1947–48 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team

Season recap

The 1946-47 team had won 19 games, and all five of its starters returned this year, including forward Andy Kostecka, a star of the 1942-43 team and – after World War II military service – of the 1946-47 team. Hopes were high that the 1947-48 squad would take the Hoyas back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1943, when Ripley had coached them to the national final in their only tournament appearance thus far. The team won its first six games, with Kostecka averaging 22 points per game during the first four, one of which was an overtime win over St. John's at Madison Square Garden in New York City - Georgetown's only win over the Redmen in 17 games played between 1931 and 1973. Kostecka suffered a leg injury in the fifth game, against Virginia Tech, and missed the sixth and seventh games of the season.

After a 6-1 start, the Hoyas embarked on a road trip on December 24, 1947, that took them to six games spread across Louisiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. The trip was controversial because of its length, the tight schedule of games – including four games in five nights requiring 300 miles (483 km) of travel – and the requirement for the players to be on the road during Christmas, but Ripley believed that it would allow the Georgetown program to gain national recognition by playing Louisville, Notre Dame, and Saint Louis. The trip, which lasted through January 5, 1948, wore the players down; Kostecka, for example, had averaged 17 points per game before the trip but managed only half that during it, although his 11 points against Notre Dame in the last game of the trip made him Georgetown's top scorer in history. Georgetown lost all six games to fall to 6-7 on the season. Following the trip, the Washington Times-Herald newspaper reported dissension between Ripley and Kostecka over the trip; both denied it, but Kostecka was dismissed from the team after the article appeared.

With top scorer Kostecka off the team, Georgetown struggled through its next 10 games in a tough national schedule, winning only three of them. Senior guard Dan Kraus, like Kostecka a star of the successful 1942-43 and 1946-47 teams, had been a defensive specialist during his career, but he stepped into the breach on offense, scoring 14 against New York University, 12 at Penn State, and 13 at Villanova. Junior guard Tommy O'Keefe scored 50 points over one three-game stretch and in double figures nine times, including 14 against Penn State and 20 against George Washington, and ended the season as the Hoyas' leading scorer. Falling to 9-14 with five games to play, Georgetown managed to win four of the remaining games to finish with a record of 13-15. The team's disappointing final record meant no post-season play.

The unremarkable 1947-48 season heralded the beginning of a mostly undistinguished quarter-century of men's basketball at Georgetown. Although the team would appear in the National Invitation Tournament in 1953 and 1970, between the 1947-48 season and the end of the 1971-1972 season, Georgetown would have an overall record under .500, and its total of 296 wins during those 25 seasons would be the lowest among the 32 Catholic universities playing Division I college basketball in the United States. It would have no NCAA Tournament appearances during these seasons; in fact, after appearing in the NCAA Tournament in 1943, it would not make the tournament again until 1975.

Roster

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Junior guard Tommy O'Keefe would later serve as Georgetown's assistant coach for four seasons from 1956 to 1960 and as head coach for six seasons from 1960 to 1966.

1947–48 schedule and results

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It was common practice at this time for colleges and universities to include non-collegiate opponents in their schedules, with the games recognized as part of their official record for the season, and the game played against a United States Marine Corps team from Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, on December 16, 1947, therefore counted as part of Georgetown's won-loss record for 1947-48. It was not until 1952 after the completion of the 1951-52 season that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) ruled that colleges and universities could no longer count games played against non-collegiate opponents in their annual won-loss records.