1949–50 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team


The 1949–50 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented Georgetown University during the 1949-50 NCAA Division I college basketball season. Francis "Buddy" O'Grady coached it in his first of three seasons as head coach. The team was an independent and played its home games at the D.C. Armory in Washington, D.C. It finished with a record of 12-12 and had no post-season play.

Season recap

New head coach O'Grady had been a three-year standout guard on the Hoya teams of 1939-1942. After military service in World War II, he had played professional basketball for three seasons with the Washington Capitols and the Rochester Royals before retiring to coach at Georgetown.
Although coaches of the freshman team had assisted the varsity teams head coach from time to time, Georgetown had never had a formal assistant coach on the varsity team until this season, when former Georgetown player Jim "Miggs" Reilly became the Hoyas first formal assistant coach.
Guard Tommy O'Keefe played an unprecedented fourth season on the varsity team this year. Freshmen were ineligible for varsity play under National Collegiate Athletic Association rules at the time, but this had been lifted for four seasons during and just after World War II. The NCAA restored freshman ineligibility in 1947, but when the Georgetown athletic department petitioned the NCAA to recognize O'Keefes 1946-47 sophomore season at Georgetown as the equivalent of a freshman season prior to the NCAA restoration of freshman ineligibility, the NCAA agreed, allowing O'Keefe to play for Georgetown for a fourth season in 1949-50. He led the 1949-50 team, scoring in double figures in 21 of its 24 games. Early in the year, he shot 10-for-15 from the field in Georgetowns upset of Penn State, and he had a career-high 23 points in an upset of Rutgers. He finished as the teams leading scorer for the third straight year - the first Georgetown player to lead for three straight seasons in 15 years - and was selected to play on the East team alongside Holy Cross standout Bob Cousy in the East-West All-Star Game.
The young, undersized 1949-50 team started with a 10-5 record in its first 15 games, but then struggled, losing seven of its last nine games to finish the year at 12-12. It had no postseason play and was not ranked in the Top 20 in the Associated Press Poll at any time.
O'Keefe ended his Georgetown career with 1,018 points, the first Georgetown player in history to score more than 1,000 points. He would go on to play professional basketball for one season with the Washington Capitols and Baltimore Bullets in 1950-51 and to serve as Georgetowns assistant coach for four seasons from 1956 to 1960 and as head coach for six seasons from 1960 to 1966.

Roster

Sources
#NameHeightWeight PositionClassHometownPrevious Team
15Mike VitaleN/AN/AGSo.East Orange, NJ, U.S.Seton Hall Preparatory School
16Tony Durmowicz6'5"N/AFSo.Baltimore, MD, U.S.Loyola HS
17Don O'Leary6'2"N/AGJr.New York, NY, U.S.La Salle HS
25Jay Kirby6'3"N/AFSo.Ridgewood, NJ, U.S.N/A
26Clint Conlin5'11"N/AGSr.Washington, DC, U.S.N/A
27Tommy O'Keefe6'0"180G5th yearJersey City, NJ, U.S.University of Notre Dame
28John Mazziotta6'5"N/AFJr.New York, NY, U.S.N/A
29Steve RogersN/AN/AGSr.N/AN/A
30Johnny Brown6'3"N/ACSr.Staten Island, NY, U.S.Tottenville HS
31Dick Falvey6'0"N/AGSr.New York, NY, U.S.La Salle Academy
32Danny Supkis6'7"N/AFJr.New York, NY, U.S.St. Alban's HS
33John Norris6'5"N/ACSo.Bangor, ME, U.S.Bangor HS
34Italo Ablondi6'0"N/AGSr.New York, NY, U.S.Stuyvesant HS
35Frank Alagia6'1"N/AFSr.New York, NY, U.S.Andrew Jackson HS

1949–50 schedule and results

Sources
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 December 9, 1949, game against the New York Athletic Club therefore counted as part of Georgetowns won-loss record for 1949-50. It was not until 1952 after the completion of the 1951-52 season that the National Collegiate Athletic Association ruled that colleges and universities could no longer count games played against non-collegiate opponents in their annual won-loss records.
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