heart attack hoyas

[lichoya68]

this is them again anyone old enough to remember that team and who was on it they were fun and this is them again go hoyas stop the hearts of the orangeman HEART ATTACK HOYAS

[lichoya68]

help history people who were the old heart attack hoyas come on now someone out there who were they ....we knoww who they are now but the old ones go hoyas beat cuse again is the game at manley or the dome go hoyas remember manley field house is offiically closed lets close the dome for this year go hoyas

[TBird41]

I'm way to young to remember the Heart Attack Hoyas (being about 5 months old when the Hoyas brought home the National Championship), but I'm just pumped that the current squad has picked up a cool nickname and it's positive (b/c I definately remember the old Heart Attack Hoyas of Mike Sweetney and Craig Esherick, where Heart Attack was used in teh most negative sense possible).

Go Heart Attack Hoyas-time to destroy CUse!

[jerseyhoya34]

TBird41 said:

I'm way to young to remember the Heart Attack Hoyas (being about 5 months old when the Hoyas brought home the National Championship), but I'm just pumped that the current squad has picked up a cool nickname and it's positive (b/c I definately remember the old Heart Attack Hoyas of Mike Sweetney and Craig Esherick, where Heart Attack was used in teh most negative sense possible).

Go Heart Attack Hoyas-time to destroy CUse!

Mike Sweetney should not be mentioned in that context. He was one of the only hopes at the time.

[TBird41]

I agree-he was the bright spot, but it was definately his era as well as Esherick's-while it wasn't his fault we lost like that, it was his time, so I was using him for context. I can't just say Esherick, b/c he was there starting in 1999, and I only remember the Heart Attack Hoyas of Sweetney's last 2 years (my senior year of HS and freshman year at Gtown).

[Simian Prime]

The names that pop into mind were:

Kevin Braswell
Anthony Perry
Nat Burton
Ruben Boumtje Boumtje,
Lee Scruggs


who else?

[Fan Of The Game]

I believe he was referring to the Sleepy Floyd, Craig Shelton, John Duren squad.

[SSHoya]

FOTG is correct (from hoyasaxa.com archive):

The 79-80 team: John Duren, Craig Shelton, Lonnie Duren, Mike Hancock, David Blue, Eric Smith and Ed Spriggs, et al..
Following a 24-5 season in 1979, the move from the ECAC South to the Big East was considered a big challenge to the program and its 38 year old coach, John Thompson. Despite predictions that the Hoyas could trail behind the likes of national powers such as St. John's and Syracuse, the 1979-80 team put Georgetown on the national map with a series of thrilling wins, including five victories over teams ranked in the Top 10. The Hoyas won 15 straight in February and March, highlighted by two big upsets over Syracuse and an NCAA upset of Maryland. Of its six losses, two came in overtime and two on shots in the final five seconds.

After the win over Maryland, the Hoyas advanced to the NCAA Eastern Regional Final and led by 14 at the half over Iowa. Georgetown shot 60 percent for the game, 68 percent in the second half..and yet it came down to the last big play of the game. How? Because Iowa shot 17 of 21 (80%) down the stretch, 15 of 15 from the free throw line, and won on a basket and foul with five seconds to play, 81-80. A classic.

The Hoyas also set a high standard for team play. As a team, Georgetown shot over 53% from the field that year, a school record to this day. Seniors John Duren and Craig Shelton were selected honorable mention All-America, and John Thompson was selected Eastern Coach of The Year.

Stats and records on the team can be found at the Hoya Basketball History pages on this site. If you're at the game, take the time to welcome back one of Georgetown's all-time great teams...the "Heart Attack Hoyas".

[Simian Prime]

Yea...I think they were more deserving of the name.

[hoyarooter]

That team could easily have won the national championship. They would have played Louisville (Daryl Griffith, Derrick Smith et al) in the semis, which would have been a war, but a win in that game would have put them in the finals against UCLA (the KiKi and the kids Larry Brown-coached team that came out of nowhere). A lot of people don't remember that Iowa game, but I regard it as the second most heartbreaking loss in Hoya history (even more than UNC '82) because, like that other game I won't mention, the winning team played completely out of its mind and still only beat us by the narrowest of margins.

[hoyainspirit]

That was a great team to watch. Shelton was guaranteed when he got into the lane, which he did frequently. He was clutch. Floyd would bomb people from outside. Sleepy had range! Just think of the number of points he would have scored had there been a three point shot. That was the Georgetown team that hooked me on Georgetown basketball. The lack of TV this year is truly frustrating....

[AvantGuardHoya]

That '79-'80 squad was the one that captured my imagination, too.

At the time I was living in the Boston area and I caught them on cable at BC. This, of course, was during the era before the three point shot and the Heart Attack Hoyas made up a six or eight point deficit in the final seconds of the game and pulled out an unbelievable victory. I was hooked!

Big John's team displayed all the hallmarks whcih came to epitomize the Hoyas: defensive intensity, rebounding and all around hustle. They had some shooters, too.

I moved back home to DC in the spring of '80. A year later a certain baller from the Boston area arrived at the Hilltop and the Golden Age was ushered in. I'm hoping for a semi-revival w/JTIII.

The win over 'Nova was wonderful. Dare I dream that the 'Cuse will fall tonight? Go Hoyas!

[YB]

The Heart Attack Hoyas was the moniker given to the 1994-5 team, Ivo's Freshman year, that made it to the Sweet 16. We had HUGE comeback wins against Providence and Memphis early in that year, and the guys just showed such resilience that the name stuck.

Not unlike this young group of guys. It took a bit of time but that group proved very special.

[OldHoyafan]

Wow, I remember that game with Lute Olson as coach and a gimpy kneed guard Ronnie Lester, who could not miss in the second half. I believe had the Hoyas won that game and got to the final four they would have had another championship. Thanks for the stats. I knew, but could not remember when, that there were early Big John teams that could shoot as well as play defense. The problem with this game and so many to follow, was that Big John had become enamored with his good friend Dean Smith's Four Corner offense at the end of the game. The Hoyas tried to slow down and stall and got cought.

[AvantGuardHoya]

YB, don't mean to split hairs, but while the "Heart Attack Hoyas" moniker may have been revived for the '94-'95 squad, it really dates to the '79-'80 team. Ask Chvotkin....

And OldHoyaFan: Yes, Big John became enamored with his version of the delay game during the Eighties. But my recollection is that it worked far more often than not. In fact, I saw it as a very effective offensive tool rather than simply a stall tactic. If his Ewing teams were ahead of you in the last five minutes of a game and went into that delay, it was lights OUT, 'cause it frequently resulted in lay ups and dunks from everybody. Honestly, I don't recall a single loss as a result of that approach. Help me out, y'all!

[hoyarooter]

Sadly for Iowa, Ronnie Lester blew out his knee (again) in the Louisville game, or the Hawkeyes might have been playing for the national championship.

And as for the isolation offense not costing us any games, how about the Big East championship game against UConn when we had a huge lead late in the game and lost by a point? That game cost us a #1 seed in the Dance. Victor Page was MVP even though we lost.

[AvantGuardHoya]

Re: isolation offense: True that, Hoyarooter. we did lose that conference tourney championship to UConn. I do believe, however, that Page's MVP came, in part, as a result of his spectacular play in the semi-final when he was uber-effective in that very same delay against 'Nova!

My comment about the "stall" actually was focused more on the Eighties when Big John started using it. It became much less effective and was rarely used during his last half dozen seasons. I suspect that was a function of his dwindling talent base....