For Georgetown basketball, last season’s 6-25 record was supposed to be rock bottom, but head coach Patrick Ewing and Co. are digging an even deeper hole in 2023.
After Tuesday night’s 66-51 home loss to Seton Hall, Georgetown fell to 0-7 in the Big East. Six of those seven losses have come by double digits. This comes after the Hoyas were 0-19 in the conference last season.
Georgetown’s 27-game losing streak in conference play is the longest in Big East history. Even perennial doormat DePaul, which has never made an NCAA Tournament as a member of the conference, hasn’t sunk this low.
Aidan Curran, an alum who covers Georgetown on his Hilltop Hoops blog, told the Washington Post in December that there is “no buzz” about the program.
“The relationship between the men’s basketball program and both the student body and the alumni base is broken,” he said.
Ticket sales to home games have plummeted.
“Try to find a ticket to a Georgetown game in the mid-1980s out at the old Capital Centre in Prince George’s County. Now… they’re giving them away,” wrote Post columnist Barry Svrluga.
For a program considered one of the top dozen brands in college basketball, it’s embarrassing. And while it’s easy to place all the blame on Ewing, the problem starts at the top.
Everyone from athletic director Lee Reed to chief of staff Ronny Thompson to university president John DeGioia must be held accountable for this mess.
The vague statements from Reed and DeGioia expressing support for Ewing and how he’s “trying” ring hollow with fans.
Once Ewing, the former Georgetown and NBA star, is gone it’s going to take a lot more than a new coach to resurrect the program. If his replacement is another program insider, it’s hard to be optimistic that anything significant will change.
In a region that doesn’t have a major football school, Georgetown basketball is supposed to be the pinnacle of college sports in D.C.
Now it’s anything but.
