Well, folks, it’s that time of year again. Time to dust off that gray jersey that has been hanging forgotten in the corner of your closet for the past seven months. Time to load up your Smart Trip card in preparation for Metro rides on the Red Line. Time to get ready for another season of Georgetown basketball.

At midnight tonight, the 2010-11 Georgetown Hoyas will practice together for the first time. But unlike in the past, when I have been ambivalent, excited, or wary, this year, Midnight Madness describes my exact emotion. I am mad.

And most Hoya fans should be, too. If not mad, at least frustrated. The teams of the past few years have been very frustrating, with perhaps last year’s team being the culmination. In the four seasons since the Hoyas went to the Final Four, the only constant in Georgetown’s play has been its inconsistency.

The 2007-08 side returned four seniors from the Final Four team and would win the Big East Regular Season title, losing only three times during the brutal 18 game schedule. However, they would blow a 17 point lead and lose to Davidson in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

2009 was even worse. That group dominated early, romping then #2-ranked UCONN in their own building to start off the Big East season. But, that was the beginning of the end, as the Hoyas didnt even make the Big Dance and lost in the first round of the NIT.

And last season’s team may have been the most frustrating of them all. The team was hot and cold all season, with crushing wins over Duke and Villanova, but also with head-scratching losses to Rutgers and Notre Dame. It looked as things were finally starting to click as they made a great run to Big East Tournament Finals. But then The Hoyas lost in first round to Ohio, giving up 97 points in a game that was, in all honesty, never close.

Will this season be any different? It is yet to be seen. There is one sign of hope to change the story. This year’s Hoyas have a senior presence that has not been around since 2008. Not only will the team have two leaders in Austin Freeman and Chris Wright, it will also have two players who have gone through the pain and suffering that all of us fans have been feeling these past years. That means they are mad, too.

We know that Coach John Thompson III’s teams pride themselves on controlling their emotions. But I think that the Hoyas play their best when they are fired up for a game, when the players feel like they have something to prove, like the Maryland game from 2008 or the second half of the Connecticut game last year. If this team can play with that passion, that intensity, that anger all this season, then Hoyas fans will have something to be happy about come March. So, let the madness begin…