Retired Hoya: Georgetown's "Anonymous"

[DFW HOYA]

A new post today on the assistant coaches.

medium.com/@tamers.blurbs-0u/opinion-patrick-ewing-firing-his-two-assistants-has-taken-his-legacy-to-a-new-low-f6a946df7de4

[Bigs"R"Us]

My fear is that the longer Ewing, RT & friends are in place the more the legacy of Ewing the player and memory of JT2 will be tarnished. Another year or two of this and folks will be seriously angry.

[TC]

I don't think we owe $16m guaranteed. Aidan said it was $12m, but even that seems suspect.

[hoyaguy]

Mar 14, 2022 12:33:57 GMT -5 TC said:

I don't think we owe $16m guaranteed. Aidan said it was $12m, but even that seems suspect.

Yeah from my understanding it’s 12m now or next year but it’s 16m total wasted if we keep him and fire him next year

[Omega]

Mar 14, 2022 12:13:36 GMT -5 DFW HOYA said:

A new post today on the assistant coaches.

medium.com/@tamers.blurbs-0u/opinion-patrick-ewing-firing-his-two-assistants-has-taken-his-legacy-to-a-new-low-f6a946df7de4

Did I miss something, I thought personal attacks were not allowed on this board... 🤔

[FromTheBeginning]

I am not expressing an opinion in either direction on the post above but it seems to me there has be a loud clamoring on this board for a long time about the lack of recruiting success, especially on the local level, for the current staff.

[TC]

Mar 14, 2022 12:47:21 GMT -5 FromTheBeginning said:

I am not expressing an opinion in either direction on the post above but it seems to me there has be a loud clamoring on this board for a long time about the lack of recruiting success, especially on the local level, for the current staff.

"I thought new recruiters were what people were asking for" is such an incredibly bad faith position after 0-20 and not fixing the problem for the first 5 years.

[iowa80]

Nothing particularly interesting here. Put a name on your work, sir, or that’s probably enough.

[sweetness]

This post is spot on, and frankly writes itself. But good on someone to actually write it up in detail. People want to quibble with some of Retired Hoya's statements - that's fine, I don't agree with everything he's saying. But the gist of it is almost irrefutable. Whether you call it corruption, dysfunction, or just truly horrendous and scared decision-making on the part of the administration. The end result is the same: we are a disgrace of a program right now.

And I don't blame him for his anonymity in the least, because he would probably have some crazies coming after him.

[CTHoya08]

Mar 14, 2022 12:40:39 GMT -5 hoyaguy said:

Mar 14, 2022 12:33:57 GMT -5 TC said:

I don't think we owe $16m guaranteed. Aidan said it was $12m, but even that seems suspect.

Yeah from my understanding it’s 12m now or next year but it’s 16m total wasted if we keep him and fire him next year

I think it’s $12M guaranteed. A $12M buyout if we fire him this year, or $8M next year (but we’d have already paid him another $4M in salary, for a total of $12M). Aiden’s prose on this is a little unclear, but that’s the only way it makes any kind of sense to me. Then again, the whole thing is insane, so maybe it really would be the full $12M next year, too.

[hoya9797]

I just can’t believe he got a fully guaranteed contract. That can not possibly be the market.

[miracles87]

I don't believe a single thing about "anonymous". The notion that someone with such strong feelings, and the ability to convey them so clearly via the written word, a supposed former player no less, would choose anonymity over openness is absurd. Why hamstring the impact of your protest in favor of lobbing incendiary accusations and judgments?

All of this corruption stuff is just asinine to me. Having just won the BET, and with a great class coming in, extending Ewing was certainly reasonable. Maybe some wouldn't have agreed, but people have gone waay overboard with their characterizations of the administration.

[guru]

Mar 14, 2022 16:44:14 GMT -5 miracles87 said:

I don't believe a single thing about "anonymous". The notion that someone with such strong feelings, and the ability to convey them so clearly via the written word, a supposed former player no less, would choose anonymity over openness is absurd. Why hamstring the impact of your protest in favor of lobbing incendiary accusations and judgments?

All of this corruption stuff is just asinine to me. Having just won the BET, and with a great class coming in, extending Ewing was certainly reasonable. Maybe some wouldn't have agreed, but people have gone waay overboard with their characterizations of the administration.

I don't believe these were written by a former player either, though I agree with most of what was written.

[iowa80]

Mar 14, 2022 16:48:01 GMT -5 guru said:

Mar 14, 2022 16:44:14 GMT -5 miracles87 said:

I don't believe a single thing about "anonymous". The notion that someone with such strong feelings, and the ability to convey them so clearly via the written word, a supposed former player no less, would choose anonymity over openness is absurd. Why hamstring the impact of your protest in favor of lobbing incendiary accusations and judgments?

All of this corruption stuff is just asinine to me. Having just won the BET, and with a great class coming in, extending Ewing was certainly reasonable. Maybe some wouldn't have agreed, but people have gone waay overboard with their characterizations of the administration.

I don't believe these were written by a former player either, though I agree with most of what was written.

It’s Kayode Vann. No question.

[sweetness]

Extending Ewing with guaranteed money after a pretty fortunate 4 day stretch - e.g. Gillespie out, avoiding UCONN - is beyond silly. Extend him, fine, but don't increase the buyout or guaranteed money in any meaningful way.

And don't forget the extension must have come after we were absolutely pounded - embarrassed really - in the NCAA tourney. I mean that was a joke from the tip. And likely after Wahab had announced that he was transferring.

At that point, even before this debacle of a season, Ewing still hadn't had a winning record in conference and had shown a disturbing inability to retain players.

[hoyajinx]

Mar 14, 2022 17:16:33 GMT -5 sweetness said:

Extending Ewing with guaranteed money after a pretty fortunate 4 day stretch - e.g. Gillespie out, avoiding UCONN - is beyond silly. Extend him, fine, but don't increase the buyout or guaranteed money in any meaningful way.

And don't forget the extension must have come after we were absolutely pounded - embarrassed really - in the NCAA tourney. I mean that was a joke from the tip. And likely after Wahab had announced that he was transferring.

At that point, even before this debacle of a season, Ewing still hadn't had a winning record in conference and had shown a disturbing inability to retain players.

Not only that, but extensions are usually a way to entice a successful coach to not try to jump ship for another program. Considering that Ewing has been neither successful, four days last march notwithstanding, and there was zero likelihood given his “success” (let alone history with the program), that a single other program would be interested in him. The administration had all of the leverage. It was quite simply incompetent negotiating from jump.

[hoyaguy]

Extending him 1 year wouldn’t have been totally ridiculous because of the youth we had coming in which needed probably a full year to get competitive and more consistent which would be 22/23 when we could have realistically get an at large again imo (also wahab left but the new transfer rules could’ve meant at the time we easily replace him or upgraded with someone like Bates). It would’ve let things stay as they were without a lame duck and wouldn’t make it a huge financial commitment to deal with in a pandemic but wow 3 years and lump sum that’s just speaks volumes of incompetence. Although that is more consistent with the grandiose delusions of everyone in the TAC and Healy have about where we are and just general poor/slow decision making from leadership. Also idk if it’s relevant but our endowment grew like crazy over the bounce back, it’s well over 2 billion I believe according to the web

[augustusfinknottle]

Mar 14, 2022 15:48:40 GMT -5 hoya9797 said:

I just can’t believe he got a fully guaranteed contract. That can not possibly be the market.

Clearly, something doesn’t have to be the market in order for GU to do it.

[hoyasaxa2003]

While I agree with some of this new blog post from this alleged former player, I do not find it terribly interesting or unique. He is basically making the same argument most of us on here have made, except that being a former player might give it a little more cachet?

Here are some thoughts:

This weekend the seemingly endless saga surrounding Georgetown Basketball continued. The program just hit a new low, maybe even the lowest low, and it made me lose respect for Patrick Ewing. I’m talking, of course, of the news about Coach Ewing firing two of his assistants from the team, coaches Robert Kirby and Akbar Waheed.

Everyone here knows I do not think Patrick Ewing should be the coach (and I still hold a small sliver of hope he will be gone before next season), but IF he is going to stay, then of course he needs to fire the assistants. I would advocate getting rid of all three of them. Frankly, Ewing himself cannot coach well, so he needs to bring in three assistants, including some who can help with that. It is absurd that we are at the point where we need the head coach to have assistants to, you know...coach...but that's where we are.

After miraculously surviving what should have been a swift dismissal for his dismal performance this year, Ewing, I figured, would just close himself off for a while and let the dust settle. However, this fateful week in which the feckless Athletic Director Lee Reed proclaimed his undying support for Coach Ewing, it was also announced in the media that assistants Robert Kirby and Akbar Waheed would no longer be associated with the program. In the long term, this is a gift to them, but it’s wrapped in a pile of , and we should address that.

I think Ronny and others (including Ewing) knew that to have any fighting chance of survival, they needed to do something. This was it. I mean, why should this be surprising? Would this author have been more happy if Ewing stayed the course and didn't fire them? It's clearly too little too late, but also not surprising.

As for the complaints that Ewing doesn't take responsibility, that's just who he is. And partially why we need a new coach, but apparently, we are fine with abysmal performance.

I agree with much of the remaining part of the article until:

He could have gotten rid of some of the kids on the team. His former coach, Big John did it regularly. Someone transferred probably every year he was in the business of coaching, and transfers back then were primarily initiated by the coach. There was no transfer portal — he would just kick you out. You f-up, you’re out. He doesn’t like how you play, you’re out, baby. It’s a business and performance matters, and Thompson did not hesitate to let anyone go on a moment’s notice. The point here is that while some kids transferred from the school on their own in the last few years with Ewing leading the team, it’s not like getting rid of players is an unusual practice for Georgetown or one that people would find surprising given the performance of the team.

Frankly, I am not sure what the point is here despite "the point here is..." To be better, we surely need better talent, but we need a coach even more. Ewing doesn't need to get rid of kids, they usually leave of their own volition.

Firing the assistants, on the other hand, is such a weird thing to do, that I really have no words for Coach Ewing (not that he cares, but still). I respected him as a player, I respected him as an alum, and I respected him as a coach. Despite my soliloquy, I really was pulling for him, because by all accounts he is a stand-up guy, and I wanted him to succeed and was happy when he got the job. But this move makes me lose all of that respect. Why those two? Why not Coach Orr, as well? Why not Director of Basketball Operations Bill Howze? Why not Special Assistant to the Head Coach Clinton Crouch?

Again, firing the assistants is not at all "such a weird thing to do." Embattled coaches do this, we are just in unchartered territory here because usually 0-20 coaches do not get the opportunity to fire anybody. Once you accept the premise that Ewing is not getting fired, then firing the assistants actually makes total sense. For the record, I don't think it'll matter, but all of us have been saying how Ewing should fire some of the assistants for a while, and so why would we be surprised when it happens? I think the author's real problem is Ewing (which is a fair position).

It’s a head fake. It’s a move designed to show that he’s doing something, which he’s not, and feigning an effort in accountability. Kirby and Waheed seem quite literally the last people someone with any ability to stand up and face some modicum of responsibility would fire. And to what end? You kept your job — just move on.

Again, I agree with this, mostly, but the easiest people fired are usually the fall guys when someone needs to fall. So, again, this isn't surprising. I do worry we lost a good recruiter in Kirby, though.

And the remainder of the article is really just vitriol. I am just not impressed with it. There have been far more eloquent takes posted here in the last two months than this. It only gets attention because of the alleged author.

[hoya73]

Did any of this person's posts actually say he was a former player? An "alumni of the Georgetown Basketball program" could be a team manager or someone in another capacity. I know team mangers are recognized on senior day as alumni of the program.
Oh, I guess the first one did begin, "As a former player" I don't believe everything I read, though, and maybe some of the managers fill in as practice players when needed. I know that used to happen at Maryland, because Lefty inserted one in an actual game one senior night.
Wouldn't be the first GU grad to pad a resume.