Point made. Point taken.
There are many things Georgetown does that make
great sense to me, some things that make
poor sense, and a very small subset of things which, to this day, make
absolutely no sense.
So when Jack DeGioia reported on March 23rd that "we will work immediately to begin a national search for a new head men's basketball coach", I was encouraged. Clearly, the time was right for youth and diversity to revitalize a men's basketball program that still has one foot in 1984 and one in 2017. A fresh face, a voice of a new generation, someone Georgetown basketball could grow with seemed a great opportunity to build upon, without tearing down the deserving legacy of the last 45 years.
So what was this committee doing?
By some measure of misinformation, disinformation, or sheer bad luck, the fact that every coach publicly tied to the search turned it down was puzzling at best and suspicious at worst. Some 346 of 351 Division I coaches make less than what Georgetown was offering, and no one was interested? Really?
Or was it something else?
Back in 2004, the search to replace Craig Esherick was done with the surgeon's touch. Frank Rienzo and the late Jim Higgins didn't need social media or blog posts to do their job, and while the field was much less distinguished than in 2017 (as Billy Packer awkwardly put it), they got the job done and hired a great young coach.
Listening to Frank Rienzo explain the process that day at the 2004 John Carroll Awards in Philadelphia absolutely sold me on John Thompson III; more importantly, it sold me on The Georgetown Way when it comes to searches: those that know aren't going to talk, and those that are talk aren't going to know.
In 2004, there was no public list of candidates, no denials, and best of all: no false hopes. The cone of silence allowed that committee to work in stealth and engender confidentiality as well as confidence from those it met with. For example, it allowed a Hall of Fame coach not from the Big East to speak candidly about the candidates and not have to read about it on the web. So what happened this go around? Unless there was a complete whitewash from our friends at SB Nation and the ghosts of the local press corps, there were more leaks out of this search than anyone could have anticipated. And that's not The Georgetown Way.
Instead, the last two weeks have seen awkward quotes like this:
"Georgetown reportedly reached out to both Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Mike Brey and Texas Longhorns head coach Shaka Smart about its basketball coaching vacancy, according to Gary Parrish of CBS Sports, but both "respectfully declined to pursue the job."
"The [Ed] Cooley rumors [to Georgetown] generated heat yesterday but faded last night after he stated he was staying at Providence."
"Rhode Island coach Danny Hurley is definitely "in play" for the head coaching position at Georgetown, a source close to the process told Sporting News."
"Mount St. Mary's coach, Jamion Christian, a candidate for the Georgetown head coaching position, recently spoke about the Georgetown program on an SB Nation radio show."
"Georgetown, a Big East rival of Xavier's, "put out strong feelers" to the Musketeers' head coach, Chris Mack, with $4 million per year to offer, according to a report from ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman, who added that Mack is staying at Xavier."
"Former Indiana coach Tom Crean has been told he's not a candidate."
The search played into all the stereotypes Pete Thamel fired across the bow
earlier this week.
"Instead of a stealth-and-seek search...Georgetown stalled, boxing itself out from coveted names and then starting a hiring process with a ready, fire, aim approach," he wrote. "If you're going to fire him, you'd think you have it dialed up with a No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 candidate," said an industry source. "How do you open yourself up to that? It leaves you vulnerable and in a position of weakness."
"No schools have announced extensions yet for the coaches Georgetown has publicly whiffed on. But is there a better leverage point available for your next contract than turning down a marquee job where they're waving around $4 million salaries like fliers for a Times Square comedy show?...The Hoyas are viewed in the industry as a trust fund kid trying to throw money at their problems, but the issues at Georgetown aren't fiscal...while Georgetown sifts through its B-list for a replacement for Thompson III, the Hoyas are relevant again for all the wrong reasons."
Was Patrick Ewing on the B-list? No one is going to say that, but if someone claims he was the top choice, what does that say about the search? He's never been a head coach on any level. An NBA assistant is not drawing up plays and flying out to an AAU tournament in Tallahassee just so that someone will see him in a blue shirt in the second row. Instead, you
You hear the noise from the cheap seats: "
John Thompson still runs that program",
"David Falk is Ewing's agent and told Georgetown who to hire", "
Nike has veto power on the coach," etc. etc., and some comments on race that range from the unfair to the downright offensive.
My concern is not with Patrick Ewing. I'm one graduation year removed from him. His accomplishments do not need my defense.
Where I am discouraged is that this was the opportunity to bring y-o-u-t-h into an aging program that has cratered following the reformation of the Big East. Instead, it's "Back to the Future", where Marion Barry is still Mayor for Life, where beer is still 50 cents at the Pub, and where college kids don't cross 14th Street at night.
Welcome to the the land of long ago, with Starter Jackets and Sony Walkmans, where a pep band still plays "Hey Baby" every night and a local press tells readers that the Georgetown is back, just like the Redskins of yore.
It that's not canon within the narrative at the Ewing victory parade tomorrow, know that there are other voices in this regard.
"Nostalgia isn't back on campus with the hire. It never left," writes Ben Standig, who's provided more solid coverage on the Hoyas over the past two years than the Washington Post and ESPN combined, and for far less money. "The Hoyas live in the past, many believe. This move only reinforces that notion," he writes. "The past is why those on the outside adore the hire. It's why many of those who contemplate Hoyas hoops daily are in we'll see mode."
"They want Georgetown to be great again. They just aren't sure going back in time is the progressive call."
Let's not kid ourselves--a 14 win team with five open scholarships isn't a front runner for next March. The talent pool on this team suggests a 14-18 record may not be rock bottom for a coach. Yes we assume Patrick Ewing will walk into homes and be welcomed as a hero, but maybe not--if you're born in 2001 or 2002, you never saw him play, your parents did. That's a group of high school kids to whom the Hoyas were a Final Four program...in first grade.
Or as ESPN host Bomani Jones put it, "Is Georgetown a good job? Because I feel like how you perceive Georgetown as a program is really based on how old you are."
Sometimes you need a younger coach to grow with a rebuilding team--it's why a 29 year old John Thompson was the right man at the right time in ways that a 41 year old Morgan Wootten wasn't. It's why a 38 year old John Thompson III walking into McDonough in 2004 had youth on his side. On the way out at 51, not so much. It's where a 30 year old Jonathan Wallace would have been a home run, inexperience notwithstanding.
Yes, I'm disappointed, but hopeful for Ewing and his staff. Nonetheless, I wanted a new coach for a new legacy. And I remain disappointed that the national search didn't appear very "national" at all. That doesn't sit well with my brethren at the Hoyatalk board, who saw a pair of empty chairs on the front page and viewed it as some sort of egregious affront to all that is blue and gray. I get it. And that's OK.
Which leads me back to the committee. Who was sitting across the table in those chairs? With a chance to set Georgetown on a road to tomorrow, they somehow fell short on every other candidate that sat in that proverbial seat, a program seemingly no one wanted.
Instead of a bridge to the future, Georgetown took a turn to the past; a past I am justifiably proud of, but a narrative which needs new memories, new stories, new heroes. Basketball at Georgetown University is not a reliquary, lest a future press conference introduce us all to the next coach: "Ladies and gentlemen, your new coach: Alonzo Mourning."