On Tuesday, basketball buzz on the Hilltop began in earnest when the Georgetown men’s basketball team announced its 2014-2015 schedule. Featuring its usual grueling stretch of Big East games, the schedule is also studded with several tough nonconference matchups against perennial powerhouses Kansas and Indiana, as well as an early-season tournament in the Bahamas that will feature multiple ranked opponents.

The Hoyas open the season with three straight home games, starting with a noon tipoff on Saturday, Nov. 15, against St. Francis. After the matchup against the Brooklyn college, Georgetown will host relatively unknown Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and small-conference power Robert Morris.

The nonconference schedule really gets going Nov. 26, when Georgetown will head for warmer weather and decidedly stiffer competition at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas. In Nassau, the Hoyas will face the Florida Gators in the first round, who, according to an early preseason ranking by ESPN’s Eamonn Brennan, are the No. 8 team in the country. Awaiting the Hoyas, should they advance, will be UAB or Wisconsin, the latter ranked No. 4.

After the Thanksgiving break, the Blue and Gray return to Verizon Center to face area rival Towson on Dec. 7 before facing off against one of the best teams in the nation — the Jayhawks. Brennan puts Kansas at No. 9 despite the early departures of Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid to the NBA, and the matchup will undoubtedly give the Hoyas a chance to prove themselves against top competition before Big East play begins. Last year, Georgetown travelled to Lawrence, Kan., and was trounced by 22 points, so the Hoyas will look for an improvement at Verizon Center. Though the Kansas game falls on a Wednesday during finals period for Georgetown students, it will be nationally televised — as will most of Georgetown’s games — on Fox Sports 1.

Three days later, the Hoyas play Radford at Verizon Center, followed by another home game against Charlotte on Dec. 20. Two days after Christmas, Georgetown will head to New York City and historic Madison Square Garden to wrap up its nonconference schedule against five-time NCAA tournament champion Indiana. Tipoff is slated for noon, and the game will be televised on ESPN2. Georgetown will want revenge for its last game against Indiana during the 2012-13 season, an 82-72 overtime loss in the Legends Classic in New York.

On New Year’s Eve, the Hoyas kick off Big East play against Xavier in Cincinnati, Ohio, at 10 p.m. Conference play consists of 18 games against Marquette, Butler, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Xavier, Creighton, DePaul and Providence — half of which will be played at home and all of which will be televised on Fox Sports 1 or CBS.