New head coach O'Reilly coached three sports at Georgetown – basketball, baseball, and track – and was destined to coach the basketball team to some of its great early triumphs. He would coach the team for 11 seasons, interrupted by a hiatus during the 1921-22 and 1922-23 seasons due to illness, and post an overall record of 87-47. His tenure would see most of a 52-game home winning streak at Ryan Gymnasium between the final game of the 1916-17 season and midway through the 1923-24 season that included victories over top national teams North Carolina (twice), Georgia Tech, and Kentucky. Fifteen of the 19 straight victories over George Washington also would occur with him at the helm.[1][2][3][4][5]
Season recap
The move to Ryan Gymnasium meant that this was the first Georgetown men's basketball team to play its games on campus. Opened in 1906, when competitive college basketball was just beginning at Georgetown, Ryan had not been intended to host competitive sporting events; it had no seating, accommodating fans on a standing-room-only basis on an indoor track above the basketball court. This precluded large crowds at the Hoyas' home games despite the team's home success during the 13 years at Ryan, limiting revenue for the self-sustaining Basketball Association, which funded the team's travel expenses. Despite this drawback, Ryan would serve as the Hoyas' home court through the end of the 1926-27 season, although from the 1918-19 season through 1926-27 the Hoyas would play very few road games in order to keep travel expenses to a bare minimum.[1][2][3][4][5]
Georgetown defeated crosstown rival George Washington twice this season, the first of 19 straight wins over George Washington before George Washington suspended the series after the 1923-24 season.[2][3][4][5]
Georgetown players did not wear numbers on their jerseys this season. The first numbered jerseys in Georgetown men's basketball history would not appear until the 1933-34 season.[8]