Thompson coached many notable players, including Patrick Ewing, Sleepy Floyd, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo and Allen Iverson. Thompson retired abruptly on January 8, 1999, citing marriage problems, and was replaced by his assistant Craig Esherick. Then in 1985, they were one of three Big East teams in the Final Four and narrowly missed a repeat championship by losing to underdog Villanova. Two years later, the Hoyas finally won a National Championship in 1984.
In one of the great championship games ever played, the Hoyas nearly won were it not for an errant pass by Fred Brown to Tar Heels forward James Worthy handed UNC the title. In the 1982 NCAA Tournament, the Hoyas reached the finals. Over the following 27 years, Thompson's Hoyas went an impressive 596–239 (.714), running off a streak of 24 postseason appearances – 20 in the NCAA tournament, four in the NIT – including a 14-year streak of NCAA appearances from 1979–1992 that saw three Final Four appearances in 1982, 19. Inheriting a Georgetown team which had been just 3–23 the year before, Thompson quickly and dramatically improved the team, making the NCAA tournament within three seasons. Patrick Ewing's 1985 jersey on display at the Basketball Hall of Fame. First Thompson era File:Georgetown Patrick Ewing jersey.jpg Top players from that period include Tom O'Keefe, the first Hoya to reach 1,000 career points in 1949–50, and future NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who would graduate #2 in Hoya career rebounds in 1962. World War II suspended the program, however, and it was rarely successful over the next three decades, with only two postseason appearances (1952––70). The team's coach, Elmer Ripley, would be inducted into the basketball hall of fame 30 years later. The next year the team, led by future congressman Henry Hyde, reached new heights by going all the way to the 1943 NCAA championship game.
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In 1942, a Hoya went pro for the first time, when three seniors, Al Lujack, Buddy O'Grady, and Don Martin were drafted professionally upon graduation. From 1932 till 1939, the Hoyas played in the Eastern Intercollegiate Conference, earning a share of the conference title in 1939. The team recruited its first All-American, Ed Hargaden, in 1931–32. Until McDonough Gymnasium opened on campus for the 1950–51 season, the team moved its home court frequently, playing in McKinley Tech High School, Ryan Gymnasium, Uline Arena, and the National Guard Armory. In its first 60-some years, the program displayed only sporadic success. The Georgetown men's basketball team played its first game February 9, 1907, defeating the University of Virginia by a score of 22–11. Using this system, Georgetown has been lauded for excelling by emphasizing offensive efficiency rather than speed of play. Coach Thompson learned the style while serving under then-Coach Pete Carril of the Princeton University Tigers. The hallmark of the offense is the "backdoor" pass, where a player on the wing suddenly moves towards the basket, receives a bounce pass from a guard on the perimeter, and ideally finds himself with no defenders between him and a layup. The Hoyas currently employ a variant of the Princeton offense, a style of play that emphasizes ball movement. They have been invited to the NCAA Tournament twenty-six times and the National Invitation Tournament an additional eleven times. They have also won the Big East Men's Basketball Tournament seven times, and has also won or shared the Big East regular season title seven times. Their most recent trip to the Final Four was in 2007. The team won the National Championship in 1984 and has reached the NCAA Tournament Final Four on five occasions. The Hoyas historically have been well regarded not only for their team success, but also for generating players that succeed after graduation both on the court, such as Patrick Ewing and Dikembe Mutombo, and off, such as Henry Hyde and General James L. John Thompson III, son of the accomplished former coach John Thompson, is the current head coach. Georgetown's first intercollegiate men's basketball team was formed in 1907. The Georgetown University men's basketball team, which, like all sports teams at Georgetown University, is named the Georgetown Hoyas, is a basketball program in the NCAA Division I Big East Conference.