It's the most wonderful time of the year! March Madness is upon us and our beloved Hoyas are set to square off against the Bruins of Belmont on Friday afternoon in the NCAA Tournament. This game has become a trendy upset pick due to a combination of the "experts" loving Belmont and Georgetown's lack of recent NCAA Tournament success.

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Though most people (HELLO DOUG GOTTLIEB) are ignoring the matchups in this game and simply choosing Belmont because they would pick Belmont against any team they faced, the notion that Belmont will win this game is very much out there. Therefore, even though we're fairly sure the team does not need any extra motivation to destroy Belmont on Friday, we've compiled a fairly exhaustive list of all the experts dingbats who are picking against Georgetown in the first round. Time to prove these guys wrong!

Bulletin Board Material after The Jump:

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With the Hoyas battling Marquette for the two seed in the Big East I decided to put this on the side to keep our attention where it belongs. That being said wanted to fill all the basketball junkies like me in on the action besides ours taking place today. The Atlantic Sun, Ohio Valley and Big South will crown their championships today and the first three tickets to the dance will officially be punched.

Big South Conference Final:

• 7 seed VMI vs 1 seed UNC Asheville 12pm ESPN2/ESPN3

The first auto bid of the year will come out of the Big South with either the hot shooting Keydets or the bulldogs of UNC Asheville.

Ohio Valley Conference Final:

• 1 seed Murray St vs. 2 seed Tenn St. 2pm ESPN2/ESPN3

Tenn St is the only team to beat Murray St this year. Can they do it again and burst someone's bubble?

Atlantic Sun Conference Final:

• 1 seed Belmont vs. 6 seed Florida Gulf Coast 7pm ESPN2/ESPN3

The Bruins are the class of the A Sun but FGCU has pulled off two upsets already to make it to the Championship. Can they make it a 3rd? Belmont did not do enough to warrant at large consideration, so this is for all the marbles.

West Coast Conference Semi Finals:

• 1 seed St. Mary's vs. 5 seed San Fransisco 9pm ESPN2/ESPN3

St. Mary's won the conference regular season title out right this year the first time Gonzaga has not won at least a share in 11 years

• 2 seed Gonzaga vs. 3 seed BYU 11pm ESPN2/ESPN3

The Zags are probably pretty pissed to have not won a share of the WCC for the first time in 11 years. BYU is in its first year in the WCC after going independent in football.

Missouri Valley Conference Semi Finals:

• 1 seed Wichita St vs. 4 seed Illinois St 2:35pm ESPN3

• 2 seed Creighton vs. 3 seed Evansville 5:05pm ESPN3
  

This is a 2 bid conference. but the purple aces or the red birds could sneak in and steal a bid.

Horizon League Semi Finals:

• 1 seed Valparaiso vs. 5 seed Butler 8:30pm ESPNU
  

• 2 seed Cleveland St vs. 3 seed Detroit 6pm ESPNU
  

Again Butler needs to win the Automatic birth in order to make the tournament. Horizon is a 1 bid conference.

Patriot League Semi Finals:

• 1 seed Bucknell vs. 5 seed Lafayette 4:30pm CBS college Sports
  

• 2 seed Lehigh vs. 3 seed Ameican 2pm CBS college sports
  

Let's Go Eagles! Let's make that OOC schedule look even better

Colonial Athletic Association Quarter Finals:

• 1 seed Drexel vs. 9 seed UNC-Wilmington 12pm CSN+/ESPN3
  

• 2 seed VCU vs. 7 seed Northeastern 6pm CSN+/ESPN3

• 3 seed George Mason vs. 6 seed Georgia St 8;30pm CSN+/ESPN3

• 4 seed ODU vs. 5 seed Delaware 2:30pm CSN+/ESPN3

Lots of Local teams all the games will be on Comcast + in the DC area. CAA could see as many as 3 bids with Drexel, VCU, and Mason. But don't count out ODU either.

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Quarter Finals:

• 1 seed Iona vs. 8 seed Marist 4:30pm ESPN3
  

• 2 seed Loyola MD vs. 7 seed Niagara 7:30pm ESPN3
  

• 3 seed Manhattan vs. 6 seed Sienna 9:30pm ESPN3
  

• 4 seed Fairfield vs. 5 seed Rider 2:30pm ESPN3

MAAC is a pretty entertaining conference. Iona is a dangerous midmajor, Loyola MD is a local team playing really well, Former assistant Sydney Johnson's Fairfield team is in the hunt as well.

American East Conference Quarter Finals:

• 1 seed Stony Brook vs. 9 seed Binghamton 12:05pm

• 2 seed Vermont vs. 7 seed Maine 6:05pm

• 3 seed Boston University vs. 6 seed Hartford 8:15pm

• 4 seed Albany vs. 5 seed New Hampshire 2:15pm

Can 2 win Binghamton make a miracle run to the NCAA tournament?

Southern Conference Quarter Finals:

• 1 seed North UNC-Greensboro vs. 5 seed North Appalachian St 12pm ESPN3
  

• 2 seed South Wofford vs. 3 seed North Western Carolina 2pm ESPN3
  

• 1 seed South Davidson vs. 5 seed South Furman 6pm ESPN3
  

• 2 seed North Elon vs. 3 seed North Georgia Southern 8:30pm ESPN3

UNC-Greensboro fired their coach and turned their season around and could make it to the NCAA tournament. Sometimes I guess it is the coach.

Summit Conference Semi Finals:

• 1 seed Oral Roberts vs. 8 seed IPFW 7pm

• 2 seed South Dakota St vs. 7 seed IUPUI 9:30pm

• 3 seed Oakland vs. 6 seed Southern Utah 9;30pm

• 4 seed Western Illinois vs 5 seed North Dakota St 7pm

1 bid conference. Oral Roberts is the class of the league. But look out for the Jack Rabbits of SD St.

Big Sky Conference Quarter Finals:

• 3 seed Portland St vs. 6 seed Montana St 10pm

• 4 seed Eastern Washington vs. 5 seed Idaho St 5pm

1 bid conference. top 2 seeds Montana and Weber St have byes to the semi finals

Sun Belt Conference 1st round:

• 8 seed Florida Atlantic vs. 9 seed Arkansas St 7:15pm
  

• 7 seed Western Kentucky vs. 10 seed Florida International 9:30pm
  

• 6 seed South Alabama vs. 11 seed Troy 7pm

1 bid conference top 5 seed have bye to quarter finals

Other non- conference tournament action:

BE:

• WV vs. USF 12pm MASN/ESPN3
  

• Cincinnati vs.Villanova 2pm ESPN/ESPN3

Need WV and Nova wins on the off chance of a Georgetown Loss.

• Pittsburgh vs Uconn 12pm ESPN/ESPN3

• Louisville vs. Syracuse 4pm CBS
  

• St. Johns vs. Rutgers 8pm MASN/ESPN3

• Seton Hall vs. Depaul 6pm MASN/ESPN3

Uconn and Seton Hall need wins for their NCAA tournament resumes.

Syracuse sucks so go Louisville!

Non Conference:

• Memphis vs Tulsa 12pm CBS
  

• Alabama vs Ole Miss 4pm ESPN3
  

• NJIT vs. Chicago St 4pm

• Texas vs. Kansas 9pm ESPN/ESPN3

Rooting for the teams we played to win.

Championship rolls on with 3 new conference tournaments kicking off. Other tournaments move on getting closer and closer to their championship games the first of which will be played tomorrow.

The most important game of the night is Notre Dame vs. Providence. It has serious effects for Georgetown gaining a Double Bye. Remember Georgetown can still secure a double bye even with a loss to Marquette if 2 out of 3 ND, Cincinnati, or USF lose.

Providence @ Notre Dame 7pm MASN/ ESPN3

Continue reading for a breakdown of the rest of tonight's action

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Welcome to Championship Week! Lots of conference tournaments are already underway and the most exciting time of the year is upon us. Tickets will be punched, bubbles will be popped, dreams will be crushed, and Champions will be crowned.

A break down of tonight's action after the Jump

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The Hoyas are currently sitting in third place in the Big East after their dismantling of the Irish on Monday Night. The wins this past weekend have put Georgetown in full control of their destiny with regards to the deeply desired double bye. Georgetown is guaranteed a double bye with a win over Marquette on Saturday. Georgetown can also guarantee a double bye, however, before Saturday depending on the outcome of a few games tonight.

Before you go down the long, winded road of seeding scenarios, I offer the following synopsis: Georgetown can finish as high as 2nd or as low as 6th. If the Marquette beats Cincinnati and USF loses a game the Hoyas are guaranteed a double bye. Marquette loses to Cincinnati, the Hoyas have a chance at 2nd in the conference, or can fall to 6th.

(UPDATED: Previously stated worst Hoyas could finish was 5th, it is actually 6th)

(More After the Jump)

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The Georgetown Hoyas are a Nationally Ranked Powerhouse, this much we know and is certain. This week the Hoyas held steady in the AP poll at 16th in the country and rose up one spot in the Coaches Poll from 17th to 16th.

The out of conference schedule is almost over and Georgetown is getting set to dive into the meat of the schedule. The next two games, a rematch with Memphis and a date at #4 Louisville are arguably Georgetown's toughest two game stretch of the season (although I'd put it second to at #15 Pittsburgh followed by hosting #8/9 Connecticut). However, before we move on to examining our upcoming games, let's take our weekly breakdown of how the voters view the Hoyas and the rest of the college basketball landscape.

More after The Jump:

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A new week is here and with it a new set of rankings to analyze and mock. Today we take a deeper look at the clown who still isn't ranking Georgetown at all and the idiocy of Syracuse being ranked #1 among other fun rankings topics!

Cynical Voter of the Week: Gary Laney of The Advocate, a Baton Rouge based paper. Gary is the lone AP voter who is not ranking the Hoyas. My only explanation is that after being called out last week by many in the media including this blog, he decided to actually watch the Georgetown Hoyas game against Howard. If so, I guess we can't blame him too much for not being impressed. Far more likely is that Gary just doesn't watch basketball and/or an SEC homer, since he still has Alabama ranked 21st despite loses to Georgetown and Dayton.

More after The Jump:

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The polls are out and all is right with the world as the Hoyas are once again a Nationally Ranked Powerhouse. Given we don't play another game until Saturday, and it is only Tuesday, let's delve a little deeper to examine the rankings and some of the logic, or lack thereof, behind them.

Ipad ain't got nothing on me (via searchengineland.com)

Now I realize that the majority of coaches / assistants / writers / children taking the polls probably are not following each team as closely as they should, but there are some inconsistencies that really make no sense.

(More after the Jump)

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Tomorrow we will face #12 Alabama as a part of the Big East/SEC Challenge. In addition to this game, eleven other games will take place over three days to determine which conference is the best. Technically, this is the first year of The Challenge. The past four years of the Big East/SEC Invitational were designed for matches on neutral courts. This was scrapped in favor of a format the mirrors the ACC/Big 10 challenge with teams meeting on an opponent's home court. Previously, the conferences have split the 16 games played over the four years 8-8.

In this breakdown we will examine the matchups and provide our predictions on the winners of the 11 games besides our own. When the match-ups were first announced I thought this would be a cake walk for the Big East, with the good guys winning something like 10-2 or 9-3. After one money of basketball, the Big East is looking shaky, and this could become a lot more competitive of a challenge.

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Look Back:
Last year, Sims improved both his points and rebounds totals, averaging 3.6 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 0.7 blocks while shooting 57.8% from the field and 50% from the free throw line. Henry showed lots of potential in non-conference play and had some decent performances in the Big East against Pittsburgh (6 points, 5 rebounds), Villanova (5,5), and Marquette(7,3). On the whole, however, while showing improvement over his first two years, Henry has left Hoya fans wanting much more out of his play.

Expectations and Projections After The Jump:

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Look Back:
Last year, Hollis Thompson was asked to play out of position and guard opposing teams' power forwards with his slight 205 lb. frame and actually did remarkably well in this role. Thompson grabbed a solid 16% of the rebounds on the defensive glass, finishing the third best on the team after Julian Vaughn and Henry Sims.  On the offensive end, Hollis had an up and down season, reaching double digits a dozen times but being held to five points or fewer almost as often (10). There was no change in his performance in OOC vs. BE or as a starter vs. coming off the bench, or even when Chris Wright was injured or not injured.  He was consistently inconsistent. His breakout game was in the NCAA Tournament loss to VCU, where he scored a career high 26 points.  Hopefully this gave us a glimpse of what he has in store for us this year.

Expectations and Projections After The Jump:

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Look Back:
Nate Lubick arrived on campus as a consensus top 50 recruit and was certainly the most productive of the freshman class, averaging four points and nearly four rebounds in over nineteen minute per game.  Lubick shot 53.8% from the field, 67.5% from the line and 23.5% from three.  Inserted into the starting lineup following a Georgetown win over Seton Hall on January 18th, Lubick made his first start on January 26th in the Hoyas blowout win over St. John's and started the final thirteen games of the Hoyas season in which the Hoyas went 7-6.

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Look Back: Aaron Bowen came to Georgetown after a prep year at Quality Education Academy in North Carolina where he helped them win a national title. He originally committed to Marquette prior to his prep year, but decommitted after the assistant coach who recruited him left the program. Last year, Bowen played sparingly due to a shoulder injury and received a medical redshirt so he will have four years of eligibility remaining. In the seven games Bowen appeared in, he averaged one point and .6 rebounds in just over three minutes per game. His shooting stats should probably be thrown out the window, however, seeing as his shooting shoulder was injured.

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Here's some math for you on this beautiful All Saints Day:  Kim Kardashian reportedly received $18mm for that wedding to Kris Humphries.  The marriage lasted 72 days, which equates to approximately $250,000 per day, and nearly $10,500 per hour.  That's Eliot Spitzer money right there.  Today our player profiles engine keeps running with a look at John Caprio.

Look Back:
As a walk-on, Caprio played sparingly last year. He played in four contests (Tulane, Utah St, Loyola (MD), and St. John's) and only totaled six minutes of playing time in those blowout wins.  Caprio scored a total of 2 points, both coming from the freethrow line against St. John's.  And they were pretty.

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Look Back:
Mikael Hopkins was a huge coup on the recruiting trail for the Georgetown Hoyas.  A consensus top 100 prospect from local power house DeMatha, his commitment was the second of the year for the Hoyas and lifted the hopes of the Hoya faithful who had just seen two prospects (Tyrone Johnson and Rakeem Christmas) choose Big East rivals (Villanova and Syracuse) over the summer.  Hopkins was the first major recruit to join the Hoyas impressive 2011 recruiting class, and chose the Hoyas over Kansas, Maryland, Miami, WV, and Ohio State.

Expectations and Projections after The Jump:

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Our hard-hitting player profiles for the 2001-12 Georgetown Hoyas continues today with Jabril Trawick.  

Look Back: When Hoyas fans first became aware of Jabril Trawick, he was viewed as a Jerrelle Benimon type prospect who the Hoyas would snatch up in the spring if better options did not avail themselves. However, Jabril did not waste any time changing that outlook.  The first Georgetown commit in the class of 2011, few if any had predicted he would have as much of a positive impact as he has appears to have had on the team before the Hoyas have played a single game.

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With conference realignment talk driving everyone crazy, let's turn the focus back to what John Thompson III and Georgetown can control - the basketball team.  This weekend, consensus top 50 guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera will visit Georgetown, and after Kyle Anderson spurned the Hoyas for UCLA, "DSR" has become a primary target in the 2012 class.

The Hoyas are the perceived leaders in DSR's recruitment, but newcomers NC State and Memphis are making a move for this high scoring guard.  Xavier, the school DSR originally committed to and then decommitted from, is also a major player in his recruitment.  DSR has also gotten looks from UCLA (bastards) and Michigan State, though at this point those destinations currently look unlikely.

More on DSR after The Jump:

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The Hoyas got back to campus early this morning after their flight was delayed in Toronto for several hours. While most people will only remember this trip for the brawl, hoya fans will remember it as the start of a great season where the team bonded for life.

The team had a great trip where they did not suffer a single loss and got an early jump on the season. It was great as fans to have so much coverage on the team in the off-season.  Heck the amount of media coverage we got on the team in china was unprecedented. I want to thank the athletic department for allowing us fans to get a glimpse behind the veil of secrecy that has long been standard at Georgetown. Getting to see the players just goofing around in their free time during site seeing was really refreshing.

While we won't know how much our success in China will translate to the Big East, we do know that we have a great group of kids who represent the university well and that we will be proud to cheer on. We certainly look like we have a lot of potential and could surprise in the Big East.

Our rebounding numbers were very encouraging. We out rebounded every opponent (that we have a box score for). A really nice development is that we're hitting the offensive glass. In the three games we had offensive rebounding rates of 39%, 37%, and 51%. Adding up the numbers from all 3 games we had an offensive rebounding % of 42.4% If we can average anywhere close to that we'd be very dangerous. Now I don't expect us to hit those numbers, but if we can get our OR% above 35% it will definitely be a huge boon for our offense.

We shot a respectable 35.6% from 3pt range on the trip. Hollis 4-11(3-6 in the first 2 games), Jason 6-15(2-5 every game) are the only reliable threats however. Aaron, Jabril, Markel, Otto, Greg, Mikael, and Nate can all make the shot, but have not proven they can do so at a reliable rate yet.

Another encouraging sign we can hope to take from the box scores is our high assist and steal numbers. We average 20.3 assists per game over in china and 10.3 steals. However, we also turned the ball over 13 times a game which suggests that ball control will again be a problem. But if the Hoyas can up their turnovers forced like they did in China then this may not be as big of a problem for the Hoyas as in years past.

Again all this is based on stats from exhibitions against teams we do not know the quality of, so take this all with a grain of salt.

JTIII always says that each team is different and has to learn what will work best for that team in order to go out and win games. Last year's team's strength was on the perimeter with Austin and Chris, so that's the way we played focusing on guard play and the 3 point shot. In '08 the focus was on big Roy and in 09 and 10 Monroe was the focal point. JTIII will adjust to fit this groups talent. I expect more transition, more dribble penetration, and more focus on defense from this years group.

No matter what happens on the court. This glimpse that the trip to China has given us is greatly encouraging. This group is at the very least entertaining and it should be a fun season no matter what the results.

Only 50 more days till midnight madness.

In their first game since the infamous game ending brawl with the Bayi Rockets, the Georgetown Hoyas got another win against a professional Chinese team, defeating the Dinosaurs of Liaoning by a score of 91-69.  The game took place at 4pm (4am EST) in Shanghai as part of the Nike Festival of Sport.  Liaoning finished 10th last year in the Chinese Basketball Association and featured Gio Ailum, a member of the Chinese National Team.

The Hoyas were lead by Jason Clark with 17pts and 4 assists and 4 other players reached double figures in scoring. Otto Porter had 12 points and 7 rebounds, Mikael Hopkins had 11 and 5, while Aaron Bowen chipped in 10 points including going 2-2 from 3pt range.

The Hoyas have another game scheduled for tomorrow before they finally get the hell out of China and return home. GuHoyas.com currently lists the game as being against the Shandong Flaming Bulls while Gene Wang of the Washington post suggested that the game will instead be against the Taiwanese National Team.

Recap