Important Week Ahead for Georgetown?

There is a lot up in the air right now for Georgetown. Could this week provide some clarity...good or bad?

With the national championship game taking place tonight, today marks the final day of the 2021-22 college basketball season, for everyone, officially. After firing two assistant coaches, Akbar Waheed and Robert Kirby, from its staff, and hiring Kevin Nickelberry last week, Georgetown has at least one more assistant coach position on its staff to fill.

Patrick Ewing was scheduled to travel to New Orleans this weekend for the Final Four, and was set to talk to potential coaching candidates there, but according to a source, did not wind up making the trip due to illness. How that impacts the timeline of Georgetown’s plan to hire another assistant coach is unknown. Prior to this weekend, a source with knowledge of the coaching search indicated that the program’s goal was to make a hire by the end of this week.

Georgetown’s hire of Nickelberry last week was a good first step, but time is still ticking for Georgetown to fill out the rest of its coaching staff. This program needs a full coaching staff so that it can hit the transfer portal hard, both so that it can cover more ground and also so that it can show transfers some semblance of stability inside the program.

Even if a hire isn’t announced this week, this could be a crucial week for the program. 2023 #1 overall recruit G.G. Jackson is reportedly planning on announcing his decision this week. While Georgetown is not considered the frontrunner, it’s still a recruitment to watch after the leader in the clubhouse, South Carolina, fired Frank Martin a couple of weeks ago.

As for who could still be departing from the program, whispers have been circulating this weekend about a few bigger names on the roster still being iffy on returning to Georgetown next season, in addition to the two unannounced players that are still set to exit the program this offseason, as Hilltop Hoops reported last week.

The timing on when these decisions and announcements will be made isn’t known, but it’s to the undecided players’ benefit to decide sooner rather than later, which is why this bears watching this week.

One thing that is clear in talking to people around the program is that this season, unsurprisingly, took a heavy toll on the players. Georgetown and Patrick Ewing, while needing to spend a lot of time and effort on the transfer portal this offseason, would do well to spend time internally making sure the few key contributors on this team that should stay, do stay. Otherwise, this rebuild could fall apart before it even gets started.

Georgetown is in need of another positive boost soon. Let’s hope it comes this week, or soon thereafter.