WASHINGTON — Every year March Madness has a “Cinderella team” -- a team able to achieve far greater success than many expected. This year, that team could very much already be the Georgetown Hoyas.
Picked to finish last in the Preseason Coaches’ Poll, now these Hoyas are Big East tournament champions. They won four games in four days, defeating the nos. 1 and 2 seeds to claim their first title since 2007.
“I’m proving everyone wrong. I’ve worked at this craft, 15 years in the NBA, given the opportunity here at Georgetown, and we’ve been through some trials and tribulations, but everyone has done their part to get us to this point,” coach Patrick Ewing said.
Their path to victory was a rocky one. The Hoyas struggled on and off the court. Right before the season began, legendary Georgetown coach John Thompson Jr. died. His loss hit the program hard.
“He did a great job of paying it forward and teaching us to not only be great athletes but great humans moving forward, and that’s my role now being the head coach of this program,” Ewing said.
The Hoyas entered the season with nine new players, so it took some time before they started to click. After a 3-8 start, a COVID-19 outbreak forced Georgetown to postpone four games, keeping them off the court for 17 days in January. But they came back stronger, and in one month went from last to first.
They won the title on the 49th anniversary of Thompson’s hiring at Georgetown, something that made Saturday’s win extra special for Ewing.
“It was on this day, March 13, that he was hired, and on this day, we won the Big East championship. They had us ranked last, and I keep talking about that Drake song, started at the bottom and now we’re here. We started at the bottom and now we’re number one,” Ewing said.
Now, they’ll ride that title wave into the NCAA tournament, where they are a 12-seed in the East. The Hoyas will face 5-seed Colorado in the first round.