Instant BIG EAST Schedule Thoughts

While the opponents were always known - you play each of the other nine schools both home and away - there are still plenty of takeaways from the announcement of the BIG EAST schedule earlier today.

FRIENDLY START

Coach Patrick Ewing and company play five of their first seven games at home to begin BIG EAST play - all in January. Included in this stretch is a season best three straight conference home games beginning on Saturday Jan 12 against Providence and concluding with Creighton on Jan 21. Marquette is the middle game of that stretch. Before January is over the Hoyas will have completed their season series with both St. John’s and Xavier. If Georgetown is to avoid a losing conference record for the fourth straight season, they will need to be well above .500 in league play once February rolls around.

NATIONAL GAMES

The Hoyas have three games BIG EAST games on national TV - Jan 5 St. John’s (CBS), Jan 27 at St. John’s (CBS), and Feb 23 at Creighton (CBS). That being said the league has left open flexibility on the last day of the season in order to get the most relevant games on the better networks. Georgetown is at Marquette on Saturday March 9.

STUDENTS OUT

There are only two conference games this season where the students won’t be in session.

Jan 5 Sat 1pm St. John’s

Mar 2 Sat 6pm Seton Hall

While it’s only two games they are both Saturday games and both games would usually be on the higher side with respect to attendance numbers. The conference home opener against the Johnnies is the Hoyas only nationally televised contest from Capital One Arena. The final home game of the season against the Pirates is the rare late Saturday tip and also doubles as Senior Night for Jessie Govan, Kaleb Johnson, Greg Malinowski, and Trey Mourning.

OTHER THOUGHTS

*Georgetown’s away game to Villanova will be on campus for just the third time since 2006. The Wildcats will play three league games at Wells Fargo - Butler, Xavier, and Seton Hall. Georgetown didn’t make the cut.

*The Hoyas will have three ‘late’ games at home - Jan 15 Marquette (830pm), Jan 21 Creighton (830pm), and Jan 31 Xavier (8pm).

*Georgetown’s lone week night early tip is on Wed Feb 20 when they host Villanova at 630pm.

*The weekend breakdown has Georgetown playing four of its nine BIG EAST home games on the weekend - Jan 5 St. John’s, Jan 12 Providence, Feb 9 Butler, and March 2 Seton Hall.

*Travelers best bet is a pick em between two dates. You can catch two BIG EAST home games if you come in for the noon game on Sat Jan 12 against Providence and stay for the Tuesday night game against Marquette. You can make an even longer trip by catching the Wednesday night game against DePaul and staying through the weekend to see the Hoyas take on Seton Hall on Saturday March 2.

*There are two week long breaks during league play this season, giving you two Hoya free weekends which is probably bad for you and good for the rest of your family. In January Georgetown plays on Tuesday Jan 15 and not again until facing Creighton on Monday Jan 21. In February the Hoyas are in Newark to face Seton Hall on Wed the 13th and aren’t in action again until the following Wednesday when they host Villanova.