Within the moments after his Georgetown staff was blown out by Villanova on Wednesday night time at Madison Sq. Backyard, Patrick Ewing solemnly walked by way of the handshake line.
Wearing a black sweatsuit, Ewing greeted one participant after one other, then turned and walked by himself off the court docket towards the locker room. It was a stroll he had made tons of of occasions, first as a school participant at Georgetown, then as an N.B.A. star with the Knicks. Wednesday, although, was completely different: The Hoyas’ 80-48 drubbing by the Wildcats within the first spherical of the Huge East match, one more loss in one more misplaced season, may need been his remaining sport as Georgetown’s coach.
After posting solely a single profitable season in six years as head coach, and coming off consecutive seasons of 6-25 and 7-25, even Ewing acknowledged his newest run at Georgetown may be at an finish.
“The 2 seasons have been tough — disenchanted within the outcomes of those final two years,” Ewing mentioned. “My future’s within the palms of our president and our A.D. and the board of administrators.”
Requested if he needed to return for a seventh season, Ewing mentioned: “Hey, look, I’m happy with being a Georgetown Hoya. This establishment has been nice to me through the years. I’d be honored to come back again because the coach right here. That’s it.”
Ewing, the Corridor of Fame heart who starred at Georgetown after which grew to become the face of the Knicks within the Eighties and ’90s, has skilled his share of dramatic wins and losses on the Backyard. However by no means in his basketball profession has he endured such a protracted stretch of frustration and failure.
On his watch, the Hoyas have been 75-109 with just one N.C.A.A. match look, in 2021. Final season, the Hoyas completed the common season 0-19 in convention play. This yr, they had been 2-18 within the league, and 7-25 total.
John J. DeGioia, Georgetown’s president, declined a request for an interview about Ewing this week, however praised his coach on the N.C.A.A. conference in San Antonio in January. “I’ve had the privilege of understanding and dealing with Coach Ewing for 40 years, over the course of some ways wherein he has offered such extraordinary service to Georgetown,” DeGioia mentioned. “Watching him, watching our staff wrestle at this second, is troublesome. However nobody — nobody — could possibly be extra dedicated or working tougher to show it round than Patrick Ewing.”
Standing exterior the Georgetown locker room on Wednesday night time, Lee Reed, the college’s athletic director, declined to touch upon Ewing’s future.
“It’s been an extended yr, my ideas are with the staff proper now,” he instructed reporters. “That’s all I’m fascinated with proper now.”
It was solely two years in the past when a joyous and victorious Ewing strolled into the Georgetown locker room on the Backyard singing Drake lyrics. After being picked to complete final within the convention’s preseason ballot, the Hoyas had simply upset Creighton within the Huge East match remaining, incomes an computerized bid within the N.C.A.A. match — this system’s first berth for the reason that 2014-15 season.
However that optimism was short-lived. The Hoyas misplaced within the first spherical of the N.C.A.A. match and carried a 29-game shedding streak in regular-season Huge East play into late January of this season.
“It’s the identical stuff that Ewing talks about on a regular basis — we simply haven’t been capable of shut video games,” Wealthy Chvotkin, Georgetown basketball’s radio voice for 49 seasons, mentioned in a phone interview on Tuesday. “And within the Huge East, for those who can’t shut video games, you’re in hassle.”
Ewing has additionally struggled to retain gamers: 17 have transferred out of this system throughout his tenure, together with Mac McClung, who left for Texas Tech and this yr gained the N.B.A. dunk contest, and Dante Harris, a Washington native and the winner of the excellent participant of the 2021 Huge East match. Harris transferred to Virginia in January.
This season’s staff, with 9 new gamers, typically performed an uninspired model of basketball.
“I really feel like our roster has probably the most expertise to compete with all people on this convention, and all people within the Energy 5,” mentioned Primo Spears, a 6-foot-3 sophomore level guard who transferred from Duquesne. “However it’s a brand new group. We obtained a brand new group of fellows. Our high seven has by no means performed with one another.
“While you play different groups within the Energy 5, it’s arduous to mesh rapidly in such a bit of time. So I feel all people simply must get used to one another’s sport, and by the point we obtained used to one another, I really feel prefer it was too late.”
Ewing additionally hasn’t been capable of make the most of the fertile recruiting floor close to the college, both. The D.M.V. area — the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia — is understood for its high-level basketball expertise, however Georgetown hasn’t signed a D.C. Gatorade Participant of the Yr since Chris Wright in 2007. No Georgetown participant has been drafted into the N.B.A. since 2013.
Fan discontent in regards to the staff’s struggles has made its method into the world. Within the waning moments of Georgetown’s 66-51 loss to Seton Corridor on Jan. 10, the twenty seventh of what would turn into 29 straight Huge East losses, the Hoyas’ pupil part broke out a “Fireplace Ewing” chant.
“Clearly, whenever you don’t win, the fan base just isn’t more than happy,” Chvotkin mentioned, including: “However Patrick, he’s a warrior. He’s doing the very best he can do. It’s only a disgrace that they’re not getting it achieved. That’s the issue. They’re simply not getting it achieved.”