Feb. 11, 2008
It's Time to Raise Our Game!
The Karam/Morgan family road trip journeyed to Louisville this past weekend in another episode of "Follow the Hoyas and See the Country!!" Thanks to fellow Hoop Club Board
Member Carlo Tamburro, F'94, we booked a room at The Brown and can't say enough good things about this wonderful and legendary hotel and its service. For dinner, we ate at Jack Fry's and De La Torre's, numbers one and two on "TripAdvisor's Travellers' Ratings" for Louisville restaurants and concur in those assessments. For Saturday brunch, we journeyed to Lynn's Paradise Café for a completely unique and delicious brunch experience.
Saturday afternoon, we took the insider's tour of Churchill Downs with a wonderful guide named Terri, and I will never again watch the Kentucky Derby the same way!
Saturday night, decked out in our Hoya gray, we went to Freedom Hall, one of the signature arenas in college basketball to watch our Hoyas.
Little Ricky Pitino showed up in a white linen suit, and I wasn't sure if I should ask him for an ice cream sandwich or pay him protection money. But, at halftime, after he somehow wet his pretty white suit, threatening to expose his blue undies (He didn't say whether they were boxers or briefs.), Little Ricky changed into his customary black suit and now I knew he wanted protection money. I would like to write about the game, but every time I begin to type something about it, my computer, for some reason, whites everything out! This must be a sign that it is time to move on to tonight's home game against Villanova and the rest of our Big East schedule. I implore every Hoya fan to begin "raising our game" tonight to spur on our beloved Hoyas.
Tonight's Hoya Hoop activities begin not with the 7:00 p.m. tip-off, but rather with the 5:30 Open Meeting of the Hoya Hoop Club at the Coca Cola Theatre on the Fourth Floor of the Verizon Center. Please use the Administrative entrance on 7th and G street as the doors will not open at 6pm. This event, which has become an annual staple on the Hoop Club calendar, will feature presentations by Athletic Director Bernard Muir and Hoya Hoop Club President Al Bozzo. So be there and find out the inside scoop from AD Muir and President Bozzo. And while you're at it, "raise our game" by bringing a friend(s) to this terrific event, get the friend(s) to join the Hoop Club, if they are not members already, and consider increasing your own giving level. As fans, of course, we all have our ideas on how to improve the Hoyas. The common thread underlying these ideas is that they all take money, which is a precious commodity on the Hilltop! Simply put, apart from the increased camaraderie and sense of community which membership in the Hoop Club provides, every dollar you contribute to the Hoya Hoop Club makes it easier for Coach John R. Thompson, III, to do his job! So, Hoya Hoop Fans, let's raise our game and help Coach JT III and the team raise theirs not only as we come down the stretch for this season but also for many seasons into the future.
WE ARE GEORGETOWN!! The best coach in America!!
After we have learned everything we wanted to know about Georgetown Athletics and the Hoya Hoop Club from the Open Meeting, let's raise our game again by providing our favorite coach and team with the best home-court experience that a packed Verizon Center can provide as we square off against the Villanova Wildcats. In my mind, this means, taking a message from our Hoya Blue student counterparts, arriving at the game early, wearing our favorite shade of gray, cheering our brains out (even standing for extended periods of time), and, most of all, never, never providing even one of our tickets to a friend, who couldn't get into Georgetown and had to settle on Villanova! For long-time Hoya fans, "Remember 1985!" Remember Coach Rollie, John Pinone, Ed Pinckney and, of course, Harold Jensen!" For newer Hoya fans, remember the lickin' they put on us two years ago in Philly with their four guard offense! Let's raise our game tonight and cheer as if the future of Hoya basketball depended on it! Because, ladies and gentlemen, in many ways, the future of Hoya basketball does depend on us and how we raise our game to support the best Coach in America, our basketball program, and its current version, the very special 2007-08 Georgetown Men's Basketball team. Beat Villanova!!
WE ARE GEORGETOWN!!
Respectfully submitted,
Michael E. Karam, F '72, L '76, L `81
Proud Member of Generation Laughna
