Boomerang: Qudus Wahab Returns to Georgetown

What once seemed impossible has now come to fruition, as Qudus Wahab has committed back to Georgetown.

To understand the long and winding road that has led Qudus Wahab back to Georgetown after spending one season at the University of Maryland, one needs to understand what led to him leaving the Hilltop in the first place.

There were a lot of hurt feelings when Wahab announced that he was transferring from Georgetown. None of it made sense. He was a featured player on both offense and defense, leading the team in both rebounds (8.2) and blocks (1.6) per game, and coming in second in scoring average, at 12.7.

Seeing one of the core members of that season’s surprise Big East Tournament championship squad depart was puzzling enough, but seeing Wahab go 13 miles northeast to the University of Maryland was what really hurt to see.

The hurt feelings that emerged among Georgetown fans were reflected inside the walls of the Thompson Athletic Center. It was a move that caught many in the program by surprise, and seeing Wahab go to the Hoyas’ geographic rivals only added salt to the wound.

Just like there were layers to work through in getting Wahab back to the Hilltop for another round now, there were layers to the decision by Wahab to leave Georgetown back in 2021.

When it comes to Qudus Wahab and the decisions he makes as it pertains to basketball, the name Duval Simmonds is a familiar one by now to Hoya fans.

Simmonds, a former player at St. Joseph’s University from 1994-1998, played a major role in advising Wahab to leave Georgetown and head to College Park, and was said to be less than pleased with Wahab’s development as a player while at Georgetown.

But to say that Simmonds was solely responsible for Wahab transferring out isn’t the case either.

In talking to those that know him, Wahab never felt truly comfortable at Georgetown, both on and off the court. While his relationship with Ewing wasn’t bad by any means, Wahab was disappointed at times in what he felt was a lack of individual coaching from Ewing outside of regular team practices.

In Wahab’s mind, he envisioned a tighter bond with Ewing in which more individualized attention was given to him to help him improve his game as a center for Georgetown. He didn’t feel he got that attention, and that was a source of mild discomfort for Wahab that contributed to him leaving Georgetown.

With Simmonds advocating for a transfer, and Wahab not feeling totally comfortable as a Hoya after two years, those factors were major reasons in him departing for what he was led to believe would be greener pastures at Maryland under Mark Turgeon.

Things didn’t work out for Wahab in College Park however, to put it mildly.

Turgeon resigned from the program early in the season and Wahab struggled to find a consistent role on the court, starting 31 out of 32 games but only averaging 19.3 minutes per game, down from the 27.7 minutes per game he averaged as a sophomore at Georgetown.

Wahab was overtaken by freshman forward Julian Reese as the team’s center in crunch-time, and was nowhere close to the focal point of the Terps’ offense as a low-post scoring option like he was at Georgetown.

Wahab averaged only 5.3 field goal attempts per game at Maryland, compared to the 8.3 attempts per game he averaged as a sophomore at Georgetown. He declined in almost every single statistical category at Maryland, compared to his second year at Georgetown.

Meanwhile, as Wahab struggled at Maryland, Georgetown suffered badly at the center position itself, having failed to replace Wahab after being caught off-guard by his transfer.

They tried to fill his place with Tre King, but that backfired when King was dismissed from the team for a student conduct code violation before the season even started. As a result, the Hoyas had meager rim protection at the 5 this season, and none of its centers provided a consistent source of offense in the low post like Wahab provided during his first stint in the Blue & Gray, when he averaged 12.7 points per game, was second on the team in effective field goal percentage (59.1%) among rotation players, and led the entire team in offensive rating (113.3) and player efficiency rating (22.1).

When Georgetown’s 0-20 Big East season mercifully ended, it had big plans drawn up for how to remake this team in the offseason. At the center position, the Hoyas reached out to several talented big men in the transfer portal. They cast a wide net.

But the team also got in touch with Wahab early on. Louis Orr made contact with both Wahab and Wahab’s high school coach at Flint Hill, Rico Reed. The nature of Orr’s initial conversation with Wahab was characterized by a source as more of a “check-in call” rather than anything more serious. At the time, Georgetown was talking with several big men in the portal. It was no guarantee that they would have a spot to offer Wahab.

But as fate would have it, and as the number of starting-caliber centers in the portal began to dwindle, more and more signs kept pointing back to Qudus Wahab for Georgetown. But a reunion occurring would take some work— and honest communication— after the manner in which Wahab departed the program back in 2021.

From Wahab’s point of view, back in April, he was interested in a potential return to Georgetown, but the Hoyas’ lack of consistent communication with him at that time led him to feel that they weren’t all that interested in a reunion, per a source close to Wahab.

Things began to change in late April however, when Patrick Ewing reached out to Wahab by phone to express his personal interest in Wahab returning to Georgetown. That’s when things between Wahab and Georgetown started to pick up. The two sides were interested in having Wahab visit the Hilltop for an in-person meeting with Ewing, but it is not known whether such a meeting ever occurred in-person before Wahab committed back to Georgetown.

For Wahab, it really only came down to Georgetown and another, more unique option: the NBA G-League.

Per multiple sources, Wahab had an offer on the table to sign with Team Ignite of the NBA G-League, the G-League team that is a mix of top talent signed right out of high school, and more veteran players fighting for a look from the NBA. Former Georgetown center Jessie Govan played for the Ignite in their first season a few years ago.

Wahab would have been the first player to go from college straight to Team Ignite, rather than going through the draft process first. The idea would be for him to develop professionally while earning a pro’s salary, and attempt to garner looks from NBA teams eventually while playing against other G-League teams.

A couple other schools tried to jump in the mix, such as Kansas State, but according to a source with direct knowledge of Wahab’s recruitment, Wahab was never that interested in going to play for the Wildcats, and as a result they were never a major player in the race for Wahab.

This was primarily a two-horse race for the last three weeks. If Wahab was going to return to college, he preferred it be at Georgetown. He just needed to figure out if going pro at this time was the best option for himself and his family at this time.

Per multiple sources, Wahab was tempted to go pro and join Team Ignite, but also liked the idea of returning to Georgetown and writing a better, more fulfilling second chapter to his time on the Hilltop. Ultimately, he decided it was best to stay in school and go back to Georgetown.

While he had his occasional frustrations with the coaching of Ewing, Wahab still has a good relationship overall with the Hoyas’ head coach, and is hopeful that a return to Georgetown will benefit both player and team alike, according to a source close to Wahab.

Time heals all wounds, and that certainly looks to be the case here too.

The relationship between Simmonds and Wahab is still a factor today, but Simmonds’ influence over Wahab is considered by others familiar with their relationship to be less of a factor than it was back in 2021.

That doesn’t mean Simmonds hasn’t been involved though. Multiple sources tell Hilltop Hoops that Simmons tried getting Patrick Ewing to hire Maryland assistant coach Matt Brady onto Ewing’s staff first before Wahab committed to Georgetown.

Brady, an assistant under former Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon since 2018, is believed to be the main connection that brought Wahab to Maryland in the first place, and was an assistant coach at St. Joe’s while Simmonds was a player there.

According to a source, Brady himself also expressed interest in joining Ewing’s staff, but nothing is expected to materialize between Brady and Georgetown, despite Wahab committing to Georgetown and Simmonds trying to help out his coaching friend.

The re-recruitment of Wahab was really a complete team effort by the new-look Hoyas staff, who all deserve credit for sealing the deal and getting Wahab back to the Hilltop.

Wahab’s affinity for newly-promoted assistant coach Clinton Crouch will go a long way in helping Wahab feel comfortable with so many new faces— both players and coaches— around him this season. Louis Orr kicked things off early in the offseason with Wahab, Ewing got in touch with him after that when things started to pick up, and Kevin Nickelberry came in late to help seal the deal. They all deserve credit.

With Wahab back in the fold now, it represents a chance at redemption for both Wahab and Georgetown. Wahab will most likely slot right back in as the team’s starting center this season, and will get to prove that the decline in production that occurred at Maryland was an aberration, and that he can still produce at a high level consistently on both ends of the floor.

While Wahab has his shortcomings, as the NCAA Tournament game against Colorado showed, he is a year removed from being one of Georgetown’s top players on a team that won the Big East Tournament. There is no reason to think that he can’t get back to that level again on the Hilltop in his second stint as a Hoya.

For Georgetown, it now has a complete roster, and one that should be able to fight for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament this season, at least on paper. With a high-level starting center now on the team, it can field a long and menacing frontcourt of Akok Akok at the 4 and Wahab at the 5, a pairing that should go a long way in improving the porous Georgetown defense.

The union between Georgetown and Qudus Wahab hasn’t been perfect in the past. It won’t be perfect in the future. But it’s a solid partnership between two parties that can help each other be successful. And for a Georgetown roster that is now seemingly complete, it’s a nice cherry on top for a dramatic roster remake that could see the Hoyas possibly push for a finish in the upper half of the Big East standings this coming season. Time will tell, but things are looking up for now.