1940–41 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team
The 1940–41 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented Georgetown University during the 1940-41 NCAA Division I college basketball season. Elmer Ripley coached it in his fifth of ten seasons as head coach; it was also the third season of his second of three stints at the helm. For the first time, the team played its home games at Riverside Stadium in Washington, D.C. It finished the season with a record of 16-4 and had no postseason play.
1987–88 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team
The Big East had developed a reputation for strong rivalries, physical play, and, increasingly, fighting. On January 6, 1988, Pittsburgh and Georgetown met at the Capital Centre and the 14th-ranked Hoyas upset the No. 2 Panthers. During the game, a fight broke out between Tillmon and Pittsburghs Nate Bailey, a benches-clearing brawl followed, and the teams came away from the incident bearing grudges against each other. On February 20, 1988, the Hoyas again met Pittsburgh, this time at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With four seconds remaining in the game and the Panthers leading 70-65, Perry McDonald and Pittsburghs Jerome Lane became entangled with one another while fighting for a rebound under the basket, and McDonald's elbow struck Lane. Lane responded with a roundhouse right, and McDonald – a two-time Gold Glove boxing champion in Louisiana – retaliated. Fights immediately also broke out between Hoya sophomore center Sam Jefferson and Pittsburgh senior forward Demetreus Gore and between Georgetown junior forward Johnathan Edwards and Panthers senior forward Charles Smith (not to be confused with Georgetowns Charles Smith), and another benches-clearing brawl ensued. Angry Pittsburgh fans came onto the floor, Thompson pulled the Hoyas off the court, and the game did not continue. Postgame, Thompson had to separate the teams when the fight almost resumed in the hallway between the opposing locker rooms. The ugly incident, coming on the heels of the fight at the Capital Centre the previous month, prompted Big East Commissioner Dave Gavitt to convene a committee to recommend measures to reduce fighting and other unsportsmanlike behavior in the conference. Sportswriters and opposing fans accused Georgetown players of being thugs, and Thompson took to the media to defend the team, saying that the fights were not entirely Georgetowns fault.