1965–66 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team

The 1965–66 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented Georgetown University during the 1965-66 NCAA Division I college basketball season. Tommy O'Keefe coached it in his sixth and final season as head coach. The team was an independent and played its home games at McDonough Gymnasium on the Georgetown campus in Washington, D.C.. It finished with a record of 16-8 and no postseason play.

1965–66 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball
Conference	Independent
1965–66 record	16–8
Head coach	Tommy O'Keefe (6th season)
Assistant coach	Chuck Devlin (2nd season)
Captain	Jim Brown (1st year)
Home arena	McDonough Gymnasium

Season recap

In the previous season, Georgetown had started strong, raising hopes for a post-season tournament berth, but lost seven of its final 10 games to drop out of consideration for post-season play. This year, the Hoyas had a mediocre start, going 5-5 in their first ten games, but three of those losses came by a combined total of only six points. They began the new year of 1966 with eight straight wins by an average 17-point margin. During the streak, they won back-to-back victories of 103-74 over George Washington and 104-73 over New York University (NYU); the Hoyas would not have back-to-back 100-plus-point games again until December 2018. The winning streak pushed Georgetown's record to 13-5, and hopes of a post-season tournament berth were high.[1]

Senior guard Jim Brown was a talented point guard who led the 1965-66 team to an average of 83.8 points scored per game, a Georgetown record that still stands. Brown scored in double figures in 17 of the season's 24 games and led the team in scoring in four games. He shot 84% from the free-throw line, and had school records with 177 assists and 7.38 assists per game; the assists record stood for 14 years, and the assists-per-game record still stands.[2]

Junior forward Steve Sullivan led the team in scoring and averaged 9.7 rebounds per game. He scored 30 points against Boston College, had 27 points and 18 rebounds against Fordham, and put in a 25-point performance in the Navy game.[3]

Sophomore guard Dennis Cesar, a free-throw-shooting expert, joined the varsity team after a successful year on the freshman team the previous season. As a reserve, he came off the bench to score 21 points against Loyola early in the season. He became a starter in January 1966, and his per-game scoring average rose after that to 13.3 points. During the eight-game winning streak, he scored a combined 47 points in the two games against George Washington. Two of his free throws were key to Georgetown's upset of Rutgers, a big win in what turned out to the last game of the streak.[4]

Sophomore guard Bruce Stinebrickner also arrived on the varsity after a year on the freshman team. He had turned down offers from 20 other schools, including Duke and Harvard, to attend Georgetown. He was an excellent defensive asset for the Hoyas, and also averaged 9.6 points per game.[5]

Junior center Frank Hollendoner was limited by an eye injury and knee problems during the season. Nonetheless, he set a school record for points scored in a half by scoring 29 points in the first half against NYU. He finished the year averaging 11.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.[6]

Senior forward Jim Barry – perhaps the greatest player of Georgetown men's basketball's "Classic Era" (1943-1972) – had missed the 1963-64 season while recovering from knee surgery. He had had a strong year in 1964-65, but knee problems returned to plague him this season. He played mostly as a reserve, but still averaged 11.7 points per game and had 22-point performances against both Loyola and Villanova.[1] Senior forward John "Jake" Gibbons also played in a reserve role, but nonetheless averaged almost nine points and five rebounds a game and shot 48% from the field for the season.[7]

The eight-game win streak ended when Georgetown met 8th-ranked St. Joseph's at the Palestra in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Hoyas had not beaten the Hawks since 1956, and they did not in this meeting, losing to St. Joseph's 111-73. The lopsided loss halted the Hoyas' momentum and they lost their next two games as well. They recovered to win their final three games, with a 20-point effort by Dennis Cesar against Seton Hall, 22 points including the winning shot in the final seconds by Gibbons against Fairfield, and back-to-back 28-point performances by Hollendoner in the final two games of the season against Fairfield and Canisius, giving them 11 wins in their last 14 games of the year. Although they won more games than any other Georgetown team had since the 1946-47 season, their 16-8 record – the best record of O'Keefe's six-year tenure as head coach – was not enough for them to receive an invitation to a post-season tournament.[1][4][5][6][7]

Although it had no post-season play, the class of 1966 finished with a record of 44-28 during its three varsity seasons combined. It was the first Georgetown class to post a winning record for its collegiate career since 1930.[7]

Georgetown's head coaching position paid so little that O'Keefe could only serve as a part-time coach and held a full-time job outside of coaching in order to make ends meet, impairing his ability to recruit players. After the end of the season he resigned in order to devote himself full-time to his business concerns, prompting Georgetown to commit to hiring a full-time coach beginning with the following season.[8][9] O'Keefe departed with a winning record (82-60) and no sub-.500 performances by the team, but also without the Hoyas having appeared in the post-season during his six years as head coach.

The team was not ranked in the Top 20 in the Associated Press Poll or Coaches' Poll at any time.[10][11]

Roster

From the 1958-59 season through the 1967-68 season, Georgetown players wore even-numbered jerseys for home games and odd-numbered ones for away games; for example, a player would wear No. 10 at home and No. 11 on the road. Players are listed below by the even numbers they wore at home.[12]

Sources[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][12][13]

#	Name	Height	Weight (lbs.)	Position	Class	Hometown	Previous Team(s)
4	Jim Barry	6"6"	195	F	Sr.	Elizabeth, NJ, U.S.	St. Peter's Preparatory School
10	Pete Mitchell	6"0"	N/A	G	Jr.	New Orleans, LA, U.S.	Jesuit HS
12	Bruce Stinebrickner	6'1"	180	G	So.	West Hempstead, NY, U.S.	St. Agnes Boys HS
14	Dennis Cesar	6'1"	180	G	So.	Clifton, NJ, U.S.	Clifton HS
20	Jim Lyddy	N/A	N/A	G	Jr.	Bridgeport, CT, U.S.	Fairfield College Preparatory School
22	Jim Brown	5"10"	170	G	Sr.	Ridgewood, NJ, U.S.	Don Bosco Preparatory HS
24	Steve Sullivan	6'8"	200	F	Jr.	East Orange, NJ, U.S.	Essex Catholic HS
32	Frank Hollendoner	6'11"	245	C	Jr.	Chicago, IL, U.S.	St. Patrick HS
40	Dave Philbin	6'4"	N/A	F	Sr.	Clinton, MA, U.S.	Portsmouth Priory School
42	John "Jake" Gibbons	6'5"	200	F/C	Sr.	Cambria Hills, NY, U.S.	Saint Francis HS
50	Bob Ward	6'7"	N/A	F	Jr.	Jersey City, NJ, U.S.	St. Peter's Preparatory School
54	Neil Heskin	6'9"	N/A	F/C	Jr.	Elizabeth, NJ, U.S.	St. Peter's Preparatory School

1965–66 schedule and results

Sources[14][15][16][17]

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site city, state
Regular Season
Thu., Dec. 2, 1965 no, no		American	W 96–89	1-0	McDonough Gymnasium  Washington, DC
Sat., Dec. 4, 1965 no, no		St. John's	L 62–64	1-1	McDonough Gymnasium  Washington, DC
Tue., Dec. 7, 1965 no, no		Loyola Maryland	W 116–87	2-1	McDonough Gymnasium  Washington, DC
Sat., Dec. 11, 1965 no, no		at La Salle	W 101–99	3-1	Palestra  Philadelphia, PA
Wed., Dec. 15, 1965 no, no		at Maryland	L 59–77	3-2	Cole Field House  College Park, MD
Fri., Dec. 17, 1965 no, no		Columbia	W 97–79	4-2	McDonough Gymnasium  Washington, DC
Tue., Dec. 21, 1965 no, no		at Boston College	L 85–87	4-3	Roberts Center  Chestnut Hill, MA
Mon., Dec. 27, 1965 no, no		vs. Illinois ECAC Holiday Festival	L 94–96	4-4	Madison Square Garden  New York, NY
Tue., Dec. 28, 1965 no, no		vs. New York University ECAC Holiday Festival	W 88–87	5-4	Madison Square Garden  New York, NY
Thu., Dec. 30, 1965 no, no		vs. Villanova ECAC Holiday Festival	L 72–81	5-5	Madison Square Garden  New York, NY
Wed., Jan. 5, 1966 no, no		at Navy	W 88–75	6-5	Halsey Field House  Annapolis, MD
Sat., Jan. 8, 1966 no, no		at Delaware	W 96–67	7-5	Delaware Field House  Newark, DE
Mon., Jan. 10, 1966 no, no		at George Washington	W 100–81	8-5	Fort Myer Gymnasium  Fort Myer, VA
Sat., Jan. 15, 1966 no, no		Fairleigh Dickinson	W 84–80	9-5	McDonough Gymnasium  Washington, DC
Sat., Jan. 29, 1966 no, no		at Fordham	W 81–79	10-5	Rose Hill Gymnasium  Bronx, NY
Thu., Feb. 3, 1966 no, no		George Washington	W 103–74	11-5	McDonough Gymnasium  Washington, DC
Sat., Feb. 5, 1966 no, no		New York University	W 104–73	12-5	McDonough Gymnasium  Washington, DC
Tue., Feb. 8, 1966 no, no		Rutgers	W 76–73	13-5	McDonough Gymnasium  Washington, DC
Fri., Feb. 11, 1966 no, no		at No. 8 St. Joseph's	L 73–111	13-6	Palestra  Philadelphia, PA
Sat., Feb. 12, 1966 no, no		Catholic	L 84–87	13-7	McDonough Gymnasium  Washington, DC
Thu., Feb. 17, 1966 no, no		at Manhattan	L 80–83	13-8	Madison Square Garden  New York, NY
Tue., Feb. 22, 1966 no, no		at Seton Hall	W 107–93	14-8	Walsh Gymnasium  South Orange, NJ
Sat., Feb. 26, 1966 no, no		Fairfield	W 77–75	15-8	McDonough Gymnasium  Washington, DC
Tue., Mar. 1, 1966 no, no		Canisius	W 83–69	16-8	McDonough Gymnasium  Washington, DC
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

References

1. The Georgetown Basketball History Project: The Top 100: 8. Jim Barry
2. The Georgetown Basketball History Project: The Top 100: 29. Jim Brown
3. "The Georgetown Basketball History Project: The Top 100: 34. Steve Sullivan". Archived from the original on 2018-10-05. Retrieved 2014-02-13.
4. The Georgetown Basketball History Project: The Top 100: 54. Steve Sullivan
5. The Georgetown Basketball History Project: The Top 100: 63. Steve Bruce Stinebrickner
6. The Georgetown Basketball History Project: The Top 100: 56. Frank Hollendoner
7. The Georgetown Basketball History Project: The Top 100: 74. John Gibbons
8. "The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Head Coaches". Archived from the original on 2017-05-27. Retrieved 2013-12-22.
9. "The Georgetown Basketball History Project: The Top 100: 46. Tom O'Keefe". Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
10. sports-reference.com 1965-66 Independent Season Summary
11. sports-reference.com 1965-66 Polls
12. "The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Rosters 1960-61 to 1969-1970". Archived from the original on 2013-01-09. Retrieved 2013-12-22.
13. The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Player Directory: Jersey Numbers
14. The Georgetown Basketball History Project: 1960s Seasons
15. The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Records vs. All Opponents
16. sports-reference.com 1965-66 Georgetown Hoyas Schedule and Results
17. 2012-2013 Georgetown Men's Basketball Media Guide, p. 62.