At the dawn of his sixth season on the sound bench alma mater Georgetown, where he won the university title in 1984 under the orders of the legendary John Thompson (two other finals, lost, in 1982 and 1985), Patrick Ewing is revengeful, following a nightmarish 2021/22 exercise from start to finish, for him and his Hoyas.
Yet in good shape following the 2020/21 season, at the end of which they won the Big East Conference season-ending tournament, then qualifying for the “March Madness” for the first time since 2015, the Hoyas failed to maintain their momentum in the following season. The results of their 2021/22 season? 6 wins and 25 losses, including 19 losses in as many games in the Big East Conference, and more broadly an incredible series of 21 losses, the longest in the history of the program, to end the season!
In short, the past exercise is to be forgotten as soon as possible, for the troop of the former ” Beast from the East ».
But since the end of this infernal season, months have passed, and the workforce of the Hoyas has changed. Patrick Ewing has indeed welcomed nine new faces into his workforce: two “freshmen” out of high school, and seven players recruited on the NCAA transfer portal. He can also count on an interesting continuity internally, in key positions in the five majors: his starting point guard Dante Harris is back for his third season (11.9 points and 4.1 assists last season), as is pivot Ryan Mutombo (5.1 points and 3 rebounds as a freshman, and effectively son of Dikembe) and power forward Qudus Wahab, who started his career in Georgetown (2019-2021), before joining Maryland last season to finally return to Georgetown last spring.
Undeniably, his workforce for the coming season is better, or at least denser than the one he led last year. On paper, he therefore has a team capable of overcoming the bitter failure of last season. And in practice? A completely different debate for Patrick Ewing, who does not want to risk estimating the success of his team by a total of victories, which one might almost count on the fingers of one hand in 2021/22…
It’s hard to do worse this season…
« I’m not going to quantify our team’s success by naming a specific number of wins. But what I can tell you is that we have more talent than last year » he said on Tuesday.
Above all cautious, therefore, because he keeps in mind the memory of the horrible season he has just experienced, Patrick Ewing remains no less confident, in the end. Because he has injected new blood into his workforce, and also because it will be difficult to do worse than last year…
« I expect us to jostle with everyone else he added, of Georgetown’s chances next season in the Big East Conference. ” Last season was the worst anyway, and obviously such an episode cannot happen once more. But once more, I’m not going to sum up our season to a total of victories. However, when the season is over and we all look back, I think the supporters of this program will be satisfied with what we have offered them. »