In honor of Throwback Thursday, and (more importantly) the 2013 men’s basketball season opener tonight in South Korea, we here at 4E thought it was a good time to look back at the infamous, last time the Hoyas went to Asia.

The events are explained in more detail in the Hoya story that covered the incident of the time. Basically, the Hoyas were taking a good-will, exhibition trip to China, playing friendly basketball match-ups against various Chinese teams across the country.  However, one game, against the Bayi Rockets, turned out to not be so friendly, as tensions escalated into physical violence.  This stole the spotlight of the trip, overshadowed the positives, and brought up questions of international tensions leaking into athletics.

While the Hoyas make another international basketball experience tomorrow night in the Armed Forces Classic (8 ET, ESPN), I’m confident for a variety of reasons that it will be a much more civil experience.

1) They’re all amateurs

While Georgetown faced off against a professional team from China, they play the #18 Oregon Ducks tomorrow.  I think there’s a little less pressure on college kids playing each other, than professionals being embarrassed losing to a group of college students.

2) They’ll all be wearing cool uniforms 

Nike produced some sweet uniforms for this one, so not only will both teams look good, but they won’t be jealous of one another.

3) The uniforms endorse “respect”

Staying on the uniforms, I feel like it would be pretty contradictory to get into a brawl when Georgetown’s jerseys literally say “RESPECT” on the back.

4) This game actually counts

They Hoyas are looking for a strong start by beating a ranked opponent, and Oregon doesn’t want to get booted from the Top 25 this early, so neither of them have time for on-court shenanigans.

5) John B. Carroll

With the new mascot on campus, the Hoyas are looking to set a positive example for the little guy.  How could you disappoint this face?