LAWRENCE — Last spring, the Kansas basketball program found itself in a last-minute search for a high-profile non-conference opponent to beef up its 2012-13 schedule.

On Thursday, Kansas officially announced a four-year, home-and-home series with traditional basketball school Georgetown, perhaps a pre-emptive strike against that sort of scrambling in the next few years. The series will begin Dec. 21, 2013 at Allen Fieldhouse, and KU will make a return trip to the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. during the 2014-15 season. The series will return to Lawrence the next year before concluding in Washington in 2016-17.

During coach Bill Self’s tenure, the Jayhawks have been active on the East coast in recruiting, and the Jayhawks have made a habit of playing games along the East coast corridor. In the past five years, Kansas has played regular-season games in Boston, Philadelphia and New York.

Last season, the Jayhawks defeated Georgetown 67-63 in the quarterfinals of the Maui Invitational in Hawaii.