And then there were two.

With Maryland’s surprising 75-66 upset win at No. 2 Duke Wednesday night, only two undefeated teams remain in college basketball – No. 1 Illinois and No. 8 Boston College.

The Eagles (17-0, 6-0), who escaped with a 78-75 victory at last-place Providence on Wednesday to maintain a perfect slate so far this season, will take their gaudy record into tomorrow night’s contest with Georgetown (5-2, 13-5) at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

The game is one of the marquis matchups in the Big East so far in 2005. BC and Syracuse are the only two teams still undefeated in league play, and Georgetown now occupies sole possession of third place after Notre Dame’s loss this week at Villanova.

In the preseason, few predicted that this game would be so important. The Hoyas, as their fans know well, were predicted to finish second to last by the conference coaches in November. The Eagles’ success has been nearly as unexpected. They were picked to finish fifth in the Big East, and they were not among the five conference teams that were ranked in the preseason Associated Press Poll.

Much like Georgetown, BC has found a way to win close games. The Eagles have won seven of their 17 games by six points or less.

“They are an extremely composed team,” Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III said. “They don’t do many things to beat themselves.”

BC is led by junior forward Craig Smith. His averages of 18.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game lead the team and are fourth in the Big East overall.

“Smith is one of the best, if not the best, post players in the conference,” Thompson said.

Sophomore forward Jared Dudley has also played a big role in the Eagles’ torrid start in 2004-05. He scored 21 points and hit a big three-pointer with 1:20 to go as they came back from a double-digit second half deficit against Providence. He had a career-high 36 points last Wednesday in BC’s come-from-behind 67-66 victory over Villanova.

Georgetown, meanwhile, continues to raise its own profile with each win. The optimism for this team has not been this high since its 16-0 start in 2001 en route to its only NCAA Tournament bid in the last seven seasons. If Georgetown could pull the upset tomorrow, it would almost certainly make its first appearance in the Top 25 since the beginning of 2002.

At the beginning of the season, making the NIT was thought to be a reasonable goal for the Hoyas. Now, with nine games remaining on the schedule, just going 5-4 in their remaining games would leave them at 10-6 in the Big East, 18-9 overall and right on the cusp of an NCAA berth. A finish any better than that would virtually assure a bid and guarantee that the class of 2005 will not be the first Georgetown class since 1974 to never see the Hoyas in March Madness at least once in their four years.

Thompson, however, stresses that looking far down the road is not part of the mindset of this year’s team.

“There’s a lot of ball left to be played,” he said. “It’s about us. Our position in the league and all that is irrelevant.”

With BC bolting to the ACC after this season, tomorrow will be the last regular season conference game between two of the Big East’s original schools. Georgetown holds a 43-27 lead in the series overall, which dates back to the 1946-47 season, and a 31-14 margin in games since the founding of the Big East.