Articles by Michael Palmer

The NCAA tournament has a tendency to cause jitters, but fifth-seeded Georgetown (26-6) overcame those early butterflies to dismiss the 12th-seeded Marist Red Foxes (26-8), 62-42.

The Hoyas have a few basic strengths that most teams already know about. First and foremost, they feed off of their defense.

In October of 2009, any curious Hoya fan would have had a tough time finding any sort of national coverage of the Georgetown women’s basketball team.

With the team and their coaches seated in the Hoya Banquet Room in Leavey Center, joined by a collection of fans and half a dozen TV cameras, the Lady Hoyas watched Monday evening as they were given a No. 5 seed in the Memphis region of the bracket.

On Monday night, with a 71-49 victory against the Seton Hall Pirates (9-20, 1-15 Big East), the Georgetown women’s basketball team (25-5, 13-3 Big East) capped an historic season — quite possibly the best in program history.

Tuesday morning, with a night game set against Villanova, the Georgetown women’s basketball team (24-4, 12-2 Big East) woke up to a new school-record ranking, reaching the No. 11 spot in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll.

In front of a record crowd Saturday afternoon, the Georgetown women’s basketball team (22-4, 11-2) recorded perhaps the biggest win in program history, defeating the No. 4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (23-3, 10-3) 76-66 — on senior day no less.

With the Big East tournament fast approaching, let's take a look around the most competitive league in college basketball.

A will to win. That’s how Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy had described her team’s spirit a few weeks ago, after a win over St. John’s.

The matchup is pretty simple. The Panthers (12-10, 1-8 Big East) are loaded with height and experience, featuring five players who are listed at 6-foot-3 or taller — not to mention a roster with six juniors and one senior.