of fear for their safety in the face of a hostile crowd; 38 years later, the result of the meeting was an easy 87-55 Hoya victory.
[11] Sophomore guard Jeremiah Rivers came off the bench to have an outstanding defensive performance and five assists in the Fairfield game.
[12][13] The Hoyas finished 2007 and their nonconference schedule with wins over American – the first meeting between the crosstown rivals since December 1986[14] – and Fordham.
5 1982-83 Hoyas in December 1982 – touted as the biggest win in American's basketball history[15] – but Georgetown dominated the Eagles this time around and won 78–51, with DaJuan Summers scoring 16 points, Chris Wright 13, and Hibbert 14, although Hibbert tied his career-low total of one rebound, the first time he had only one rebound since a game against South Florida in January 2006.
7 in the Associated Press Poll that day, routed the Rams with Jonathan Wallace scoring a team-high 19 points, DaJuan Summers scoring 15 and grabbing nine rebounds, Austin Freeman contributing 12 points, and Jessie Sapp and Roy Hibbert adding 11 each.
[16] Georgetown extended its winning streak to five – opening 3–0 in conference play – as it began the Big East season in the new year of 2008 as the best team in the country in points allowed, with opponents averaging only 55.2 points per game, and in field goal percentage defense, with opponents shooting only 35.2 percent from the field against the Hoyas.
[19] Entering the game as the best-shooting team from the field in the country at 51.6 percent, the Hoyas went on the road to face their first ranked Big East opponent, No.
Ronald Ramón and Keith Benjamin came off the bench to replace injured starters Levance Fields and Mike Cook and scored 18 points each for the Panthers, while Pittsburgh freshman center DeJuan Blair, 7 inches (18 cm) shorter than Roy Hibbert, matched up well against Hibbert, scoring 15 points and grabbing nine rebounds, and the Panthers outrebounded the Hoyas 37–33.
Although Hibbert scored 12 points, Jonathan Wallace scored 14, and Vernon Macklin contributed 10, the Hoyas shot only 44.2 percent from the field and 3-for-20 (15 percent) from three-point range and never led during the game; they began the second half behind only 27–26, but Pittsburgh started the second half with a 15–4 run to take a 42–30 lead.
[20][21][22] Following the setback against Pittsburgh, the Hoyas – with their defense ranked second in the country in opponents′ shooting percentage, allowing opponents to shoot only 35.8 percent from the field, and sixth in points allowed, with opponents averaging only 56.7 points per game[23] – began another winning streak that ultimately reached six games.
By the time they entered the fourth game of the streak, facing St. John's at Madison Square Garden on January 30, they ranked first in the country in opponents′ shooting percentage at 35.8 percent and fifth in points allowed at 57.5, and they handed St. John's a defeat that tied its worst Big East loss in history, a 74–42 rout – equaled only by a 72–42 loss, also at the hands of the Hoyas, on January 6, 1982 – in which the Red Storm shot only 21.3 percent from the field and Georgetown led 41–14 at halftime and opened the second half with a 12–0 run to make the lead 53–14.
With strong defensive performances on both sides, the Cardinals broke the Hoyas′ winning streak, dominating the Hoyas in the second half to come from behind for an upset victory in which both Roy Hibbert and Austin Freeman scored 14 points.
It turned out to be the winning shot and final score, as Louisville missed three straight three-point attempts to end the game.
Austin Freeman had 15 points and Roy Hibbert, playing the final home game of his college career, had a 12-point, eight-rebound performance.
1 seed in the Big East tournament for the second year in a row and a No.9 national ranking, Georgetown had a bye in the first round.
Although Villanova shot 23-for-28 (82.1 percent) from the free-throw line and Roy Hibbert did not score during the game and had only four rebounds before fouling out with 5:09 to play, Georgetown made up for it by setting both a Big East tournament record and a school record by connecting on 17 three-point shots during the game, shooting 17-for-28 (60.7 percent) from three-point range.
Although they shot only 22-for-44 (50 percent) from the free-throw line, the Panthers outrebounded the Hoyas 41-29 and attacked the net with a balanced offense.
Seeded second in the Midwest Regional, the Hoyas began their pursuit of their first back-to-back Final Four appearances since 1984 and 1985 by facing 15th-seeded Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) in the first round.
The Hoyas dominated the undersized Retrievers, shooting 51 percent from the field and holding UMBC to 32-percent shooting and completely scoreless over a seven-minute stretch in the first half, during which the Retrievers missed eight straight shots: A Chris Wright three-point jumper gave the Hoyas a 31–17 lead with three minutes left in the half before UMBC's scoring drought ended.
23 Davidson, the winner of 23 straight games, led by junior point guard Stephen Curry, a future National Basketball Association star.
Shooting 71 percent from the floor early in the second half and with Curry missing 10 of his first 12 shots of the game, Georgetown extended the lead to 46–29 with 17:56 left to play.
Curry made six of his last nine shots from the field and five of six free throws in the final 23 seconds and scored 30 points – 25 of them in the second half – and Davidson upset Georgetown 74–70 to extend its winning streak, the longest active streak in the country at the time, to 24 games and bring Georgetown's season to a stunning end.
[51] Sophomore center Vernon Macklin decided in late April to leave the team in search of greater playing time, announcing in May that he would transfer to Florida; he sat out the 2008–09 season, then started 71 games for Florida between 2009 and 2011 and was selected by the Detroit Pistons in the 2011 NBA draft.
Sophomore guard Jeremiah Rivers also departed, transferring to Indiana, where he believed he had a better chance of showcasing his talents than he could in Georgetown's "Princeton offense.