The 1951–52 team was the first to play its home games at McDonough Gymnasium, marking the first time the
Georgetown men's basketball team played on campus since the
1926–27 team used Ryan Gymnasium as its home court. It played its first game at McDonough on December 7, 1951 – the day before a ribbon-cutting ceremony officially opened the new gymnasium – against
Fordham. Although the Hoyas lost the game, the 1951–52 team went on to post an 11–1 home record during McDonough's inaugural season – the first of 29 winning home records during the 30 seasons Georgetown played its home games there. Junior
center Bill Bolger had a standout year. Playing in all 25 games, he scored in double figures 20 times, including 25 against
Dayton and 29 against
Wake Forest. His late-season 38 points against
Mount St. Mary's on February 27, 1952, set a new Georgetown single-game scoring record. He scored 435 points during the year – also a school record – and his 17.4 points per game was the highest average by a Georgetown player in 34 years. Junior
guard Barry Sullivan was the team's
point guard and other big scoring threat, and he and Bolger averaged a combined 32 points per game. Playing in 22 games, Sullivan himself led the team in scoring in ten of them, with a 26-point game against
Princeton and 25 each against
Pittsburgh and
George Washington. He recovered from late-season injuries to average 21 points per game in the last two games of the season, and he made the winning basket in Georgetown's 72–70 defeat of George Washington in the final game of the year. Sullivan left school at the end of the year for two years of
United States Army service in
Korea during the
Korean War and did not return to Georgetown, instead later completing his undergraduate studies at
Columbia. Junior center Hugh Beins averaged 8.7 points per game for the second straight season, appearing in all 25 games and scoring in double figures 10 times. His most notable performances were a 15-point game against
Catholic in which Georgetown broke a three-game losing streak and 12 points in Georgetown's only victory over
La Salle between
1948 and
1955. Sophomore guard Lou Gigante backed up Sullivan this season, but showed his potential for the future, coming off the bench to average 6.2 points per game, highlighted by 21 points against
Richmond and 18 against
Maryland in back-to-back performances in February 1952. He also demonstrated defensive prowess. He would become the team's starting point guard after Sullivan's departure. O'Grady's previous two Georgetown teams had struggled, but the 1951–52 team finished with a record of 15–10, his most successful team and the highest win total for a Hoya team between the
1946–47 and
1963–64 seasons. Although it was not invited to a post-season tournament, its performance and the team's move to an on-campus venue for its home games combined to create a sense of optimism in and around the program about its prospects for the future. Despite this, O'Grady resigned at the end of the season, departing with an overall record of 35–36, one winning season, and no post-season tournament appearances during his three-year tenure. The 1951–52 team was not ranked in the Top 20 in the
Associated Press Poll or Top 30 in the
Coaches' Poll at any time. ==Roster==