Georgetown Basketball: Big East rivalry with UConn to be renewed

With UConn returning to the Big East, Georgetown Basketball with have their rival back. Here’s a look at some of their past memorable battles together.

UConn has moved a stepped closer to returning to the Big East. It’s reported that the Big East members (including Georgetown Basketball) have voted to extend an invite to their former brethren. UConn is expected to accept the invitation later this week.

The Hoyas will welcome the Huskies and continue a rivalry that has had it share of stars. Both have had coaches that could occasionally be surly.

They have also had it share of memorable games.

January 20th 1990 – UConn 70 (2) Georgetown 65

UConn’s 1990 team would be led by three players who would eventually play in the NBA. Chris Smith, Tate George, and Scott Burrell would all eventually make it to the next level. UConn also had a top notched International player in Nadav Henefeld.

The week of January 14th would be a big one for the unranked Huskies. They would start of four-game homestand with sixth ranked Syracuse and second ranked Georgetown. They would take care of the Orange on Big Monday with a 70-59 win. Next up would be Georgetown. The undefeated Hoyas were led by their version of the Twin Towers, Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo.

UConn got off to a quick 12-0 start. The Hoyas would have a chance to tie the game with less than a minute left but Mark Tillman would miss a three pointer. The Huskies would walk away with a 70-65 victory.

The Huskies would beat Georgetown and Syracuse en route to their first Big East Tournament championship. UConn head coach, Jim Calhoun, would later say the two wins over Georgetown would “kind of put us on the map.” UConn would eventually lose in overtime to Duke in the Regional Finals.

The Hoyas would go in the opposite direction. Georgetown would be 3-3 in their last six games. They would lose to UConn in the Big East Tournament semifinals and were ousted by Xavier in the NCAA tournament.

February 19th 1992 – (25) Georgetown 60 (21) UConn 58

Coming into their home game with UConn, the Hoyas were just 3-3 in conference play at the Capital Centre. As usual, the Big East had been a gauntlet for its members. Georgetown had been up and down all season heading into their second meeting with the Huskies. In the first game at Gampel, the Hoyas would walk away with a 70-63 win. That would be UConn’s fourth loss in a row as the once top 10 team started sliding down the polls.

If there was one advantage the Huskies had coming into the game, is that they had a week to prepare. After losing to the Hoyas the first time, UConn had its bye and wouldn’t play again until their next meeting with Georgetown. The Hoyas would beat Miami (Fl) in between their two meetings.

In a game that was close throughout, it was a freshmen who turned up big for the Hoyas. Irvin Church would score 20 points that night as UConn did a really good job on Mourning.

With the game tied at 58 and neither team able to score, the Hoyas would force a UConn turnover. Georgetown point guard, Joey Brown, raced towards the basket with five seconds left scoring a layup with less than a second left. Not only did it leave the crowd in a frenzy, longtime Georgetown radio announcer, Rich Chvotkin, screamed “Hoyas win, Hoyas win” more times than one could count.

Neither team would make a significant run in March. After spending several weeks in the top 10, UConn would drop completely out of the top 25 by March. They would lose in the second round to Ohio State.

Georgetown would make it to the Big East Finals but wouldn’t be able to complete the job. The Hoyas would fall to hated rival, Syracuse, 56-54 before being ousted in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

March 9th 1996 – Big East Finals (3) UConn 75 (6) Georgetown 74

This is possibly…no… this is the best game in the series between these two teams.

Georgetown had the likes of Allen Iverson, Victor Page, Othella Harrington, and Jerome Williams. UConn was just as good. The Huskies were stacked with Ray Allen, Doron Sheffer, Travis Knight, and Ricky Moore.

With both Iverson and Allen having rough shooting nights, UConn’s Kirk King would be the unlikely difference maker. King would score 20 points and grab nine rebounds.

With the Hoyas up 10 with a little under four minutes left, King would four straight points. Later in the half, down three, it was King’s put back dunk that cut the Hoyas lead to one.

Up one, Georgetown’s Victor Page would miss the front end of a one and one with 45.3 seconds left. UConn would call timeout to set up the eventual game winner by Ray Allen.

Georgetown would have a chance to win it at the buzzer but Iverson’s jumper would be off and Williams couldn’t finish the stick back. Despite the loss, Victor Page was name tournament MVP.