When Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III heard on Tuesday morning that 100 students had camped out in McDonough to purchase tickets for this evening’s Sweet 16 game against Vanderbilt, he decided to bring McDonald’s breakfasts for the devoted fans.

“We had a smorgasbord,” Thompson said. “We had Egg McMuffins, we had Sausage McMuffins and we had hotcakes and sausages.”

Tonight in East Rutherford, N.J., Thompson and the Hoyas will try to find a smorgasbord of ways to feed junior center Roy Hibbert in the post. In a close second-round game against Boston College last Saturday, Hibbert dominated in the second half, scoring 15 points after the break to lead Georgetown (28-6, 13-3 Big East) to a 62-55 victory.

“I didn’t want to go home and start my postseason workouts, so I said that I have to do whatever I can to make sure this team advances to the next round,” Hibbert said.

The Commodores will likely start their postseason workouts tomorrow if they cannot find a way to prevent Hibbert from consistently getting the ball down low. When the 7-foot-2 center catches the ball close to the basket, he is almost unstoppable. He set a Big East Conference record by connecting on 71.2 percent of his field goal attempts in league play this season, and he is shooting 67.2 percent from the floor overall.

Vanderbilt (22-11, 10-6 SEC East) does not have any players who match up well against Hibbert. Vanderbilt has only one center on its roster, 6-foot-11 Ted Skuchas, who plays just 15.6 minutes per game and averages 4.1 points and 2.6 rebounds. The Commodores’ tallest regular starter is 6-foot-9 junior forward Ross Neltner, who nets 9.3 points per game on average.

Hibbert went 8-for-11 from the field, scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in Georgetown’s 86-70 win at Vanderbilt on Nov. 15.

“They handled us very easily the first time around, much more easily than we’re used to on our home court,” Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings said.

But the Commodores, much like the Hoyas, are a different team now than they were at the start of the season. After losing to Georgetown in their first game, the Commodores lost to Wake Forest, defeated Elon and fell to Furman. Then they started playing well.

“After the Furman game, the season wasn’t up and down,” Stallings said. “Until we lost to Arkansas twice to end the regular season, we did not lose back-to-back games. The season was actually very steady and consistent after the first four games.”

Vanderbilt vaulted into the national rankings after defeating then-No. 20 Tennessee, then-No. 9 Alabama, Kentucky and then-No. 22 LSU in a two-week span from Jan. 10-24. The Commodores’ best win of the season, however, came when they knocked off then-No. 1 Florida by a score of 83-70 on Feb. 17.

In order for the Commodores to pull off the upset over a Georgetown team that has won 17 of its last 18 games, they are going to need significant contributions from their two stars, senior guard/forward Derrick Byars and junior guard/forward Shan Foster. Byars, the SEC player of the year, averages 17 points per game on the season and scored a game-high 27 points in Vanderbilt’s 78-74 double-overtime victory over Washington State last Saturday.

Foster is second on the team in scoring (15.6 points per game) and has played well in this year’s NCAA tournament. He scored 18 points in Vanderbilt’s 77-44 first-round victory over George Washington, and then put up 20 against Washington State.

Byars, who is 6-foot-7, and Foster, who is 6-foot-6, are especially dangerous because of their versatility.

“[Byars and Foster] pose problems,” Thompson said. “They can play big; they can play small; they can guard big and they can guard small. They are both very, very good offensive players that make tough shots.”

A lot of their shots come from behind the three-point line. Byars has made 76 three-pointers this season and Foster has made 72. Senior guard Dan Cage, who ranks second in the SEC in three-point field goal percentage (44.3 percent), leads the team with 77 baskets from behind the arc. Vanderbilt shot 758 three-pointers in the regular season, the second-most in the SEC.

“It’ll be very important to guard the perimeter shot,” Georgetown junior guard Jonathan Wallace said. “They pretty much live and die by that shot.”

“They get threes,” Thompson said. “Even when you’re playing good defense, they can shoot over you.”

But Stallings said that he is worried about the Hoyas’ defense, which he called “outstanding in every way.”

“Maybe better than any team in the country that I’ve seen, they contest shots,” Stallings said. “You are constantly shooting over a hand, and their hands happen to be really long and high up in the air, too, because of their length and athleticism.”

It will be hard for Georgetown fans to think about tonight’s game without making comparisons. They will probably think back to the Hoyas’ victory over the Commodores at the beginning of this season, and they will likely recall Georgetown’s loss to Florida in last year’s Sweet 16.

But make no mistake: For Thompson and the Hoyas, the past is history.

“We throw that game out the window,” Thompson said about Georgetown’s Nov. 15 win over Vanderbilt. “Thinking about last year is irrelevant right now,” he added.

When the clock strikes 7:27 p.m. in East Rutherford, all that will matter is which team plays better for two 20-minute periods.

“We’re playing one of the very few dominant teams in college basketball this year, so we know it’s going to be difficult,” Stallings said.

A win will give Georgetown its first appearance in the Elite Eight since 1996.