The Georgetown Hoyas are scheduled to play Ohio tomorrow night at 7:25 sharp for their inaugural NCAA Tournament game. They’re ready to go. The Bobcats are going down. What’s left for you to do, besides order more Wingo’s than you can possibly fit in your stomach and hunker down in front of a television?

Rinse out your shot glasses. Because the Voice staff has thought up a Hoya-centric drinking game for this year’s March Madness tournament. Here are the rules:

Take a drink …

• Whenever an announcer mentions Jason Clark’s phenomenal wingspan or preternatural jumping ability
• When a Georgetown play earns a slow-mo replay—twice if one of Monroe’s does
• Every time Greg Monroe pops his mouthguard in and out of his mouth
• Anytime an announcer references the correlation between the team’s success and Chris Wright scoring in double digits
• If an announcer complains about what a shitty job the committee did seeding the tournament.
• Whenever JTIII makes this face

And drink for the duration of time it takes for them to replace a loose contact lens.

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Photos by Jackson Perry

Check out Tim Shine’s postgame coverage in Voice sports.

Photos by Jackson Perry

Read Tim Shine’s postgame coverage in Voice sports.

Photos by Jackson Perry

photos by Jackson Perry

The Hoyas took care of business against South Florida, just as well as they needed to. Well, technically all they needed to do was win by one, but if Georgetown couldn’t beat that Bulls squad by a significant margin, it would not bode well for tomorrow’s game.

But the Hoyas won by 20, in spite of Austin Freeman’s worst shooting performance of the season, just 25 minutes from Greg Monroe, and other assorted foul trouble. Of course, the Hoyas also won thanks to 29.1 percent shooting by USF. Either way, Georgetown played well enough to make you think they could beat Syracuse.

That’s a good thing, because Georgetown needs to beat Syracuse tomorrow. The Hoyas need to win, not for any kind of big picture reason like NCAA seeding, but because the Orange are their most hated rival, and it would be unbearable to lose to them three times in a season. It’s only happened once before: 2002-03, the season Carmelo Anthony led Syracuse to a national championship.

This year, the Orange once again look like they may be on their way to a national title. So that’s the precedent—lose tomorrow and subject America to an Orange national champion (and worse, let Syracuse come to D.C. to be honored at the White House).

After the jump, see what JTIII had to say about ‘Cuse today, and more Hoya news

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Read Tim Shine’s postgame coverage in Voice sports.

Photos by Jackson Perry

With their 58-49 victory over a hapless DePaul this afternoon, South Florida advances to take on Georgetown in the Hoyas’ Big East Tournament opener tomorrow at noon.

Hoya fans need not be reminded that this will be the two teams’ second meeting this season, after the Bulls’ 72-64 upset of then-No. 8 Georgetown at the Verizon Center. It goes without saying that the Hoyas will be looking for revenge on Wednesday.

Georgetown will be well-prepared for Big East scoring leader Dominique Jones and the Bulls this time around. Of course, it’s not like the Hoyas weren’t prepared for the 6-foot-4 guard before—and Jones still dropped 29 points on them. Georgetown will do it’s best to contain Jones, but he’s a prolific scorer and will get his looks.

The biggest adjustment the Hoyas will have to make from last game is in accounting for Augustus Gilchrist. The sophomore big man didn’t play against Georgetown because of an ankle injury, but he’s probably USF’s second-best player and averages close to 15 points a game.

If USF plays tomorrow like it did against DePaul, however, Georgetown might not have much to worry about. The Bulls weren’t very impressive while dispatching the Blue Demons, who won just one conference game. DePaul hung around late in the game, and USF had almost no outside game to speak of.

And by almost no outside game, I mean that the Bulls converted one field goal outside the lane; they scored 50 points in the paint, hit six free throws, and missed on all eight three-point attempts. Greg Monroe and Julian Vaughn will have something to say if the Bulls try to win that way tomorrow.

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When the news broke that Austin Freeman returned early from the Hoyas’ road trip to West Virginia and checked in to Georgetown University Hospital, it seemed his condition was worse than the simple stomach virus he had been diagnosed with last Saturday. Now we know for sure—the Washington Post is reporting that Freeman has developed diabetes.

The Post’s Liz Clarke reports that Georgetown’s leading scorer received his diagnosis shortly after being taken to the emergency room on Monday. Freeman then returned to practice with his teammates on Wednesday.

His condition is not expected to affect his basketball career, but Stephen Clement, head of the Diabetes Center at Georgetown University Hospital, will be on hand as a precaution whenever he practices or plays for the remainder of the season.

Georgetown head coach John Thompson III said Freeman’s status has yet to be determined for Saturday’s game against Cincinnati and beyond. Vox will have more on Freeman this afternoon.

This year, Vox is taking a page from Deadspin and New York’s books and giving you a guide for rooting against each of the Hoyas’ Big East opponents. In preparation for tonight’s game against Providence, here are three reasons to hate the Cardinals:

Win out

From this point on, it doesn’t matter who the Hoyas are playing—that team deserves an extra level of hate. After back-to-back losses, the Hoyas sit at just 8-6 in the Big East, good for the 7th seed if the Big East Tournament started today. Only a few weeks ago, Georgetown had the inside track for a top-four finish and a double bye to the quarterfinals. Now, with four games to go, the Hoyas are just a late season slide away from playing with the likes of Rutgers and DePaul on Tuesday. Of course, win out and Georgetown has a good shot at the 4th seed.

Right now Louisville is one game ahead of the Hoyas in the standings, so a win tonight pays immediate dividends. The time for a one-game-at-a-time philosophy has passed; it’s time to build up momentum and sprint into the postseason, and the Cardinals are the first roadblock to be smashed.

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