By ADAM ZAGORIA
In the wake of a historically poor season, Patrick Ewing is shaking up his staff at Georgetown.
The Georgetown legend and head coach is parting ways with assistants Robert Kirby and Akbar Waheed, sources said, while Louis Orr is expected to remain in a different role.
Ewing may opt to bring in an associate head coach or assistant with head coaching experience, such as what Juwan Howard did with Phil Martelli at Michigan. The Hoyas will also need assistants with strong recruiting ties.
“It’s been a rough year,” Ewing said Thursday after the Hoyas lost to Seton Hall, 57-53, in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals. “Can’t do anything rash. Just gotta take a few days, regroup, think about what we want to do and then start the process.”
Georgetown finished 6-25, losing 21 straight games to end the season and going 0-19 during the Big East regular season for a new record of futility. Two previous Big East teams had gone 0-18, most recently DePaul in 2008-9. Ewing is 68-84 with one winning season at Georgetown.
Georgetown AD Lou Reed gave Ewing a vote of confidence and said he would return next season.
“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,” he said in a statement.
“Coach Ewing’s dedication as well as his success in last year’s BIG EAST Tournament is a testament to his leadership. This gives us confidence that he can strengthen our program going forward. I wish to thank all of our supporters and season ticket holders for their ongoing commitment and express my appreciation to the members of our team for their hard work.”
After the Seton Hall game, Ewing said:
“If you look at every game, pretty much every game we’ve played, we had opportunities to win, even our last Seton Hall game — not just this one, the one before that — we missed a layup, missed 11 or 12 layups. We made them and make our free throws, we win. Hey, look, like I said, I’m proud of them.
“I’m proud of the fight. I’m disappointed that we didn’t have the year I would have liked. But you still have to be proud of the fight that we gave. We could have easily let go of the rope and called it a night. But we never did that.”
Georgetown has a two-man recruiting class for 2022, including Gill St. Bernard’s (N.J.) guard Denver Anglin, who made 11 3-pointers and scored 33 points when Gill lost to Roselle Catholic in the New Jersey North Non-Public B title game on Wednesday.
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