The 1942–43 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented Georgetown University during the 1942–43 NCAA college basketball season. Elmer Ripley coached it in his seventh of ten seasons as head coach; it was also the fifth and final season of his second of three stints at the helm. The team returned to Tech Gymnasium – where Georgetown had played its home games from 1929 to 1940 – on the campus of McKinley Technical High School in Washington, D.C., for its home games. It finished with a record of and became the first Georgetown team in history to participate in a post-season tournament, advancing to the final game of the NCAA tournament, losing to Wyoming. Its youth and inexperience led it to be nicknamed the "Kiddie Korps."
Season recap
The previous season, Georgetown had posted a 9–11 record, after which all but three varsity players had either graduated or left school for military service in World War II. For 1942-43, Ripley fielded a young team consisting of three seniors, a junior, and ten sophomores (at a time when freshmen were ineligible for varsity play under National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules), leading to the team being nicknamed the "Kiddie Korps." However, the sophomores were a particularly talented group Ripley had recruited primarily from the New York City area, and had led the 1941-42 freshman team to a 20-1 record.
One of the talented sophomores to join the varsity from the freshman team this season was forward Andy Kostecka. In the seasons second game, the 1942–43 squad became the first Georgetown team to score 100 or more points in a game when it defeated American 105-39 – a margin of victory no Georgetown team would exceed until the 1986–87 team beat Saint Leo 126-51 – and Kostecka scored a season-high 22 points in the game. He also had strong scoring performances against Temple, Catholic, Syracuse, and Penn State, and by the middle of the season led the team in scoring and was averaging 15 points per game. At the end of February 1943, Kostecka left school for World War II military service, not to return until the 1946–47 season, but he nonetheless was the teams second-highest scorer for the year.
Senior center Bill Bornheimer, who had starred for Georgetown the previous two seasons, would have played his senior year with the team this year, but the university had instituted an accelerated graduation schedule because of World War II, causing Bornheimer to graduate in January 1943 and lose eligibility for the 1942–43 season. Fortunately for the Hoyas, sophomore center John Mahnken joined the varsity from the freshman team, so impressing fellow sophomore center Sylvester "Stretch" Goedde with his talent that Goedde gave up hope of competing with Mahnken for playing time and left the team after three games to return to his native Ohio to pursue a minor-league baseball career. Mahnken scored 25 points against Syracuse and averaged 16 points per game in the later part of the season and 15.4 points per game overall.
One of the more notable games of the regular season came in January 1943 against the Quantico Marines, a United States Marine Corps team composed of former college players that was favored to beat the Hoyas. The Marines led through most of the game, but Georgetown mounted a comeback to close to 52-48 with two minutes left to play, at which point Ripley put talented sophomore point guard Dan Kraus into the game. Mahnken used a head fake to open up a shot for himself and then scored to make the score 52-50. The Marines did not score on their next possession, and sophomore Georgetown guard Jim "Miggs" Reily made a set shot to tie the game at 52-52. Kraus then stole the ball from Quantico on the Marines final possession; with time running out, Ripley shouted "Shoot!", and Kraus scored on a 15-foot (4.6-meter) shot as time expired to give the Hoyas a 54-52 upset win. According to legend, the Marines were so angry over Krauss steal and game-winning last-second basket that the Georgetown team required an armed escort after the game for protection.
On February 11, 1943, the Hoyas defeated longtime rival Fordham 52–39, their only victory over the Rams in 16 meetings between 1925 and 1952. The win completed a three-game homestand sweep that also included victories over Syracuse and Penn State, giving the Hoyas a 14–2 record and putting them in the running for their first NCAA tournament bid.