After Georgetown ousted Syracuse in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament, Orange Head Coach Jim Boeheim said he couldn’t wait to play in the NCAA tournament against an opponent that has not seen the Syracuse zone defense this season.

The third-seeded Hoyas should also benefit from a new opponent that has not seen the intricate offense run by John Thompson III, but that may not be the case in their first round game against Ohio. The reason is that the 14th-seeded Bobcats are coached by John Groce, a former Ohio State assistant that has prepared for Thompson’s hybrid Princeton offense twice in the past five NCAA tournaments.

The first time the No. 7 Hoyas upset the No. 2 Buckeyes in the 2006 second round, and the next year Ohio State defeated Georgetown in the Final Four. Part of the difference was that the first time around the Buckeyes had one day to prepare, but they had six days to study the Hoyas for the second game.

“If you look at them in the time that Coach Thompson has been there, their offensive efficiency numbers really stand out,” Groce said in a phone interview Monday. “They’re difficult to defend and certainly the less time you have to prepare makes it more difficult.”

Groce will have four days, and his team is playing its best basketball of the year. After a 17-14 regular season, Ohio got hot in the Mid-American Conference tournament, winning four games in seven days as the nine seed.

“Defensively we were the best we have been all year,\” Groce said. \”I think our poise was really good. There were times when we could have gotten rattled like we did six weeks to two months ago, but we have grown as a unit.”

Leading the way is junior guard Armon Bassett, a transfer from Indiana that had 21 points and seven assists in the first round of the 2008 NCAA tournament with the Hoosiers.

“He’s been in the NCAA tournament and he’s been in conference tournaments before. I thought he gave our team extra poise and swagger throughout the weekend,” Groce said, adding that Bassett can score in a number of ways.

The 6-foot-2 guard averaged 16.9 points per game throughout the season but went for 29 per game in the four conference tournament games.

“He can score and he’s very smart when it comes to working off of ball screens and creating shots for himself and his teammates,” Georgetown point guard Chris Wright said. “He’s as good as any other Big East guard, so we just have to try and contain him and force him into tough shots.”

Ohio goes 10 players deep and has four other players averaging in double figures, including freshman D.J. Cooper, a 5-foot-11 guard who leads the team in assists and steals and is second in rebounds and points.

When he first saw that Ohio had drawn Georgetown, Groce thought of earlier in the season when he heard analyst Jay Bilas tab the Hoyas as one of a handful of teams that could win a national championship. After watching film of Georgetown, Groce said his team will have to find a way to disrupt the Hoyas’ precision offense.

“They’re very efficient offensively. If they shoot the numbers they’ve been shooting all season – above 50 percent and 38 from three or 40 from three in conference play – and we allow them to do that, that’s going to be a problem for us,” Groce said.

On the other end of the floor, Groce is worried about the Hoyas’ size and length preventing the Bobcats from getting quality shots.

For the Hoyas, the focus will be on continuing the momentum from a Big East tournament run in which they won three games before falling in the championship game on a last-second shot by West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler.

“We’re playing our best basketball right now,” junior guard Austin Freeman said.” It’s just tough that we had to lose in the championship the way we did, but I’m happy with where we are.”

Freeman and junior point guard Chris Wright are the only two Hoyas with NCAA tournament experience, and younger teammates will look to the captains for leadership as they have all season.

“Being a freshman and playing in the NCAA tournament, it was pretty exciting,” Freeman said. “I’m a little bit more mature and older now, [and] I’ve got to talk to the younger guys and tell them about the tournament and not to be too excited because we’ve got to be focused and ready to play every game.”

Sophomore guard Jason Clark said he is eager to play in the NCAA tournament, and classmate Greg Monroe said he has been waiting for this moment since he got to Georgetown.

“It’s a great feeling,” Monroe said. “Coming into college, this is all you dream about – to get the chance to play in the tournament. It’s real special for me.”

In the Midwest Region, labeled the “Group of Death” by some for all the top teams in the bracket, Georgetown’s complicated offense may help it down the line, but the team said it is not looking beyond Ohio. Groce’s Bobcats, a team with four NCAA tournament wins in its history, will be well prepared for Georgetown, a program with 45 NCAA tournament victories. That’s fine with the Hoyas.

“At the end of the day, we just have to be ourselves,” Thompson said. “This is an exciting time [but] you’ve got to settle down and you can’t get caught up with the pomp and circumstance.”

Tip-off is set for 7:25 p.m. at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, R.I..