Austin Freeman News

The curtain goes up on another Georgetown Hoyas basketball season this Friday and it's anyone's guess how it will pan out.

On what otherwise might have been a smug, self-satisfied train ride back to Philadelphia after his team was picked to win this season's Big East title, Villanova Coach Jay Wright spoke to his players about toughness and leadership.

Not the toughness and leadership the squad boasted, but the toughness and leadership they had yet to demonstrate.

'We're going to take that [coaches' vote at Big East media day] today as a great honor,' Wright told them, 'and then we're going to go back to practice, because we've got a lot to prove. Nobody's going to go through this league on talent.'

Leading into the college basketball season openers, Sporting News will preview each of the top 25, counting backward from our preseason power poll.

There was a time when Greg Monroe was clearly the No. 1 player in the 2008 recruiting class, although that was before he signed with Georgetown and then concluded his high school career.

Greg Monroe was the perfect candidate to leave school early for the NBA draft. He was a big man with exceptional passing reads who had lived up to his high school hype.

Coach: John Thompson III . Last season's record: 16-15 overall, 7-11 in Big East Postseason: Lost in first round of NIT to Baylor.

For at least a few days in January, Georgetown was the talk of Big East basketball, opening conference play by toppling powerhouse Connecticut on the road. But after a 10-1 start, the Hoyas' promising season ended in irrelevance.

Deserted by their shooting touch, defensive fire and trust in one another, the Hoyas failed to earn an NCAA bid and folded in the opening round of the National Invitation Tournament.

To be sure, there are lessons to be learned from a season marked by such wild shifts of fortune. But there are dangers in dwelling on the string of disappointing defeats that landed the once-proud Hoyas with a record (16-15, 7-11) that didn't reflect their potential.

We're on a one-year winning streak when it comes to predicting the eventual NCAA champion.

Key Returners: Greg Monroe , Chris Wright , Austin Freeman A Strengths With three McDonalda TMs All-Americans returning, therea TMs no reason why the Hoyas shouldna TMt be expected to have a drastic improvement over last season.

January 30, 2010. Circle your calendars, Georgetown fans. Thata TMs when the Duke Blue Devils return to the Verizon Center.

Breakout players come from all kinds of backgrounds. Sometimes they are highly hyped freshman that underperform, but eventually live up to expectations.

John Thompson III continues to change the scheduling philosophy with his father's school.

Defending Pacific-10 Conference champion Washington will square off against Georgetown in the 16th Annual John Wooden Classic on December 12, 2009 at Honda Center.

Villanova will have two chances to snap a five-game losing streak against Georgetown.

Being young in the Big East was pretty much a death sentence last season. The Big East was the most brutal conference last season filled with bodies on the floor and games resembling UFC fights... A Re-Building Year for Georgetown Basketball, or Has the Re-Birth Begun? by Zane Mosqueda 26 reads Preview/Prediction June 28, 2009 Being young in the ...

The Maryland Terrapins and Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball teams are going to be good in 2009-10. Really good... Terps and Hoyas Locked and Loaded in 2009 by Jarrett Carter 57 reads Sports June 19, 2009 The Maryland Terrapins and Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball teams are going to be good in 2009-10. Really good.