TNIAAM Roundtable: our best plays from the Syracuse-Georgetown rivalry

On By Littum

Tomorrow the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team celebrates their rich history with Georgetown Hoyas in the teams’ 100th all-time meeting. The rivalry has produced so many iconic moments, and our staff will take you through each of our favorites.

Mike: 2006 Big East Tournament Semifinals

As the Scranton representative in the room, I cannot not pick one of the defining moments of Gerry McNamara’s career at Syracuse. With under a minute left and the Orange four down, G-Mac again puts the team on his back, drains his fifth three of the night, locks down on the other end and dishes up the game-winning pass to Eric Devendorf for an easy layup.

SU would go on to defeat Pitt the following day for their fifth and final Big East Tournament Championship.

Kevin: 1992 Big East Tournament Final

I’ll stay in MSG with this one. It was my second year and we had a weekend in late February at the Dome where the Orange indoor track team won their 1st and only Big East title over the Hoyas on Saturday, but Georgetown beat Jim Boeheim’s team on Sunday. Fast forward a few weeks, and Syracuse entered the Big East Tournament on a two-game losing streak, but having shut out Villanova and Seton Hall, they earned a rematch with Georgetown in the title game.

That’s when Dave Johnson hit this game-winner over Alonzo Mourning to give Syracuse the title.

Szuba: Syracuse over no. 9 at Georgetown at home, 72-58 (2007)

It’s hard to pick against classics like the 2006 and 2013 Big East Tournament games, but I’ll go with Syracuse to take a top ten and eventual Final Four Georgetown team led by Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green. There are so many great games to choose from, but I will go into depth here as I was at this game as a freshman in high school.

This was a big Monday game on ESPN that had over 25,000 fans. Demetris Nichols had a big night and that was around the time Andy Rautins was moved to a starter and really started to emerge as a shooter. Syracuse jumped out to a big lead in the second half and put it away to snap an 11-game Hoya winning streak. After being booed by fans earlier in the season, Darryl Watkins and Terrence Roberts rose to the scorer’s table with high-fiving fans storming the field after the game.

That game was one that denied Georgetown a Big East regular season title and, more importantly, was believed to vault Syracuse into the tournament. This was the infamous year when the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee seemingly forgot about a 22-10 Syracuse team.

Verdict: Pearl Washington calls the game

Flashback to the middle of the 1985 season. Georgetown is located no. 1 in the AP poll heading into a late January matchup between Syracuse great Pearl Washington and the Orange. The Hoyas, led by the senior center and future No. 1 pick Patrick Ewing, plus four future NBA players, finishes 35-3 (14-2 in the Big East) on the year.

The game is famously known in the long-standing rivalry of a Syracuse fan throwing a literal orange at the backboard while Ewing was at the free throw line. The moment that isn’t even available as its own clip on YouTube: with G-Town up 63-62, Washington gets the left side of the court in front of a packed Carrier Dome with about 15 seconds left, backs down and hits what ends up being with becoming the game-winning interception. The fans stormed the field in a heartbeat and Syracuse got its first win against the AP No. 1 team.

(Author’s note: this full game is accessible on YouTube. Go to 15:04 to see the orange hit the backboard and 1:18:35 to see one of the wildest finishes in college basketball completely lost to history)

Honorable Mention: i 2010no. 5 Syracuse at one point takes a 23-point lead (60-37) with 12 minutes left in the second half against No. 10, Georgetown on the road. The Hoyas stormed all the way back to trail by just one with a minute left, but the Orange hang on. I distinctly remember it being one of the first college basketball games I remember vividly.

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What is your favorite moment from the rivalry?