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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Next time you open your mouth to insult the Georgetown Bro, consider that your assumptions about his species may be false. He may be nowhere near as good at flip cup as you may suppose.

At least, he probably can’t flip at the professional level. Several members of the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes proved that on Saturday night when, coming off a 4-2 loss to the Capitals, they were challenged to several games of flip cup by some Georgetown undergraduates at Rhino Bar and Pumphouse, whom they appeared to have trounced 3-0.

NBC Washington’s Kate Michael said it went like this:

“We don’t do beer on tap,” quipped one of the toothless titans, “so it’ll have to be Miller Lite bottles.” ….

“This is probably the coolest game I’ve ever seen put together in this place,” Rhino manager Dave Nelson said as the first round began.

Despite their routine and intense studies in the field of flip cup, the students were stunned by the icemen’s skills at the toss.  And the Coyotes got a rare off-the-ice chance at a hat trick as the students begged to bet on the “best of three.”

So much for the skills to match our popped-collar image.

D.C. Sports Blog’s Dan Steinberg adds insult to injury by reminding his readers that several years ago, many judged Georgetown to be inferior at flip cup to nearby George Washington University, although they based their conclusions on only meager scientific evidence.

Above, the Coyotes make quick work of some Hoyas.

Photo by Kate Michael for NBC Washington.

The polo shirt is a reliable choice of clothing if you want to dress for a party but are too drunk to think of something better to wear. But what if you want something more? What if you want a polo shirt with a shocker insignia? If that’s the case, two Georgetown alums have the answer for you: College Polos.

JP Medved (MSB ‘09) and Anthony Sessa (SFS ‘09) launched the site, which sells collared shirts that look like any other polo shirt—except where other shirts would have an alligator or polo player, though, these may feature beer pong, the shocker, or “fun bags.”

Medved, former editor of the (usually conservative) Georgetown publication The Federalist, says he bought the domain name about a year ago without an idea of what to do with it. After graduating, he and Sessa decided to start selling the shirts.

Possible new logo designs include a beer bottle, skull and crossbones, a dollar sign, and Twilight-inspired fangs.

“Hopefully a bunch of guys will sucker into it and buy stuff for their girlfriends,” Sessa said.

The two are still undecided on their best design idea, however. According to Sessa, they’re toying with the idea of a logo of Jack the Bulldog humping Syracuse’s mascot, a giant orange named Otto. I’m just not sure they’ll be able to make that clear on a 3/4 inch logo.

After earning the dubious distinction of being ranked the 11th best party school by Playboy, the University of Maryland at College Park is mounting an effort to crack down on excessive partying this year, according to the Washington Post.  But with only 34 officers in its Department of Public Safety charged with controlling over 26,000 undergraduates, it’s a bit of a daunting task.

The force of 34 officers put up a good fight, busting dozens of parties in a matter of a few hours. The consequences of a bust can range from confiscation of alcohol to, in  rare cases, arrest, and the University often comes down hard with harsh administrative charges.

The easiest way to crack down on parties? Taking advantage of clueless freshmen:

On this Thursday night, Ecker drives through campus and the surrounding neighborhoods, easily picking out the freshmen, who travel in packs composed of nearly every person from their dorm floor.

In one such clump, everyone has a student ID around his or her neck, and a few students wear high school T-shirts. But the most obvious clue that they are freshmen? No red cups in hand, Ecker said. They haven’t learned to bring their own cups to keggers.

Additionally, the police are declaring war on a much more frightening enemy this fall: the “undesirables.” These would be the young men who gather at a popular location and harass the women walking by, especially those who are dressed up for the evening.

The harassment that normally begins as verbal assaults and gradually increases to grabbing, pinching, touching, and fondling later on in the night when traffic on the sidewalk becomes more congested. This also makes it more difficult to identify the perpetrators, some of whom are students themselves.

For the penultimate Prefrosh Preview, we’ll be tackling all the various vices you might be interested in engaging in during college: drinking, drugs, sex and smoking. As a disclaimer: Vox isn’t advocating underage drinking or the use of illegal drugs, and most of this information comes from outside sources, not firsthand experience.

Alcohol

Georgetown is definitely a drinking school, and on weekends you can almost always find a party somewhere on or near campus. When going out, there’s no quicker way to be identified as a somewhat obnoxious freshman than to travel with the entirety of your floor. It’s also seen as particularly poor form to crash a party, drain the booze and leave.

At Georgetown, people generally don’t charge guests admittance to parties (a fact your visiting friends will doubtlessly be shocked by). However, if you find a a kindly upperclassmen who frequently supplies you with liquor, it’s nice to reimburse them.

If you’re over 21 (or have an ID that says you are) and prefer bars, here are some of the more popular nearby options:

• Chadwicks (3205 K Street): Good happy hours and champagne brunches.
  
• Champions (1206 Wisconsin Avenue): A favorite among the underage crowd (although it has something of a checkered past).
• Epicurean (On campus, under Darnall): Offers karaoke, and you really can’t beat it for convenience.
• Old Glory (3139 M Street): Strong drinks; the covered back porch with a bar makes it convenient for smokers.
  
• Rhino (3295 M Street): Sketchy, but good wings and a good chance of spotting Real World cast members.
• Smith Point (1338 Wisconsin Avenue): Bastion of prep that prides itself on having a guest list; Late Night Shots central.
• Third Edition (1218 Wisconsin Ave): Relatively cheap; famous for having its exterior used in St. Elmo’s Fire.
• Tombs (1226 36th Street): The closest bar to campus and thus almost exclusively for students, but also the strictest with IDs.

How strict a given bar is with accepting fake IDs varies from bouncer to bouncer, but generally Vox would discourage you from trying your fake at Smith Point, Third Edition and Tombs.

If you’re looking to procure your own spirits, the best bets are Towne (1326 Wisconsin Avenue), Wagner’s (1717 Wisconsin Avenue) and Dixie (3429 M Street; you shouldn’t even think about attempting to use a fake at Dixie, though). Wisey’s also sells beer and wine.

If you’re tired of jostling at the bar for a watered-down rum and coke or an overpriced draft beer, Booey’s is a good bet. Its pitchers are among the cheapest around, and it is open until midnight.

More fun stuff likes drugs, sex and smoking after the jump!

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Too pretty by half

Editor’s Note: This is the first post in a series we’ll be running in which we’ll review the happy hour offerings at Georgetown restaurants and bars.

If the happy hour at Bangkok Bistro sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is—at least as far as the drinks are concerned. At the door, Vox was told that the deal for $3 cocktails included the Bistro’s whole repetoire, from their $7.99 Mangorita (“A fresh mango with Sauza Tequila and Hiram Walker Mango Liquer blended to frozen perfection”) to the $8.99 Saketini (“Bombay Sapphire Gin mixed with Gekkeikan Sake, Bols Blue Curacao, and a lemon twist”) and all of the delicious, overpriced drinks in between.

Then, after sitting down, we were informed that the happy hour only covered their “20 o.z. Cocktails: the Fantastic,” and only non-blended drinks at that—so much for that Dirty Colada. And it only got worse from there.

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A new study from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that binge drinking, drunk driving and alcohol-related deaths among college students rose over the past decade.  Among the troubling findings:

• Alcohol-related deaths among 18- to 24-year-old students increased from 1,440 in 1998 to 1,825 in 2005.
• The percentage of students who admitted to recently engaging in “episodic drinking” (also known as binge drinking) rose from 42 percent in 1998 to 45 percent in 2005.
• The percentage of students who admitted to driving drunk in the past year rose from 26.5 percent in 1998 to 29 percent in 2005.
• The problem behaviors—binge drinking, drunk driving and alcohol-related deaths—rose among 21- to 24-year-old students but not among 18- to 20-year-olds.

According to lead researcher Ralph Higson, the findings are particularly troubling since the trend towards more dangerous drinking behavior has persisted despite improvements in education about alcohol abuse.

“”The fact that we’re not making progress is very concerning,” [Higson said] … “The irony is that during this same time period, our knowledge of what works as far as intervention in this age group has increased. That knowledge isn’t yet being put into place.”

Meanwhile, at the Washingtonian

In its February issue, the Washingtonian has an article that chronicles the party scenes of five area colleges. It can be trite (the writers have either long since graduated or are trying hard to indicate that they’re so over college) but I can’t say I knew much about the George Mason party scene before I read it.

However, the article incorrectly states that a fifth of all calls to GERMS are alcohol related. In reality, it’s only 7 percent. Give us a little credit!

Charms and out-of-touch touches in the article:

• Necessary explanations of the curious drinking games we play: “He uses a beer bong for ['pregaming,' or warming up with drinks at home]; the funnel attached to a tube is great for drinking fast.”

• The weird decision to view Howard University scene through the lens of a student who is identified outright as not your typical Howard student in a feature that implies it’s looking at the typical party scene at each college: the hyper-alcoholic Tiffany, who’s had a fake since she was 12, and friends, one of whom can chug a pitcher of margharitas in two minutes.

• Delightfully transparent references to Towne: “You could walk in with a piece of cardboard that says ‘I am 21 years old,’ and they will give you alcohol”  and probably Rhino: “So she heads to a bar that’s popular with freshmen because it’s so easy to get into.”

• Those crazy kids at UMD: “I blacked out a little bit, but I remember playing around with a fire extinguisher in the hallway.”

The GWU section also awkwardly transitions into a three-paragraph detour to discuss our old friend Juicy Campus:

Kids worry more about a new Web site called Juicy Campus. It has pages for schools across the country where students can post gossip. “C’mon. Give us the juice,” it says. “Posts are totally, 100% anonymous.” Topics are often things like who the biggest slut on campus is or which guys are secretly gay. Or they’ll target one person, using first and last names and asking others to weigh in.

On the GW page, someone wrote that a certain guy “is a loser. He hit on his straight friend. Twice. What a FAGGOT.” On the Georgetown page, one girl is labeled “the dirtiest slut around.” Someone else wrote about her: “definitely a huge whore. probably has STD’s, so stay away!”

Some student governments are considering blocking Juicy Campus, and students have started flooding the site with poems, off-topic questions, and messages about how Juicy Campus is cruel.

Hey, it’s all college culture, right?

Photo taken from Flickr user ThisIsIt2 under a Creative Commons license.

Turns out Myopenbar.com’s DC branch only stayed in town as long as your long-lost-friends who came in for Inauguration. Last week, the metropolitan drinking guide announced that it was opening a DC site, at long last. They also warned that the site needed to see ample participation and traffic from the District, or it would close up shop.

Turns out the bars didn’t keep up their end. Admin Seva Granik wrote in an email,

“We saw decent traffic, for sure, but not enough interest from venues and bars to keep it going. So we’ll roll it up, or at least until open bars pick up down there.”

Having given District bars and residents only five days to take notice of Myopenbar.com—five days during which bars were swamped or preparing to be swamped by revelers—I think Myopenbar.com hit the road too soon. I still smell market potential.

Finally, one of the web’s finest deal-crawlers is setting up shop in D.C. Myopenbar.com, which lists by days the open bars and events that are giving away free booze around a given city, announced that they were finally giving D.C. a slice of the pie. It even places the listings within their individual neighborhoods.

So as of this morning, dc.myopenbar.com’s “special inauguration edition” is armed and fully operational. But only for now, warns Myopenbar ’s Seva Granik:

The website and the email blast for Washington, D.C. will undergo a trial launch for the week of Inauguration starting with this coming Saturday and ending with Tuesday the 20th.

What this means to you: we’ll do this for one week only. If we get ample and favorable response along with interest from venues and bars to throw some actual open bars then we will seriously consider launching a permanent website.

D.C. has been high and dry since 2005, when Myopenbar launched in New York, and has seen Chicago, L.A., Miami, San Francisco, and even Honolulu get branches before it.

So if you don’t want to lose it, I’d suggest you hit it up this weekend. Right now there’s naught but a wine-tasting in Georgetown, but plenty of listings in Adams-Morgan and Dupont to be had.