Dec. 10, 2007
The "Home" Game
First off, a big thank you to all of the Hoop Club bloggers and Hoya fans for your efforts in Birmingham this week. It never gets old watching a Georgetown away game on TV and hearing a section (or several) of the gray-clad faithful in the throes of a "We Are Georgetown" or "Let's Go Hoyas" cheer.
Most of the bloggers are on their way home now, so trip recaps will be trickling into the Hoop Club Blog over the next several days. Be sure to check out our home page here for the latest, including the ever-expanding Birmingham photo gallery.
Dmitriy Zakharov's post-trip report passed through my inbox this evening. Needless to say Dima was pleased with his homecoming in Alabama, which you'll no doubt be reading about any day now.
With Georgetown being a national university in the true sense of that word, it seems like every Hoyas game has a local angle for someone. Just last year in fact, two Hoop Club bloggers wrote about their local ties to regular season matchups. In January, Mike Karam had his Hoya Homecoming in New Jersey when the Blue and Gray took their test drive of Continental Airlines Arena against Seton Hall. And we all know the Oral Roberts game in December would have been far less entertaining without the wisdom of Tulsa native Steve Medlock and 900 ft. Jesus.
So here we are at the Jacksonville game, and it naturally falls to FLHoya.
Truth be told, I've only driven through Jacksonville--hard to miss at 758 square miles, it's the largest city in the contiguous United States by land area. That land mass however lies rather far from my hometown of Jupiter, FL--we're 268 miles straight down I-95 from the JAX. To give you an idea of how far that really is, Mike Karam only had to drive about 230 miles from Washington DC to his Hoya Homecoming at the Meadowlands.
All the same, I always enjoy watching Georgetown take on opponents from home--and Jacksonville will be the seventh different team from Florida that the Hoyas have played since I came to Georgetown as a student in 2000 (Bethune-Cookman, Central Florida, Miami, Stetson, South Florida, and Florida). During that time, the Hoyas are 8-4 against teams from the Sunshine State, 6-3 when the games are played somewhere that gets cold in the winter.
The Jacksonville Dolphins (not these Dolphins) haven't spent much time in the Sunshine State lately. Sunday's contest will be JU's fourth consecutive road game, part of six away games in a seven game stretch (coincidentally, they'll finish off their barnstorming with two consecutive games in Alabama). JU spent their Friday night up Wisconsin Avenue in Tenleytown, where they dropped a 52-50 decision to future Georgetown foe American University.
Fun fact: Jacksonville is one of seventeen Hoya opponents this season to have made a Final Four appearance. In 1970, the Artis Gilmore-led Dolphins made it all the way to National Championship game at Cole Field House before losing to UCLA 80-69.
GAME INFORMATION
Time: Sunday December 9th at 1:00pm
TV: A FREE live video stream of the game will be available via Hoya All Access, which you can reach at guhoyas.com
Radio: The game will be carried live on sportstalk980.com. Happy 1,039th broadcast Rich Chvotkin.
Happy viewing and Happy Holidays from the Blog.
John Hawkes (SFS 2004)
Proud Member of Generation Burton
