The feeling is not a new one, although the Final Four appearance has made it stronger than it has been in a long time. I cannot speak about Generation Laughna or Ewing, about the years of Mutombo or Iverson. All I have experienced of Georgetown Basketball is Generation Hibbert. But the feeling has been there all throughout these almost three-and-a-half years, and like Roy Hibbert himself, it has only grown stronger after each one.

 

Growing up in the Deep South, I was taught that college football is the end-all and be-all of sports. My experiences with college basketball were limited to a few televised weeks each March and a dozen or so games per year at the University of South Alabama. I cheered hard for the Jags and felt pride in their back-to-back Sun Belt Conference titles in '97 and '98, but there was always the knowledge that even when a coveted spot to the Big Dance was in hand, the trip would be a short one. That's how it goes at a school with one NCAA Tournament win in its history. There were good teams, but that feeling just wasn't there.

 

It was there, though, when I first arrived on the Hilltop. John Thompson III, the son of the man who made Hoya hoops a household name, now stood at the helm. I was, I admit, a bit skeptical. Having witnessed the University of Alabama's struggles to find a suitable football coach - one that, it seemed, absolutely had to have ties to the legendary Bear Bryant - I was a bit apprehensive about the hiring of a coach based on his being "in the family."  Still, the alumni and upperclassmen were excited, the grey shirts with the roman numeral III were impressive, and the freshman class included a giant from Georgetown Prep and a dreadlocked forward who was rumored to be the real deal. It felt like the beginning of something special.

 

It was. That first season brought a victory over a ranked Pitt team in the always-formidable Petersen Events Center, four more conference wins than the previous year, and a trip to the NIT quarterfinals (including a nationally-televised game in McDonough that will not soon be forgotten). I was hooked, and I was not alone. The uncertainty I had felt at the first game, watching John Chaney pace the sideline as his Temple team handled the Hoyas, was gone.  "It'd be cool if our coach was an icon like that," I had thought to myself at the time. I didn't think that anymore - and it had little to do with Temple's 16-14 record and loss in the first round of the NIT that year. Just like Jeff Green, the Co-Big East Rookie of the Year, it was clear that JTIII was "the real deal."  The expectations rose - the feeling grew.

 

The following year witnessed the victory over #1-ranked Duke, a watershed moment in the program's history, later followed by a win over #9 Pitt. The feeling was there at Madison Square Garden that year, as the Hoyas won two thrillers in the Big East Tournament, and despite a heartbreaking loss to Syracuse in the semis, it did not go away. By the time the Hoyas knocked off #2-seed Ohio State in Dayton, in what was a de facto home NCAA tournament game for the Buckeyes, the expectation of something truly memorable had been cemented as a reality. Losing to Florida in the Sweet Sixteen hurt, but the Hoyas came closer than anyone else to knocking off the eventual champs. This "season on the rise," as Georgetown basketball songwriting legend Chris Tiongson put it, provided plenty of memories. And it only ratcheted up the anticipation for the following season.

 

High expectations have a way of leading to greater disappointment. The feeling was there at the start of the '06-'07 campaign, and it made the early missteps that much more painful. The worst of all, unquestionably, was the loss in McDonough Gym to Old Dominion. The Monarchs were by no means a bad team: they finished the year with 24 wins and earned an at-large NCAA bid despite playing in a little-known conference. But losing in front of a packed, rabid crowd in a building where you hadn't tasted defeat sinec 1982 - that stays with you. It stings. It motivates.

 

That season ended up being quite a success, and the expectations have risen even further. The feeling has intensified - something monumental is now expected. It has also, evidently, spread, as the Hoyas hold a #5 ranking in both major polls; others expected big things from Georgetown too.

 

But for this game, another feeling takes precedence: revenge. This time, the Hoyas will not be surprised or caught off guard. This time, instead of a small but devoted Hoya crowd, there will be 10,000 fans, most of them ODU partisans. This time, every Hoya hopes, the outcome will be different. If it is, then maybe the thousands in attendance in Norfolk will experience what we have felt all along: this team is a special one, and its season will be one to remember.

 

The game will be televised on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) and will be called on the radio by Rich Chvotkin on WTNT-570. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. EST.

 

- Dmitriy Zakharov (SFS/GRD'09)

 Hoya Blue Communications Officer