After a couple of months of tuning up, the true season begins tonight for the Georgetown Hoyas. Today marks the opening of the 2008-09 Big East Regular season. The Hoyas will begin their defense of the Big East regular season title that they have won the past two years. Starting tonight in Hartford, CT, they’ll be fighting for the Three-peat. Even though the Hoyas are 9-1 and have already faced some difficult competition in the early part of the season (Wichita State, Tennessee, Memphis), the opening portion of their Big East schedule is brutal, and easily the hardest of any team in the 16-team conference.

There is not a lot of value to be found in the Big East preseason rankings, but they give a very general idea of what to expect in conference play. According to those rankings from October, Connecticut and Louisville and good, DePaul and South Florida are not. If you look at the Top 25 polls you’ll find 8 teams from the Big East (technically Marquette is #27 in the AP). Assume that those 8 teams represent the top half of the Big East standings. Of the 16 Big East teams, only two of them face three straight upper half teams to open conference play. One of those teams is Rutgers, picked to finish 12th in the pre-season poll. The other team is Georgetown.

The Hoyas start their conference season at Connecticut tonight, home versus Pittsburgh on Saturday, and at Notre Dame two days later. Those Saturday to Monday quick turnarounds are always difficult, not to mention when both of the opponents are ranked in the Top 10 (give or take). Syracuse on the other hand plays three of the four worst teams to open their season, with home games versus Seton Hall and DePaul sandwiched around a road trip to play against South Florida.

There isn’t a lot of difference among the Big East schedules – everybody plays everybody else once. There is a little bit of luck involved, however, in which teams meet twice and whether or not you face certain opponents at home and on the road. The biggest key to having a successful Big East season is getting off to a good start. In two months, when the Big East Tournament first round byes are being decided, there are going to be a bunch of teams clawing to get into the top four spots in the standings. Starting 1-2 compared to 3-0 makes it a little tougher.

It’s a dangerous opening three games for the Hoyas, but on the flip side there is a huge reward to claim. The danger is that all three of those games are against very good teams, and a 0-3 start would be a nightmare. The reward is that if the Hoyas start 3-0, they will be in the Top 5 in the nation, without a doubt. Anything in between and Georgetown will be right where they should be, hanging around near the top of the conference.