If John Thompson III's New Year's resolution was to start 2009 the way 2008 ended, the first three weeks of January certainly haven't come together like he hoped they would.

And if that resolution ultimately meant winning a third straight Big East regular-season title, well that might not come together for Georgetown, either.

At least that's the way it's looking for the Hoyas after Thompson III's team managed to get blown out at home Thursday night against West Virginia and then lose Sunday in Newark, N.J., to Seton Hall. 

"We're in a rut. We're in a bad situation right now," Thompson III remarked. "We have to figure how to get everyone in that locker room out of it. There's a lot of time left but in this league we have to quickly regroup."

There's no doubt it's been a frustrating stretch for the Hoyas, who have lost three straight after losing back-to-back games earlier this month.

At that time, after all, Georgetown (12-5 overall, 3-3 Big East) was coming off an impressive win in Hartford over a Connecticut team that was previously undefeated and ranked No. 2 in the country.

But the strength of the Big East, particularly this year, can wear any team down, and the Hoyas couldn't have had a much tougher start to the conference season with their first three games against UConn, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame.

"Every game you have to come and play," Thompson III explained about the Big East. "Every game you have to be focused, every game you have to execute because we can win every game or lose every game. That's just the nature of it, that's how this conference is built."

"If you look around this league, this league is so hard that if you want to make it to the NCAA tournament and make another run you have to win games to do that," added West Virginia coach Bob Huggins.

Still, losing on your home court by 17 points to a WVU team that struggled to beat South Florida in Morgantown isn't going to win you too many conference championships any time soon.

Of course, neither will losing to a Seton Hall team that had lost five straight and hadn't won a Big East game until Sunday's 65-60 upset.

"It's surprising we lost (to West Virginia)," admitted sophomore point guard Chris Wright after leading Georgetown with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting Thursday. "They made shots, they made plays; we didn't."

The Hoyas, though, didn't make too many shots or plays five days earlier at Cameron Indoor Stadium, where Duke forced 14 turnovers and limited Georgetown to 33.3 percent shooting from three.

"They outplayed us," Thompson III maintained following the 76-67 defeat in Durham last weekend. "They outplayed us, that's why we lost."

The same can be said about the Mountaineers (14-4, 3-2), who controlled the boards with a 39-31 rebounding edge and shot a blistering 58.1 percent from the field in the second half against the Hoyas.

Georgetown, meanwhile, couldn't buy a bucket against West Virginia - a team that gives up an average of 58.9 points per game this season - shooting a dreadful 2-for-16 (12.5 percent) from beyond the three-point line and just 39.2 percent from the field.

"It's very frustrating but like Coach said, we gotta be able to still play through that adversity as a team and get offensive rebounds, start making shots, things like that," junior forward DaJuan Summers acknowledged.

And the Hoyas weren't much better from the perimeter Sunday, hitting only 13.6 percent (3-for-22) of their three-point attempts and finishing the game with a 32.7 field goal percentage.

"Our decision-making in certain situations has to change, has to get better," Thompson III said afterward.

Sometimes, that's just what it takes for a team to turn things around.

Other times, it takes a fresh approach from the coach and a renewed effort from the players to put a team back on track.

But if the Hoyas, who now have to head to Cincinnati and Marquette (currently sitting in first place in the Big East at 6-0) next week, can return to the nation's capital next month with at least two big road wins, then there may still be hope for Thompson III's kids come March.

To check out my latest power rankings, click here.