2002–03 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team

With forward Harvey Thomas having transferred to Daytona Beach Community College over the offseason after his freshman year, the Hoyas began the season with only senior center Wesley Wilson and junior power forward Mike Sweetney returning from the previous season's frontcourt. Wilson opted to leave the team at midseason – although he remained in school and graduated on time in May 2003 – and as a result Sweetney, a team co-captain, carried the scoring load for the team during the year, responsible for a third of its offense. Starting all 34 games, he scored in double figures in all of them and had double-figure rebound performances 16 times, and he led the team in scoring 25 times and in rebounding in 29 games. His best performances were 38 points and 15 rebounds against Notre Dame, 32 points and 13 rebounds at Syracuse, 28 points and eight rebounds against Pittsburgh, and 31 points and 19 rebounds in a game at the MCI Center against Syracuse. He led the team in scoring in 13 of its final 15 games and in every one of its last seven games. For the season, he shot 54.7 percent from the field and 73.8 percent from the free-throw line. His average of 25.1 points per game was the second-highest in school history, behind only Allen Iverson, and his 776 points were the third highest in a single season in Georgetown history.[2]

Junior forward Gerald Riley started all 34 games, as he would all 125 games of his collegiate career. Opposing defenses focused on stopping Sweetney, giving Riley more scoring opportunities than he had had during his first two seasons. He took advantage of those opportunities, scoring in double figures 26 times, shooting 42.2 percent overall from the field, 42.7 percent in two-pointers, and 41.5 percent from three-point range. In free throws, he shot 84.3 percent, including a perfect 43-for-43 from the line in 14 games combined, and he missed only a combined seven free throws in 16 Big East games.[3]

Freshman forward Brandon Bowman joined the team this season and started all 34 games, averaging 24 minutes, 7.6 points, and 4.5 rebounds per game. He shot 95-for-248 (38.3%) from the field, but only 10-for-55 (18.2%) from three-point range and only 3-for-19 (15.8%) in three-pointers during Big East games. His scoring improved as the season wore on, however, and he finished fourth in scoring on the team.[4]

Freshman guard Ashanti Cook, a high-school teammate of Bowman's, was another newcomer to the team. He was averaging 8.2 points per game and showing great promise when he suffered an ankle injury in the game against top-ranked Duke on January 8, 2003. The injury cost him a month of play, and when he returned to action it hobbled him for another month, and he scored a total of only 20 points over the final nine weeks of the regular season.[5] Also debuting with the varsity team was sophomore forward Darrel Owens, who had sat out his freshman year in 2001-02. He saw limited time during the season, although he played in 32 of the 34 games and started one of them. His 11-point, four-rebound game at Duke was his best effort.[6]

The team opened the season 7-0, but went 7-13 the rest of the way to finish the regular season with a 14-13 overall record, 6-10 in the Big East, and a fifth-place finish in the conference's West Division. In the 2003 Big East Tournament, the Hoyas defeated Villanova in the first round. In the quarterfinals, they lost to Syracuse despite an 18-point game by Bowman.[4]

The team's Big East Tournament result left it with a 15-14 overall record, and it missed the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in six years. Instead, it received an invitation to the 2003 National Invitation Tournament (NIT), its fifth NIT invitation and fourth NIT appearance in the previous six years.[note 1] Cook finally began to return to form, scoring a season-high 16 points at Tennessee in the first round of the NIT,[5] and Bowman shot 10-for-18 (55.6%) from the field in two NIT games.[4] The Hoyas defeated Tennessee, then won at Providence and at North Carolina to advance to the semifinals at Madison Square Garden in New York City, their deepest run in a postseason tournament since they advanced to the East Region final in the 1996 NCAA Tournament. In the semifinals they defeated Minnesota – the team that had beaten them in the final game of the 1993 NIT – and advanced to the second NIT final in school history and first since 1993. As in 1993, they lost the final, succumbing to Big East rival St. John's, although the NCAA later vacated the 2003 NIT title when it was discovered that St. John's had used an ineligible player.

At the end of the season, Georgetown extended head coach Craig Esherick′s contract through 2009.[7] However, he was destined to last only one more season with the team.[7]

In June 2003, Mike Sweetney opted to forgo his senior year of college eligibility and enter the NBA Draft, the third player – after Allen Iverson in 1996 and Victor Page in 1997 – to break with the John Thompson, Jr.-Craig Esherick era′s tradition of basketball players staying a full four years and graduating.[2]

This was the last of three seasons in which Georgetown played as a member of the Big East's West Division. For the following season, the Big East scrapped its divisions and returned to a unified structure.

Source[2][3][4][5][6][8][9][10][11][12][13]

The team was not ranked in the Top 25 in either the AP Poll or the Coaches' Poll at any time, but was among other teams receiving votes in both polls during some weeks.[14][15] [16]

Source[17][18][19][20][21]

• All times are Eastern