Georgetown Basketball

ARCHIVES
Various news items posted during April 2022.
 
 

Inbound: Amir Spears

4/30/22

Georgetown added depth to its backcourt Friday with its second inbound transfer for the 2022-23 season.

Amir (Primo) Spears, a 6-3 guard from Duquesne was announced by a release from the basketball office. Originally from Hartford, CT, Spears prepped a year at a basketball prep school outside Baltimore before joining Duquesne in 2021-22. As a freshman, he averaged 12.7 points per game for the Dukes, who lost its final 17 games of the season and finished 6-24. Spears was one of seven Duquesne players opting for the transfer portal, and the second of the seven to have publicly secured a destination.

Calling him an "integral piece to our team next season", Ewing said in the release that Spears "gives us another physical defensive-minded guard who can make the right passes."

Spears' numbers from last season bear comparison to Georgetown sophomore Dante Harris (11.9 ppg in 2021-22). Both averaged 32 minutes a game, each averaged over 11 field goal attempts per game (Harris 37 percent, Spears 36 percent), and each saw their numbers decline during protracted losing streaks.

With the transfer, Amir Spears has three seasons of eligibility remaining.

 

Outbound: Chuma Azinge

4/29/22

Next one out of the Thompson Center is junior walk-on Chuma Azinge, a finance major from San Marino, CA.

A 6-3 guard, Azinge appeared in seven games in 2021-22, scoring six of his seven career points.

Azinge becomes Patrick Ewing's 19th transfer over his five seasons and the seventh this season.

 

Carey, Holloway Transferring

4/29/22

Two of the stalwart members of the 2021-22 starting lineup are leaving Georgetown.

ADDITIONAL COVERAGE
Graduate transfer Donald Carey opted to withdraw his long shot NBA draft entry but will not return to Georgetown, and sophomore Collin Holloway will transfer as well, according to numerous sources. A release was sent by the basketball office to selected members of the press but was not posted at GUHoyas.com.

These are the fifth and six transfers in the last 29 days following Georgetown's historic 6-25 season.

Just a week ago, Ewing honored Carey for his contributions over the last two seasons. A 6-5 guard from Upper Marlboro, MD, Carey was signed by coach Jamion Christian to Mt. St. Mary's in 2017-18, averaging 9.0 points as a freshman, then followed Christian when he became Siena coach in 2018-19. While playing for the Saints, Carey averaged 11.3 points a game in 28 starts. Carey graduated Siena in three years and notified the school he would not be continuing as a graduate student, leading some to think he would reunite with Christian (now at George Washington), but GW had no open scholarships. He signed instead with Georgetown in July of 2020.

Carey started each of the first 12 games of the 2020-21 season, matching a season high of 19 points in consecutive games versus St. John's. Carey was averaging just under 10 points a game when he was replaced in the starting lineup by forward Chudier Bile, where he averaged 6.6 points per game over 18 minutes per game.

In 2021-22, Carey was named the first team captain in the Patrick Ewing era, and lived up to the accolade: a starter in 31 games, he scored in double figures in 28 of them, shooting a team best 38.8 percent from three point range and 91 percent from the foul line. A 24 point effort at #10 Villanova was a career high. In a season of wild inconsistency, Carey was a dependable option at every turn, finishing second on the team in scoring and third in rebounding. Due to the 2020-21 COVID-19 waiver, Carey has one season of eligibility remaining.

The loss of Holloway was a major surprise. Following injuries which limited him to just 44 minutes on the court in 2020-21, Holloway started 20 games for the Hoyas this season, averaging 9.2 points per game on 45 percent shooting, and providing a more defensive approach versus the inconsistency from Kaiden Rice. He led the Hoyas in scoring in four games, including a career high 25 versus Villanova on Jan. 22. Due to the 2020-21 COVID-19 waiver, Holloway has three seasons of eligibility remaining.

At present, Dante Harris is the only returning starter among just four returning scholarship players and two walk-ons.

[Player excerpts from the Georgetown Basketball History Project.]

 

Kobe Clark Transfers To SE Missouri

4/27/22

The second of Georgetown's four outbound transfers has a new home.

Sophomore Kobe Clark has announced a transfer to Southeast Missouri State. Clark averaged 0.3 points a game in 21 games over two seasons. The Redhawks (14-18 in 2021-22) have been hit hard in the transfer portal, with seven departures this season.

 

Carey, Mohammed On NBA Early Entry List

4/27/22

Donald Carey and Aminu Mohammed are among 247 players who have entered the NBA Draft, according to a final list posted Tuesday.

Carey, who played two seasons as a grad transfer, has one available year of eligibility from the 2020-21 COVID-19 waiver but, at 22, wants to pursue a pro career. Mohammed, 20, had been linked to the draft through previous comments made by a family spokesman.

With only 58 places in the draft, most of the early entries are unlikely candidates to be selected. Each would retain college eligibility if they do not secure an agent and withdraw from the draft by June 1; however, the coaching staff has made no public comment if they are holding spaces on the 2022-23 roster for either Carey or Mohammed at this time.

 

Tyler Beard Transfers To Pacific

4/24/22

Three weeks after announcing plans to transfer, freshman guard Tyler Beard has announced a transfer to the University of the Pacific.

Beard averaged 2.9 points a game in 30 games and two starts as a freshman, and joins Holy Cross guard Judson Martindale (6.5 ppg) as inbound transfers at Pacific. The Tigers (8-22 in 2021-22) have three graduate positions to fill and five players who entered the transfer portal.

 

Senior Recognition Event

4/20/22

In lieu of a banquet, and with no graduating seniors, a reception for Georgetown's two departing grad transfers was held April 20 at Gaston Hall.

There was no release on the event, but a Twitter message shows Donald Carey and Kaiden Rice with head coach Patrick Ewing, who apparently suffered a broken arm.


 

Jay Wright Retires From Villanova

4/20/22

Any expected coverage emanating from Georgetown's senior reception was blown out of the water Wednesday evening when word leaked that Villanova head coach Jay Wright is retiring after 21 seasons on the Main Line.

The news was broken by Fox Sports 1 announcer John Fanta and soon confirmed in the sports press. Wright confirmed it in a Twitter message later in the evening:


A 1983 Bucknell grad and a former assistant coach at Villanova under Rollie Massimino from 1987-1992, Wright succeeded Steve Lappas as head coach of the Wildcats in 2002, only the fifth head coach at that program since 1936. Wright achieved modest success in his first decade, including the 2009 Final Four, but it was not until 2013 that Villanova ascended to the national elite.

Over the last nine seasons, Wright has won two national championships, appeared in three Final Fours, won five Big East tournament titles, and never finished lower than second in the conference, with a combined record of 263-53 (.832) and 130-31 (.807) in Big East play since 2013. In a period of uncertainty following the reconstitution of the Big East conference in 2013, it was Villanova, not Georgetown or St. John's, which became the standard-bearer of the new Big East, with Wright at the forefront. His final game came in the 2022 Final Four in a semifinal loss to Kansas, two hours before Mike Krzyzewski's career ended with a loss to North Carolina. Kryzyewski's finale was a long, drawn out, and overpromoted event, while Wright's departure is anything but.


Wright's successor is expected to be another former Villanova assistant, Kyle Neptune, 37, who coached Fordham this past season.

Jay Wright was selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021, one of just six former Big East men's basketball coaches so honored.

 

Georgetown Adds Third Assistant Coach

4/16/22

Head coach Patrick Ewing has completed his coaching staff with the promotion of Clinton Crouch.

Crouch is not a new hire. He has been on the staff since 2019 as a special assistant to Ewing, with precluded him from off-campus recruiting.

"Over the last three years, Clinton Crouch has done an outstanding job to help this program in many facets. I know that he will be an integral part of what we are building in the future," Ewing said in a release dropped on the afternoon of Good Friday, a University holiday.

Per reports, other candidates for the position included former Rhode Island head coach David Cox, who accepted an assistant coaching position at Maryland, and Mike Pegues, the former interim coach at Louisville who has joined the Butler staff under new coach Thad Matta.

At 42, Crouch is the youngest of the three assistants under Ewing, joining Kevin Nickelberry, 57, and Louis Orr, who turns 64 next month.

 

Big East Expansion? Not So Fast

4/13/22

For two days last week, the Internet was ablaze with claims that Gonzaga University was a "done deal" to move to the Big East, despite being nearly 2,800 miles removed from the conference. It was false then, and it's false now.

"It's unclear how or why the latest (and fleeting) Gonzaga-to-Big-East rumor surfaced late last week, but for a day or two there was some confusion about whether something was brewing. It's not," writes CBS Sports' Matt Norlander.

"Gonzaga carries 18 scholarship sports. The men's basketball program funds the entire athletic department. It would permanently operate in the red (potentially severely in the red) if it joined a league with a geographic footprint as drastic as the Big East. Having the golf, soccer and tennis teams fly to play St. John's and Providence isn't sensible," said Norlander, offering a counter-proposal where Gonzaga could enter into challenge series with the Big East and/or Big 12 in order to maintain a nationally competitive schedule.

Why did this rumor erupt in the first place? Since Texas and Oklahoma announced plans to join the Southeastern Conference in 2025, 51 Division I schools (nearly one in seven overall) have announced moves to new conferences over the next three years, but Texas and Oklahoma remain the only changes at the major college conference level due to existing TV rights contracts. With the Big East entering the final three years of its Fox Sports contract (which expires in 2025), such talk will remain speculative as to any changes in advance of a new contract.

"[It] is in the back of our minds," commissioner Val Ackerman told The Athletic at the 2021-22 Media Day. "It's about quality basketball programming...what school would help us with respect to our primary revenue stream and national TV revenue?"

For now, no names have come to the fore.

 

Georgetown Adds LSU Transfer

4/12/22

Georgetown has added forward Brandon Murray from the transfer portal.

Murray, a 6-5 forward who played at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute before a prep year at IMG Academy, was ranked 89th in the nation in the 2021-22 high school rankings. He spent his freshman season at LSU, averaging 10.0 points per game on 42 percent shooting from the field and 33 percent from three point range. An all-SEC freshman team selection, Murray was one of 11 LSU players who announced transfers following Will Wade's dismissal last month on NCAA recruiting violations. Murray was recruited by new Georgetown assistant Kevin Nickelberry, an assistant under Wade last season.

While Georgetown has not publicly acknowledged any transfers on GUHoyas.com, head coach Patrick Ewing released a statement on the new arrival.

"I'm happy to welcome Brandon Murray to the Hilltop," Ewing said. "He chose Georgetown and we want to make him feel right at home. I am excited to see what he can do here and he is an important building block in our efforts to return this program back to national prominence."

In a pair of publicity photos, Murray is seen wearing jersey number 0, last worn by Aminu Mohammed, and perhaps that's more than coincidence. The two are similarly sized (6-5), with similar statistics as freshmen, and play similar styles on the court. If Mohammed is planning to leave (as noted below), Murray is the leading candidate for the starting small forward position.

Murray has three years eligibility remaining.

 

Mohammed: "1000%" Committed To Draft

4/12/22

The uncertain status regarding Aminu Mohammed and the NBA draft appeared to be clarified by a family spokesman, who proclaimed the Georgetown freshman is committed to the NBA draft.

"I have told certain individuals before and will state it personally myself so it will be clear Aminu is not testing the waters regardless of what might be said by anyone else... He has declared for the upcoming draft and is committed 1000% to that process," wrote Shawn Harmon on Twitter.

In a message sent to columnist Adam Zagoria, Harmon said: "We will go through the draft process and let that play out. Any other decision counter to that will be made at the appropriate time."

Mohammed was previously reported by Stockrisers.com as committing to the draft, but there had been no comment from head coach Patrick Ewing until today.

"I just try to be as honest as I can with him," head coach Patrick Ewing said on a podcast Monday. "I tell him, you need to go test the waters, you need to see what's going to happen, if you'll be drafted, where you'll be drafted. If that avenue does not work out for you this year, I would love to have you back."

If Mohammed returns from the draft, Harmon noted, a return to Georgetown is not guaranteed. "Any decision to return to school at whatever school that might be will be made at a timetable that we determine!" he added on Twitter.

Mohammed's name has been removed from the projected 2022-23 roster to the left and the scholarship is presumed open at this time. The basketball office is not posting any 2022-23 roster at this time.

 

Georgetown: Success Is Not an Accident

4/7/22

A former Georgetown player is getting his share of readers online, as he continues to ask tough questions about the present-day program.

Columns from the anonymous writer, nicknamed "Retired Hoya", have appeared since March 9, the day after the season ended. In his most recent article, he discusses the need for a closer alumni community of former players.

"Does anyone think Duke's success is somehow an accident? The point here is that...it's a culture of excellence that starts with winning and then helping those whom you've coached progress within the sport. This culture of nurturing your former players will pay for itself in dividends many times over."

"But if we want enduring change, and if we want a program whose claim to fame is not a series of events that occurred almost 40 years old, we need to think strategically about this," he writes. "At Georgetown, we can say our past success was by design, but I would argue, so too is our recent failure."

 

Next Out: Kobe Clark

4/5/22

Sophomore Kobe Clark has become the fourth member of the 2021-22 varsity to pursue a transfer, according to reports.

The first St. Louis-area recruit for Georgetown since Jahidi White in 1994, 6-6 forward Kobe Clark committed to the Hoyas in February 2020 over offers at Saint Louis, Kansas State, and Evansville, averaging 10.8 points and 8.7 rebounds a game at Vashon HS. Clark's best game in blue and gray was his first: a 10 rebound effort in just 12 minutes in Georgetown's 70-62 opener over UMBC on November 25, 2020. From there, injuries took their toll.

In his third game of the season versus Coppin State, Clark suffered a serious ankle sprain midway through the first half. He returned a month later but saw only fleeting moments for the remainder of his freshman season, seeing only 21 minutes over seven more games that season.

Injuries also followed Clark into sophomore year. A pre-season hamstring injury limited him to just one minute on the court over GU's first 11 games. He picked up two points and a rebound versus Marquette in the conference opener but was held out for the next five games due to injury, and saw just 43 minutes on the court thereafter, finishing the season with a four minute stretch versus Seton Hall in the Big East tournament.

With the exit, Clark becomes the 16th transfer of the Patrick Ewing era and the fourth member of the 2020 recruiting class to leave, following Jalen Harris (left school after five games, did not return to basketball), Jamari Sibley (one season, transferred to UTEP), and T.J. Berger (one season, transferred to San Diego).

There was no announcement or comment at GUHoyas.com from head coach Patrick Ewing as to the transfer.

 

Too Soon?

4/5/22

The 2021-22 season concluded Monday, so it's not surprising that predictions for next season are already on the table.

The Hartford Courant already has its 2022-23 Big East rankings, with Creighton at the top and Georgetown at the bottom.

"The Hoyas went 6-25 overall, 0-19 in the conference, but Ewing remains the coach," it reads. "Ewing has already fired multiple assistants, so it's vital that he can keep the remaining players and hit on his transfer targets. Georgetown should win more than last season, but it still looks like the worst team in the conference, and if the Hoyas struggle, Ewing's days could be numbered."