Georgetown Hoyas
The University admits that the precise origin of the term "Hoya" is unknown. At some point before 1893, and likely before 1891, students versed in classical languages combined the Greek "hoia" or "hoya", meaning "what" or "such", and the Latin "saxa" to form "Hoya Saxa!", or "What Rocks!" This cheer may either refer to the stalwart defense of the football team, or to the baseball team, which was nicknamed the "Stonewalls", or to the actual stone wall that surrounds the campus. Father William McFadden, S.J., campus Jesuit and the team's in-house announcer at the Capital One Arena, has disputed the Greek and Latin origin, suggesting the classical words were retroactively applied to a nonsensical cheer.
After World War I, the term "Hoya" was increasingly used on campus, including for the newspaper and the school mascot. In 1920, students began publishing the campus's first sports newspaper under the name "The Hoya", after successfully petitioning the Dean of the College to use it instead of the proposed name, "The Hilltopper". "Hilltoppers" was also a name sometimes used for the sports teams. By the fall of 1928, the newspaper had taken to referring to the sports teams as the Hoyas. This was influenced by a popular half time show at football games, where the mascot, a dog nicknamed "Hoya," would entertain fans.
2015–16 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team
Georgetown next stepped away from conference play for one game to meet Connecticut at the Verizon Center. Both teams had been charter members of the original Big East and played each other annually throughout its 34 seasons from 1979 to 2013. When the conference broke up over the summer of 2013, Connecticut had remained in it as it reinvented itself as the American Athletic Conference, marketed as "the American," while Georgetown left to become a charter member of the new Big East. As a result, the two teams had not met since February 2013, but they had agreed to renew the series by meeting each other in a home-and-home series, with the Hoyas visiting the Huskies this season and the Huskies returning the favor the following year. Connecticut shot 13-for-26 from the field in the first half, including 5-for-10 from three-point range, and the Huskies led 40–33 at halftime. Connecticut went cold as the second half began, starting the half shooting 1-for-16 (6.25 percent) from the field and allowing Georgetown to close the gap. By the time the Huskies sank their first field goal of the second half with 12:46 left to play, the Hoyas had cut their lead to 49–46. Georgetown then had an 8–2 scoring run that gave the Hoyas a 54–51 lead with 9:50 remaining. With six minutes left, Georgetown led 60–56, but the Hoyas managed only one more basket for the rest of the game. Connecticut, meanwhile, shot only 19.1 percent from the field during the second half, but made up for it by sinking free throws, going 20-for-25 from the line after halftime as part of a 29-for-36 effort for the game, while the Hoyas went 7-for-8 from the line for the entire game and only 2-for-3 in the second half. The Hoyas still led, 62–60, with 4:32 to play, but the barrage of Husky free throws took their toll. Connecticut redshirt junior shooting guard Rodney Purvis stole the ball from Jesse Govan and sank two free throws with 18 seconds left to help seal a 68–62 Connecticut victory. Connecticut shot 17-for-47 (36.2 percent) from the field overall, but outrebounded the Hoyas 35–34, scored 15 points off 12 Georgetown turnovers, and outscored the Hoyas 24–18 in the paint. The Hoyas made the largest number of three-point attempts that they had all season but went only 9-for-31 (29.0 percent) from beyond the arc. Reggie Cameron led the Hoyas with 13 points, and D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera and L. J. Peak scored 12 each.