After an abysmal 2021-22 campaign, it was obvious that the Georgetown Hoyas needed to make some kind of systematic change. With the worst season in program history and yet another mass exodus of players in the books, the calls for something different were seemingly louder than ever.
Now any sensible fan would look at the situation and see two possible solutions:
- Well, the most obvious option here would’ve been to sack the coach. In the five years Patrick Ewing has been at the helm, he has managed to go above .500 once (never in conference play) and has a thing for making his players want to transfer. I get it, you can’t just fire your coach when he happens to be the most spectacular thing to grace your program. Oh yeah, and I get the fact that he just signed a massive extension with (presumably) an even more massive buyout clause because he had a lucky March two years ago. But let’s be honest, this one was obvious.
- For those of you who are crazy enough to dig deeper into this massive tire fire of a program like me, there was another easy option. When we take a second to look at the few instances of continuity since the beginning of the Ewing tenure, one name sticks out: Ronny Thompson. Now I’m not here to point fingers or make baseless accusations, especially toward someone who was just officially recognized as a member of the staff this offseason, but do you start to wonder what the so-called “chief of staff” has been up to. Could the man who seemingly has oversight over the program possibly be held accountable for its shortcomings? Now that’s for you to decide.
So that leaves us with a serious question here: what did change this offseason? Believe it or not, none of the above. In case you’ve been living under a rock, let me be the first person to tell you Patrick Ewing and Ronny Thompson are back. Shocker. Instead, the $15 million answer was to fire the assistant coaches. Yes, assistants Louis Orr, Robert Kirby and Akbar Waheed were the problem. Right.
Anyway, Ewing brought in a new team of assistants, so let’s take a look at who they are and what they’re bringing to the table.
Kevin Nickelberry
Kevin Nickelberry is by far the highest profile hire this offseason. Nickelberry, a DMV native, held head coaching positions between Hampton and Howard from 2006-2019 before taking his most recent job as the associate head coach under Will Wade at LSU.
Coming into Georgetown, Nickelberry assumes the role of associate head coach and lead recruiter. In his time at LSU, he held a similar position as the point man for recruiting, helping to bring in multiple five star recruits and NBA-level talents to the perennial NCAA Tournament caliber team. Now, whether you want to read into the fact that the head coach he worked under was fired for supposedly violating NCAA regulations and paying players and recruits is completely up to you. All I’m going to say is if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.
At Georgetown’s media day this past week, we also learned that Kevin Nickelberry will be in charge of running the defense, something he has been able to do effectively in the past. As a head coach, his teams were centered around aggressive defense, producing turnovers and forcing their opponent to put up bad shots. At LSU it was much of the same as the defense got better every year he was on the staff, culminating with the 6th ranked defense this past year according to KenPom.
Now, the Kevin Nickelberry effect was felt almost immediately after being hired in late March. The real Coach K began by hitting the transfer portal hard. He was able to get two former LSU players, one of which being budding star and former DMV standout Brandon Murray, to sign on along with six other transfers to completely rebuild the roster with talent from top to bottom. Nickelberry also got back on the high school recruiting trail, getting former LSU commit and highly-touted guard prospect Marvel Allen to commit to the Hoyas. Among the reasons for his success in recruiting is his ability to gain these players’ trust, with both Murray and Allen commenting on this after committing.
With all this being said, his impact on the court is something we will have to wait and see, but his experience on the bench and the sense of stability he provides will be one of the keys to the Hoyas’ success this season.
Clinton Crouch
My favorite decision of the offseason was easily the decision to promote Clinton Crouch to a full assistant coach, giving him the recognition he deserves. Prior to joining Patrick Ewing’s staff in 2019, the rising star in the DMV basketball scene held multiple positions in player development between the professional and amateur ranks, working as the head of player development for the Washington Mystics and later opening his own gym in the district.
But Crouch’s impact on this team will not solely be measured by his impressive ability to develop players. Instead, I would suggest you scroll through one of his social media accounts. While he is poised to do a lot for this team on the court, his biggest impact could come through his ability to build relationships with players, engage those around him, and contribute to the larger DMV community. Whether it’s taking his sons to volunteer at a soup kitchen on Christmas morning, buying lunch for a group of students who attended this year’s game at McDonough, or mentoring the team’s younger players, Crouch is bringing a vibe to this program that has been absent for too long.
Patrick Baldwin Sr.
So now we go from the good to the not so good. After the third assistant coaching role remained vacant for the better part of the offseason, in June the team surprisingly announced that Pat Baldwin Sr. would be rounding out the staff. Quite literally nobody saw it coming.
Prior to taking the job at Georgetown, Baldwin spent the past five seasons as the head coach at UW-Milwaukee where he led the Panthers to a lackluster 57-92 record overall. In those five years in Milwaukee, his teams were, well, not the best, only producing a team in KenPom’s top 200 in his first year. Possibly his only achievement as a head coach was coercing his 8th ranked son in the class of 2021, Patrick Baldwin Jr., to attend Milwaukee over Georgetown and Duke where his lottery-level draft stock proceeded to fall almost out of the first round.
Look, I’m not here to tell you Baldwin will be a net negative to this staff. He was a very solid player at Northwestern and overseas and anybody with head coaching experience in Division 1 will surely bring something to the program. Instead, the question being asked is why he was the one to get the job in the first place?
Since the team announced they’d be bringing him into the staff, I’ve spent a while trying to figure this out. Literally the only explanation I can think of is that they couldn’t get anyone else. Now this might not be entirely true because there were a number of rumors surrounding a number of candidates, but it does make sense that no respected coach would want to step onto a sinking ship. At the end of the day, the Hoyas’ horrendous season coupled with the uncertainty surrounding Patrick Ewing’s job security wouldn’t exactly makes the program the most appealing place to further your career.
All things considered, this turned out to be a solid coaching staff. Considering the circumstances, the stability and experience coming from Nickelberry and Baldwin coupled with Crouch’s youthfulness gives us a reason to have hope leading into the season. Now with the season just days away, all we can do is wait and see what teffect this new staff has on the team. The outcome might surprise you.
