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.
2009–10 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team
Georgetown next went on the road as the underdog to face No. 4 Villanova, which had won six straight games. The Hoyas led 15–14 in the first half when the Wildcats went on a 14–0 run to take a 28–15 lead, and at halftime Villanova led 46–31. In the second half, Austin Freeman scored 10 points in the first 3:38 of play as the Hoyas began to eat into Villanova's lead. An offensive lull in the middle of the second half in which the two teams combined to miss 20 straight shots over a 6-minute-12-second stretch ended with a Greg Monroe field goal that tied the game at 67–67 with 4:36 left in the game. After Villanova pulled ahead 69–67 with 4:15 remaining, Monroe again tied the game, at 69–69, with 4:01 left. Shooting only 39.3 percent from the field for the game, the Hoyas made only one more field goal the rest of the way, and a field goal by Villanova senior guard Scottie Reynolds – who led the Wildcats with a game-high 27 points – put the Wildcats ahead for good at 71–69. Georgetown's final score, another Monroe field goal, closed the gap to 80–77 with 9.6 seconds left, but two Villanova free throws with 6.9 seconds remaining – part of an 8-for-8 Villanova performance from the free throw line in the final 36 seconds – clinched an 82–77 win for the Wildcats, breaking a five-game losing streak against Georgetown. In a losing cause, Greg Monroe had a double-double (29 points and 16 rebounds), while Austin Freeman had 22 points and Jason Clark scored 16.