Big East Basketball: Top 5 storylines heading into 2020-21 season
4. Patrick Ewing and Georgetown’s Redemption Season
People are really down on Georgetown right now. In the past two seasons just about all of the amazing work Patrick Ewing did on the recruiting trail has disappeared with the transfers of James Akinjo, Josh LeBlanc, Myron Gardner, Galen Alexander, and Mac McClung. That being said, Ewing has done a sneaky good job making this team competitive throughout roster turbulence while he is still in the midst of a program rebuild.
McClung (30% usg) and Akinjo (27% usg), the two highest-ranked transfers from Georgetown, were ball-dominant guards who did not help Georgetown win even though they were Ewing’s most talented players. Akinjo left the program in the early stages of 19-20, eventually landing on Arizona as his transfer destination, and McClung missed 11 games due to injury before transferring to Texas Tech a month ago. There were multiple games that the Hoyas were forced to play with a handful of usable scholarship players. On top of that, starting center Omer Yurtseven missed seven games, and Ewing still had Georgetown on the NCAA Tournament bubble in February.
It looks like the dust is settling a little bit for Ewing heading into 2020-21. The stability of knowing what he has to work with and the additions of some promising newcomers are going make Georgetown a sleeper in the Big East.
Jahvon Blair (10.8 Pts, 3.1 Reb, 2.0 Ast) and Jamarco Pickett (10.2 Pts, 6.3 Reb, 1.1 Ast) return, and the senior combo have the potential to be one of the top backcourts in the Big East. Neither had great advanced metrics last season, but they were also asked to play outside of their roles due to roster instability. Pickett is a former prized recruit who has not yet fully lived up to his ranking, but with more reliable help joining the roster and what should be a better-defined role he looks set up to reach new heights in his final season as a Hoya.
Help comes in the form of two immediately eligible transfers in Jalen Harris (Arkansas), who will add another punch to an already talented backcourt, and Chudier Bile (Northwestern St), an All-Southland Conference performer in 19-20 who at 6’7” led the Demons in rebounding but was also a fantastic shooter. To go along, Ewing adds one of the deepest freshman classes in the Big East highlighted by 6’8” Jamari Sibley who should see starter minutes early on in his career. The Oak Hill Academy graduate turned down Minnesota, Iowa, and Maryland to join the rebuild in DC.
There is also a lot of promise in the frontcourt, most notably three 7 footers who were behind Yurtseven on last year’s depth chart. Qudus Wahab (5.5 Pts, 4.3 Reb, 0.3 Ast), Timothy Ighoefe, and Malcolm Wilson were not highly recruited but have a lot of raw talent and who better to mold that than one of the best big men of all time in their head coach. More than likely only two of the three will work out in a Georgetown uniform because you just aren’t going to find the minutes for three guys that size, but the strides Wahab has made in two years have been strong and are a good omen for what is to come up front for the Hoyas.
Again, many are down on Georgetown right now, but when you look at it with the proper context the cards were stacked against Ewing last year between a mass exodus of guys who did not fit the culture he is trying to instill and a top 25 strength of schedule. Despite some disappointing results early in the Ewing tenure, progress is being made in the nation’s capital.
If Blair, Pickett, and Harris can be the top-notch guard combination they are capable of and someone like Wahab can take that next step as Romaro Gil did for Seton Hall last season, Georgetown is going to surprise people in the Big East and may be an NCAA tournament team. Patrick Ewing needs a redemption season; otherwise, whether he deserves it or not, his seat will start getting hot.