Georgetown men’s basketball coach Patrick Ewing received nice letter of support by his boss, sporting director Lee Reed, on Wednesday afternoon. “We are committed to Coach Ewing,” the note said, clarifying an issue you certainly want to discuss with the two games left on your conference schedule. “Coach Ewing’s dedication and success at last year’s Big East is a testament to his leadership.” Backed by this public vote of confidence, Ewing then led his young Hoyas to a horrific 73-68 loss at Seton Hall, the 19th consecutive loss to Georgetown and a new low point in the worst season of the half-year program. century.
I stand before you today with a simple question: What the hell happened to Hoyas basketball? With one game left in this absolutely nightmarish season, Hoya remains dead in the Great East with an incredible record in the 0-18 conference. Their latest victory came on December 15 against the local MEAC, also run by Howard University. Closest to victory in two and a half months was the three-point loss to DePaul, the second or third worst team in the Greater East. Along the way, they lost 18 from Market, 19 from St. John’s, 19 from Providence and 23 from Connecticut. They rank 331st in the country’s defense rankings. They are the 354th best team in the country in two-point strikes. These Hoyas are not just the worst Georgetown team in my life. They are in a completely different category than all other Hoyas teams in the history of the Big East conference.
There was a time, not so long ago, when you would use the word “history” to describe the men’s basketball program in Georgetown, and no one would laugh in your face! Even at the time since the youngest members of the Defector team were born, Georgetown has been to several Sweet Sixteens and Final Four. They did not return to the powerful form of John Thompson’s heyday – or indeed somewhere nearby – but survived the dark era of Craig Ashrick and hired Thompson’s son and competed well and consistently for 10 years, starting in 2004. And they have some great teams out there! The 2007 team, starring Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green, did a lot of fun in the Princeton Offense and fresh high-low shit in the paint and won 30 games and entered the Final Four. Greg Monroe’s era was mostly a disappointment, but Monroe was a great player in college. And the team from 2013 with Otto Porter … it was also a big disappointment, but they won the third place in the NCAA tournament!
Georgetown fired John Thompson III in 2017, after consecutive lost seasons, and replaced him with Ewing, who had worked as an assistant coach for various NBA teams for 15 years but had zero experience as a head coach. Ewing’s Hoya have never won more conference games than they have lost; they made an NCAA tournament, but only after an incredible passage through the Big East tournament and they were tied as a result of a 23-point loss to Colorado. It was hoped that Ewing’s prestige as an NBA Hall of Fame, his connection to the glorious Georgetown Hoop Days (he won the Thompson National Title in 1984) and his years as assistant coach at the highest level in the sport would give him the slightest advantage in recruiting, if not tactically or administratively. This did not happen, as Jean Wang of the Washington Post explained:
Attracting top-level talent has proved to be a major hurdle with the arrival of new guard Amin Mohammed this season among the few high-profile recruits under Ewing. Other notable players such as Mc McClang, James Akinjo and Kudus Wahab have passed.
Washington Post
Reed’s letter on Wednesday came as a bit of a shock, given the dire state of Georgetown’s men’s basketball program. Last month, it was reported that the university had rewarded Ewing with a contract extension following the team’s surprise place in the 2021 NCAA tournament; this is something that can just make it too expensive to consider reversing the course and firing it now, even after all that. I have no idea if coaching or recruiting Ewing is the reason Georgetown basketball stinks, but I can say for sure that the program’s greatest player of all time and the face of his greatest achievement is now guiding him through the most awkward chapter of 50 years is a huge, huge trouble. It would be extremely cool for Patrick Ewing to return to Georgetown and bring him fame; Patrick Ewing’s return to Georgetown and their immediate directing into a whirlpool of sewage simply tarnishes all memories of the glory days that built Ewing’s legend in the first place.
I went looking for highlights in Georgetown this morning, hoping I could find something that would make me feel optimistic about some aspects of the team, and here’s what I came across:
Here’s a video of a man diving all over Georgetown’s basketball team.
I’m old enough to remember a time when basketball in Georgetown was both good and cool. My precious clothing for most of my adolescence was a gray T-shirt with the word “GEORGETOWN” on the front of the Pantone 282. I wore it weekly for at least a decade, long after the point where repeated washing had weathered the fabric to such an extent that stripes it was torn to nothing between the letters, so I had to wear a second T-shirt under it so I wouldn’t show the nipple. He was a boss in a cafe where I worked in the early 20’s, who finally told me that the shirt was no longer suitable for work, even if it was covered with a clean apron. I think today, if you wear a Georgetown T-shirt in a public place anywhere outside the actual Georgetown neighborhood, few people would even associate it with basketball, and those who wore it would irritate you. It occurred to you! For the support of basketball in Georgetown!
And I’m old enough to remember when Ewing became a coaching story with bad luck when he was a former player with a clean resume left at assistant level year after year, waiting for someone to give him a good … won chance. Working in Georgetown seemed like an opportunity for Ewing to finally sit on the big chair, build a team according to his own vision, prove that he was wrongly neglected all these years, and put 40 years of accumulated basketball wisdom for good. use. And now his boss is eating a mountain of nonsense because he said Ewing won’t be fired at the end of his fifth season, despite directing Georgetown’s program to unprecedented levels of shit. It sucks! This whole thing sucks.
Hoya ends this miserable season on Xavier’s Saturday, giving Ewing a last chance to avoid the disgrace of a win-win conference season. I don’t even know what to get sick of anymore. Returning to fame seems almost impossible. At this point, Ewing’s release and his release from the long and arduous work of rebuilding from the bottom would seem more like a mercy.