Braswell's Return
Former Georgetown guard Kevin Braswell joined the Chris Wright and Austin Freeman podcast, DawgTalk, and confirmed that he completed his Georgetown degree in 2020 before returning to New Zealand as a head coach in that nation's pro league.Braswell, 41, played across Europe before settling in Australia and New Zealand a decade ago. After three seasons as a head coach in the NBL, Braswell was fired as a head coach in 2019. According to the podcast, head coach Patrick Ewing encouraged Braswell to come back to Washington in 2019-20 to finish his degree before resuming coaching.Braswell commented that awareness of the Hoyas is much lower overseas than it once was. Where NCAA Top 25 teams get regular coverage in Australia and New Zealand, high school recruits are altogether unfamiliar with Georgetown as a result. In May, Braswell returned to New Zealand to become head coach of the Auckland Huskies. Basketball is alive and well in New Zealand, thanks to that nation's active management of COVID-19. As of Sunday, there were a total of 20 active cases and one hospitalization in a country of five million. Travel to New Zealand is restricted among its residents and a mandatory 14 day quarantine is required for all visitors. But with the low rate of infection, daily restrictions are limited and arenas are expected to be full when the NBL returns to action in August. Tyler Beard Decommits For 2020-21
Freshman point guard Tyler Beard has announced he will not attend Georgetown University this fall, opting for a fifth year at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, VA."With the uncertainty of sports worldwide over the next 12 months, my family and I have made the decision that a year at Hargrave Military Academy is in my best interest," he wrote in an Instagram post. Beard also indicate he will look forward to attending Georgetown thereafter.There was no comment from Georgetown on the announcement. Beard committed to Georgetown on Jan. 28, ranked 150th nationwide. He was named a second team class 4A all-state selection in Illinois this past season. The decision leaves one open scholarship for Georgetown in 2020-21. Coach Ewing On The MendA somewhat thinner Patrick Ewing discussed his return from COVID-19 hospitalization on a Twitter discussion with Big East reporter John Fanta:
Coaches For ActionLouis Orr, Robert Kirby, and Akbar Waheed are among 21 Big East assistant coaches forming "Coaches For Action", a group built around bringing awareness to social justice issues within the conference.According to CBS Sports.com, the group is leading three efforts, including voter registration, a scholarship fund to assist first-generation minority students, and placing Black Lives Matter patches on each home and away jersey of every men's basketball player in the Big East.Early 2020-21 Rankings: Not Good For GU
The first of the 2020-21 Big East previews places Georgetown and its fan based in something it's never experienced before: last place.Rothstein's Picks:
2. Creighton 3. Connecticut 4. Providence 5. Seton Hall 6. Xavier 7. Marquette 8. St. John's 9. Butler 10. DePaul 11. Georgetown It's likely to be a refrain among sports writers this summer, following the loss of six of GU's eight top scorers from a 5-13 conference finish last season. Among those current schools that were there in the beginning, Georgetown is the only school never to have finished last in the history of the Big East conference.
DePaul holds the unusual distinction of finishing last in the Big East in 10 of the last 12 years, dating to the 2008-09 season. Teammates Debut Podcast
Two Georgetown alumni have launched a podcast series on Hoya basketball.Austin Freeman (C'11) and Chris Wright (C'11) are the hosts of "Dawg Talk", with current interviews held with Patrick Ewing Jr (C'08) and Jeff Green (C'12)."Austin and Chris will discuss various topics within the DMV [District-Maryland-Virginia] community, basketball community, Hoya life, and more," reads the podcast page. The series is available on Spotify and a number of other outlets. Another forum was launched earlier this month with Gene Smith (C'84) and Trey Dickerson (G'18) on Instagram, known as Hoya Locker Room.
William J. Gildea (1939-2020)Bill Gildea (C'60), a Georgetown alumnus who wrote sports at the Washington Post from 1965 to 2005, died Sunday at the age of 81.A native of Baltimore, Gildea began his sports writing career covering basketball on the pages of the HOYA, serving for two years as its sports editor."At this time last year, Georgetown coach Tom Nolan was looking apprehensively to a long and difficult season," he wrote in 1959. "He realized that the sophomores on his team had been the nucleus of one of the best freshman squads in the history of Georgetown. But there simply weren't enough of them." After graduation from the College in 1960, he turned down a graduate scholarship at Stanford and earned a master's degree in journalism at Columbia, and worked at the Baltimore Sun before joining the Post in 1965. While he posted his share of stories on the Hoyas in his early years at the daily, Gildea's writing spanned more than basketball. He traveled to World Cups, called in results at heavyweight fights, and followed race horses through their morning routines. He authored books on Redskins coach George Allen, the Indiana high school basketball tournament, and the story of Joe Gans, the first African-American to hold a world boxing championship. In 1994, he write the critically acclaimed book "When the Colts Belonged to Baltimore: A Father and a Son, a Team and a Time," a story of the relationships built and severed when the Colts left for Indianapolis a decade earlier. "Bill Gildea was a writer's writer," wrote George Solomon at the Washington Post. "Every word, every sentence, every paragraph was to be valued, respected and understood."
Mike Sweetney: 20 Years Later
It's been 20 years since Mike Sweetney arrived at Georgetown. Much has happened in the intervening years, but an interview with CBB Review reintroduces fans to Sweetney, now an assistant coach at Division III Yeshiva (NY).Sweetney, who played at Oxon Hill in suburban Maryland, noted that "I wasn't highly ranked coming out of high-school. Me going in and playing against those guys ranked higher than me. I was playing well against them and felt that I had a good chance to make the NBA and take it to a new level. That summer I got in the gym, worked hard, got in better shape, and just put my mind to it."Sweetney, who battled weight and mental health issues after leaving the NBA, discovered coaching at a Israeli basketball camp hosted by Tamir Goodman, who played alongside Sweetney in the 2000 Capital Classic. Goodman, once nicknamed the "Jewish Jordan" for his high school moves, played two seasons at Towson before emigrating to Israel, where he played pro basketball there. "I saw that my good friend, Tamir, was advertising that he was holding a summer camp in Jerusalem," Sweetney told the Jewish Voice in 2019. "So I contacted him to see if he could use my help as a coach. Next thing I knew, I was planning my visit." Yeshiva finished 29-1 last season, advancing to the regional quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III tournament before is was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic. Alumni Meet To Discuss National Dialogue on Race
Over 60 former Georgetown players held a private conference call Wednesday to discuss the ongoing dialogue on racial injustice.Alumni ranging from the class of 1967 to the newly graduated class of 2020 took part on the call.On a post shared on LinkedIn, former co-captain of the 1984 National Championship team Gene Smith (C'84) writes: "We the men of Georgetown University Basketball Alumni got together on a Zoom call the other night to address what we see as the ongoing injustice in our African American communities. Like many of you, we are angered and frustrated at the mistreatment of black and brown people in this country. "There were over 60 representatives of Georgetown Men's Basketball on the Zoom call. Dikembe Mutombo, represented us at the Georgetown University board [of directors] meeting and presented our statement to them." Georgetown Signs Freshman SF
Georgetown has received its eighth verbal commitment of the 2019-20 signing period from Collin Holloway, a 6-6 forward from Baton Rouge, LA.Holloway is the second 2020 recruit arriving to Georgetown this fall unranked nationally, but has earned his share of local praise in Louisiana. He transferred from Baton Rouge Catholic in 2019-20 to Port Allen HS in West Baton Rouge, averaging 18 points as the the Pelicans won the Louisiana Class 2A title for schools with smaller enrollments. Prior to committing to Georgetown, Holloway considered Wichita State, McNeese State, and Texas State. According to reports, he has not visited the campus to date given the shutdown of recruiting during the COVID-19 pandemic.Assuming no further transfers, the depth chart for 2020-21 is as follows:
Attrition & RecruitingThe signing of Collin Holloway continues Patrick Ewing's struggles to maintain continuity in the Georgetown basketball program: attrition has led him into signing 15 players in the past two seasons alone, but just one from the Washington DC area, where Georgetown's recruiting punch has been largely absent in recent years.The eight signees of 2019-20 is the largest in a Georgetown class in 62 years. In 1958, head coach Tom Nolan lost four players mid-season for academics, two spring transfers, and two seniors, necessitating a massive recruiting class--among them Jim Carrino, Jay Force, Tom O'Dea, John Kraljic, Bob Sharpenter, Dan Slattery, Paul Tagliabue, and Vince Wolfington.All eight recruits from 1958 graduated in 1962. (A ninth recruit, John O'Neill, did not make the varsity but graduated.) Today's recruiting classes do not expect such lofty graduation numbers, however. The wheel turns again in 2020-21, where four players graduate, net of any other unforeseen departures. Georgetown Backs Off Series With Notre Dame
A series with Notre Dame has been withdrawn by Georgetown, according to reports.According to ND Insider, "Kentucky will be the main non-league addition to Notre Dame's 2020-21 schedule. That was supposed to be Georgetown, but the Hoyas backed off renewing the series between the former Big East colleagues," a proposed series first reported in 2019. |