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At any other university, with any other coach, the decision would have been clear long before the start of this Big East Tournament. But the university we are talking about is Georgetown, and the coach we are talking about is Patrick Ewing.
What better place to have this complicated discussion than Madison Square Garden?
“This is my house!” Ewing said repeatedly during and after his Hall of Fame Knicks career, sometimes with a profanity or two thrown in for good measure.
When the Hoyas take the Garden floor to play Seton Hall late Wednesday night, they were favored to finish their season with their 21st consecutive defeat, and their 20th to a Big East opponent. This being Ewing’s fifth year, not his first, the numbers would likely get him fired at nearly every other Division I school in the country.
His record entering this game was 6-24 on the year and 68-83 for his career, with one winning season, one shocking Big East Tournament title (last March), one appearance in the NCAAs (a blowout loss to Colorado), and one appearance in the NIT (a loss to Harvard). Ewing’s program is, well, hard to characterize as a program. The Big Fella hasn’t recruited enough talented big fellas and smaller fellas, and he hasn’t kept enough of those he did sign from transferring out.
So this has to be it, right? Shortly after the Hoyas are eliminated, Georgetown AD Lee Reed has to meet with Ewing and tell him that a change is in the best interests of all involved, correct?
No, it doesn’t have to be that way. And this isn’t about the reported contract extension Ewing received last year after taking the Hoyas on that magical run through the Big East Tournament despite, he said, “getting stopped, accosted, asked for passes” by Garden security officials who apparently didn’t recognize him. “I’m going to have to call Mr. Dolan and say, ‘Geez, is my number in the rafters or what?’ ” an exasperated Ewing said at the time.
Georgetown has enough money to cover whatever millions are owed its coach. This is about taking the same gamble on Ewing that the 7-footer from Cambridge, Mass., took on the university more than 40 years ago, when every major college in creation — many with more storied basketball traditions than Georgetown’s — desperately wanted America’s No. 1 high school prospect.
Ewing picked Georgetown in part because of the racism he encountered during the desegregation of Boston-area schools. When John Thompson showed up at the family’s home near the Charles River, where five of the seven Ewing children shared one bedroom, young Patrick was struck by the visitor’s dignity and was, in his words, “mesmerized” by Thompson’s eloquence. “And as a young black man,” Ewing would say, “he was somebody I could be like.”
Together they built a juggernaut that reached three NCAA finals, winning one, and made the Hoyas world famous. You could argue that Patrick Ewing did as much for the Georgetown brand as its two White House alums, Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton.
So yes, you can call it payback time. Or you can simply step back and take a bigger-picture view of the facts. Ewing hasn’t had any really good seasons, but this is his first really bad one. He did just prove that he could land a five-star recruit, Aminu Mohammed, and he did just prove that he could win a Big East Tournament title — never an easy thing to do, especially over four games.
Ewing was widely respected as an NBA assistant, breaking down film and scouting opponents for 15 years. He didn’t forget how to coach between his 2017 hiring and now; in fact, he’s known to be a sound in-game strategist. Ewing is better at this than his fellow Dream Teamer Chris Mullin was at St. John’s.
But there’s no question he has failed to live up to his own standards. “It’s my goal to try to be consistent, get to the NCAA [Tournament], and hopefully one day win a couple of titles,” Ewing said after he was hired.
His predecessor, John Thompson III, was fired after delivering 11 straight winning seasons (before going 29-36 in his last two), eight trips to the NCAAs, one trip to the Final Four, and a winning percentage (65 percent) that was 20 points better than Ewing’s. If Georgetown didn’t do any favors for the iconic coach’s son in the end, why do one for Ewing here?
It’s not a favor, just an extended opportunity. After Reed gave him a public vote of confidence last week that could’ve been interpreted five different ways, Ewing tweeted this message: “First and foremost, I am not a quitter. My plan is to be back next year coaching at my alma mater and bringing this program back to prominence.”
And why not? Ewing arrived in this country from Jamaica in the mid-1970s wanting to be the next Pele, and made himself a basketball legend instead. His parents were laborers who raised their son on the value of an honest day’s work. “I’m what America’s all about,” Ewing once said.
His all-American story should continue at Georgetown for one more win-or-else year.
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