Forgot to post -- credit to Eamonn Brennan
By Eamonn Brennan May 14, 2021
13
It’s amazing the difference four days can make. The 2020-21 Georgetown Hoyas were one of the great stories of March, an unfavored Big East underdog that showed up to Madison Square Garden and went on an the kind of life-affirming title run that makes all of the difficult times feel worth it. For four days — beginning with a dominant performance against Marquette, continuing with a nail-biting 72-71 win over Villanova, into a third-round scrap against Seton Hall, and finishing with Saturday’s blowout against Creighton — Georgetown basketball was just about the best thing going. After every game, coach Patrick Ewing, drenched in the sort of sweat he used to get going in third quarters of Eastern Conference playoff games, would do his postgame TV interview in front of large promotional vehicles on the Garden floor, more ecstatic with every performance. “One of the things I talked to my team before we came here was taking steps,” Ewing said after the win over Villanova. “The first step was coming here and winning yesterday. Today was the second step, we took another step — in my house by the way. This is my house.”
Georgetown! No kidding! How fun is that?!
Of course, the reason it was a fun, cool story is because — and let’s just be real here — for most of the season Georgetown wasn’t very good.
The Hoyas weren’t bad, per se. They were roughly as good as they’ve been throughout Ewing’s tenure, which is to say mostly in the bottom half of the Big East, in the mid-80s in KenPom.com’s adjusted efficiency rankings (pre-Big East tourney, they ranked 85th), and nowhere close to earning an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. Georgetown showed up to Madison Square Garden needing to win four games in a row to get in. That it did was exciting and charming, but there’s a reason the odds seemed so long, and the performances so sudden, in the first place. The Hoyas got better down the stretch of the league season, but there was nothing in their year that screamed, “This team is going to maul the Big East en route to the tournament.” That it happened — and then was immediately followed by a 96-73 drubbing by Colorado in the first round of the NCAA Tournament — is hard to put down to long-term progress so much as one magical Midtown Manhattan weekend.
Think about it: Had those four days at MSG not happened, Ewing would be approaching his fifth season under real postseason-related pressure. John Thompson III was fired after missing the tournament in three of his last four seasons, after going to (and usually being a high single-digit seed in) seven of the previous nine. Ewing hadn’t been to the tournament at all. Getting there in March, by whatever method, takes care of that. It’s a symbolic weight off his shoulders. It’s something to build on. Still, it remains to be seen if it was a 35-foot 3 at the end of the shot clock that just happens to bank in — a good result from bad process — or a hint at something more sustainable still being constructed.
The good news for Ewing? Fans would be excited about 2021-22 either way. After a few uncertain seasons and one of the biggest pre-immediate-transfer-eligibility talent exoduses the sport has seen in recent years (see Georgetown’s roster at the start and end of the 2019-20 season) suddenly the talent level on the Hilltop is about to go way up. Thanks in large part to one of the best recruiting classes in the country — including Ewing’s first real-deal marquee five-star recruit — Georgetown’s future looks as bright as it has at any point in Ewing’s tenure. Can the Hoyas take another step?
Below are thoughts on each scholarship player in what should be a fascinating 2021-22 season. (The coaching staff declined to add comment.)
Fourteen thoughts on Georgetown’s 14 scholarship players as a revitalized program pushes forward
By Eamonn Brennan May 14, 2021
It’s amazing the difference four days can make. The 2020-21 Georgetown Hoyas were one of the great stories of March, an unfavored Big East underdog that showed up to Madison Square Garden and went on an the kind of life-affirming title run that makes all of the difficult times feel worth it. For four days — beginning with a dominant performance against Marquette, continuing with a nail-biting 72-71 win over Villanova, into a third-round scrap against Seton Hall, and finishing with Saturday’s blowout against Creighton — Georgetown basketball was just about the best thing going. After every game, coach Patrick Ewing, drenched in the sort of sweat he used to get going in third quarters of Eastern Conference playoff games, would do his postgame TV interview in front of large promotional vehicles on the Garden floor, more ecstatic with every performance. “One of the things I talked to my team before we came here was taking steps,” Ewing said after the win over Villanova. “The first step was coming here and winning yesterday. Today was the second step, we took another step — in my house by the way. This is my house.”
Georgetown! No kidding! How fun is that?!
Of course, the reason it was a fun, cool story is because — and let’s just be real here — for most of the season Georgetown wasn’t very good.
The Hoyas weren’t bad, per se. They were roughly as good as they’ve been throughout Ewing’s tenure, which is to say mostly in the bottom half of the Big East, in the mid-80s in KenPom.com’s adjusted efficiency rankings (pre-Big East tourney, they ranked 85th), and nowhere close to earning an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. Georgetown showed up to Madison Square Garden needing to win four games in a row to get in. That it did was exciting and charming, but there’s a reason the odds seemed so long, and the performances so sudden, in the first place. The Hoyas got better down the stretch of the league season, but there was nothing in their year that screamed, “This team is going to maul the Big East en route to the tournament.” That it happened — and then was immediately followed by a 96-73 drubbing by Colorado in the first round of the NCAA Tournament — is hard to put down to long-term progress so much as one magical Midtown Manhattan weekend.
Think about it: Had those four days at MSG not happened, Ewing would be approaching his fifth season under real postseason-related pressure. John Thompson III was fired after missing the tournament in three of his last four seasons, after going to (and usually being a high single-digit seed in) seven of the previous nine. Ewing hadn’t been to the tournament at all. Getting there in March, by whatever method, takes care of that. It’s a symbolic weight off his shoulders. It’s something to build on. Still, it remains to be seen if it was a 35-foot 3 at the end of the shot clock that just happens to bank in — a good result from bad process — or a hint at something more sustainable still being constructed.
The good news for Ewing? Fans would be excited about 2021-22 either way. After a few uncertain seasons and one of the biggest pre-immediate-transfer-eligibility talent exoduses the sport has seen in recent years (see Georgetown’s roster at the start and end of the 2019-20 season) suddenly the talent level on the Hilltop is about to go way up. Thanks in large part to one of the best recruiting classes in the country — including Ewing’s first real-deal marquee five-star recruit — Georgetown’s future looks as bright as it has at any point in Ewing’s tenure. Can the Hoyas take another step?
Below are thoughts on each scholarship player in what should be a fascinating 2021-22 season. (The coaching staff declined to add comment.)