Georgetown Basketball: 2019-20 non-conference schedule has some bite

Georgetown Basketball hasn’t had the most difficult non-conference schedules in recent seasons. It looks like that has changed for this upcoming campaign.

Despite having just a 34-29 record in his first two seasons with Georgetown Basketball, head coach Patrick Ewing has shocked some people. Ewing has been effective on the recruiting trail. His offenses are NBA-based but he continuously massages them for the college game. All in all, it’s been a good two years but there’s been one complaint… the schedule.

There’s been constant complaining about Georgetown’s schedule since Ewing took over. It was highlighted by the Hoyas pulling out of Nike’s “love me” PK80 tournament. The Hoyas were replaced by DePaul. The faux outrage over the schedule change was incredible. The Hoyas were going through a massive transition that went well beyond a simple coaching change.

They were changing how they recruit, what type of player they were recruiting, along with a full-scale culture change. Ewing paid his dues on the NBA level as an assistant coach, he deserved the right to have a schedule that eased him into the college game. It wasn’t like he was taking over a roster that was going to be top two or three in the Big East.

Whoever made the decision made the right one.

But, in year three, the schedule should see a boost and it has. Last week, Georgetown released their out of conference schedule and it reflects confidence in where the program is now.

The Hoyas have home games against Penn State and Syracuse, neutral site dates with Cal and either Duke or Texas, and road games at Oklahoma State and SMU.

That’s enough to make Georgetown legitimate at-large candidates if they can reach 19-20 wins. This is something that was an opportunity with the previous schedule but that’s fine.

Ewing earned the right to be given a chance to succeed at his alma mater. Now, it’s time for him to return Georgetown to the Hilltop of the Big East.