Remember when people seemed to want to bury Georgetown because of its 1-4 start in Big East play, ignoring for a moment an impressive schedule strength and solid victories over Old Dominion, Missouri, Utah State and Memphis?
Yeah, that was only a month ago. Since then, the Hoyas have rattled off eight straight victories, including Sunday's 69-60 defeat of Marquette at Verizon Center.
The truth: Georgetown is the same veteran-laden, backcourt-dependent team it always was. Yes, the Hoyas (20-5, 9-4 Big East) are playing better defense. But it's not as if Georgetown allowed a ton of points in those four losses (69-61-65-72). Nor did the Hoyas get completely shredded from a field goal percentage defense perspective (38.5-41.7-40.4-44.9).
The 72 points and 44.9 percent shooting were the handiwork of Pittsburgh, which is in control of the conference. There's no shame there.
But here comes the kicker. In all of its three-plus decades in the Big East --- covering a pair of John Thompsons as coaches as a fair number of stars --- Georgetown owns just four eight-game winning streaks in the conference.
Perhaps "just" isn't the correct modifier. Nonetheless, eight-game winning streaks in the Big East don't happen all the time for the Hoyas.
But when they do? There's a pretty good history there.
| Year | Streak |
Final | Big East Tourney |
NCAA |
| 2007 | 11 | 30-7 (13-3) |
Won | Final Four |
| 1984 | 9 | 35-3 (14-2) |
Won | Won |
| 1989 | 8 | 29-5 (13-3) |
Won | Elite Eight |
| 2011 | 8 | --- | --- | --- |
The Hoyas also happened to be the top seed the Big East tournament in 1984, 1989 and 2007 as well, though it would take a series of stumbles by Pittsburgh to allow that to happen this winter.
Nonetheless, Georgetown's history is excellent when it can craft a long winning streak in Big East play. Consider that --- along with the streak itself --- that this year could end in a much different way than the previous one did for the Hoyas.
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