March 11, 2007
Washington, D.C. -- With a crowd of nearly 400 students, supporters and alumni watching, the 2007 BIG EAST Champion Georgetown University men's basketball team found out its fate for the NCAA Tournament during a selection show gathering at O'Donovan Hall on the Hilltop.
After watching two brackets filled, the CBS broadcast showed the Hoyas, who improved to 26-6 overall after beating Pittsburgh on Saturday, 65-42, to claim a league record seven BIG EAST Tournament Championships, were the No. 2 seed in the East Bracket, playing No. 15 seed Belmont, the Atlantic Sun Conference champions.
The Hoyas will play the Bruins on Thursday, March 15 in an NCAA Tournament First Round game at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Tip-off is slated for 2:45 p.m.
"You know you're going to play against a good team, you know you're going to play against a team that's playing well and a team that's well-coached," Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III said. "All the teams in the tournament probably fit that bill. All our energy is on Belmont right now."
This will be the 24th appearance in the NCAA Tournament for the Hoyas, who advanced to the Sweet 16 last year. Georgetown has a 40-22 all-time record in the NCAA Tournament, has advanced to the Sweet 16 10 times, to the Elite Eight seven times, to the Final Four on four occasions, to the Championship game four times and won the National Championship in 1984.
The last time a Georgetown team was seeded No. 2 was during the 1995-96 season, when the Hoyas advanced to the Elite Eight before falling to Massachusetts.
Belmont (23-9) has won seven consecutive games - each by 15 or more points - including its 94-67 victory at East Tennessee State to defend its Atlantic Sun Championship. Junior Justin Hare, who was named Atlantic Sun Tournament MVP for a second straight season, leads the Bruins in scoring at 14.4 points per game.
The Bruins led the Atlantic Sun Conference in scoring defense (64.0 points per game), field goal percentage defense (38.7 percent), three-point field goal percentage defense (28.1 percent), and scoring margin (+9.0).
