1949–50 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team

The 1949–50 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented Georgetown University during the 1949-50 NCAA Division I college basketball season. Francis "Buddy" O'Grady coached it in his first of three seasons as head coach. The team was an independent and played its home games at the D.C. Armory in Washington, D.C. It finished with a record of 12-12 and had no post-season play.

Season recap

New head coach O'Grady had been a three-year standout guard on the Hoya teams of 1939-1942. After military service in World War II, he had played professional basketball for three seasons with the Washington Capitols and the Rochester Royals before retiring to coach at Georgetown.^[1]

Although coaches of the freshman team had assisted the varsity team's head coach from time to time, Georgetown had never had a formal assistant coach on the varsity team until this season, when former Georgetown player Jim "Miggs" Reilly became the Hoyas' first formal assistant coach.^[2]

Guard Tommy O'Keefe played an unprecedented fourth season on the varsity team this year. Freshmen were ineligible for varsity play under National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules at the time, but this had been lifted for four seasons during and just after World War II. The NCAA restored freshman ineligibility in 1947, but when the Georgetown athletic department petitioned the NCAA to recognize O'Keefe's 1946-47 sophomore season at Georgetown as the equivalent of a freshman season prior to the NCAA restoration of freshman ineligibility, the NCAA agreed, allowing O'Keefe to play for Georgetown for a fourth season in 1949-50. He led the 1949-50 team, scoring in double figures in 21 of its 24 games. Early in the year, he shot 10-for-15 from the field in Georgetown's upset of Penn State, and he had a career-high 23 points in an upset of Rutgers. He finished as the team's leading scorer for the third straight year – the first Georgetown player to lead for three straight seasons in 15 years – and was selected to play on the East team alongside Holy Cross standout Bob Cousy in the East-West All-Star Game.^[3]

The young, undersized 1949-50 team^[3] started with a 10-5 record in its first 15 games, but then struggled, losing seven of its last nine games to finish the year at 12-12. It had no postseason play and was not ranked in the Top 20 in the Associated Press Poll at any time.^[4]

O'Keefe ended his Georgetown career with 1,018 points, the first Georgetown player in history to score more than 1,000 points. He would go on to play professional basketball for one season with the Washington Capitols and Baltimore Bullets in 1950-51 and to serve as Georgetown's assistant coach for four seasons from 1956 to 1960 and as head coach for six seasons from 1960 to 1966.^[3]

Roster

Sources^[3]^[5]^[6]

#	Name	Height	Weight (lbs.)	Position	Class	Hometown	Previous Team(s)
15	Mike Vitale	N/A	N/A	G	So.	East Orange, NJ, U.S.	Seton Hall Preparatory School
16	Tony Durmowicz	6'5"	N/A	F	So.	Baltimore, MD, U.S.	Loyola HS
17	Don O'Leary	6'2"	N/A	G	Jr.	New York, NY, U.S.	La Salle HS
25	Jay Kirby	6'3"	N/A	F	So.	Ridgewood, NJ, U.S.	N/A
26	Clint Conlin	5'11"	N/A	G	Sr.	Washington, DC, U.S.	N/A
27	Tommy O'Keefe	6'0"	180	G	5th year	Jersey City, NJ, U.S.	University of Notre Dame
28	John Mazziotta	6'5"	N/A	F	Jr.	New York, NY, U.S.	N/A
29	Steve Rogers	N/A	N/A	G	Sr.	N/A	N/A
30	Johnny Brown	6'3"	N/A	C	Sr.	Staten Island, NY, U.S.	Tottenville HS
31	Dick Falvey	6'0"	N/A	G	Sr.	New York, NY, U.S.	La Salle Academy
32	Danny Supkis	6'7"	N/A	F	Jr.	New York, NY, U.S.	St. Alban's HS
33	John Norris	6'5"	N/A	C	So.	Bangor, ME, U.S.	Bangor HS
34	Italo Ablondi	6'0"	N/A	G	Sr.	New York, NY, U.S.	Stuyvesant HS
35	Frank Alagia	6'1"	N/A	F	Sr.	New York, NY, U.S.	Andrew Jackson HS

1949–50 schedule and results

Sources^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]

It was common practice at this time for colleges and universities to include non-collegiate opponents in their schedules, with the games recognized as part of their official record for the season, and the December 9, 1949, game against the New York Athletic Club therefore counted as part of Georgetown's won-loss record for 1949-50. It was not until 1952 after the completion of the 1951-52 season that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) ruled that colleges and universities could no longer count games played against non-collegiate opponents in their annual won-loss records.^[11]

Date time, TV	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site city, state
Regular Season
Mon., Dec. 5, 1949 no, no	at Catholic	W 73–46	1-0	Brookland Gymnasium Washington, DC
Wed., Dec. 7, 1949 no, no	at American	W 68–63	2-0	Uline Arena Washington, DC
Fri., Dec. 9, 1949 no, no	at New York Athletic Club	W 78–70	3-0	New York Athletic Club Gymnasium New York, NY
Wed., Dec. 14, 1949 no, no	Penn State	W 70–63	4-0	D.C. Armory Washington, DC
Sat., Dec. 17, 1949 no, no	Harvard	W 58–53	5-0	D.C. Armory Washington, DC
Sat., Dec. 31, 1949 no, no	at La Salle	L 58–90	5-1	Philadelphia Convention Hall Philadelphia, PA
Sat., Jan. 7, 1950 no, no	Maryland	L 65–71	5-2	D.C. Armory Washington, DC
Fri., Jan. 13, 1950 no, no	at St. John's	L 66–67	5-3	69th Regiment Armory New York, NY
Sat., Jan. 14, 1950 no, no	at No. 1 Holy Cross	L 51–77	5-4	Worcester Memorial Auditorium Worcester, MA
Tue., Jan. 17, 1950 no, no	at Siena	W 47–42	6-4	Washington Avenue Armory Albany, NY
Sun., Jan. 22, 1950 no, no	at Canisius	L 41–58	6-5	Buffalo Memorial Auditorium Buffalo, NY
Sat., Jan. 28, 1950 no, no	George Washington	W 68–66	7-5	D.C. Armory Washington, DC
Wed., Feb. 1, 1950 no, no	vs. Lafayette	W 59–50	8-5	Clendenen Gymnasium Washington, DC
Sat., Feb. 4, 1950 no, no	at New York University	W 71–60	9-5	D.C. Armory Washington, DC
Wed., Feb. 8, 1950 no, no	at Rutgers	W 75–73	10-5	College Avenue Gymnasium New Brunswick, NJ
Thu., Feb. 9, 1950 no, no	at Fordham	L 63–64	10-6	Rose Hill Gymnasium Bronx, NY
Sat., Feb. 11, 1950 no, no	Villanova	L 45–73	10-7	D.C. Armory Washington, DC
Wed., Feb. 15, 1950 no, no	at George Washington	L 66–68	10-8	Uline Arena Washington, DC
Sat., Feb. 18, 1950 no, no	at Gettysburg	W 71–65	11-8	N/A Gettysburg, PA
Wed., Feb. 22, 1950 no, no	at Pennsylvania	W 78–73	12-8	Palestra Philadelphia, PA
Tue., Feb. 28, 1950 no, no	at Seton Hall	L 65–77	12-9	Walsh Gymnasium South Orange, NJ
Sat., Mar. 4, 1950 no, no	at Penn State	L 56–65	12-10	Recreation Hall State College, PA
Mon., Mar. 6, 1950 no, no	at Villanova	L 72–82	12-11	Villanova Field House Villanova, PA
Tue., Mar. 7, 1950 no, no	at Princeton	L 49–63	12-12	Dillon Gymnasium Princeton, NJ
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

References

[1] The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Francis "Buddy" O'Grady

[2] The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Assistant Coaches

[okeefe-3] The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Tom O'Keefe

[4] sports-reference.com 1949-50 Independent Season Summary

[5] The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Rosters 1940-41 to 1949-1950

[6] The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Player Directory: Jersey Numbers

[7] The Georgetown Basketball History Project: 1940s Seasons

[8] The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Records vs. All Opponents

[9] sports-reference.com 1949-50 Georgetown Hoyas Schedule and Results

[10] 2012-2013 Georgetown Men's Basketball Media Guide, p. 60.

[11] The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Non-Collegiate Opponents

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v t e Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball
Venues	Washington Light Infantry Armory (1906–1907) Convention Hall (1907–1908) Odd Fellows Hall (1908–1911) Arcade Rink (1911–1914, 1927–1928) Ryan Gymnasium (1914–1927) Clendenen Gymnasium (1928–1929) Tech Gymnasium (1929–1940, 1942–1943) Riverside Stadium (1940–1942) Brookland Gymnasium (1945–1946) Uline Arena (1946–1947, 1949–1951) D.C. Armory (1947–1949) McDonough Gymnasium (1951–present) Capital Centre (1981–1997) Capital One Arena (1997–present)
Rivalries	St. John's UConn
Culture & lore	History Hoya Saxa Jack the Bulldog There Goes Old Georgetown 1989 Princeton game Above the Rim
People	Head coaches NBA draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics