The Hoyas were the Big East regular-season champions , finishing with a 14-2 record . They received a bye in the first round of the 1984 Big East Men 's Basketball Tournament and defeated Providence in the quarterfinals . They beat St. John 's in the semifinals , with Ewing shooting 11-for-12 ( 91.7 % ) from the field and Williams scoring 17 points . They met arch-rival Syracuse in the final , in which Syracuses Dwayne " Pearl " Washington scored 27 points , while Ewing also scored 27 and pulled down 16 rebounds . With Syracuse in the lead and Ewing sitting on the bench with four fouls , Georgetown freshman forward Michael Graham entered the game to contain Syracuses Andre Hawkins , drawing national attention with his defensive effort . At one point , with Graham and Hawkins fighting for a rebound under the basket , Graham appeared to take a swing at Hawkins and an official immediately called a technical foul and ejected him from the game ; after the officials conferred with one another , however , they changed the call to a personal foul , allowing Graham to stay in the game and incensing Syracuse fans . With Michael Jackson scoring critical late-game free throws &ndash; part of a 20-point performance , including 8-for-8 from the free-throw line &ndash; Georgetown came back to tie the game and force overtime , during which the Hoyas pulled away to an 81-72 win and the Big East Tournament championship for the third time in the program 's history , with Ewing averaging 23 points a game during the tournament . In the post-game press conference , Syracuses head coach Jim Boeheim overturned a chair in anger and declared " The best team did not win tonight ! " Seeded No. 1 in the West Region of the 1984 NCAA Tournament &ndash; the sixth of 14 consecutive Georgetown NCAA Tournament appearances &ndash; the Hoyas received a first-round bye . They had a scare in the second round , narrowly missing being upset in a pre-shot-clock-era slowdown game against a Southern Methodist team led by center Jon Koncak . SMU led 24-16 at halftime . In the second half , Georgetown came back to lead 32-26 with eight minutes left , but SMU managed to tie the game at 34-34 with 2:46 to go . With 51 seconds left , SMU fouled Gene Smith , who missed the first shot of a one-and-one , but Ewing tipped the ball in for a basket and a 36-34 lead . After SMUs Johnny Fuller missed a shot , SMU was forced to foul Michael Jackson to stop the clock , and Jackson scored on one of his two free throws to give Georgetown a 37-34 lead . No three-point shot yet existed in the tournament , so the Mustangs raced down the court and scored to narrow the lead to 37-36 , but then time expired . After the game , fans and sportswriters noted that had Smith made his free throws , SMU could have tied the game to put it into overtime , and had Ewing not tipped in Smith 's miss , the Mustangs could have won the game with their basket on the final play
1984 Big East Men 's Basketball Tournament
1984 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament
1983–84 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team