By George, They're Back!

If preseason hype is any indication, senior Austin Freeman will be one to watch this season as Georgetown looks to remain dominant in Big East. (Photo courtesy of New York Daily News)

Not very often does a team that loses its best players retool so well to the point where they are just as good, or even better than they were in the previous season. Georgetown is the exception to the rule this year, as the Hoyas are back with guards Austin Freeman, Chris Wright and Jason Clark leading the team after center Greg Monroe decided to forgo his final two seasons to enter the NBA draft, where he was selected seventh overall by the Detroit Pistons this past summer.

Georgetown is normally a team whose big men have historically grabbed the lion's share of the headlines, (Monroe, Roy Hibbert, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, Patrick Ewing, etc.) but Freeman in particular is getting it done from the backcourt. The conference's pick for preseason player of the year, the DeMatha Catholic product is fast becoming the most talked about Hoya guard since a young man named Allen Iverson back in the mid-1990s, and the soft-spoken Marylander has silently backed it up on the hardwood. Just because the Hoyas don't have a forward or center in the spotlight doesn't mean Georgetown's bigs are nonexistent, however. Senior Julian Vaughn and junior Henry Sims anchor the post presence that John Thompson III's squad have become notorious for over the years.

Although the Hoyas have a light nonconference schedule once again, what they lack in number of games, they more than make up for in quality of the games. Georgetown opens a week from Friday on the road against Old Dominion, who advanced to the second round of last year's NCAA Tournament. The Hoyas also have three consecutive games against Big Dance participants Missouri, Utah State and Temple, and travel to Memphis for a matchup with Josh Pastner's Tigers before opening Big East play on December 29th in South Bend against Notre Dame. The Hoyas' home conference opener comes against DePaul on New Year's Day.