Prior to the January 12 game at St. John's, the team's second leading scorer, Greg Whittington, was suspended indefinitely for academic issues.

The final regular-season meeting of Georgetown and Syracuse as Big East rivals on March 9, 2013, set an attendance record at the Verizon Center of 20,972.

The freshman recruiting class consisted of guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera, forward Stephen Domingo, and centers Brandon Bolden and Bradley Hayes.

Sophomore center Tyler Adams, sidelined early the previous season by heart arrhythmia, spent the season on a medical hardship waiver that allowed him to continue at Georgetown on a scholarship without counting against the team's scholarship total; relegated to the bench, he made the most of the situation, acting as a de facto assistant coach.

The game was played on November 9 in front of a crowd of nearly 3,500 people, including Olympic gold medalist swimmer Conor Dwyer, Jacksonville Jaguars players Paul Posluszny and Laurent Robinson, and United States Navy and United States Marine Corps personnel, on a court set up on the flight deck of the U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, moored at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida.

[5] In the first half, with condensation creating ever more slippery conditions, the underdog Hoyas allowed the Gators to shoot 45.5 percent from the field, but also forced Florida into eight turnovers.

Florida, meanwhile, used an effective zone defense to limit Georgetown largely to perimeter shooting, and the Hoyas shot only 35.7 percent from the field and made only three three-pointers.

Nate Lubick and Otto Porter led Georgetown with seven points each, and Greg Whittington and Mikeal Hopkins grabbed four rebounds apiece.

While United States Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus conducted a reenlistment ceremony for U.S. Navy personnel on the ship's deck, game officials, staff, coaches, the players, and volunteers spent all of halftime and several minutes after the scheduled start time for the second half attempting to dry the court with towels, but condensation in the humid evening air nonetheless made the floor so slippery that both coaches reluctantly agreed to cease play and suspend the game for the sake of the players′ safety without beginning the second half.

With two minutes left in regulation, Indiana grabbed an offensive rebound and took a 61–54 lead on a layup by Hoosier senior guard Jordan Hulls.

But Georgetown mounted a comeback, with Market Starks and Otto Porter sinking consecutive three-pointers to reduce Indiana's lead to 63–62.

15 in the AP Poll, where they would remain for the next month, the Hoyas then defeated Texas – only the second meeting between the teams and the first since January 1972 – at Madison Square Garden in the Jimmy V Classic, making only four of their 18 three-point attempts (22.2%) but allowing Texas only 41 points on 29.2 percent shooting from the field, the Longhorns′ lowest point total in a game since the arrival of Rick Barnes as their head coach in 1998–99.

[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] After the completion of the Western Carolina game on December 15, Georgetown athletic director Lee Reed broke the news to the press that seven Big East schools that did not have NCAA Division I football programs – DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, and Villanova, which the press dubbed the "Catholic Seven," although John Thompson III told the press that religious affinity had no bearing on the decision – would leave the storied Big East Conference, which they had come to view as too focused on football to accommodate the interests of the basketball-only schools.

1 team in the country – and an unusually long two-week break in action between their game against American and the beginning of Big East play.

[46][48] However, Georgetown lost at South Florida three days later, the Bulls coming from 11 points behind at the half to win their first conference game of the season.

Early in the second half, Notre Dame had a 10–0 run of its own to close to 40–37, but the Fighting Irish went scoreless over a seven-minute stretch while Georgetown scored 18 unanswered points to take a decisive lead.

The Cardinals had several chances to take the lead after that, but failed to take advantage of them, and Louisville senior guard Peyton Siva – who got into foul trouble and finished scoreless in a game for the first time since his freshman year – missed a potential game-winning jumper with 1.4 seconds to play.

Otto Porter pulled down the rebound, his 12th of the game, was fouled, and made one of two free throws to finish with 17 points, giving him a double-double.

During the Seton Hall game, play did not stop even though the lights dimmed for several minutes in the second half due to a storm in the Washington, D.C., area, and the Hoyas finished with a season-high 15 steals.

15 in the AP Poll, Georgetown returned home to meet Marquette; unranked when they had upset the Hoyas to start out the Big East season, the Golden Eagles now were ranked No.

Both teams mounted aggressive defenses and officials called a tight game, leading to a contest characterized mostly by turnovers, steals, and offensive fouls.

Georgetown led 33–23 at halftime, but started the second half by going nearly seven minutes without a field goal while the Golden Eagles outscored them 8–2 and closed to 35–31.

7 in the AP Poll by the time they visited Connecticut four days later for a double-overtime thriller in a sold-out Gampel Pavilion in which the Hoyas lost a 12-point lead late in regulation and then had to come from behind in the second overtime for a one-point win.

Otto Porter led the team for the fourth straight game with 17 points, while D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera came off the bench to score 14 and Markel Starks finished with 12.

The high seed gave the Hoyas a double bye, and they did not begin play until the quarterfinals, in which they met ninth-seeded Cincinnati, which had upset eighth-seeded Providence the day before to advance to meet Georgetown.

It was the final game between Georgetown and Syracuse as conference rivals, and Madison Square Garden was sold out, with a mostly pro-Syracuse crowd in attendance.

A Mikeal Hopkins dunk and five straight points by Markel Starks cut Georgetown's deficit to 37–32 with 12:41 remaining, but then Syracuse pulled out to a 43–34 advantage with 11:02 to play.

Syracuse junior center Baye Moussa Keita sank two free throws with 1:23 to play in regulation and Otto Porter hit both ends of a one-and-one to make the score 51–51 with 7.3 seconds left.

However, after an outstanding sophomore season, Otto Porter announced on April 15, 2013, that he would skip his final two years of college eligibility and enter the 2013 National Basketball Association Draft.

Both teams consistently mounted very strong defenses and climbed from an unranked start to a high ranking in the AP Poll as the season progressed.