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Eight months ago, with a 21 game losing streak not yet completed, this site took note of a longstanding characteristic at Georgetown University: the inability to engage a conversation about where the men's basketball program is heading. "This season has only confirmed that what worked in 1984 isn't working anymore," we said, "and it's time to talk about it."
True to form, that talk didn't happen, and the 2022-23 season opens with the same questions and many of the same responses that confirm the University would rather kick the can than take steps to move basketball forward.
Georgetown won six games last season. Six games would have got John Thompson III fired; he left with 14 wins in his final season. Six games would have certainly got the students to run Craig Esherick off campus, he was summarily dropped with 13 wins. One might even surmise that with only six wins in 1977, John Thompson's future may have been elsewhere, given the stronger institutional and community interest in basketball seen in those days.
Instead, with a 6-25 record and just one season in five with a winning record, Patrick Ewing got a vote of confidence and a pledge of good luck from the University. At the seventh win this season, cries of progress will rain down from the top of the hill.
That's not really a conversation, of course. It's a tactic.
As noted earlier, Georgetown is unique in how the men's basketball coach reports outside the athletic department, a feature of the hiring of John Thompson in 1972. Ewing reports to the CEO of a $1.4 billion non-profit corporation known as Georgetown University, where that president's ability to manage day to day activities in the basketball program is overwhelmed by the needs of the greater good. Jack DeGioia's job is markedly more complex than that of Robert Henle in 1972: DeGioia has to raise money, then raise more money, and in the words of a former Georgetown development official, "absorb chaos, project calm, and give hope".
With a mix of 6,700 students, 200,000 alumni shareholders, a perpetually underpaid staff and faculty, and thousands of potentially litigious parents makes the job of a university president a 24/7 roller coaster. Men's basketball may not even be among the top 100 things he's got to focus on.
The 2022-23 off-season was a case of rinse and repeat. Ewing fired two assistants, neither of whom were responsible for last season, and brought in two new assistants, neither of whom will be responsible for the future, either. Cutting management is a time-tested means of buying time for change, but it is seldom the turning point. Only three scholarship players returned from last year's lineup.
Over the summer, the program publicly acknowledged the presence of the heretofore unnamed chief of staff, Ronny Thompson, who has actually been with the program since 2017. Nothing was said about why Thompson was hired or kept under wraps; except, perhaps, to avoid additional chatter. Despite four years as a Georgetown player, five as an assistant coach, and five as chief of staff, a tenure dating back almost 35 years, Thompson's online bio is empty.
Player turnover continues unabated. Ewing opened the exits at the John Thompson Center and saw more students leave the program that in any one season since the program was suspended during World War II. Some left on their own, we presume. Some may not have. Gone are the press releases wishing them well in future endeavors; instead, for an incoming class in 2021-22 ranked 16th nationally, Ewing remarked that "we need better talent." Yet, Ewing recruited every one of them. Since 2017, 41 players have entered the program, and only four have played more than two seasons. Depending on Dante Harris' undisclosed situation, Qudus Wahab may be the only player this season with more than one active season on the roster.
Georgetown's basketball graduation rates have fallen to the bottom tier of all Division I schools nationwide. When or if the NCAA returns to the pre-COVID penalties of NCAA tournament ineligibility for poor APR performance, the program is going to take its share of public criticism. What were the necessary changes sought to improve graduation rates? At a distance, we'll never know what those changes were; those fulfilled, discussed, or merely delayed.
All this comes in the midst of a declining base of generational support that is GU's version of global warming: everyone sees it but no one seems ready to address it. Ticket sales last season fell to its lowest level since moving off-campus in 1981, part of a 10 year trend. Much like its NFL counterparts in town, winning alone will not bring fans back after a decade of poor performance.
Paying customers for Georgetown basketball are fewer and they are aging. The alumni of the 1960's and 1970's helped fill Capital Centre; today's young alumni seating cannot fill two sections at Capital One Arena. As older fans leave their treasured lower level seats, who replaces them? The answer is as evident as the empty seats that will fill television cameras all season. No public discussion has been raised on how to address this.
Student interest is underwhelming. Few mount any emotion over a basketball game. Unless Patrick Ewing came out against sustainability or starts campaigning for Republicans, students will not show any visible concern. Years of poor performance and a general disconnect from community life post-COVID make sports almost vestigial to the modern campus experience. The Student Association has 138 events posted on its web site, from a forum on disability and climate change to something called "Pepero Day". Not a single event cites a home basketball game.
As to overall expectations, Ewing laid down a gauntlet of sorts: he remarked on it more than once this summer. "With the way that things happened last year," he said, "it can never happen again on my watch." But if it did, does anything change? He can look down the hall at the women's basketball program, where the lesser-known James Howard is 52-91 as head coach, 12-34 in his last two seasons, a program without an NCAA tournament bid in 10 seasons. Any changes ahead for women's basketball? Not really.
Ewing's 68-84 record entering the season is the lowest winning percentage since Fred Mesmer was coaching a largely non-scholarship team at Georgetown in the 1930's. But that's not an issue, either.
All of this points to an impasse: win or lose, basketball is not something that Georgetown University wants to deal with right now.
In the last five years, according to a report by JG Trends, the men's basketball program allocated over $75 million in expenses against a cumulative record of 68-84, or more than $1.1 million in expenses per win. Does Georgetown want to really open a conversation about that? Or ask how it is paying for a sport with half the attendance of a decade ago and only one NCAA win in ten years?
On all counts, no.
So why would it want to open a Pandora's box with a new coach? While reporters have planted Patrick Ewing firmly on the nation's hottest coaching seat, in some ways it's as comfortable as before. In change there is uncertainty, a sobering thought in Georgetown circles. Barring NCAA or public improprieties, losing is preferable to change, because there is no Plan B, much like there was no Plan B in 2017.
And it's more than a buyout. Change introduces questions Georgetown does not want to ask. No coach has come to Georgetown from outside the extended Thompson organization in 50 years--is it really prepared for a new coach that may not want to keep that family in the basketball office? A new coach may be younger and interested in an entirely new direction, one that does things differently than it has for decades. He may have no prior ties with Georgetown. He may not be from Washington, DC. He may not be African-American. These are not the kind of conversations Georgetown wants to deal with right now.
In February, we wrote that "Strong organizations regularly examine their strategic positioning...Now is the time to build a framework for the next generation to support the Georgetown basketball brand at large, with the same passion and purpose that their fellow Hoyas did in years past." Yet, following the most humiliating season in this University's long history of college basketball, the future has taken a back seat, and conversations are deferred as long as the proverbial can is kicked, regardless of outcomes. As long as Georgetown is a symbol of a program in decline, these conversations are not going away, only waiting for another day.
--JR
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