Besmirched!

Let the record show that we know from bad basketball. Several Gheorghies attended the College of William and Mary in the late 80s, after all, when the Wrens went 11-45 across two seasons. We could choose not to attend that dreck, at least. Pity poor OBX Dave, who had to watch it as a condition of his employment.

Right here in the greater DMV, we're witnessing the freefall of a once-great program, a basketballing wasteland of unusual proportions for a power conference school. And they're taking us down with them.

I refer, of course, to the Gheorghetown Hoyas, the erstwhile swaggering bullies who captured our imaginations under Big John Thompson (which may, as it turns out, have laid the seed for the school's current predicament). This year's Hoyas are a far, far cry from those groups, with the only connective tissue, ironically, being Patrick Ewing.

The Hoyas' coach paid his dues on the bench, working as an NBA assistant from 2002 to 2017, when he was hired to be the big whistle at his alma mater. His first four seasons on the Hilltop were okay, as he amassed a 62-59 record and won the 2021 Big East Tournament. Throughout that time, players left the program, and Ewing failed to bring continuity.

The wheels came off the cart entirely last season. Gheorghetown lost its opener to Dartmouth, and it didn't get much better after that. The Hoyas lost all of their 19 Big East contests, and finished the season at 6-25 (that...that's Chuck Swenson's music!).

After going 5-6 in non-conference play, including the school's first loss to American in 40 years, the Hoyas have picked up where they left off in the league. Last night's 66-51 loss to Seton Hall was Ewing's 27th consecutive conference defeat, leaving the team at 0-7 in the Big East. Only once have the Hoyas managed to get within 11 points of a conference opponent, falling by a mere seven to a mediocre DePaul squad.

The Hoyas are last in the league in most defensive categories, making up for it by being middling on offense. They shoot poorly, defend abysmally, don't share the ball, and don't protect it. They get some rebounds, though.

I think it's fair to say that the Ewing experiment is a failure. The school is reduced to removing students with Ewing Out signs from the sparsely-populated arena and dealing with on-campus protests(!). Any other coach at any other major program would've been fired after last season's debacle. But with Ronnie Thompson still running around in the program, and university president Jack DiGioia protecting Big John's legacy, athletic director Lee Reed has his hands well and truly tied.

So it could be worse, Wrens fans. Could be better, for sure. But it could be worse.