Over the next five weeks, the Georgetown men’s basketball team will enter the meat of its schedule with games against Virginia and UCLA to finish the non-conference schedule and against iami and Rutgers to open the Big East season. These four performances will go a long way to show Georgetown fans whether the 2001-02 Hoyas can capture the conference crown and make a run in the NCAA Tournament come March.

Georgetown opens this stretch with three games against three id-Eastern Athletic Conference members Morgan St., Norfolk St. and Howard. All three games are at MCI Center and should do nothing more than add three wins to the Hoyas’ record and fulfill their seemingly mandatory quota of at least four MEAC teams on the schedule every year. Georgetown’s main goal in these games should be to keep its players healthy, something they have not been successful in doing in tune-ups thus far.

After almost surely winning these games, the fun ends for the Hoyas Dec. 20, when the Virginia Cavaliers come to town in what will be one of Georgetown’s biggest non-conference games in years. It will be the first meeting between the two schools since the triple overtime thriller won by the Hoyas 115-111 in the first round of 2000 National Invitation Tournament.

The No. 8 Cavaliers are 4-0 this season. However, they have yet to play a serious contender and were nearly upset by Virginia Tech last Saturday. They trailed by 16 points after the first half before rallying to win 69-61.

The Hoyas will be UVA’s first major test this year after their game against No. 16 Michigan St. was canceled with 15:04 remaining in the first half due to unplayable court conditions at the Richmond Coliseum. Though this game is at MCI Center, expect plenty of Cavalier fans to make the journey north to D.C. The Hoyas’ home court advantage will be even further neutralized, as most students will be home for the holidays by Dec. 20.

The Cavaliers are led by senior forward Chris Williams and junior guard Roger Mason, Jr. Mason is averaging over 21 points per game and shooting 53.1 percent from three-point range. Williams is adding more than 19 points per game as well as more than six rebounds in each contest.

The Hoyas’ final non-conference test will occur nine days later at historic Pauley Pavilion against UCLA. A month ago, this appeared to be Georgetown’s toughest test this season as the Bruins were a consensus top five team. However, the Bruins have struggled thus far, dropping two of their first four games against Ball St. and Pepperdine. They have fallen to No. 20, one spot below the Hoyas.

While Georgetown might have reason to be more confident about this one, no one should be under the impression that this game will be easy. Traveling across the country three days after Christmas to play anyone is difficult, and beating a program the caliber of UCLA will be a tall order indeed.

All-American junior forward Jason Kapono leads the Bruins this season with an average of 22.2 points per game. While both freshman guard Cedric Bozeman and senior center Dan Gadzuric have not performed up to expectations so far, the Hoyas will have to give attention to both players if they are going to be successful at Pauley.

After facing the Cavaliers and the Bruins, there is little time to relax and celebrate the New Year, as the Big East schedule begins on Jan. 2 when the Miami Hurricanes come to MCI Center. The ‘Canes have opened the season with seven-straight wins, including a 67-65 win over Clemson.

Sophomore forward Darius Rice leads the ‘Canes with 14.3 points and nearly eight boards per game. He should present a test for the Hoyas’ big men, junior center Wesley Wilson and sophomore forward Mike Sweetney.

While the Hoyas should be able to get their conference season off on the right foot with a win here, they must avoid the temptation to overlook what might be a sparsely-populated MCI Center the day after New Year’s.

The Hoyas’ final test before the rest of the student body returns from the holiday break will come at the Louis Brown Athletic Center against Rutgers. This should be another conference win against a team that will likely be fighting to stay out of the conference cellar. Rutgers has already dropped games to East Carolina and Virginia Commonwealth so far, but they did manage to beat Rutgers. However, the Hoyas have struggled at Rutgers in years past. They were fortunate to come away with 76-73 win there last year.

Winning these opening conference games is a must for the Hoyas, as their next game is against defending Big East Champion Boston College at Conte Forum in a nationally televised game on Jan. 12.

While the Hoyas could recover from losses to Virginia and UCLA, victories would go a long way toward garnering the Hoyas the respect nationally that they were never able to merit last year before the NCAA Tournament. All of these games are pivotal if Georgetown expects to receive a high seed and when March rolls around in three months.