After six years as head coach, Georgetown University has fired head men’s basketball coach Patrick Ewing, effective immediately.
Ewing was let go as part of a long-awaited move that comes after yet another disappointing season, with the team finishing the season 7-25 and setting a conference record with 29-straight losses in the process. Although the decision had been made to let Ewing finish the season, Wednesday night’s 80-48 loss to Villanova in the first round of the Big East tournament officially marked the end of Ewing’s tenure and the beginning of what will ultimately become a national coaching search.
In a statement, Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia said, “Patrick Ewing is the heart of Georgetown basketball. I am deeply grateful to Coach Ewing for his vision, his determination, and for all that he has enabled Georgetown to achieve. Over these past six years, he was tireless in his dedication to his team and the young men he coached and we will be forever grateful to Patrick for his courage and his leadership in our Georgetown community.”
Following the University’s dismissal of John Thompson III in 2017, the university and John Thompson Jr. zeroed in on Ewing to take over at the helm of the program. As the program’s greatest player and a longtime assistant in the NBA, the move energized the fanbase, but in his six seasons as head coach his teams struggled to break the mold of mediocrity, never finishing a season with a record above .500 in conference play and ultimately finishing his coaching tenure with a record of 75-109.
Despite recruiting quality players such as Mac McClung, James, Akinjo and Dante Harris, Ewing could never retain his talent for long enough to build and sustain a winning culture on the Hilltop. Ewing’s Hoyas peaked during a magical run in the 2021 Big East Tournament that saw his team run the gauntlet at Madison Square Garden, earning the program’s eighth Big East Championship and only NCAA Tournament berth under Ewing.
As the team’s struggles intensified, fans started to get restless, bringing signs and wearing paper bags to home games to show their disapproval. Students, on the other hand, clamored for change as their attendance rapidly diminished throughout the season. As a result of the quality of play over these past two years, Georgetown suffered its two worst seasons by average attendance in conference play since moving out of McDonough in 1981.
Recently, Providence’s Ed Cooley, Iona’s Rick Pitino and Notre Dame’s Mike Brey among others have been connected to the opening. But with Ewing’s dismissal, Georgetown will hire its first head coach from outside of the Thompson circle since the 1970s as they hope to revamp the program’s image on the national landscape.
