Home openers have been anything but blowouts for Georgetown since John Thompson III took over as coach.
The No. 20 Hoyas look to win their fifth straight home opener under Thompson on Monday night when they take on Tulane.
Georgetown (1-0) is 4-2 in home openers under Thompson, hired before the 2004-05 season. His club lost its first two before winning the next four by an average of 8.8 points.
Last season's home opener was a challenging 46-45 win over Temple. It came after the Hoyas opened with a 74-58 victory at Tulane (1-0) in the first meeting between these schools.
Georgetown opened on the road again in 2010-11 and rallied in the second half for a 62-59 victory at Old Dominion on Friday. Austin Freeman and Chris Wright keyed a late 13-2 run that gave the Hoyas the lead for good.
Wright and Freeman combined for 36 points, 30 of them after halftime. The production helped Georgetown come back after trailing by as many as eight points in the second half.
"These guys, when we needed them to make shots, they put the ball in the basket," Thompson said.
The Hoyas are using a three-guard lineup that includes seniors Freeman and Wright as they get accustomed to playing without Greg Monroe, who left after his sophomore season and was the No. 7 pick by Detroit in the NBA draft.
Monroe was the primary reason why this series was scheduled. He's a Louisiana native who grew up just across the Mississippi River from downtown New Orleans and had 18 points and 11 rebounds in the opener at Tulane last season.
Freeman scored 16 points, Jason Clark had 13 and Wright 11.
The Green Wave finished 8-22 that season, resulting in the dismissal of coach Dave Dickerson. Ed Conroy was hired after previously coaching at The Citadel from 2006-10.
Tulane easily won Conroy's first game, 91-62 at Maryland-Eastern Shore on Friday. Kendall Timmons had career highs of 24 points and 15 rebounds.
The Green Wave know this game will be different as they attempt to end a 25-game losing streak against ranked teams since beating North Carolina State on Dec. 22, 1999.
"This is going to be a heck of a test for us," Conroy said. "We always talk about being prepared to beat the best and certainly coach Thompson and the way they execute their offense is really going to challenge us this early in the season."
Tulane was the worst shooting team in Conference USA last season at 39.7 percent. The Green Wave missed their first eight shots against Georgetown and fell behind 11-0 last season.
"Where I want to see progress is if we are learning when, where and how to make plays," Conroy said. "We like to be an aggressive attacking team, but that means you have to play with discipline and play with the other four guys on the court. If we want to be successful against Georgetown, we have to be more disciplined then we've been."
