WASHINGTON — Georgetown men’s basketball coach Patrick Ewing received a public show of support from athletic director Lee Reed on Wednesday, hours before the team was set to try to end its school-record 18-game losing streak.
After acknowledging the “disappointment of a difficult season,” Reed went on to say in his statement: “In this ever evolving landscape of college athletics we are committed to Coach Ewing, and we are working with him to evaluate every aspect of the men’s basketball program and to make the necessary changes for him to put us back on the path to success for next year.”
Ewing is a former Hoyas star center whose first stint as a head coach at any level has included just one NCAA tournament appearance and a wave of player transfers over five mostly unsuccessful seasons.
Heading into the Wednesday night Big East game at Seton Hall, Georgetown had a 6-22 record, including 0-17 in conference play. There is one more regular-season game after that on the schedule, Saturday at Xavier.
The school record for most men’s basketball losses in a season is 23, set in 1972 — the season before John Thompson Jr. became head coach and started a tenure that included the 1984 NCAA championship and two other Final Four appearances with Ewing manning the paint.
Georgetown already has broken the school mark of 15 Big East losses; the worst winless season in conference history is 0-18, by Miami in 1994 and DePaul in 2009.
Overall, the Hoyas are 68-81 under Ewing, with just one season above .500: They went 19-14 in 2018-19, when they were invited to the NIT and lost their opener to Harvard.
The unquestioned — and some might say only true — highlight of Ewing’s time in charge was a surprising, four-wins-in-four-days run to the Big East tournament title in 2021 after entering with a 9-12 record as a No. 8 seed. He became the first person to win the event as both a player and a coach.
The conference tournament title provided the Hoyas with their lone trip to the NCAAs under Ewing, but that ended quickly with a 96-73 loss to Colorado in the first round.
“Coach Ewing’s dedication as well as his success in last year’s Big East Tournament is a testament to his leadership,” Reed said. “This gives us confidence that he can strengthen our program going forward.”
After an 86-77 loss to UConn in Georgetown’s home finale Sunday, Ewing was asked about his job status.
“Of course I want to be back here,” Ewing said. “But in this position and this job, whatever happens will happen. I’m hoping that I’ll be back and doing something that I love at a place that I love and getting us back to being the king of the hill.”
