Georgetown Basketball: 2004 Off-Season News Archive
Last updated June 27, 2004

• White Selected In Expansion Draft
• NY Post On Mutombo
• GU 53rd In NACDA Rankings
• 2005 Recruit Commits to GU
• Assistant Coaches Announced
• Thompson Interview
• Schedule Talk
• Courtland Freeman Feature
• Driesell Joins Local HS Staff
• Coach Thompson Featured In Post
• "Doctor" Mutombo
• NBA Feature: Jerome Williams
• Riley Charged In Alleged Assault
• Scheduling Notes
• The Rice Report
• A Modest Proposal
• NCAA Reforms
• Search Process Detailed
• Assistant Coaching Changes
• HOYA Commentaries On Coaching Search
• Thompson Discusses Timetable
• The Next Generation
• Thompson Selected As Coach
• Hoop Club Banquet Recap
• Capital Classic Recap
• Paul Tagliabue Feature
• Assistant Coaches Checking Options
• Possible Change For Rainbow Classic
• Brunson Awaits WNBA Draft Day
• GW Students: We Want Georgetown
• Baylor's Thomas To Go Pro
• Aboya Decommits From GU Verbal
• Post Weighs In On Search
• The Three Year Plan
• Kanach To Randolph-Macon
• NY Daily News On Coaching Search
• 2003-04 By The Numbers
• Schedule Update
• Waiting Game
• 2004-05 Depth Chart
• John Thompson Q&A
• Recruit's Reaction
• Local Press Reaction
• The Day After: DeGioia and Esherick
• Post Discusses Georgetown Program
• Esherick's Tenure In Review
• Candidates? Not So Fast...
• Esherick Dismissed As Head Coach
• Previous Articles From 2003-04 Season

Former Georgetown center Jahidi White (C'98) was acquired by the expansion Charlotte Bobcats in its NBA expansion draft Tuesday. Coverage follows in links to the Charlotte Observer and the Arizona Republic.

The New York Post updates its readers on the progress of Dikembe Mutombo and his efforts to build a hospital in Kinshasa.

Mutombo, who has personally donated $8 million to the project, is seeking $50,000 pledges from 100 NBA players for the next phase of construction. Among the first to sign up: Patrick Ewing [C'85] and Alonzo Mourning [C'92].

"In my country, when you get really sick, you have two choices: stay home and wait for your time to [die], or your families sell your house and you go get treatment in Europe," Mutombo said. "Those who cannot afford to go, you stick around and wait for your clock to tick. This hospital is going to change all that."

For more information on Mutombo's efforts, visit www.dmf.org.

Georgetown University has placed 53rd in the totals for the United States Sports Academy Directors' Cup, formerly the Sears Cup, presented by USA Today and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) for success across all intercollegiate sports during the 2003-04 academic year. The list for 2004 is posted in a release from the NACDA web site.The final results will change only for the eight teams entering the College World Series next week.

Points are calculated based on NCAA post-season play, so the men's and women's basketball results gained no points in the standings for a third straight year. Georgetown's points in 2004 came from NCAA finishes in men's and women's cross country, men's and women's indoor track, men's and women's outdoor track, men's golf, and men's and women's lacrosse.

Of the top 50 schools ranked, 49 were in Division I-A. Georgetown's finish was second among all schools playing football below the I-A level, trailing only Princeton (#30).

The Big East rundown is as follows, with the net change from the 2003 results listed:

The new Big East schools entering in 2005 finished this season as follows:

Here's a recap of Georgetown's finishes over the years per the NACDA web site:

A 6-1 guard from Delaware is the Hoyas' latest commitment for the high school class of 2005.

The Wilmington News Journal has reported that 6-1 SG Josh Thornton has made a verbal commitment to the Georgetown class of 2009. Thornton averaged 19.1 ppg as a junior and is considered among the top senior recruits in the nation heading into the summer evaluation periods.

"A lot of kids these days just go to school to play basketball. His priority was to get a solid education, and get a degree from Georgetown, which will pretty much open a lot of doors for him,” said Tiff McCullough, Thornton's high school coach.

Georgetown officials cannot comment on recruits until a letter of intent has been signed, which takes place no sooner than early November. Thornton is the only current verbal commitment to date for 2005, as an earlier verbal commitment by 6-9 Alfred Aboya was reopened earlier this spring.

GUHoyas.com has posted a formal announcement on the recent additions of assistant coaches Robert Burke and Kevin Broadus to the staff.

Burke, a former high school teammate of Thompson's at Gonzaga, has served as an assistant at Loyola-Marymount, Siena, and Princeton.

Broadus, who played high school basketball in Washington and graduated from Bowie State, has been an assistant at four different area schools: Bowie State, UDC, American, and George Washington.

Coach Thompson sat down for a brief interview in this link to the Vero Beach News Journal.

"I'm extremely excited about the opportunity given to have this job and to hold this position," said Thompson III said. "I'm very excited about the future of Georgetown basketball."

The University at Albany is talking with Georgetown about a possible game next season, reports the Albany Times-Union.

"It's late May and we need games, and they need games, so we've got to figure it out," said Georgetown assistant Robert Burke.

It's not clear which non-conference opponents from 2003-04 will actually return in 2004-05. Previous media reports noted that Temple and Penn State would travel to Washington as return games, and there was some limited media discussion during coach Craig Esherick's tenure about a home and home series with Michigan in the future. The annual games with MEAC schools are not long term series.

The Myrtle Beach Sun News has an interesting column on recent graduate Courtland Freeman and his plans after Georgetown.

Freeman, who was recruited by John Thompson and played in parts of five seasons under Craig Esherick, has no regrets about his years at Georgetown.

"Overall, it was definitely worth it," he said. "I've grown a lot as a person, and I've learned that there's a lot more to life than basketball."

Freeman begins a six month overseas program with the State Department beginning in June. "To get to see different countries, different cultures, is going to be cool," he said. "I can't wait to get started."

Former assistant coach Chuck Driesell has been hired as coach at Alexandria's Bishop Ireton HS, reports the Washington Post. Driesell had recently been in consideration for the vacancy at Towson that went to Pat Kennedy.

Head coach John Thompson III is featured in a front page sports article in the May 8 Washington Post, with comments from many of his contemporaries at Princeton on the influences of both his father (John Thompson Jr.) and his coach at Princeton (Pete Carril).

"He was coached by two such strong personalities, yet he is his own man," said former Princeton basketball faculty advisor Marvin Bressler."He has respect for his two mentors, and he consults them from time to time as anyone would, but there is no question he is his own man."

"They're so similar in how they approach things, how they look at life, how they deal with their players," said Thompson. "I've been fortunate to learn from and grow from both of them."

Dikembe Mutombo (SLL'91) came to Georgetown seeking a pre-medical major, but the demands of basketball suggested otherwise. On May 15, he'll receive a doctoral title of a different kind, as SUNY-Cortland will present Mutombo with an Doctor of Humane Letters from that university. Details are at this link to NBA.com.

Congratulations to Dikembe on this award.

The Chicago Bulls website has a feature article on Jerome Williams (C'96), who has taken his positive attitude built in stops at Detroit and Toronto to the Chicago area. Recommended reading.

Graduating senior Gerald Riley was charged May 7 in an assault complaint filed by sophomore walk-on Amadou Kilkenny-Diaw.

According to the Washington Post, Riley allegedly struck Diaw in a dispute over money owed Riley by Diaw.

There was no comment from either student, nor from the basketball office.

Virginia may be looking at a game with Georgetown-Virginia in future schedules, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch.

The article discusses Virginia's efforts to upgrade its strength of schedule, which was rated as 45th in this link to RPI Ratings.com. According to the site, Georgetown's 2003-04 strength of schedule was 117th.

"The key word is balance," said head coach Pete Gillen. "You can't play 11 Arizonas, because then you'll be black and blue."

A consultant's report on the future of Rice University athletics was published on the Internet, detailing the growing financial issues faced by private schools in Division I.

Rice, with an undergraduate enrollment of 2,787, competes in the Western Athletic Conference and will join Conference USA in 2005. Its strongest traditions are academic, as Rice is ranked 16th in the US News survey and is one of only 13 Division I programs (the eight Ivies, plus Georgetown, Stanford, Duke and Northwestern) in the COFHE Group, a consortium of leading national universities.

Despite recent successes, Rice is posting athletic deficits of $7-10 million a year, leading its board of directors to consider everything from increased I-A funding to dropping all sports programs entirely, the latter of which was rejected in the report.

The issues facing Rice are, to an extent, issues bring faced by every other private school in Division I, Georgetown included. The full report is extensive (123 pages) but well worth reading.

Over the weekend, this modest proposal by the Princeton Packet, suggesting a four team tournament with Princeton, Georgetown, Northwestern and Air Force.

"Imagine the demand for tickets for the Pete Carril Classic if you brought together the four programs coached by his proteges," writes columnist Bob Nuse. "A tournament like that would be a basketball purist's dream."

A major set of NCAA reforms passed Thursday, the cornerstone being a link between academic progress and NCAA participation.

Two metrics, the "Academic Progress Rate" (APR) and "Graduation Success Rate" (GSR) will now measure student performance and could be used to reduce scholarships or restrict post season participation for repeat offenders.

"With these proposals, institutions, teams and coaches will know exactly what they need to accomplish to ensure their student-athletes are progressing in a timely fashion toward completing a degree. If they do not meet the requirements, they will suffer consequences," said Robert Hemenway, chair of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors and chancellor of the University of Kansas, in the link above.

Another change: the end of the so-called "5/8" rule, limiting teams to no more than five recruits in a year or eight recruits in two. Teams may not recruit as many as needed, but under the caveat that players who drop out of school or transfer put the school in peril per the NCAA guidelines above. If s student leaves school in poor academic standing, schools could lose that scholarship for one year as early as the 2005-06 season.

Also out: exhibition games against foreign squads and non-collegiate teams. The non-collegiate issue was prominent last year when Connecticut scheduled an exhibition game against an AAU team called the Beltway Ballerz, which was the club team for one of its leading recruits.

Here is a sample of articles on the subject:

• Boston Globe
• Cincinnati Post
• Indianapolis Star
• USA Today
• Washington Post

A link to GUHoyas.com details the process undertaken in the search that led to selecting John Thompson III as Georgetown's new head coach. Recommended reading.

A couple of assistant coaching items in the news this week.

A reader points out that the roster page at GUHoyas.com has replaced the previous listing of Georgetown assistants, and now lists Princeton assistant Rob Burke, but there has been no press release to that effect.

A press release has been issued at Wake Forest, however, where Georgetown women's assistant Natasha Adair will be leaving Georgetown to join head coach Mike Peterson's staff. Adair had coached at Georgetown since 1998.

The HOYA has a pair of interesting columns in its April 23 issue.

Alumnus David Kopech has a commentary in Friday's HOYA expressing the need for fans to have faith in Coach Thompson.

"You are to be commended, Little John, for taking the risk and believing in Georgetown. We are Georgetown and so are you," said Kopech. "Welcome to the family."

The newspaper's staff editorial also sends a hopeful tone.

"We believe that Thompson III, by utilizing the tools he currently possesses, will be able to rebuild school spirit, broaden the base of support for the program, and build team morale — all recently lacking factors necessary to the continued success of the program," said the editorial. "It will, however, take time for Thompson III to craft his team into a consistently winning and well-performing team. But we, as fans and members of the Georgetown community, must be willing to give him the time and resources necessary to create a lasting program at Georgetown. "

Coach John Thompson is looking for "steady improvement" with his Georgetown team, as the coach sat down for an interview with the Princeton Packet.

"I sat down right away with the team," Thompson said. "I outlined my thoughts and feelings and what I'm going to demand. First thing (Wednesday) morning we had a set of workouts so they could start getting used to hearing and being coached and taught by me. We have a good group of guys. We just have to all get better."

Thompson also discussed the negative factors used against Georgetown in recruiting, including the lack of campus facilities.

"A lot of those are accurate," Thompson said. "We don't have an on-campus athletic facility. Every job has positives and negatives...When you take a job, you know what you have to overcome."

Articles from the Washington Times and ESPN.com examine the difficulties of a second generation coach living up to the expectations level set by his father's coaching legacy.

In recent years, head coaches Joey Meyer, Scott Drew, and Murry Bartow also coached at the same school where their father did. "It was real hard for me," Meyer told the Times, but noted that "I think my situation was different from the Thompson situation because there was a body of work in between, and that makes it a lot easier. But he will still be in [his father's] shadow."

John Thompson III was named as the 17th men's basketball coach of Georgetown University Tuesday, ending 34 days of secrecy regarding the future course of the program.

"He has a demonstrated record of success as a head coach and is committed to the values that have defined our tradition for a long time,” said University president Jack DeGioia (C'79) at a Riggs Library press conference.

"I grew up on this campus, I grew up in McDonough Gym, It's a part of who I am in as much as Princeton is,” Thompson said. But growing up … [there] was a chant that was, ‘We are Georgetown', and when you say that, it's the institution, it's the administration, it's the community, it's Washington, D.C., it's the other teams, the other members of the athletic department, it's our program.

"And that's what we have, a program, not a team. We are Georgetown. And a few people have forgotten that we're Georgetown, and we're going to work our tails off to remind them.”

Full coverage follows from The HOYA and the following links.

History: Georgetown Coaches Since 1907

Official GU Release Official Princeton Release GUHoyas.com Audio of Press Conf. Associated Press Baltimore Sun Bloomberg News Columbia Daily Spectator Daily Pennsylvanian Daily Princetonian Daily Princetonian (2)

Daily Princetonian (3) ESPN.com New York Times Sports Ticker Trenton Times Washington Post Washington Post (2) Washington Times Washington Times (2) Washington Times (3) Yahoo Sports

 

A release at GUHoyas.com recaps the Hoya Hoop Club awards banquet on Friday. Award winners included the following:

Francis Daly Memorial Award (Most Valuable Player): Gerald Riley
Most Outstanding Player: Brandon Bowman
Raymond Medley Award: Courtland Freeman
Mary Fenlon Scholar-Athlete Award: Omari Faulkner
Captain's Award: Courtland Freeman
Manager of the Year: Justin Zormelo

Two Georgetown recruits were in action Saturday at the Capital Classic at the University of Maryland.

Jeff Green scored 19 points, four rebounds, and four assists in the opening game of the doubleheader. Fellow recruit Roy Hibbert also saw action in the game.

Do the recruits have any inside word on the coaching search?

"I don't have any idea," Hibbert said. "I'm just waiting to find out like everyone else," Green told the Washington Times.

Additional comments from players follow in this link to The HOYA.

By any measurement, the last 15 years of the National Football League has become the most profitable organization in pro sports history, much of it due to the efforts of Georgetown alumnus Paul Tagliabue (C'62).

A feature story on Tagliabue's efforts in strengthening the league is found in this link from NFL.com.

You can look at [former commissioner Pete Rozelle] as a public relations man and look at me as a lawyer," Tagliabue said. "But we share two attributes: We both love sports, and we realized that the team is more important than the individual. It's more about 'we' than it is about 'I.' "

Georgetown assistant coach Chuck Driesell has inquired about the coaching opening at Towson, reports the Baltimore Sun.

"I've been a head coach for six years, recruited all over the Baltimore area and had one year's experience in the Big East since I last applied for the job [in 1997]," Driesell told the Sun.

Meanwhile, assistant coach Jaren Jackson (B'89) still wants to remain at Georgetown.

"I would want to be part of this program, whoever comes in,” Jackson told The HOYA. “I've been with Georgetown for a long time, and I feel like my day is going to come when I become a coach.”

A possible schedule change looms for Georgetown, as the directors of the Rainbow Classic are looking to change the dates of the December tournament.

The Honolulu Advertiser reports that the series may be moved up to December 20 to avoid scheduling problems with the Dec. 24 Hawaii Bowl.

The tournament features Alabama-Birmingham, Clemson, Georgetown, Hawaii, Indiana State, Long Beach State, LSU and Southern California.

It's a big weekend for all-American Rebekkah Brunson, as the Georgetown senior hopes to become the first Hoya chosen in the first round of the WNBA Draft, held this weekend in New York. A review of Brunson's numerous accomplishments over her Georgetown career can be found in this link to GUHoyas.com.

Brunson's player profile can be found on the WNBA web site. In addition, Brunson participated in a recent Q&A session posted at WNBA.com and will be at the draft as a potential first round selection.

A new web site has been launched to support Georgetown athletics--visit the Georgetown Rowing Association site at www.georgetowncrew.org for full details on the men's and women's programs.

The student government at George Washington University is considering a resolution to get Georgetown and GW back together on the basketball court, according to this link cited at the GWHoops.com message board.

"Therefore be it resolved," notes the proposed resolution, "that the Student Association requests that the University schedule games against more Washington teams, especially Georgetown University. It is recommended that the possibility of a tournament be looked into between the four Washington teams to determine the best team in the city."

Georgetown and George Washington, located 1.5 miles apart, have played 95 times since February 1907, but not since December 1981.

A name from Georgetown's past is in the news, as Harvey Thomas has announced he will leave Baylor to pursue a pro career.

"I sat down with my family and discussed a lot of things about the future and came to the conclusion that going pro this year was the best option for me and my family," Thomas said in the release.

Thomas transferred from Georgetown after the 2001-02 season to Daytona Beach CC, then transferred soon thereafter to Northeast Oklahoma A&M in 2002-03. Arriving at Baylor in the spring of 2003, Thomas played in 21 games for the Bears and received third team all-conference honors.

The recruiting web site Insiders.com is reporting that high school junior Alfred Aboya has reopened his recruitment in the wake of the Georgetown coaching vacancy.

Aboya, a native of Cameroon playing in Tilton, NH, verbally committed to the Hoyas last month prior to the coaching change.

And no change on the coaching search, at least from John Thompson III's perspective. "Nothing has changed since the last time we spoke," the Princeton head coach told the Trenton Times, referring to Tuesday's article cited below.

After a relative three weeks of calm, the Washington Post weighs in on the coaching search, citing "sources" who say Georgetown has interest in Princeton coach John Thompson III to replace Craig Esherick.

Thompson, who has been associated with Princeton for 20 years as a student and coach, is 68-42 in four years at Princeton. Princeton has not announced permission for Georgetown to interview candidates.

So how does Duke do it?

Many fans have asked about Duke's ability to graduate players within three years of eligibility, thus allowing a recruit make themselves available early for the NBA draft and still graduate. This link to the Duke Basketball Report (middle of page) helps explains the process.

Key points: players take four classes each summer, including four in the summer before the fall semester of freshman year. Duke requires only 34 courses for graduation, based on the four hour credit system; by contrast, Georgetown generally requires 40 courses for graduation, based on three hour credits.

The Hanover (VA) Herald-Progress is reporting that Georgetown senior associate athletic director Denis Kanach will be named athletic director at Randolph-Macon College at a Thursday press conference. An additional article is found in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

A 1969 graduate of Manhattan College, Kanach has served at Georgetown for 30 years in various roles including associate track and field coach, the director of the Yates Field House, and the chief operating officer of the athletic department. He has been a key contact in navigating the labyrinth of University and District red tape to move the boathouse and Multi-Sport facility projects forward, and was directly involved with the football program's move to the Patriot League in 2001.

"It is important to understand the competitiveness of an athletic program within the context of the educational mission of the college," said Kanach in a R-MC release. "It is my hope to be able to challenge our students outside the classroom, the same way they are challenged inside the classroom and to be as good as they can be."

The Georgetown coaching search continues behind the scenes, quietly. The guessing game is out there, though.

The search is mentioned in this link to the New York Daily News, though columnist Dick Weiss actually cites "Hoop Scoop", a Louisville-based recruiting web site, for a "Georgetown wish list". Caveat emptor.

Bear in mind, however, that the Georgetown search committee numbers only two and neither is talking to the press. No interviews have been announced to date and no schools have announced permission for Georgetown to interview candidates from their schools.

Following its 68-57 loss to Boston College in the first round of the Big East tournament, the Georgetown University men's basketball team ended its season 13-15, missing the post-season for only the second time since 1974 and its fewest wins since the same 1973-74 season. The loss was only the third time in 25 years Georgetown lost on the opening day of the event, and the first time since the Big East went to a four day format that the Hoyas did not advance to the quarterfinals.

The 2004 NCAA tournament has a lot of prominent programs absent from the event, among them Indiana, UCLA, UNLV, Michigan, St. John's, Villanova, and Georgetown. According to ESPN, it's the first time since 1966 that not one of these schools qualified for the tournament.

Some other bad statistics for the season just concluded:

• Final RPI: 142, lowest mark since introduction of RPIs in mid-90s
• Lost final nine games of season, tying a school record
• Lost 15 of final 18 games after starting season 10-0
• Lost 12 of 16 in Big East, fewest wins since joining league
• Lost 13 straight against Big East teams with a winning record
• Only two wins overall against opponents with winning records
• Two of 4 Big East wins against Miami, who is leaving the league
• Combined record of non-conference opponents 146-175 (.444); its December opponents finished only 100-158 (.387)

The Hoyas fared poorly in many statistical categories during Big East play (out of 14 teams):

• Scoring Offense: 13th
• Scoring Defense: 10th
• Field Goal Shooting: 14th
• Field Goal Defense: 11th
• Three Point Shooting: 7th
• Three Point Shooting Defense: 7th
• Free Throw Shooting: 3rd
• Rebounding: 12th
• Rebounding Defense: 12th
• Assists: 12th
• Steals: 2nd
• Blocks: 11th
• Assist to Turnover Margin: 13th

Depending on the next coach, the 2004-05 schedule may have a number of changes ahead of it, but the University of Michigan has announced it will host a game with the Hoyas next season, reports the Ann Arbor News. The Wolverines will play in Washington during the 2005-06 season.

The men's and women's All-America teams were announced Tuesday. Georgetown's men's teams received no selections, while Georgetown's Rebekkah Brunson was selected as an honorable mention All-America.

Like another former Oxon hill grad, Mike Sweetney, Brunson deserved better than honorable mention status. Brunson was the first player ever to lead the Big East in scoring and rebounding in a season, and scored 50 double-doubles in her career. A recap of Brunson's accomplishments are found in this link to GUHoyas.com.

The March 18 Washington Times reported that the search committee for the vacant head coaching position will be two: an unnamed member of the Board of Directors and former athletic director Francis X. Rienzo. (Friday's HOYA identified the board member as Jim Higgins (B'70), a basketball letterman from 1967-70.)

"It's an open and national search, and the search begins immediately," said DeGioia. "It has to unfold as soon as possible to be to everybody's advantage." However, a word of caution: with a committee of two, this will be a private search. Those that know won't be talking.

From previous game reports, here's a look at 20 memorable games, good and bad, of the last six years.

What does 2004-05 hold in store for the Hoyas?

Graduating seniors Gerald Riley, Courtland Freeman, and Omari Faulkner accounted for 39 percent of team scoring this season and the returning lineups remains relatively young and untested.

Here's a tentative depth chart if all recruits arrive and all current players return this fall--statistics listed are 2003-04 points per game averages, with new recruits in italics:

Sunday's Denver Post has a Q&A-style interview with former Georgetown coach John Thompson. No questions on the recent changes at the Hilltop, but an interesting look at Thompson's life since coaching.

One group with a unique perspective on the impact of change is incoming recruits. The Staunton (VA) News Leader talked to incoming recruit Tyler Crawford for his reaction.

"Coach Esherick was a real great guy," he said. "He liked me not only as a player but as a student-athlete... I'm sorry I won't get a chance to play for him."

"It's a little hard to focus right now, but as a player there's nothing I can do. I'll just have to wait and see who is named coach," Crawford told the paper.

Washington's daily newspapers have significant coverage in Thursday's editions on the next steps in the process.

Of particular interest: the Washington Times reports that the search committee will be only two: an unnamed member of the Board of Directors and former athletic director Francis X. Rienzo. (Friday's HOYA identified the Board of Directors member as Jim Higgins (B'70), a basketball letterman from 1967-70.)

"It's an open and national search, and the search begins immediately," said DeGioia. "It has to unfold as soon as possible to be to everybody's advantage."

The Post articles discuss many possible candidates, but a word of caution: with a committee of two, this will be a private search. Those that know won't be talking.

Local coverage follows below.

• Georgetown Voice
• Georgetown Voice (2)
• The HOYA
• The HOYA (2)
• The HOYA (3)
• The HOYA (4)
• The HOYA (5)
• Washington Post
• Washington Post (2)
• Washington Post (3)
• Washington Times
• Washington Times (2)

Georgetown University president Jack DeGioia (C'79) and former head coach Craig Esherick (B'78, L'82) have weighed on the events that led to Esherick's dismissal Tuesday night in this link to the Associated Press.

"We evaluate the success of our program by three standards, " DeGioia said. "We want the very best educational experience for the students. We want to ensure that we conduct ourselves with the highest standards of integrity. And we want to win the national championship." He said Esherick met the first two standards but that "the performance of the program on the court was not consistent with the standards of excellence that we expect."

"We didn't win. That's not a sin. That's not a crime. Clearly, it's not acceptable to Jack," said Esherick. "But Jack is the one that's in charge of the university, and he's the one that has to make those decisions. And I have to live with it."

Another Washington Post article discusses the impact of the head coaching job. The reaction is mixed.

"You look at St. Joe's and Gonzaga, two schools that don't have football, and they've been in the top five most of the year," said Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth. "It shows it can be done."

"In the case of Georgetown, I don't think the infrastructure ever developed there," said CBS analyst Billy Packer. "It was John Thompson. I see no reason why Georgetown basketball can ever be as successful as it was. There's no evidence of that. I think they need a superstar. Why would a superstar go there?"

Recommended reading.

Craig Esherick, 47, was a four year letterman from 1974 through 1978 and a assistant coach from 1981 through 1999. He was named the team's 16th head basketball coach on Jan. 8, 1999 upon the sudden resignation of John Thompson. In Esherick's six years at the helm the Hoyas were 103-74 (.582) with one NCAA and three NIT appearances; however, the Hoyas' conference mark was only 41-53 (.436), with a 10-48 (.172) record against teams in the RPI top 50.

Despite the Hoyas' up and down ways in recent years, Esherick enjoyed significant University support for his attention to academics and maintaining the integrity of the University within recruiting. These ties were strained during a nine game losing streak to end the 2003-04 season, causing considerable frustration from fans and alumni on his performance. The Hoyas' fortunes hit a wall following a 65-58 loss to a depleted St. John's squad that failed to win another Big East game all season. The losing streak, which concluded in the Big East tournament loss to Boston College, led the Hoyas to its first season without a post-season invitation since the 1973-74 season, when Esherick was still a recruit at Silver Spring's Springbrook HS.

Esherick further alienated many Hoya fans in a defiant Associated Press article on the eve of the season finale to Virginia Tech, proclaiming "I ain't going anywhere. I may be here for another 30 years. And you can quote me on that." Georgetown lost the game, 60-55.

In the days surrounding the Big East tournament, Esherick was promoting the impact of four incoming recruits to improve the Hoyas' fortunes, telling the Washington Times that "I think every profession but the coaching profession is permitted to have a bad year. I certainly resent the heck out of it as a coach. But I'm not going to sit up here and say we had a great year — we didn't."

Georgetown has promised a national search following the change. Fans and media may suggest any number of well-known and high-dollar candidates, but the search will be ultimately be constrained by serious University budget issues and ongoing losses in the men's basketball program approaching $1 million, according to the Associated Press article above.

Due to ongoing losses in the Medical Center, Georgetown faces a $35.5 million deficit in 2004, reported The HOYA. The University's debt service was placed on a an industry "credit watch" list for the second time in in a year in January, and numerous construction projects now cannot start without all cash in hand. The overall GU financial situation and the impact of any buyout of Coach Esherick's contract may simply force high-dollar candidates off the list.

Further complicating the matter is perception--Georgetown must not only seek a coach it can afford and that will be committed to the school's values, but a hire which will communicate that the University aims to be a competitive Big East program following the "super-sizing" of the Big East to a 16-team league in 2005. A 2003 study of the incoming Big East teams suggests Georgetown is not keeping up among the top of the anticipated 16 team alignment.

"What Georgetown University needs to determine is whether the school is committed to having Georgetown basketball continue in the tradition Thompson built," writes Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon. "I wonder if Esherick had the kind of support that reflects such a commitment."

An interesting statistic: None of the previous 16 head coaches of the program came to Georgetown with any prior head coaching experience at the college level.

Craig Esherick (B'78, L'82) was fired as head basketball coach at Georgetown University late Tuesday night.

"After careful deliberation I have decided that it is time to make a change in leadership in our men's basketball program," said Georgetown president Jack DeGioia (C'79) in a media statement.

"I certainly did not see it coming," Esherick told the Washington Post, having received a public show of support from DeGioia just 11 days ago. According to the Post, Esherick was asked to fly home from a Midwestern recruiting trip to meet with DeGioia and athletic director Joseph Lang that evening.

Word of the change began to leak among students in the hour before DeGioia's statement was formally released to the press at 11:00 Tuesday night.

Public announcements on coaches are exceedingly rare at Georgetown. No coach has been publicly dismissed in such a manner dating back to 1972, when basketball coach Jack Magee was relieved of his duties as head coach following a 3-23 season.

"I am dedicated to sustaining that tradition of excellence which means a great deal to our university community and the many fans of Georgetown basketball," DeGioia said. "We are deeply committed to the future success of men's basketball as measured by maintaining national competitiveness with the leading programs in the Big East and the country."

Statement by Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia