HOYA JINXA: What Did Georgetown Do to Deserve This?

The Georgetown Hoyas are fighting an uphill battle these days with only 7 scholarship athletes playing meaningful minutes, and after tough home losses to Marquette and Butler, many Hoya-fans are asking, “What the $*%@ did Georgetown do to deserve this?”

In particular, on the latest Kente Korner podcast, the trio offered some deep thoughts as the suprisingly passionate Hoyas fanbase suffered the Butler loss with the team. For instance, while the coaching switch to Patrick Ewing has brought a different style and faster pace game than the John Thompson III years, many fans are seeing an end-result that implies some unfortunate consistency between the two administrations.

Whether that inference is correct or not, it’s clear we’re in the darkest timeline of Georgetown Basketball. But “why are we being punished?”

The question of an act or event that triggered a jinx was discussed by Bobby Bancroft and Casual Hoya (starting around 40 mins) and the Jeff Green game-winning-basket against Vanderbilt was nominated by Bobby. Ben Standig pointed to the failed kente paint on the original contest-winning kente-laned court design.

As the winning designer of the court, I will tell you that my family certainly blames me for the fated mediocrity of the Hoyas these past few years—even my late father joked about it up until his passing last month. If I need to disappear, fine. I’ve been thrown out of nicer places than this.

Still, a few others have suggested alternative causes of the ripples of doom, including one that Tyler Adams had a funny reaction to:

Tyler Adams is certainly not to blame. However, maybe the Hoyas should have reciprocated the gesture and allowed Seton Hall to tie it up. Well, too late, now.

Other incidents coming to fans’ minds are, in no particular order:

• Jeff Green allegedly travelling to win the Sweet 16 game against Vanderbilt
• re-adopting “teal” uniforms reminiscent of the 1982 runner-up season
• pulling out of the PK80 and allowing DePaul to take their place
• watered-down scheduling from Ewing and/or Thompson, Jr. (thanks St. Leo’s!)
• Patrick Ewing’s “do you want to play for me” and “you work on that shot?” to Derrickson
• Patrick Ewing saying “nuts” on live TV
• 2015 loss to Radford in 2OT
• 2013 mysterious departure of mascot-in-training Jack Jr.
• never finishing the 2012 air-craft carrier game against Florida
• 2012 win over Tennessee with the ultra-low score of 37-36
• participating in the Great Brawl of China (Moses with a chair).
• Casual beefing (and patching things up) with Dan Dakich
• JT3 and Chris Mullin yelling at each other in 2017, a losing season for everyone.
• Craig Esherick’s rant after the West Virginia game where he offered to “pay a ref to sit in the post and take the beating that [Mike Sweetney] takes.”
• the SI photo session of Thompson, Ewing, and President Reagan
• President Obama leaving the 2018 Georgetown-Duke game early
• not hiring Jaren Jackson as coach after Esherick was let go (was that a thing?)
• Steph Curry‘s coming out party against GU in the 2008 tournament
• FGCU erecting Dunk City over our still beating hearts.
• the Allen Iverson bobble-head not being based on his practice rant
• hiring Syracuse alum and former SHU coach, Louis Orr
• accepting a co-donation from Ewing and Syracuse alum/super-agent David Falk
• Launch of this blog and the eventual failure to document lunches at all in 2020...

In the end, I think we all know being a Hoyas fan has always been this way... pain. Still, making amends might be a noble pursuit... if we can identify the trigger.

It’s probably best to let Seton Hall score the first bucket just in case that’s the key to restoring balance to the universe.

What Georgetown hoops moments do you believe triggered the darkest timeline?