Patrick Ewing will become the next basketball coach at Georgetown University, a person with knowledge of negotiations confirmed to The Washington Post.
The Georgetown legend came to an agreement to succeed John Thompson III as the program’s head coach after meeting with school officials in Washington Monday. Ewing, 54, was in town with the Charlotte Hornets, for whom he currently works as associate head coach.
The Hornets play the Washington Wizards Tuesday night at Verizon Center, but Ewing is expected to leave the job in short order to begin the process of filling out his staff at Georgetown, as he attempts to revive the stagnant program he helped build into a national power as a player 30-plus years ago.
The hire is a sign that John Thompson Jr. remains a powerful force within the school. There was little doubt Ewing would take this job if he didn’t have the blessing of the elder Thompson, for whom he played during a collegiate career that included three Final Fours – including the 1984 national championship – from 1982-85. Ewing went on to a Hall of Fame NBA career once the New York Knicks made him the top overall pick in the 1985 NBA draft.
Ewing’s son, Patrick Ewing Jr., served on Thompson III’s Georgetown staff as an assistant coach the past two seasons.
For the past 15 years, the elder Ewing has become a well-respected NBA assistant, serving on the staffs of Jeff and Stan Van Gundy with the Houston Rockets and Orlando Magic before joining Clifford’s staff in Charlotte. He’s been interviewed for multiple NBA jobs, including for the Sacramento Kings vacancy last summer.
Thompson III was fired March 23 after a second consecutive losing season. Thompson III had led the Hoyas to eight NCAA Tournament appearances since taking over in 2004, including a Final Four run in 2007, but the Hoyas missed the NCAA tournament in three of the past four seasons. Georgetown finished the 2015-2016 season at 15-18. It ended this season with a record of 14-18, losing its final six games to finish ninth in the ten-team Big East Conference.
That regression left some of Thompson Jr.’s former players calling for change, and a petition drafted on campus last month called for Thompson III’s ouster and garnered more than 1,400 signatures from students and alumni.
Georgetown’s roster also was decimated by a number of departures after the lackluster season, including starting guard L.J. Peak, who became the fourth player to leave the team this season when he declared for the NBA draft two days before Thompson was fired.
Georgetown also lost its top recruit in the class of 2017, point guard Tremont Waters, who reopened his recruitment in March. The Hoyas currently have just eight scholarship players on their roster.
The search for Thompson III’s replacement was led by Paul Tagliabue, vice chair of Georgetown’s board of directors and Athletic Director Lee Reed. Tagliabue, a Georgetown alum, also served as NFL commissioner from 1989 to 2006.