It has been seven months and 11 days since the Georgetown men’s basketball team took to the court at Verizon Center to play in front of a home crowd. Saturday, the team will be back.

At noon, the Georgetown men’s basketball team will tip off against St. Francis Brooklyn College in the first game of the 2014-2015 regular season. The Hoyas ended last season with an overall 18-15 record and a disappointing second-round exit in the National Invitation Tournament, and are counting on a fresh start for this season.

Beating the Terriers, however, selected No. 1 in the Northeast Conference preseason poll, is no sure thing. Like the Hoyas, they boast a mixture of seasoned players and talented rookies. The Terriers return six players with starting experience, including all-NEC first-team senior forward Jalen Cannon, and have added seven new players, four of whom are transfers from successful community college programs.

“They have five or six or seven new guys in the mix also and it’s really hard to figure out what they’re going to do in the first game without having any film of them,” Head Coach John Thompson III said.

Also like Georgetown, St. Francis Brooklyn finished last season with 18 wins, including an overtime victory over 2013 Atlantic Coast Conference champions University of Miami on the road in its season opener. A few weeks later, it led No. 9 Syracuse University at the Carrier Dome until the final minute of the game, eventually falling 56-50. In the relatively low-scoring affair, Cannon led both teams in scoring with 16 points.

“He’s effective all over the court. We’re probably going to have to throw several different people at him because he’s strong and aggressive at the basket,” Thompson said of Cannon. “He’s one of these guys you can tell that’s played a lot of basketball in his life. He’s been in every situation a lot and he’s fun to watch and play — except this week.”

Although the Hoyas and the Terriers share a commonality in their roster experience, the quality of Georgetown’s players is something St. Francis Brooklyn can only dream about. From freshman forwards Isaac Copeland and L.J. Peak to senior guard Jabril Trawick and senior forward Mikael Hopkins, the Hoyas have talent to spare.

When the game starts, however, all eyes will shift from these players to senior center Josh Smith and Preseason Big East Player of the Pear junior guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, both of whom can be game-changers any time they step on the court.

“When Josh is on the court, there are very few people in basketball who are like him. He adds a completely different dimension to our team because he gives us a low-post presence that commands attention and he’s a very good passer.” Thompson said, “[Smith-Rivera is going to have to play with more energy on both ends of the court. He’s got the X on his back. He’s one of the better guards in the country and he’s earned that and so now he has to deal with that. If we were playing us, we would come after him.”

Hoya fans can expect to see Smith-Rivera and Smith in the starting rotation, but, as Thompson has maintained all preseason, the only certainty about the lineup is that that it will change — a lot.

“We can go in a lot of different directions this year. It may be situation-to-situation or game-to-game because we have a very versatile, very flexible team at both ends of the court. … We can mix and match,” Thompson said. “Substitutions are going to be an ongoing thing.”

Peak, who not only had a knack for scoring in high school, but also led the team in rebounds in its preseason scrimmage against Virginia, could be one of the first players off the bench.

“He’s just gifted; he’s just blessed. It’s just a lot about this game that comes easy to him,” Thompson said.

Senior forward Aaron Bowen added to the praise of Peak and the other freshmen.

“All of the freshmen are going to be good this year,” Bowen said. “They put in work, [and I] stay after practice to show them the offense because it’s such a hard offense to learn. We have really smart freshmen and they’re picking it up really fast.”

Thompson admits that it is unrealistic to expect everything to fall into place this early in the season and wishes he, “had three more weeks” to get ready, but he hopes that his team will come out on top when it is all said and done on Saturday.

But just in case someone might wrongly interpret his tempered outlook as a lack of confidence, Thompson makes a promise.

“At some point this year, we’re going to be very, very good,” he said.

Ready or not, Saturday’s game will be the Hoyas’ first step on their journey to reach that optimal level.