1980 Georgetown Basketball: The Big East Era Begins
1980 Georgetown basketball was coming. John Thompson, after inheriting a disaster situation in 1973, had reached multiple NCAA Tournaments in an era when the size of the bracket ranged from just 25 to 40 teams. The Hoyas were consistently posting winning seasons. In 1980, the first year of the new Big East Conference, Georgetown took the next step and made a notable run in March, coming within a basket of the Final Four.
A CORE TRIO
Eric “Sleepy” Floyd, a sophomore shooting guard with a good NBA career ahead of him averaged 19ppg. Craig Shelton, a forward who would one day coach this program, was a solid all-around player who averaged 17 points/7 rebounds a night. John Duren ably ran the floor show, with seven assists per game along with double-digit scoring.
Georgetown was not deep, but this core trio, combined with the program’s recent trajectory, was enough to have some optimism moving through Washington D.C. The Hoyas opened the season ranked #19 in the country.
THE GRUELING DECEMBER
Maryland presented a quick test in early December. Lefty Driesell’s Terrapins were on their way to the ACC title. Playing in their 2,200-seat McDonough Gym, Georgetown got an 83-71 win. A trip to top-ranked Indiana to face freshman point guard Isiah Thomas ended with a 76-69 loss, but the Hoyas had quickly shown they could compete with the nation’s best teams.
The game at Indiana started a strange stretch of games on three consecutive days. The “sandwich game” proved difficult to handle, as Georgetown flew to Oral Roberts and lost by eleven points. Then they had to immediately get on a plane and come home to face Providence the next night.
On the surface, a Georgetown-Providence game in mid-December doesn’t seem notable. But this one, on December 13, marked the first Big East game for both schools. The Friars were a bad team and the Hoyas, ending this brutal travel stretch, didn’t play well, grinding out an ugly 55-50 win. But in the big picture they had made a little history and in the short term, got themselves back in the win column.
There was no rest for the travel-weary, and after just one day off, Thompson put his team on a plane to Albuquerque for a Saturday-Sunday holiday tournament.
That weekend would be one of the most infamous in the long history of Washington D.C. sports. The beloved NFL Redskins blew a lead in their season finale at Dallas that cost them a playoff spot. It’s too much to say the Hoyas made up for that, but they did their part to provide some consolation—Georgetown beat Loyola Marymount and Houston in succession.
After getting a few days of needed rest, the Hoyas blew out a good Northeastern team coached by Jim Calhoun. That set up two days in New York City right after Christmas against competitive squads from Boston College and Lafayette. The Hoyas dropped a 75-74 heartbreaker to BC, a game officially considered non-conference, then recovered to knock off Lafayette.
The 6-3 record wasn’t notable. Even with the NCAA expanding the tournament again this year to 48 teams, the Hoyas were in no position to be comfortable. But that record was coming against good opposition amidst harsh travel logistics.
That’s what made the first game of the calendar year such a disappointment. Georgetown had six days to rest and recuperate to play a pedestrian Drake team at home. The Hoyas lost by a basket. They fell out of the national rankings.
FINDING THEIR STRIDE
Now they had to play with a little bit of urgency. Jim Valvano brought NCAA-bound Iona into D.C. The Gaels had a terrific center in Jeff Ruland. Georgetown met the challenge and delivered a 95-84 win.
St. Joe’s and St. Peter’s, fellow Eastern Catholic schools, were both headed for 20-plus wins. The Hoyas knocked off both.
Lou Carnesecca brought St. John’s in for a Saturday showdown on January 19. The Redmen were ranked 10th in the country. The Hoyas dropped a 71-69 heartbreaker, but they showed their resilience. A blowout win over mediocre American, coached by Gary Williams, got them back on track. And then Georgetown went to Boston College and won a sizzling 97-92 game.
They followed that up by thumping 20-win UConn and then beating Seton Hall and Wagner. The latter two were mediocre teams in 1980 but coached by notable names in Bill Raftery and P.J. Carlesimo, respectively.
Georgetown still hadn’t gotten back into the national polls, but they were on a roll and headed to Syracuse for a mid-February showdown with the #2 team in the nation.
A RIVALRY IS BORN
The Hoyas and Orangemen would soon have one of the new Big East’s signature rivalries, with Thompson and Syracuse counterpart Jim Boeheim becoming legends. In 1980, that rivalry, like the conference, was still in embryonic form. The member schools were only able to play six league games this season, due to prior scheduling commitments. But this was still a big game, as Georgetown looked to secure its NCAA Tournament position, and the race for the regular season conference championship—truncated though it might be—was still at stake.
Playing in Manley Field House, in the era before the Carrier Dome, Georgetown pulled out a 52-50 win. It pulled them into a three-way tie with Syracuse and St. John’s, as the three schools shared the first Big East title with 5-1 records.
The Hoyas kept it rolling through the end of the regular season, beating winning teams from the University of Detroit (today’s Detroit Mercy) and crosstown rival George Washington. In the season finale, Georgetown unleashed their offense on NCAA Tournament-bound Holy Cross, rolling to a 105-78 win.
Thompson’s team was back in the polls at #20 and headed for the inaugural Big East Tournament.
THE FIRST BIG EAST TOURNAMENT
The days of the Big East playing its tournament in Madison Square Garden were still a few years off, and this first event was in Providence. Georgetown, ranked the lowest of the three tri-champs, was the #3 seed.
They played tough defense in dispatching Seton Hall 60-47. That got them a rematch with St. John’s in the semis. The Hoyas delivered a 76-66 win. And the following day, with the Orangemen still ranked #3 nationally, Georgetown beat them for the second time in three weeks, 87-81.
The Big East Tournament would soon become one of the iconic events on the college basketball calendar. Georgetown was its first champion. They were up to #11 in the polls and got a 3-seed in the NCAA Tournament.
THE BRACKET PATH
The Hoyas were placed in the East Regional. This was an era where the Selection Committee deferred more to geographic proximity than national bracket balance and it showed in how many familiar faces surrounded Georgetown in their regional.
With a bye into the Round of 32, the Hoyas already knew they would get a rematch with either Iona or Holy Cross. Maryland was the 2-seed and potentially awaiting in the Sweet 16. And if you mapped it further out? In spite of their late losses to the Hoyas, Syracuse was still the East’s #1 seed.
SURVIVING IONA
Georgetown was back in Providence for the opening weekend. Iona knocked off Holy Cross, and it was time for a second meeting with Valvano and Ruland. And it would be a battle.
Both teams shot the ball well, but the Gaels were a bit better, 58 percent to 52 percent from the floor. Iona was better on the boards, winning rebounding 29-20. Duren struggled, shooting just 1-for-7 and the Hoyas were down three at the half.
But Georgetown was forcing turnovers, 21 in all. They were containing Ruland, holding the big man to 16 points/7 rebounds. They got 21 points from Floyd. And above all, the Hoyas got a 27/6 line from Shelton. They won 84-78 and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time under Thompson.
BELTWAY SHOWDOWN
The old Philadelphia Spectrum was the site of the East Regional and the showdown with Maryland. A Sweet 16 game is big enough in its own right. One against a local rival is even bigger. But this Hoyas-Terps game took place with the added context of knowing that 5-seed Iowa had just upset Syracuse in the night’s first game. The Georgetown-Maryland winner would be favored to reach the Final Four.
This was a Maryland team loaded at the forward spot, with Albert King and Buck Williams. A deep and balanced lineup was augmented by good scorers in Ernest Graham and Greg Manning. Based on a simple glance at the lineup, the Terps were better than the Hoyas.
Despite again being outshot from the floor and outrebounded, the Hoyas forced turnovers and turned this into a messy game where both teams combined had sixty miscues. A work of art it was not.
The bench came through. Led by Eric Smith’s 13 points, Georgetown’s reserves outscored Maryland’s 24-6 and outrebounded them 11-1. In spite of a lineup that looked inferior on paper, the Hoya lineup was superior to the Terps where it counted—on the basketball court and for the second time this season. A 74-68 win sent them on to the Elite Eight.
JUST SHORT OF THE FINAL FOUR
Iowa was coached by Lute Olson and relied on a balanced lineup. Georgetown took a ten-point lead at the half, and both teams were shooting the ball well.
But without forcing turnovers, the Hoyas let the lead slip. It was tied 78-78 late in the game. With five seconds left, a Hawkeye basket, accompanied by a foul and free throw effectively ended it. There was no three-point shot in this era, and Georgetown could only score one last basket that made the final 81-80.
THE NEXT STEP
A one-point loss to a lower-seeded team with the Final Four at stake is always going to sting, but that sting shouldn’t overlook how much Georgetown accomplished in 1980. They won the first Big East Tournament. They made their best NCAA Tournament run under Thompson yet. And though no one could know it, a guy named Patrick Ewing and national relevance wasn’t far around the corner.