The Big East is Recycling Golden Oldies

PHOENIX – The Big East is recycling golden oldies as it attempts to rejuvenate two marquee, but stagnant programs with new coaching blood.

St. John’s hired alum Chris Mullin, an All America guard and the three time Big East player of the Year who is the Johnnies all time leading scorer and led the Red Storm to the 1985 Final Four team, to replace Steve Lavin two years ago.

And, now after two weeks of speculation, Georgetown has hired Patrick Ewing, the three time All American center who led the Hoyas to three Final Fours and a 1984 national championship, to a multi-year contract to succeed John Thompson III.

The 7-0 Ewing and Mullin are generally considered the two best players ever in history of that league. Both have been inducted in the Naismith Hall of Fame.

But Mullin, who had two failed stints as an executive with the NBA Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings when he was approached about returning home to his alma mater, never coached a day in high school, college or the pros before he took the Johnnies’ job. He is 22-43 and has not finished higher than eighth in the league, losing to Villanova by 41 points in the Big East tournament this season.

Ewing, to his credit, has worked his way up the coaching ladder since retiring from the playing 15 years ago, spending lengthy stretches as an assistant to Jeff Van Gundy with the Houston Rockets and his brother Stan with the Orlando Magic before taking on his current role as associate head coach under Steve Clifford with the Charlotte Hornets. All three have praised Ewing’s potential as a future NBA head coach.

But Georgetown and college basketball are different worlds.

Ewing became a legend while playing for Hall of Fame coach John Thompson Jr. in college. But many in the Georgetown community are frustrated because they wanted to see a complete break from the Thompson, who has been a part the program they he built for more than 40 years. John Thompson III got the Hoyas back into the spotlight when he coached them to a Final Four in 2007. But the program has stagnated, failing to make it out of the first week of the NCAA and missing the post season entirely in three of the last four seasons.

After a 14-18 season that included a 5-13 record in the BIG EAST, the loss of key recruit, point guard Tremont Walters, and the decision of junior wing LJ Peak, to declare for the NBA draft, the school finally felt it was time to make a coaching change.

Ewing does not seem to have been the Hoyas first choice. The school reached out to Kevin Keatts of UNC-Wilmington, Shaka Smart of Texas, Mike Brey of Notre Dame and Tommy Amaker of Harvard to ascertain their interest before meeting with Ewing. In this case, the administration wanted to be gentle, hoping not to alienate the elder Thompson, whose name is on the team’s new athletic building and who had raised millions of dollars in donations to build it.

So they chose his best player ever, hoping his aura would be enough to kickstart the program. The fact Ewing has never coached a game or recruited a blue chip recruit leaving lingering questions as to whether his name will be enough to recruit the type of players in the talent rich D.C; Northern Virginia area to make the Hoyas an annual participant in the NCAA tournament and fill some of those empty seats in the Verizon Center.