I would give Ewing a b for the season.

[jctnhoya4ever]

The team lost a lot of games by late turnovers,and bad fouls at the end of games. We need a good pass first point guard that can score but gets others open shots.we got mcclung but need another point guard to.i think the Hoyas will be better next year.win some games that we blew this year,and a tougher non conference schedule and they should be better next year,border line bubble team if can get 9-9 in big east.tougher non conference schedule is a must though to give yourself a chance if it is close to being on bubble.they showed strides and guard play really hurt them though gohoyas on to recruiting.

[DFW HOYA]

How many people expect a really good non-conf schedule? The same voice(s) that told Patrick to play the MEAC All-Stars will tell him to do it again.

[prhoya]

Mar 7, 2018 21:56:09 GMT -5 DFW HOYA said:

How many people expect a really good non-conf schedule? The same voice(s) that told Patrick to play the MEAC All-Stars will tell him to do it again.

I expect the schedule to be carefully crafted to have a OOC RPI just good enough that, when combined with a 9-9 BE season, we will be in the NCAAT conversation.

[mfk24]

Mar 7, 2018 21:56:09 GMT -5 DFW HOYA said:

How many people expect a really good non-conf schedule? The same voice(s) that told Patrick to play the MEAC All-Stars will tell him to do it again.

All the grief he got for the schedule this year, I expect a better non-conference schedule from an RPI standpoint even if we don’t play any big names. This season’s schedule was designed to ensure a 0.500 record and it did just that. As a brand new head coach coming in, I would want the easiest schedule I could muster too. I’m sure PE has a better understanding of the RPI game and how he has to play it.

[Elvado]

So the man with no experience achieved in year one what the last guy did in year 13. I give him a B as well. He thankfully has an upside.

[GIGAFAN99]

Same and I'm not sure everyone realizes how bad this could have been.

We were 15-18, 5-13 and the day Pat was hired had lost in the previous few months;

Pryor,Hayes,Cameron: Graduation
Agau, Copeland: Transfer
Campbell: injury
Waters: Decommitted
Peak: NBA

We had signed;

Walker

Really could have been way worse which admittedly is hard to believe but we managed to pick up some nice recruits and tread water at least in a tough conference. Brutal, but reasons for optimism.

[the_way]

B is a good evaluation.

Pat did a great job. Needs to work on defensive calls during the games. Definitely needs fixing.

Other than that, I like what we do offensively, or at least what he is trying to do offensively. We get good and open looks at the basket. Just need to recruit the players that can consistently knock those shots down like the better teams in the conference and country.

[kbones17]

I would give PE a C plus/B minus overall. Really it’s a B for recruiting, but more of a C for in game coaching.

If we had found a way to win another game or two down the stretch that would made it a B for me, but there just wasn’t any improvement evident in the last five games. The defense was atrocious all season and seemed to get worse at the end of the season.

Priority number 1 this off-season is adding another guard or two that can handle the ball and distribute. Priority number two is coming up with an identity/strategy on how to improve the defense. We can’t be giving up 90 points against mediocre offensive teams (reallly any teams) and expect to win.

[hoyaboya]

Scheduling: F
Pre-Game Preparation: B
In-Game Coaching: C-
Halftime Adjustments: F
Recruiting: D
Public Relations: B

Overall: C-/D+

[bamahoya11]

I think a B is just about right, I would be inclined to bump it to a B-plus with the wins over Seton Hall and Butler. Going into the year, I wanted to see development and a game or two that showed we might be a load in the future. Ewing gave me that. I'm as ready as anyone to move back toward the top, though. Losing is not fun.

[sweetness]

I think Ewing had a very solid first year, but in general I don't think you can grade Ewing off this year given that he basically had no guards to work with. Having said that, I really, really hope he's bringing in another - talented - guard to complement McClung and Blair for next year and beyond. I guess I can live with a stud grad transfer for a year if we can snag a big time guard in the '19 class.

[ewingitrust]

Sky's the limit from here on out. Better days are comin to the Hilltop.

[bostonfan]

Mar 8, 2018 9:22:23 GMT -5 bamahoya11 said:

I think a B is just about right, I would be inclined to bump it to a B-plus with the wins over Seton Hall and Butler. Going into the year, I wanted to see development and a game or two that showed we might be a load in the future. Ewing gave me that. I'm as ready as anyone to move back toward the top, though. Losing is not fun.

I think he did a good job this season and was able to change the playing style and culture of the program and has things moving in the right direction. I also think he will grow and improve as a coach from the experiences he had this year. He is famous for his incredible work ethic and I have no doubt there are things he feels he could have done better and will put in the effort to make those changes. You could tell losing to not settle well with him and he expects a much better performance from himself and his team.

I enjoyed his playing style and offensive system and think both will evolve as new players enter the program, but that he did as well as possible with the players he had available.

I think he had some struggles with end of game situations and that he will reach out to other coaches he knows and ask for advise/help on what will work in the college game. I also think he sometimes got a little stubborn about sticking with man to man defense even when the other team found a way to exploit certain mismatches. He seemed to want to install a midset of playing hard nosed man to man and wanted his players to step up to the challenge and stop guys, when I think switching to a zone occasionally, even if only for a few possessions, might have been helpful.

I think the team, the coach and the entire staff will be better next year.

[hoyasaxa2003]

Mar 8, 2018 9:46:09 GMT -5 sweetness said:

I think Ewing had a very solid first year, but in general I don't think you can grade Ewing off this year given that he basically had no guards to work with. Having said that, I really, really hope he's bringing in another - talented - guard to complement McClung and Blair for next year and beyond. I guess I can live with a stud grad transfer for a year if we can snag a big time guard in the '19 class.

I agree that it is hard to "grade" Ewing at this point because he was a first year coach with a roster he mostly inherited. For sure, one can note positives and negatives (I will put more specific thoughts up at some point) of what happened this year, but it's really premature to make a judgment until Ewing gets a chance to build a roster.

Overall, this season was about as expected. To those who say "it couldn't be much worse," - yes, it absolutely could have been. While 5 wins in the Big East is nothing to write home about, we only beat St. John's by 3 points and 4 points (in overtime), and beat Seton Hall by 3, and Butler by 4. So I do actually think the Big East season could have been a lot worse, with only 1 or 2 wins.

To look at the reverse, could the season have been better? Maybe a little bit, but probably not substantially. Sure, we might have been able to win a game or two more if we didn't have our second half collapses, but knowing what we know now, it's hard to envision this team being anything closely resembling an NCAA team and probably even an NIT-quality team.

As I said, I won't get into specifics here, though my biggest concern going forward is our defense. Right now, we are the 124th ranked defense, which is by far our worst defense since KenPom started tracking teams in 2002. I agree with others this is, to some degree, a personnel issue and reflects that Govan/Derrickson aren't good defenders, but we've got to do something to improve (in fact, our defensive rating declined throughout the season) that next year. The other two defenses with Govan and Derrickson were 58th and 81st, so improving even to that level (preferably something in the 50 range) would make a big difference. LeBlanc may help, and I hope he does, but we've got to do something to improve on that next season.

[HometownHoya]

Mar 8, 2018 1:08:57 GMT -5 hoyaboya said:

Scheduling: F
Pre-Game Preparation: B
In-Game Coaching: C-
Halftime Adjustments: F
Recruiting: D
Public Relations: B

Overall: C-/D+

I think these are all a bit strong.

Scheduling might be an F but per Pat's goals I think you have to bump it up to a D at worst if not a C.
His pre-grame preparation was much better then we'd seen from the previous staff. Not only did he have his guys knowing what to do but he had game plans for opponent's strengths. This is a major reason we had so many double digit leads to squander.
In-Game coaching was actually pretty decent overall. Yes we lost a lot of leads but that is not entirely on coaching, could he have been quicker to adjust sometimes? Definitely but he seems to be the type of the coach that lets the players on the floor figure out and there just wasn't the talent for it this year. I'd give him a C+.
Halftime adjustments not good but not a total F. He clearly got out-adjusted at halftimes but it was there. This is more like a D.
How is recruiting a D?!? Yes he doesn't have any 5 star players but he got 2 guys on the All-Freshman team. He has a solid 2018 class coming in and time to add more. I'd actually give him more of a B based on what he had to work with when he first got here. This was not an attractive program or team at that time.
PR has to be atleast an A-. He got our names in the papers for positive reasons. He had NBA commentators talking about him. Opposing coaches talking about him. A couple of trending memes.

I definitely agree with the OP of this thread that a B (maybe B-) is right for the season.

[smokeyjack]

Mar 8, 2018 1:08:57 GMT -5 hoyaboya said:

Scheduling: F
Pre-Game Preparation: B
In-Game Coaching: C-
Halftime Adjustments: F
Recruiting: D
Public Relations: B

Overall: C-/D+

Yep. This is pretty much how I drop it out. I’d give him a c+ simply because you get a whole grade bump in yr 1. But it wasn’t a terribly encouraging first season by my reckoning.

[mfk24]

Mar 8, 2018 11:46:21 GMT -5 smokeyjack said:

Mar 8, 2018 1:08:57 GMT -5 hoyaboya said:

Scheduling: F
Pre-Game Preparation: B
In-Game Coaching: C-
Halftime Adjustments: F
Recruiting: D
Public Relations: B

Overall: C-/D+

Yep. This is pretty much how I drop it out. I’d give him a c+ simply because you get a whole grade bump in yr 1. But it wasn’t a terribly encouraging first season by my reckoning.

What were your expectations coming in to this season where we were picked to finish 9th in the Big East? How realistic were they given how the team performed last year and the effective downgrade we had in the backcourt?

Are there things Ewing needs to work on? Absolutely. Do individual players have to continue developing going forward? You bet. Are we in desperate need of a talent upgrade? Most definitely.

Cuonzo Martin and Chris Holtman are really the only two 1st year head coaches who have had good first seasons at their new schools and both are veteran college coaches with a lot more coaching experience under their belt than Ewing has. . Miller finished 9-9 @ Indiana but they don’t have a single quality win and Underwood is 14-18@Illinois. Hurley has been at Arizona state 3 years and though they were on the bubble this year, they clearly underperformed in a weak conference after such a strong start to their season.