A day after Big East tourney exit, Ewing fired by Georgetown
Georgetown fired its most famous basketball star, Patrick Ewing, on Thursday after another losing season as coach.
The move came a day after the Hoyas (7-25) suffered a 32-point loss to Villanova (17-15) in the first round of the Big East tournament.
“I am very proud to be a graduate of Georgetown University,” Ewing said in a statement. “And I am very grateful to president (John J.) DeGioa for giving me the opportunity to achieve my ambition to be a head basketball coach. It is particularly meaningful for me to be in charge of the basketball program at my alma mater. I wish the program nothing but success. I will always be a Hoya.”
The Knicks legend spent six seasons coaching the Hoyas and was unable to achieve the success he did as a player. Ewing was 75-109 as coach with just one winning season (2018-19) during his tenure, amassing just 13 wins in his final two seasons.
Before parting ways with the program, Ewing said Wednesday that he had “no thoughts” about his future.
“It has been a privilege to work with Patrick over these past years and I deeply appreciate all of his hard work and efforts to support our student-athletes and the men’s basketball program,” Lee Reed, the school’s athletics director, said. “We are grateful to all those who have supported this program through this time. We will immediately launch a national search for our next coach and look forward to a bright future for Hoya basketball.”
Ewing got the program into the big dance for the first time since the 2014-15 season after defeating Creighton in the Big East final in the 2020-21 season. The Big East title awarded the Hoyas an automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament but the team lost to Colorado in the first round.
It was the only NCAA Tournament appearance during Ewing’s tenure.
“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,” DeGioia said in the statement. “Over these past six years, he was tireless in his dedication to his team and the young men he coached and we will forever be grateful to Patrick for his courage and his leadership in our Georgetown community.”
Georgetown went 7-25 this season, including 2-18 in regular-season conference play, a schedule capped by a 40-point loss to Creighton. Ewing presided over a 29-game Big East losing streak that began in March 2021 and ended this January, the most consecutive defeats in league history. The past two seasons were particularly poor: The Hoyas won a combined total of 13 games while losing 50, a winning percentage of .206.
It was a far cry from the sort of success the program enjoyed when the 7-foot Ewing was patrolling the paint as an intimidating, shot-blocking force at center decades ago.
During his four years in uniform under coach John Thompson, Georgetown went 121-23, won the 1984 NCAA title and appeared in the championship game two other times. Ewing went on to become the No. 1 overall pick following the NBA’s first draft lottery and starred as a pro for the Knicks.
“As successful as I was as a player,” Ewing said when he was hired to succeed Thompson’s son, John III, as coach of the Hoyas after 15 years as an assistant in the NBA, “that’s how successful I want to be as a coach.”
Did not work out that way. His head coaching days began, promisingly enough, with an 8-0 start. But what followed was a harbinger of what was to come: Georgetown faded to a 15-15 record that season, a first-round loss in the Big East tournament and no postseason invitation.
During Ewing’s time in charge, a wave of transfers carried talent away from Georgetown while strong defense — a hallmark of his teams when he played — was often missing.