1978–79 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team

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Ranking
Coaches	No. 12

The 1978–79 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented Georgetown University during the NCAA Division I 1978-79 college basketball season. John Thompson, Jr., coached them in his seventh season as head coach. They played their home games at McDonough Gymnasium on the Georgetown campus in Washington, D.C., and finished the season with a record of 24-5. Although retaining its status as an independent, Georgetown was in its fifth season as a member of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), a loosely organized sports federation that held three regional post-season Division I basketball tournaments in 1979 for independent Eastern colleges and universities similar to the end-of-season conference tournaments held by conventional college basketball conferences, with each tournament winner receiving an at-large bid to the 1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. The Hoyas won the ECAC South-Upstate Region Tournament – their third ECAC regional tournament championship in five years – upsetting Syracuse in the final game to earn an NCAA Tournament bid, the first of 14 consecutive Georgetown NCAA Tournament appearances. They were the No. 3 seed in the East Region of the 1979 NCAA Tournament and received a first-round bye, but lost in the second round to the region's No. 6 seed, Rutgers. They finished the season unranked in the Associated Press Poll but ranked 12th in the final Coaches' Poll.

This was Georgetown's 38th and final season of play as an independent after the dissolution of the Eastern Intercollegiate Conference at the end of the 1938-39 season, and it also saw Georgetown's final appearance in an ECAC tournament. In the following season, the Hoyas would play as one of the seven founding members of the new Big East Conference, which held its own end-of-season tournament.

Roster

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown
G	30	Ron Blaylock	—	—	Fr
F	41	Jeff Bullis	—	—	Fr
G	44	John Duren	—	—	Jr
G	24	Lonnie Duren	—	—	Jr
G	34	Terry Fenlon	—	—	Jr
G	21	Eric Floyd	—	—	Fr
F/C	40	Mike Hancock	—	—	Fr
G	11	John Irwin	—	—	Jr
F	20	Steve Martin	—	—	Sr
C	55	Tom Scates	—	—	Sr
F	33	Craig Shelton	—	—	Jr
F	32	Eric Smith	—	—	Fr
F/C	50	Ed Spriggs	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)	—	Fr	North Brentwood, MD

Head coach

John Thompson

Assistant coach(es)

Bob Grier

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Roster
Last update: April 17, 2013

Rankings

Source^[1]^[2]

Ranking Movement
**Legend:** ██ Improvement in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking. ██ Not ranked the previous week. RV=Others receiving votes.
Poll	Pre	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Final
AP			20	16	14	15	12	14	10	11	9	18	16	17	16	11
Coaches		– ^{[note 1]}	– ^{[note 1]}	15	14	12	18	16	14	12	10	19	16	16	15	12	– ^{[note 1]}

1978–79 schedule and results

Sources^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

All times are Eastern

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Sat., Nov. 25, 1978 no, no		Bowie State	W 79–54	1-0	McDonough Gymnasium (2,130) Washington, D.C.
Tue., Nov. 28, 1978 no, no		vs. No. 19 Maryland	W 68–65	2-0	Capital Centre (8,100) Landover, MD
Sat., Dec. 2, 1978 no, no		St. Bonaventure	W 71–59	3-0	McDonough Gymnasium (4,000) Washington, D.C.
Wed., Dec. 6, 1978 no, no	No. 20	Indiana	W 60–54	4-0	Capital Centre (7,800) Landover, MD
Sat., Dec. 9, 1978 no, no	No. 20	at St. John's	W 77–71	5-0	Alumni Hall (4,394) Queens, NY
Sat., Dec. 16, 1978 no, no	No. 16	St. Mary's (Md.)	W 96–58	6-0	McDonough Gymnasium (N/A) Washington, D.C.
Wed., Dec. 20, 1978 no, no	No. 14	vs. Fresno State Wolfpack Tournament	W 49–42	7-0	Centennial Coliseum (5,662) Reno, NV
Thu., Dec. 21, 1978 no, no	No. 14	at Nevada Wolfpack Tournament	L 77–87	7-1	Centennial Coliseum (6,077) Reno, NV
Wed.,Dec. 27, 1978 no, no	No. 15	Southern	W 97–58	8-1	McDonough Gymnasium (2,438) Washington, D.C.
Sat., Dec. 30, 1978 no, no	No. 15	District of Columbia	W 86–56	9-1	McDonough Gymnasium (N/A) Washington, D.C.
Tue., Jan. 2, 1979 no, no	No. 15	St. Joseph's	L 36–37	9-2	McDonough Gymnasium (2,470) Washington, D.C.
Sat., Jan. 6, 1979 no, no	No. 12	Samford	W 73–50	10-2	McDonough Gymnasium (1,475) Washington, D.C.
Wed., Jan. 10, 1979 no, no	No. 14	North Carolina Central	W 107–72	11-2	McDonough Gymnasium (1,075) Washington, D.C.
Sat., Jan. 13, 1979 no, no	No. 14	Manhattan	W 78–64	12-2	McDonough Gymnasium (3,120) Washington, D.C.
Thu., Jan. 18, 1979 no, no	No. 10	Fordham	W 75–65	13-2	McDonough Gymnasium (4,000) Washington, D.C.
Sat., Jan. 20, 1979 no, no	No. 10	at Pennsylvania	W 78–76	14-2	The Palestra (9,208) Philadelphia, PA
Tue., Jan. 23, 1979 no, no	No. 11	St. Francis (Pa.)	W 74–62	15-2	McDonough Gymnasium (3,280) Washington, D.C.
Sat., Jan. 27, 1979 no, no	No. 11	at American	W 88–80	16-2	Fort Myer Gymnasium (4,000) Fort Myer, VA
Wed., Jan. 31, 1979 no, no	No. 9	Oral Roberts	L 74–75	16-3	McDonough Gymnasium (3,879) Washington, D.C.
Sat., Feb. 3, 1979 no, no	No. 9	at Detroit	L 71–91	16-4	Memorial Hall (N/A) Detroit, MI
Wed., Feb. 7, 1979 no, no	No. 18	at St. Peter's	W 62–60	17-4	Yanitelli Center (N/A) Jersey City, NJ
Sat., Feb. 10, 1979 no, no	No. 18	Seton Hall	W 87–62	18-4	McDonough Gymnasium (4,500) Washington, D.C.
wed., Feb. 14, 1979 no, no	No. 16	Stonehill	W 69–59	19-4	McDonough Gymnasium (N/A) Washington, D.C.
Sat., Feb. 17, 1979 no, no	No. 16	Boston College	W 84–81	20-4	McDonough Gymnasium (4,500) Washington, D.C.
Wed., Feb. 21, 1979 no, no	No. 16	at George Washington	W 73–71	21-4	Charles E. Smith Athletic Center (5,000) Washington, D.C.
Sat., Feb. 24, 1979 no, no	No. 17	at Holy Cross	W 63–54	22-4	Hart Center (4,000) Worcester, MA
ECAC South-Upstate Region Tournament
Sat., Mar. 3, 1979 no, no	No. 16	vs. Old Dominion ECAC South-Upstate Semifinal	W 73–52	23-4	Richmond Coliseum (6,150) Richmond, VA
Mon., Mar. 5, 1979 no, no	No. 16	vs. No. 6 Syracuse ECAC South-Upstate Final	W 66–58	24-4	Cole Field House (N/A) College Park, MD
NCAA Tournament
Sat., Mar. 10, 1979 no, no	No. 11	vs. No. 18 Rutgers East Region Second Round	L 58–64	24-5	Providence Civic Center (12,150) Providence, RI
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c No Coaches' Poll this week.

References

^ sports-reference.com 1978-79 Independent Season Summary
^ sports-reference.com 1978-79 Polls
^ The Georgetown Basketball History Project: 1970s Seasons
^ The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Records vs. All Opponents
^ 2012-13 Georgetown men's basketball media guide.
^ HoyaBasketball.com
^ jonfmorse.com 1979 ECAC Men's Basketball Tournaments

hoyabasketball.com The Georgetown basketball History Project: Assistant Coaches

[week-3] No Coaches' Poll this week.

[1] sports-reference.com 1978-79 Independent Season Summary

[coaches-2] sports-reference.com 1978-79 Polls

[4] The Georgetown Basketball History Project: 1970s Seasons

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

[6] 2012-13 Georgetown men's basketball media guide.

[7] HoyaBasketball.com

[8] rse.com 1979 ECAC Men's Basketball Tournaments

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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	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