In my family, as in most families, there is a large debate over the best way to eat Thanksgiving leftovers. It is about a 50-50 split between those preferring a cold turkey sandwich and those who would rather heat up the turkey along with mashed potatoes and gravy. As the college basketball season heads into December, the matchups are heating up faster than yams in a microwave. Yesterday, the Big Ten/ACC Challenge began, and closer to home, the boys from the Hilltop are back on the court.

Tonight, the Georgetown Hoyas travel down to Norfolk, VA to take on the Old Dominion Monarchs. Under normal circumstances, this would represent nothing more than a standard tune up against a good team in a middling conference. The Hoyas could essentially coast, getting playing time for the freshmen and working on the offense. But these are not normal circumstances.

It is always tough to play out of conference (OOC) games. In order to boost a team’s strength of schedule, one has to play difficult teams and travel to hostile environments. This difficulty is evidenced by Georgetown’s three OOC losses during last year’s season. Two of those losses came on the second leg of what I call a “home and home” series.

Georgetown defeated Oregon to give them their first home loss in the 2005-06 season, but Oregon got its revenge, beating Georgetown at the Phone Booth the following year. Also in the 2005-06 season, Georgetown knocked Duke off as the number one team in the country. Then Duke returned the favor the next year, knocking the Hoyas out of the Top 25.

However, the Hoyas have also given their fair share of payback. In the 2005-06 season, the Hoyas lost to Vanderbilt for their first loss of the season. In 2006-07, Georgetown went down to Nashville and gave the Commodores a taste of their own medicine, defeating them in their season opener. If you add Georgetown’s second-meeting wins over Pitt and Villanova, the Hoyas went undefeated last year in the second leg of home and home series after having lost the first leg.

In fact, of the seven losses Georgetown suffered last season, all of them were either the other team seeking payback on the Hoyas or was later avenged by the Hoyas by the end of the season. Except one. Enter Old Dominion.

Georgetown had not lost a game at McDonough in over 20 years, were ranked the highest they had been in 10 years, and were coming off an impressive win over Vandy. Then, Old Dominion came and rained on the parade. I am sure that the Hoyas who were on that team last year have not forgotten that game. You can be sure the ODU players and fans haven’t forgotten either. But this is a new year, and it’s the Hoyas’ chance to get revenge. And that is a dish best served cold.