Where does Duke 1/21/06 rank now?

[HoyasSkins]

I'm going to make this a top 15 list because the JT3 era has produced too many great games that shouldn't be left out.

1. UNC - no brainer
2. Duke- this was a tough decision because it was only a regular season game but I think it had the second biggest impact. It was the game that showed everyone we were coming back. The atmosphere was incredible and ever since we have been a great team. Also helped big time for recruiting particularly chris wright.
3. Vandy - loss would have been devastating, sets up UNC (and hopefully more), Green's best shot (so far at least). Below Duke because we were supposed to win and I doubt it will be remembered as much years from now.
4. Pitt for BET - BE Champs!
5. OSU I- not as fresh in people's minds but a huge win
6. ND in BET- Greens biggest shot (at that point)
7. Pitt to win BE - Great game, 2nd best at MCI
8. BC - Sweet way to send them home
9. At Pitt (2005) - JT3's first big win, I still remember the great feeling at the end.
10. Northern Iowa
11. at Nova (Green pullup)
12. Maquette (100 years)
13. Marquette in BET
14. ND (Roy, Roy Roy Roy!)
15. at Nova (66-64) - The fact that this game is #15 is a credit to JT3. 15 GREAT games in 3 years.

EDIT: forgot about Cuse game last year and UCONN game this year. Both should be on the list.

[FewFAC]

Methinks you think too highly of Duke.

[MCIGuy]

11) Home versus UConn 2007. Officially gave Gtown the Big East regular season crown. First time in a long while. Would be ranked higher if UConn was any good.

10) Home versus Syracuse 2006. Senior game for Bowman, Cook and Owens. It was their first win against the Hoyas' arch rival.


9) At Villanova 2005. In a game in which the 20th anniversary of Nova's championship win against the Hoyas was to be celebrated, III and the gang spoiled the party by upsetting a good Nova team (albeit a Villanova team still a couple of weeks from taking their play to the next level with their defeat of Kansas). And the best part of it? The score was the same of the championship game in '85. Only this time the Hoyas came out on top.


8) At home against Pitt 2006. The Hoyas beat top ten team Pitt to further prove they were to be taken seriously.


7) At Home against Marquette 2007. During the weekend celebration of the Hoyas 100th Anniversary, Gtown capped it perfectly with a win over a ranked Marquette squad (breaking a 2 digit winning streak by Marquette in the process).

6)Away at Pitt 2005. III's first win (at Gtown) against a ranked team. The Panthers have given the Hoyas fits for the past few years and since this game the Hoyas have had the upper hand.


5) Home against Notre Dame. Roy's last second slam wins the game and gives the Hoyas their first win against the Irish in a while.

4)At home against Pitt 2007. The Hoyas unofficially wins the Big East regular season by beating the Panthers in front of the first sellout crowd at the Verizon Center for a Big East game. The win gave the Hoyas the lead for the Big east season crown and they would not relinquish it down the stretch.


3B) Second Round NCAA Tournament 2006.In Dayton the Hoyas upset second seed Ohio State in front of a hostile partisan crowd. The Hoyas make the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in five seasons.


3A) At home against Duke 2006. Nuff said.


2) Big East Final. The Hoyas, after blowing away Pitt, collects its first Big East Tournament Title in 18 years.


1) East Regional Final 2007. The Hoyas upset top seeded Tar Heels to advance to the Final Four for the first time in 22 years.

[metaphor]

Here is the thing, if we win the next two games, they become more important that the UNC or the Vandy games, while the Duke game and the victory over Pitt for the Big East title hold in importance.

[jwp91]

Let me describe it this way.

I have 2 games on my Tivo:

Duke 1/21/06 is still on my TIVO.
North Carolina 3/25/07.

After this weekend, I may need another TIVO (or learn how to burn onto a DVD from TIVO)

[The Stig]

Having attended all the games listed except for the 2005 games, I still find it hard to put anything in front of the Duke game. That game was really a jolt of energy for the entire program. Before that we were just another team, even to a lot of people on campus. After that, people around the country and on campus really stood up and took notice of the team. We rode the momentum from that game all the way to the Sweet 16.

The UNC game was obviously huge, but I don't think it was a turning point like the Duke game was. Students had been camping out before the Sweet 16, and there had been riots after the Vandy game, so it's not like the energy after the UNC game was unprecedented.

My ranking (sticking to games from my time on campus):

1. Duke
2. UNC
3. OSU (last year) - A great upset, and getting back to the Sweet 16 was huge in so many ways.
4. Vandy - Last-minute Jeff Green Heroics (Version 3.0) sets off the first riots.
5. Pitt (at home this year) - Tough comeback win puts us in the Big East driver's seat.
6. Pitt (BET) - Would be higher had it been a more exciting game. As it was it was a coronation more than a competition.
7. Notre Dame (BET this year) - Another tough comeback, with last-minute Jeff Green Heriocs (Version 2.0)
8. Syracuse (at home last year) - First win over 'Cuse for the entire student body at the time.
9. Notre Dame (away last year) - People forget this one, but it kept the momentum from the Duke game going. Without it the Duke victory might have been an isolated event, not the start of a trend.
10. Northern Iowa - JTIII's first NCAA Tournament victory.

[superan]

The Duke game turned the program around. The A+ recruiting class for next year are coming because of the Duke game. Roy Hibbert and especially Jeff Green gained SOO much respect after that game, it wasn't even funny.

Before the Duke game, NBADraft.net had Jeff Green going early second round. After the Duke game, when they updated the site on February 5, he was in the lottery. Similar change happened to Hibbert. I know this isn't scientific but it does demonstrate the dramatic change in perception for these two players.

John Thompson III legitimized his appointment as head coach of Georgetown. This was the signature win that convinced the media outright that the move to hire JTIII was not because of nepotism, but because of what we thought he could do for the program. He earned so much respect from every media head after the Duke game, especially because his Princeton offense basically picked apart Coach K's schemes. This in turn definitely affected how he recruited players and who we got to come to Georgetown as a result.

And it was just an absolutely amazing game to watch both from a general basketbal fan perspective and obviously from a Hoya fan perspective. We picked apart their defense. JJ Redick was basically unstoppable. They made a pretty valiant comeback at the end. We hit big shots. They hit big shots. Ultimately the team that wanted it more prevailed.

The fans, the players, the coaches, EVERYONE finally felt an aura of confidence around them that has not worn off at all. This game changed Georgetown Basketball.

The only game that can measure up to that level of magicalness (is that a word? whatever, who cares) is the UNC game on Sunday. As a game it was incredible. And the meaning to the program is everlasting. We will always have that trophy in our gym, the net around the trophy, that banner hanging from the rafters that we made it to the final weekend in college basketball in 2007.

Hence my list will be:

1.) UNC game
2.) Duke game
3.) Pitt game for BEC
- I hate to trivialize it but the Big East Championship does not mean as much to the program as beating Duke on Jan. 21, 2006. But even though the game was pretty bad in terms of entertainment, it still means more than any of the below games Georgetown has played in the JTIII era.

4.) OSU 1 in NCAA last year
- This game is pretty much what brought Hoya Paranoia back. Jeebus, beating the 2 seed in the region on their home floor by 18? I remember reading the articles from every media outlet, and basically everyone was just in awe of us. Also, Roy Hibbert broke out even more in this win.

5.) Notre Dame game in BET
- I keep looking back at this game and see that this is when we finally got confidence in our offense when the tempo and style of the game is being forced on us. I really do believe that winning this game gave the team the confidence that they could play with fast, up-tempo, shoot-em up teams. Obviously this really helped us in the NCAA against Vandy and of course against UNC (did we really score 94 points?).


i'll stop at top 5.

[tgo]

how do you define important. hard to say. for purposes of this list I went with which games gave me the most joy to watch and to celebrate when they were over with a consideration thrown in of what their impact was on the team and its ability to win future games and the impact on the program in their aftermath.

1. UNC
2. BET champs over Pitt
3. Vandy
4. Duke- obviously great and important game but I think people are way too obsessed with this game. I wasn’t at the game and I expected us to win and most people didn’t so maybe that is why it seemed less important to me than others. dont get me wrong, it is still #4 which is very important.
5. at Nova –first close game we have won in a while, established the confidence that wins the games against vandy & unc
6. OSU
7. At Pitt (2005)
8. Pitt to win BE
9. BC
10. ND in BET 2006
11. Maquette (100 years)
12. at Nova – 1985 anniversary
13. Marquette in BET 2006

[mm]

The win over Duke was officially Packer and Green's first date;)

[HoyaDestroya]

"Some Have Forgotten. We Will Remind Them." = Duke
"Respect is Back. Fear is Next." = Pitt BE Tourney Win
"We Are Georgetown." = UNC

[SFHoya99]

Just for reference, Austin Freeman committed before the Duke game, just so you know.

Chris Wright has commented on the impact of Duke game on his recruiting, but Freeman was already committed.

[CO_Hoya]

sfhoya99 said:

Just for reference, Austin Freeman committed before the Duke game, just so you know.

Chris Wright has commented on the impact of Duke game on his recruiting, but Freeman was already committed.

Yeah, I couldn't remember the timeline. It's also a bit figurative - that game proved to potential recruits that the Princeton offense doesn't have to be boring.

[The Stig]

hoyadestroya2 said:

"Some Have Forgotten. We Will Remind Them." = Duke
"Respect is Back. Fear is Next." = Pitt BE Tourney Win
"We Are Georgetown." = UNC

That sums it up really nicely.

Maybe on an absolute level the UNC game was bigger than the Duke game, but I don't think that the UNC game happens without the Duke game. I think the program really stepped up to another level on 1/21/06, which is why I still think it's the most important game of the JTIII era.

[hoyatables]

Duke. It put us back on the national map. Everything else over the past two seasons flows from that victory. It gave the team the vindication that yes, they were Georgetown, and that was something of which they should be proud. It re-established Georgetown in the national spotlight. Most importantly, it restored everyone's belief -- from student to alumni, from diehard to fairweather fan -- that Georgetown was back, and that Georgetown mattered.

From a game perspective, there's nothing that qualifies the Duke win. There was no collapse. There was no alleged blown call to set up the game. We simply beat the unequivocal best team in the nation through talent, skill, drive, and determination.

Just my two cents.

[SFHoya99]

thestig said:

Maybe on an absolute level the UNC game was bigger than the Duke game, but I don't think that the UNC game happens without the Duke game. I think the program really stepped up to another level on 1/21/06, which is why I still think it's the most important game of the JTIII era.

Maybe this is just semantics, but I see a lot of this sentiment on the board.

The Duke game wasn't a cause. It was an effect. Hours of hard work. Players checking their egos at the door and buying into the system. Good players working hard to become great. A great game plan and execution.

It's a signpost. A signal flare that Georgetown was getting good again.

But if it hadn't been Duke, it would have been something else. It was great because it was Duke, because it was #1, but the program isn't rising because of the Duke win. The Duke win was just a sign -- and a slightly early one at that -- that Georgetown was back.

Everything from the last two seasons doesn't flow from that game. It flows from our players and our coaches.

------------

That said, I think it is clear Duke has to be #2 for all the reasons said. But #1 also has to be this UNC win.

Final Fours don't come around often. You need to be really good. You need to play really well. You need to get lucky. Taking advantage of your chances is huge.

In another way, I find this win bigger because we were less of an underdog. If we had collapsed after the Duke win it would be known as a fluke.

But nothing will make this UNC win a fluke. We belonged in the game and won it. Georgetown - Duke was a publically unranked team that probablly ended up somewhere around 10-15 beating the #1 team that really was Top 5. It looked like a huge upset... and it was still an upset.

Georgetown-UNC was two Top 5 caliber teams playing it out for a trip to the Final Four. Vegas set the initial line at -2, and that was knowing how many Tar Heel fans there are. This was not a upset.

That makes it bigger to me in many ways.

[section220]

Never ever FELT an atomosphere quite like the Duke game. Last year was my first year as a season ticket holder and the Duke game (win or lose probably) made me fall in love with Georgetown. The place was absolutely electric! That win rose everyone's eyebrows about G-Town, locally and nationally, and MADE them talk about the Hoyas again. BRRRRRR, I still get goosebumps thinking about that game...