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WASHINGTON - By: Bobby Bancroft

After starting out the season with three of its first four games away from the friendly confines of the Verizon Center, Coach John Thompson III and his Georgetown Hoyas will enjoy plenty of home cooked meals and familiarity as the team picked to finish second in the BIG EAST will play seven consecutive home games in a three-week period starting at the end of November.

While nothing is guaranteed in the crazy world of college basketball, one opponent during that stretch stands out far more than the others.

SYRACUSE.

For college basketball, which exploded in popularity in the 1980s through the expansion of cable television, there's nothing quite like Georgetown versus Syracuse. It's right up there with the best rivalries in the sport such as Duke - North Carolina and Louisville - Kentucky.

What makes this rivalry so compelling is that all of the key ingredients are spoken for in that you have Hall of Fame coaches, Hall of Fame players, conference titles, national championships, record-setting crowds, heroes, villains, dramatic finishes and a platform at the World's Most Famous Arena in Madison Square Garden. There's also a great mutual respect between the two programs to go along with fan bases that flat out don't like each other 365 days a year.

Now, while football-based conference realignment suspended the series temporarily the last two seasons, the two schools that did so much to build up both the BIG EAST and college sports on television will get back at each other on the hardwood as part of a four-game series that begins Dec. 5 at Verizon Center.

The vast majority of the 90 games between the two national powers have come as conference foes. This will be the first non-conference matchup since the 1978-79 campaign. All in all, the teams have met just 17 times outside of BIG EAST play.

So before we go forward we must first go back and look over some of the greatest moments and performances in Georgetown - Syracuse history.

No list, absolutely no list, can begin without the unofficial start of the series which occurred in the team's first ever BIG EAST contest back in the 1980 season.

Georgetown's final trip to Syracuse's Manley Field House is something that will never be forgotten. The Hoyas needed a win to claim a share of the first ever regular season crown but Syracuse was ranked No. 2 in the country, had just one previous loss on the season, and held a 57-game home court winning streak. Despite being down 14 at the half the Hoyas fought back to tie the game at 50 before leading scorer Eric "Sleepy" Floyd's two free throws with five seconds left gave Georgetown a 52-50 victory that set off the rivalry for decades to come. The Syracuse seniors such as Roosevelt Bouie and Louis Orr had never lost a home game in their careers.

In the postgame aftermath of the final ever contest at Manley Field House, Coach John Thompson Jr. -- after ending the nation's longest active home court winning streak -- grabbed a microphone and proclaimed that, "Manley Field House is officially closed."

And just like that, a rivalry was born.

Now, it's only natural that two schools that spend most of their time in the top 25 would see each other often in postseason play. Georgetown and Syracuse would live up to their lofty billings over the years by squaring off 14 times in the BIG EAST Championships, with the Hoyas winning four finals in five tries. Coach Thompson Jr.'s teams came out victorious in 1980, 84, 87, and 89.

Just three weeks after closing down Manley in 1980, the Hoyas and Orange would go at it again. The 20th-ranked Hoyas again came in the underdog to the third-ranked Orange in a game being played at the Providence Civic Center. The Hoyas captured the first championship in BIG EAST history with an 87-81 win behind Sleepy Floyd's 21 points and 10 rebounds from Ed Spriggs.

The bad blood continued four years later as the second-ranked Hoyas scored their second BIG EAST crown with an 82-71 overtime win over Jim Boeheim's Syracuse Orange. Patrick Ewing led the Hoyas with 27 points and 16 rebounds as the eventual National Champions defeated Syracuse for the third time on the season despite Pearl Washington's 27 points at Madison Square Garden. Boeheim's frustrations carried over into the postgame press conference as he proclaimed that, "The best team did not win tonight."

Ewing would finish his BIG EAST career with an 8-3 overall mark against Syracuse with the last matchup coming in the 1985 BIG EAST semifinals that resulted in a 74-65 victory for the top-ranked Hoyas at Madison Square Garden. Georgetown would go on to finish as the National Runner Up three weeks later by making a third Final Four in four seasons.

Two years later No. 11 Georgetown would score one of its most dramatic regular season wins over No. 6 Syracuse as Thompson Jr. pulled off a major plot twist by using an undersized Perry McDonald at center against 6-11 Ronny Seikaly. The 6-4 Hoya scored a career-high 23 points including the game winner from six feet out as time expired at the Capital Centre.

Reggie Williams led the way in the 1987 BIG EAST Final with 25 points and nine rebounds as the seventh-ranked Hoyas knocked off No. 10 Syracuse 69-59. Reggie and the Miracles would go on to finish their season in the Elite 8 after downing the Orange three times on the season.

Although they missed each other in the posteason, the Hoyas and Orange played two tightly-contested games in the 1988 season that resulted in a total separation of just three points. After going down 68-67 with seven seconds left junior guard Charles Smith took the inbounds and went coast to coast before laying in a finger roll as time expired to give the 15th-ranked Hoyas a 69-68 win over the 14th-ranked Orange.

After each school split their games at home in the 1989 season, the rubber match was set for the No. 3 Hoyas and No. 5 Orange in the BIG EAST Final at Madison Square Garden. Georgetown took the season series behind 21 points from freshman Alonzo Mourning and nine rebounds by Jaren Jackson in an 88-79 victory. It was the school's sixth BIG EAST Championship overall and fourth over the Orange in the final. Georgetown once again advanced to the Elite 8.

With John Thompson III taking over the Georgetown program in 2004 there was no doubt that the rivalry would be in good hands for years to come.

In his second year in charge, Thompson III was and his Hoyas were able to snap a five-game losing streak to Syracuse on Senior Day at Verizon Center. Seniors Brandon Bowman, Ashanti Cook, and Darrell Owens all had their hands in the 68-53 victory but it was sophomore Jeff Green that led the way with 18 points and seven rebounds for the 23rd-ranked Hoyas. Having already defeated then unbeaten No. 1 Duke earlier in the season to gain the program's first national ranking since 2002, Thompson III -- who grew up around the rivalry -- showed great respect for his counterparts.

"Beating Duke was nice, this one is nicer," said Thompson III. "To beat Syracuse when you're Georgetown is important."

That win on Senior Day helped propel Georgetown to its first NCAA Tournament bid since 2001 as the Hoyas finished their season in the Sweet 16.

Two years later the No. 9 Hoyas needed a late comeback to force overtime before holding on to a 64-62 victory over the visiting Orange. Roy Hibbert and Jonathan Wallace paced Georgetown with 15 points apiece but it was Jessie Sapp that scored the last five points of regulation as the Hoyas overcame a seven-point deficit with five minutes left. Georgetown held Syracuse without a field goal for the final seven minutes of the game in preserving their perfect record at Verizon Center. The Hoyas finished the season a perfect 16-0 at home en route to their second-straight BIG EAST regular season crown.

With uncertainty surrounding the rivalry because of conference realignment, Georgetown and Syracuse played two memorable regular season games in 2013. First up was a trip to the Carrier Dome. In front of a record on campus crowd of 35,012, the 11th-ranked Hoyas once again were facing an uphill proposition as the ninth-ranked Orange -- much like 33 years earlier -- held the nation's longest home court winning streak -- this time at 38 games. There would be no stopping sophomore Otto Porter Jr. as the future first round NBA lottery pick finished with a career-high 33 points as Georgetown took home a 57-46 victory. Porter connected on 12-of-19 shots from the field that included a career-high five 3-pointers. Coach Thompson III chose not to follow in his dad's footsteps by saying, "I'm sure you guys are waiting for a Manley Field House type of statement. You're not going to get it."

A few weeks later No. 17 Syracuse would travel down to Washington, D.C., on the final day of the regular season as the fifth-ranked Hoyas still had everything to play for in terms of seeding. ESPN College Gameday was on hand as well as a sellout crowd of 20,972 to witness the final BIG EAST meeting between the old foes that had done so much to help the sport grow.

Unlike the earlier meeting, Georgetown led nearly from wire to wire and got a balanced performance in cruising to a 61-39 over Syracuse to clinch the third BIG EAST regular season title under Thompson III. Junior Markel Starks led four Hoyas in double figures as Georgetown held Syracuse to its lowest point total in 40 years. The game ended up being more a 40 minute celebration than an athletic contest as emotions ran high in the arena well before the tip.

"Last night for the first time this year, I slept well," explained Thompson III. "We were prepared. Our guys understood what it meant and we came to play."

Still a big part of the rivalry although long since retired, former coach John Thompson Jr. couldn't resist in weighing in with a post game one liner of, "Kiss Syracuse goodbye."

With these two storied programs renewing their longstanding rivalry, all of college basketball and its fans will be better off for years to come. With each game comes yet another chapter of intensity and greatness. There's nothing quite like Georgetown versus Syracuse.