The Hoyas were coached by John Thompson III and played their home games at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC.

12 national ranking for Georgetown, the Hoyas were expected to have another impressive season even though only one scholarship senior, Jessie Sapp, returned for 2008-09.

Although four-year starter and point guard Jonathan Wallace had graduated in 2008, sophomore guard Chris Wright, recovered from a broken foot that caused him to miss much of the 2007-08 campaign, was expected to fill in ably as his successor, and the Hoyas placed great confidence in freshman center Greg Monroe as the next "big man" who could replace center Roy Hibbert, who also had graduated in 2008.

They met Wichita State in the first round in a game in which the Shockers outrebounded the Hoyas 17-6 but shot only 27.9 percent from the field, and Georgetown went 8-for-8 in free throws in the final minute to preserve a 58-50 victory, with Austin Freeman scoring a game-high 18 points, DaJuan Summers 14, and Greg Monroe 11.

Four Hoyas – Chris Wright with 18 points, DaJuan Summers with 17, Greg Monroe with 15, and Austin Freeman with 12 – scored in double figures as Georgetown shot 53 percent from the field.

But Georgetown also committed 20 turnovers, including 10 in the first 15 minutes, and had an uncharacteristically porous defense, allowing the Volunteers also to shoot 53 percent from the field, and Tennessee had a 39-37 advantage at halftime.

[6][7] Georgetown thus met Maryland two days later in the third-place game, only the third meeting between the cross-town rivals since 1980, the first since the 2001 NCAA tournament, and the first during the regular season since 1993.

19, scored 100 points for the second time in John Thompson III's tenure and had a 62-point margin of victory that was its biggest since a 112-39 defeat of the University of the District of Columbia on December 16, 1989.

Freeman, Sapp, and Summers had 14 points each, Monroe had 13, and freshman guard Jason Clark came off the bench to score 10 against Savannah State.

The win stretched Georgetown's home winning streak to 26 games,[11] which the Hoyas then extended to 28 straight as the homestand concluded with victories over Mount St. Mary's – the first meeting of the schools since January 1962, with Chris Wright scoring a game-high 19 points, DaJuan Summers adding 13, and Jessie Sapp grabbing a career-high nine rebounds[12] – and Florida International.

11, with a record of 9-1 and the winners of six straight games, the Hoyas closed out 2008 by opening their Big East Conference schedule with a visit to No.

[14][15][16] At the time Georgetown upset Connecticut, the Big East boasted seven ranked teams,[14] and the relatively young and inexperienced Hoyas faced a challenging conference schedule as a result.

With a four-point play, Austin Freeman gave the Hoyas a 47-26 lead with two minutes left, and Georgetown went into the locker room at halftime with a 50-32 advantage.

Georgetown led by double digits for the rest of the game on the way to an 88-74 upset victory, dealing Syracuse its first conference loss of the season.

The Blue Devils pulled ahead to a 15-point lead early in the second half, but Georgetown responded with a 13-2 run and closed to 46-42 with 15:33 left to play.

[22][23] Georgetown emerged from the Duke game with a respectable 12-4 record against a tough schedule, including 3-2 in the Big East and 3-4 against ranked opponents, and even climbed to No.

25 in the AP Poll after the loss to Seton Hall, Georgetown dropped out of the Top 25 entirely after losing to Marquette, not to return until the following season.

After enduring their longest losing streak since 2005, the Hoyas staggered back to the Verizon Center to beat Rutgers in a game in which Jessie Sapp came out of his month-and-a-half-long slump to score 11 points, while Greg Monroe contributed 10 and Georgetown preserved a home winning streak against the Scarlet Knights that dated back to January 2000.

The Orange led 33-32 at halftime but scored the first nine points after the intermission and pulled ahead to 66-50 with 8:11 left in the second half before the Hoyas rallied to tie the game at 83-83 at the end of regulation.

In overtime, the Hoyas pulled ahead 89-88 with 2:13 remaining, but Syracuse then scored a three-pointer and two free throws to take a 93-89 lead and ultimately prevailed, 98-94.

[35] Sophomore guard/forward Nikita Mescheriakov started at guard in this game – and for the rest of the season – in place of the slumping Jessie Sapp, who was relegated to the bench.

In the second half, however, the Golden Eagles committed only one turnover, allowed Georgetown only one three-pointer, and gave up only two offensive rebounds, and Marquette took the lead for good with 7:58 to play on the way to a 78-72 victory.

The game stayed close until Georgetown finally pulled ahead over a 6:52 stretch late in the first half and early in the second during which the Hoyas made nine straight field goals and took a 40-32 lead with 17:21 left to play.

[41] Georgetown finished its regular season with an overtime loss at St. John's – the first overtime game in the 91 meetings between the schools – in which the Hoyas blew a 45-30 lead, breaking a five-game Hoya winning streak against the Red Storm,[42] and a low-scoring win at the Verizon Center against DePaul that dealt the Blue Demons their 18th straight defeat and gave them a winless Big East season.

The Red Storm took back the lead for good at 53-52 with 3:42 remaining, shooting 6-for-7 from the free-throw line the rest of the way – part of a 24-for-29 (82.8 percent) St. John's free-throw-shooting effort – to secure a 64-59 win and advance to the next round.

[48] Sapp graduated in 2009, completing a 135-game collegiate career in which he had started 92 times, averaging 7.1 points per game on 41.6 percent shooting from the field.

Summers announced in March that he would leave the team, choosing to forego his senior year of college to enter the 2009 National Basketball Association draft; the Detroit Pistons selected him as the 35th pick overall.

Sophomore reserve guard/forward Omar Wattad announced in April that he would not return to Georgetown for his junior year,[50] and decided at the beginning of May to transfer to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

[51] Wattad became the eighth Hoya in four seasons to leave Georgetown before his college eligibility expired, the others being Summers, Jeff Green, who also entered the NBA draft after his junior year, and Vernon Macklin, Jeremiah Rivers, Octavius Spann, Marc Egerson, and Josh Thornton, all of whom transferred.

Georgetown fell precipitously from the Top Ten early in January to a 16-15 record by the end of the season, with losses in 12 of their final 16 games and first-round exits from both the Big East tournament and the NIT.