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.
2017–18 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team
In their next game, the Hoyas faced a ranked opponent for the first time in the season when they traveled to meet No. 13 Seton Hall at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on January 13, the first time they had gone without a ranked opponent until mid-January since the 2003-2004 season. Undefeated at home for the season at 10–0, the Pirates were celebrating the 25th anniversary of the 1992–1993 Pirates team that won both the Big East regular season championship and the 1993 Big East Tournament, and that season's head coach, P. J. Carlesimo, and Artūras Karnišovas, general manager of the Denver Nuggets and a member of the 1992–1993 Seton Hall team, were in the audience. The Hoyas staked themselves to a 12–3 lead to start the game, but the Pirates took advantage of Georgetown turnovers to come back with a 29–10 scoring run in the final 11 minutes of the first half and go into the locker room with a 44–31 at halftime. In the second half, the Pirates pulled out to a 16–point advantage before the Hoyas cut Seton Hall's lead to 60–52 with eight minutes to play, but Seton Hall extended its lead to 62–52 with 6:29 left and to 69-54 with 3:28 remaining on the way to a 74–61 win. It was Seton Hall's fifth straight victory over Georgetown, and the Pirates improved their all-time record against the Hoyas to 47–57 – dating back to the first meeting between the schools on December 10, 1909 – and to 21–41 since the two teams joined the original Big East Conference as charter members in 1979. Marcus Derrickson led the Hoyas with 18 points, while Kaleb Johnson scored 14 points and Jahvon Blair and Jesse Govan had 11 each.