After a long winning streak with some impressive victories, the Hoyas now find themselves on the verge of falling back to .500 in conference play. After a pair of disappointing losses, Georgetown faces St. John’s at Madison Square Garden with a lot riding on the outcome. The performance we see the Hoyas put forth will tell us a lot about this young Georgetown side.

At the start of the season, we did not know what to expect from this year’s Hoyas. Georgetown’s stellar start gave us high hopes, and the team’s high ranking along with the dramatic fashion in which the Hoyas were winning those games perhaps made us believe that the Hoyas were better than they really were. Now, the team is facing adversity for the first time, with a pair of uninspired performances leading up to a noon showdown against the Red Storm. The result of this game has big implications on the Hoyas’ season.

If the Hoyas can pull off a road win at St. John’s, then the Hoyas will be an impressive 4-2 a third of the way through the season, the Cincinnati loss can be written off as a blip on the radar, and Georgetown would still in prime position to earn the coveted double bye in the Big East Tournament.

However, a loss to the Red Storm would drop the Hoyas to 3-3 in conference play, falling back to the middle of the pack, and running the risk of a bottom half finish that would require five games to win the conference tournament.

Obviously the Big East season is not even half way done, and there is still a lot that can happen from now until March. As Coach Thompson the father used to say, no one wins championships in January. But, this game will certainly tell us a lot about this young team. A loss against St. John’s could start a downward spiral, where as a win would show the team’s resilience and ability to bounce back after a tough loss. And, win or lose, the performance of the Hoyas will show us a lot about the character of the team. For better or worse, we will learn much about Georgetown today.