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Ewing begins career among excitement and questions

November 11, 2017 - When Patrick Ewing was hired as Georgetown’s head coach in April, there was a palpable spike in excitement regarding the program. Fans loved the thought of G'Town's prodigal son as a player returning to lead G’Town from the bench.

Around seven months later, they still do. It’s not a novelty, as the Hoya Nation, a remarkedly collective bunch in today’s sports fan world, is genuinely excited and curious about Ewing, the program’s best player ever leading their program. Add hopeful, as all involved desire a return to prominence for the Blue and Grey.

Will fans stand by Ewing during inevitable ups and downs? Can the program again be a national force? By definition we will have to wait for those answers.

What can be addressed in the short term are questions regarding how the 2017-18 Hoya Basketball iteration taking Capital One’s floor Sunday will approach things.

Following are general game one details:

What: Jacksonville University at Georgetown

Where: Capital One Arena (formerly Verizon Center), WDC

When: Sunday, November 12th, 2017

Tip-Off: Noon

Broadcast: MASN/YES Network, 99.1 FM

Tickets: Click here

Real-time, in game chat: Premium Court


Back to the on-court product.

The Hoyas are dealing with multiple changes – new coach, new approach, new roles for players. For a program with four coaches in over forty years, that’s a seismic alteration.


Pat Ewing and company take the floor in earnest, Sunday.
Pat Ewing and company take the floor in earnest, Sunday. (HoyaReport.com)

Ewing, in his inaugural head coaching job, obviously brings a wealth of playing experience (which landed him in the Hall of Fame), while also adding almost 15 years of National Basketball Association assistant coaching work to his wheel house. That will obviously impact his approach, a point he’s admitted and embraced.

“It’s an up-tempo style. It’s an NBA style…that’s what my background is, my knowledge is” shared Ewing during the school’s recent Media Day of how he expects to approach offense.

What does that mean? Expect the Hoyas to utilize some of the things Charlotte’s Hornets deploys, his last NBA coaching stint.

For more on that, visit Premium Court.

Interestingly enough Ewing doesn’t think “toning it down” offensively for his college charges is the answer, as “You pick and choose depending on the players that you have”. Essentially he won’t necessarily scale back what pro offenses do, just identify what plays/sets/actions his team can execute.

Player-wise, the Hoyas have lost their top two scorers from last year’s 14-18 team, it’s second leading rebounder, top assister and leading steal guy. In total 42.5 points are unaccounted for from last year’s squad, as are 18.1 rebounds each time out.

If the Hoyas are to be sort of Hornets-lite, lead guard will be an issue, as Charlotte has one of the NBA’s best in Kemba Walker. When asked about the search for a playmaking, scoring guard, Ewing simply joked “It’s coming”. Senior Jonathan Mulmore and graduate student Trey Dickerson are vying for starting lead guard honors, while sophomore Jagan Mosely will certainly aid in those duties.

He was more expressive regarding junior frontcourt guys Jessie Govan and Marcus Derrickson.

“Jessie is going to be one of the keys to our success” noted Ewing of what he expects from Govan, a 6’10” pivot who dropped 10.2 ppg and five rpg last season. “If he doesn’t step up and dominate on both ends of the court, we won’t be that successful”.

According to the coach, his team will also rely heavily on Derrickson, an 8.2 ppg, 4.2 rpg guy during 2016-17. Ewing lauded him, as “Marcus is one of those guys whose been doing an outstanding job. He’s here early, working on his game. Sometimes we have to kick him out of the gym, especially in the summer. This summertime I had to tell him ‘You can’t come in two, three times a day. Go home and get some rest’.

Continuing, the Head Hoya indicated Derrickson “has done an outstanding job, pushing himself. He’s another guy, if we are to be successful, he’s going to have to be another one of those guys who step up and great year”.

Speaking of which, what’s a good season for Ewing in the macro sense?

“Winning…success is winning” quickly answered the coach. “People can call me the greatest Hoya ever, but as you know, if I don’t win (chuckling), they’ll be another coach here. Sooner or later”.

The sojourn starts in two days.

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