Oct. 17, 2007
At approximately 11:00pm on the night of Saturday March 31st, 2007, I had no idea what I was going to do for the next eight months. As I boarded a southbound MARTA train, the Georgia Dome and Georgetown's 2006-2007 basketball season disappearing in the rear window, I considered what I'm sure many of you did at some point after the Hoyas dropped their Final Four contest to the Ohio State Buckeyes:
It's going to be tough not having Georgetown basketball around until October.
But did the Hoyas ever really go away? Did some combination of Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr., and Ted Valentine banish the Blue and Gray to the hinterlands only to re-emerge in all their spotlighted glory in McDonough Gym at Midnight Madness? Were we all just going to have to survive on our DVDs of the North Carolina game until the fall?
Not this year. March 31, 2007 may have brought one season to a close, but it also kicked off one the most memorable and eventful offseasons in memory for Georgetown fans.
May 2nd brought the largest Hoya Club Banquet crowd ever to the Leavey Center, where attendees saw Jeff Green honored as the team's Most Outstanding Player. Three weeks later, Hoya fans gathered around their radios, computer screens and televisions awaiting news from the lobby of McDonough Gym, as the Hoyas' do-everything forward announced he would be entering the NBA Draft. June 28th saw Hoya fans gather in front of their TVs yet again, waiting patiently-but not for very long-as Jeff's name was called by the Seattle Supersonics with the fifth overall pick in the NBA Draft.
Any lingering sadness over the departure of Georgetown's go-to guy to the West Coast was tempered three days later by the arrival of the Hoyas' bumper crop of freshmen-Chris Wright, Austin Freeman, Nikita Mescheriakov and Omar Wattad-to the opening games of the Kenner League at McDonough Gym. Of course, if you really were in the throes of separation anxiety, you needn't have feared, for on July 22nd Jeff Green was here, back for one last go-round as he led Meyers & Alterman on their run to the Kenner League title.
Alas, Jeff Green has finally left Northwest DC for the Pacific Northwest and the beginning of his professional career. Head Coach John Thompson III, however, isn't planning on leaving any time soon, as he signed a six-year contract extension on September 27th that will keep him on the Hilltop through 2013.
Finally though, 194 days removed from that March evening at the Georgia Dome (it seems like just yesterday doesn't it?), John Thompson III stood at center court of McDonough Gym and led the unveiling of the 2007 Final Four banner. Watching from the sidelines were the eight returning Hoyas who had captivated Georgetown fans with the postseason run in March-and the four freshmen who had stoked their enthusiasm for the upcoming season at the Kenner League in July. Somewhere in the bleachers was Jeff Green's mom, who had come to place her son's Seattle jersey alongside past Hoya NBA legends on the McDonough wall.
Outside in the parking lot, next to a gigantic television screen now blasting coverage of the events inside the gym, a technician was probably putting the DVD of the North Carolina game that had been shown during pre-event festivities back in its case.
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Whether or not Georgetown basketball ever really went away, it's great to have basketball season back again...and with it, the start of the new Hoop Club Blog season.
When we last left you, our resident Generation Ewing member Tom Wong (C'82) was at his 25th Georgetown reunion in June and promising he'd see me at Midnight Madness (he was the first person I saw when I walked out of the parking garage). We're kicking off the new Hoop Club Blog season this weekend with coverage of the Hoya Hoop Club Open Practice, and if all goes well we may just keep on posting right through until Midnight Madness 2008.
Last year, this blog featured dispatches from such exotic locals as Seacaucus, NJ, Spotsylvania, VA and Nurnburg, Germany. As Hoya basketball has grown before our eyes in the past few years, the Hoya Hoop Club has grown along with it, becoming a truly global phenomenon. Hoop Club members held 235 official Game Watch parties last season, covering 24 states and 5 foreign countries-I'm still mesmerized by the fact that there were Hoya fans watching the Duke game at 7am in Beijing.
With this growth comes the opportunity for us to bring you the Hoop Club experience, whatever part of the world you live in.
We think we've got just the staff of writers to do it.
Between the nine regular Hoop Club Bloggers this season, we cover five states, three time zones, and at least six "generations" of Hoya fans. We've got alums, students, friends of the program...and a radio broadcaster with 1,032 Georgetown basketball games under his belt. At least one of us will be at every Georgetown basketball game this season, and it's a fair chance that if you're at a game watch in the Bay Area, Chicago, or Washington, DC, one of us will be parked in front of a television in a We Are Georgetown shirt.
But we still need your help!
If you're a Hoya Hoop Club member-whether you live in Blue America, Gray America, or one of the outposts of Hoyaland around the world-we want to hear from you. Guest posts are always welcome on the blog. Tell us about the Game Watch party you're organizing with your friends. Send us some photos from your road trip to Birmingham or Memphis or Providence (I'll see you there on President's Day).
Let us know how we're doing too. If you have an idea for a post, or a question about the Hoya Hoop Club you want answered, or you just want to say what's up, drop me a line at flhoya@gmail.com.
Be sure to check out our brand new Hoop Club Blog homepage that's set to debut any day now. In the meantime, be on the lookout for information about the Hoop Club Open Practice on Sunday.
I'm going to go watch us beat North Carolina again. See you this season!
John Hawkes (F'04) Proud Member of Generation Burton
