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.
2012–13 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team
Playing its first game since December 22, Georgetown opened its Big East season on January 5, 2013, with an upset loss at Marquette that snapped the Hoyas′ winning streak at seven games. They dropped to No. 19 in the AP Poll, then suffered another upset loss at the hands of Pittsburgh three days later. The Hoyas′ early-season shooting woes continued. Marquette held Georgetown – which missed 10 of its first 12 shots – to 48 points, 16 points below the Hoyas' season average, and won by one point; Markel Starks led the Hoyas with 18 points against the Golden Eagles, while Otto Porter and Greg Whittington each finished with 13 points and Whittington pulled down eight rebounds. The 73-45 loss to Pittsburgh was Georgetown's largest margin of defeat since a 104-71 loss to Maryland at the Capital Centre – not yet the Hoyas′ home court at the time – on December 10, 1974, and the largest home loss since a 107-67 defeat by St. John's at McDonough Gymnasium on December 7, 1971. Georgetown shot 35 percent in field-goal attempts and no Hoyas scored in double figures, while the Panthers shot 55 percent from the field and completed a three-game streak in which they beat the Hoyas at the Verizon Center by 16, 15, and 28 points. It was the most lopsided Big East road win in Pittsburgh's history, and the Hoyas emerged from the game shooting only 38.7 percent from the field for the season while allowing opponents to average 55.7 points per game. Georgetown opened 0-2 in the conference play for the first time since the 2001-02 season, but the two defeats also were their only back-to-back losses of the regular season.