Big East announces men’s basketball schedule pairings
Posted by: Tim Shine in Sports, Vox Populi, tags: Basketball, Big East, Georgetown, Schedule
With Midnight Madness over three months away, Hoya fans are hard-pressed to find any new basketball information. So while yesterday’s Big East men’s schedule announcement doesn’t even include the dates of the match-ups, it’s more than enough to start speculating about next season.
The announcement revealed where the Hoyas will play their Big East foes, as well as which three teams they will face twice. Georgetown, who ESPN’s Andy Katz says “arguably could be the third-best team in the league” in his schedule breakdown, draws Final Four contender Villanova, hated rival Syracuse, and, um, Rutgers as its home-and-away opponents.
Georgetown had one of the conference’s toughest schedules last year, and this year’s slate doesn’t look much better. In addition to the Orange and the Wildcats, the team will travel to face perennial powerhouses Louisville and Pitt, as well as a scary West Virginia team. Meanwhile, the Hoyas’ nine game home draw includes six of last year’s bottom eight teams. Of course, thanks to Georgetown’s woeful finish last year, we’ll be looking to avenge losses to four of them. Still, it’s hard to get excited about the likes of USF.
After the jump: the three matchups that should have you camping out on the sidewalk outside the Verizon Center…
Villanova – Last year an all-but-finished Hoyas squad took down the Wildcats in Philadelphia just before ‘Nova embarked on a surprising Final Four run. This year ‘Nova won’t be surprising anyone, adding one of the nation’s top recruiting classes to a mostly intact squad. The Hoyas will get two shots at the Big East favorites, but the home match-up will be their best chance to get a win over a top 5 team.
UConn – Another Final Four team from last season, and another team looking to avenge a loss to the Hoyas. Last season’s victory against the undefeated Huskies in Hartford was undeniably the high point of Georgetown’s season. This year UConn will come to D.C. without co-Big East Player of the Year Hasheem Thabeet, but a talented core of Kemba Walker, Stanley Robinson, and Jerome Dyson means the Huskies won’t slip too far.
Syracuse – Sure the Orange have lost star point guard Jonny Flynn and a easy jeers-target Devendorf, but a rivalry’s a rivalry. Syracuse still has the look of an NCAA tournament team, and fans have a new least-favorite player in Georgetown turncoat Dashonte Riley.
More details about this season’s games will continue to trickle out, but it likely will be late September before the full schedule is released.
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We have a home game against Duke that should obviously be on of the more hyped home games of the season
Shh, Hoya BBall. The Voice just wants to be negative about things. Don’t try to point out anything good.
Why are we beefing with Duke? I get that there was that one game where the basketball team surprised them with an upset win a couple years ago. But is there any other reason?
My bad Hoya BBall, should have specified Big East home games
Tim Shine, I was just adding that to whoever was reading it to remember about that one as it will be one of the larger home games. I wasn’t trying to be negative or anything.
Will, that one game (although I wasn’t at GTown during it) is still considered as the game that brought GTown back to national prominence; beating #1 undefeated Duke. Upstairs Leo’s was filled with people simply watching the Duke away game last year, and I anticipate that Verizon will be filled to near, if not full, capacity. It’s not necessarily a beef, but anticipation of what should be a great game