2020–21 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team

2020–21 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball
Big East Tournament champions
NCAA Tournament, First Round
Conference	Big East
2020–21 record	13–13 (7–9 Big East)
Head coach	Patrick Ewing (4th season)
Assistant coaches	Louis Orr Robert Kirby Akbar Waheed
Captain	No captain
Home arena	McDonough Gymnasium
Seasons ← 2019–20 2021–22 →

The 2020–21 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented Georgetown University in the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Hoyas, led by fourth-year head coach Patrick Ewing, were members of the Big East Conference. Although the Hoyas normally play their home games at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., public-health restrictions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced Georgetown to play its home games on campus at McDonough Gymnasium without fans.^[1]

UConn (Connecticut) joined the Big East Conference this season. Like Georgetown a founding member of the original Big East Conference of 1979–2013, UConn had remained behind in the old conference — which renamed itself the American Athletic Conference, marketed as "The American" — when Georgetown and six other schools left it to form the new Big East Conference in 2013. Georgetown and UConn had played only twice since then, in non-conference games in 2016 and 2017, but UConn's move to the Big East allowed the conference rivalry between the schools to resume in 2020–2021.

UConn's move to the Big East also expanded the Big East regular season. Beginning in 2020–2021, each Big East team was scheduled to play 20 regular-season conference games rather than the 18 they had played each year from the 2013–2014 through 2019–2020 seasons. However, the cancellation of some games during 2020-2021 due to COVID-19 issues resulted in only two teams playing their full slate of 20 games. The Hoyas played only 16 conference games during the 2020–2021 season.

Despite having nine new players and a preseason consensus that they would finish at the bottom of the Big East, the Hoyas had an unexpectedly successful season. They finished in eighth place in the Big East during the regular season, then won the 2021 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament — their first Big East championship since 2007 — to earn an automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, their first appearance in the tournament since 2015. They lost in the first round to Colorado.

Previous season[]

The Hoyas finished the 2019–20 season at 15–17, 5–13 in Big East play, and tied for eighth place in the conference. As the No. 8 seed in the Big East Tournament, they lost in the first round to St. John's. The following day, the remainder of the Big East Tournament and all other NCAA postseason play was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Georgetown finished the season with an overall losing record for the third time in five years and with a 5–13 conference record for the third time in four years.

Offseason[]

Departures[]

Incoming transfers[]

2020 Recruiting class[]

US college sports recruiting information for high school athletes

Name	Hometown	High school / college	Height	Weight	Commit date
Dante Harris PG	Alcoa, TN	Lakeway Christian Academy	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	170 lb (77 kg)	Oct 29, 2019
	Recruiting star ratings: Scout:   Rivals:   247Sports:    ESPN grade: NR
Jamari Sibley PF	Milwaukee, WI	Oak Hill Academy (VA)	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	Nov 29, 2019
	Recruiting star ratings: Scout:   Rivals:   247Sports:    ESPN grade: 82
Kobe Clark SG	St. Louis, MO	Vashon High School	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	Feb 20, 2020
	Recruiting star ratings: Scout:   Rivals:   247Sports:    ESPN grade: 77
T. J. Berger PG	Malvern, PA	Westtown School	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	170 lb (77 kg)	May 13, 2020
	Recruiting star ratings: Scout: N/A   Rivals:   247Sports: N/A    ESPN grade: NR
Collin Holloway SF	Baton Rouge, LA	Port Allen High School	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	Jun 3, 2020
	Recruiting star ratings: Scout: N/A   Rivals: N/A   247Sports: N/A
Overall recruiting rankings:
Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "2020 Team Ranking". Rivals.com. Retrieved 2020-05-28.

Roster[]

Notes: (1) On December 18, Georgetown announced that Jalen Harris was taking a leave of absence from the team for "family reasons;" he did not return. (2) Chuma Azinge was a "recruited walk-on."

Season recap[]

During and after its tumultuous and disappointing 2019–2020 season, Georgetown had lost five players to transfer, point guard James Akinjo and forwards Josh LeBlanc, Galen Alexander, and Myron Gardner leaving at midseason and shooting guard Mac McClung departing after play concluded. In addition, center Ömer Yurtseven had opted to forego the remainder of his college eligibility and enter the 2020 National Basketball Association draft, guard Jagan Moseley had graduated, and point guard Terrell Allen had completed his college eligibility. Including walk-on forward George Muresan, who graduated in 2020, the Hoyas lost nine players from the 2019–2020 team, including their top three — and six of their top eight — scorers.^[2][3] Georgetown and its fans had hoped that Akinjo, McClung, and LeBlanc — freshman standouts during the 2018–2019 season — would form the core of a program that would return to national prominence and make regular trips to the NCAA Tournament, and their departures were a particular setback for the program, which now faced another rebuilding year instead.

The basketball program's misfortunes had continued during the offseason: Head coach Patrick Ewing spent five "scary" days in the hospital struggling to breathe in May 2020 after contracting COVID-19^[3][4][5] and former head coach John Thompson Jr. — described in The Washington Post as "the founding father of modern Hoya basketball" — died at the age of 78 on August 30, 2020.^[3][6] Thompson had coached the Hoyas from 1972 to 1999 and had been associated with the Georgetown men's basketball program for 48 years at the time of his death.^[7] At its annual media day on October 28, the Big East Conference announced the creation of the John Thompson Jr. Award to honor the late coach.^[2] The new award was to be given annually to an individual, team, or athletic department to "recognize efforts to fight prejudice, end discrimination, and advance positive societal change."^[2]

The exodus of players during and after the 2019–2020 season left Georgetown with only two returning starters, guard Jahvon Blair and guard/forward Jamorko Pickett, both seniors.^[3] Three centers — sophomores Qudus Wahab, Timothy Ighoefe, and Malcolm Wilson — also came back to play in 2020–2021, but Wahab was the only returning player other than Blair and Pickett who had started a game in 2019–2020.^[3] The only other returning Hoyas were two sophomore walk-on guards, Chuma Azinge and Jaden Robinson. On October 28, Ewing told the press, "We lost six talented, athletic guys that were going to be the focal point of our team. So we had to start all over. "^[2]

On June 25, 2020, point guard Tyler Beard, who Ewing had recruited for the 2020–2021 season, announced that he had decided to spend another year at Hargrave Military Academy before reporting to the Hoyas for the 2021–2022 season.^[8] However, nine new players joined the team for 2020–2021.^[3] Three — guard Donald Carey, point guard Jalen Harris, and forward Chudier Bile — were graduate transfers, and the rest were freshmen. The freshman class included scholarship players Dante Harris at guard and T. J. Berger, Kobe Clark, Collin Holloway, and Jamari Sibley at forward, as well as walk-on forward Victor Muresan — son of National Basketball Association great Gheorge Muresan — whose older brother George had graduated in 2020 after four years as a walk-on forward with the Hoyas.

Among the newcomers, the program placed particular hope in Jalen Harris — arriving from Arkansas, he was a skilled point guard and good defender, although with an only limited three-point shooting ability^[9][3] — and Sibley, Georgetown's only four-star recruit for the season.^[3] The Hoyas planned to rely heavily on Blair and Pickett — who had averaged 10.8 and 10.2 points per game, respectively, the previous season^[2] — for leadership and scoring,^{[2] [3]} but little was expected of the team. In July 2020, Sports Illustrated picked Georgetown to finish 10th in the 11-team Big East in 2020–2021, ahead only of DePaul, saying that "Georgetown tied for eighth in the Big East last season with a 5-13 conference record, and 2020–21 may bring more of the same, with hope for growth and consistency within the roster...the new reality leaves Georgetown yet again in rebuilding mode after a year with much turnover."^[10] In their annual preseason poll in October, the Big East's coaches unanimously picked the Hoyas to finish in last place in the 11-team conference.^[2][3]

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic[]

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many changes on college basketball for the 2020–2021 season, including at Georgetown, beginning with the assembly of the team on campus. The 2020 edition of the Kenner League — officially known as Nike Pro City D.C., the annual on-campus summer basketball league at McDonough Gymnasium founded in 1982 in which many Georgetown players customarily took part, previewing their abilities for the program, the press, and fans — was cancelled,^[11] denying the coaches and staff an opportunity to evaluate incoming players. Although the other Big East basketball programs began training and workouts weeks earlier — UConn as early as June — public-health recommendations resulted in all summer workouts being cancelled for Georgetown.^[2] The 2020–2021 Hoyas squad did not even arrive on campus until September 11 — the last Big East team to do so — and then underwent a 14-day quarantine before beginning basketball activities.^[12][13] By the time the team began workouts and training, it was weeks behind all of its Big East rivals, raising concerns about its ability to prepare properly for the upcoming season.^[12][13]

On September 16, while the Hoyas were in quarantine, the NCAA announced a number of changes for the 2020–2021 season, all intended to reduce the exposure of athletes to disease during the pandemic.^[14] These included: a ban on scrimmages and exhibition games prior to and during the 2020–2021 basketball season; permission only for strength and conditioning activities, skills training, and team meetings between September 21 and October 13; a prohibition on preseason practices prior to October 14 and a maximum of 30 preseason practices thereafter; limits on the number of hours per day and days per week players could participate in preseason physical training activities together; and pushing the start of the basketball season back from November 10 to November 25.^[14] The NCAA also limited teams to playing 27 regular-season games if they participated in a multiteam event in November or December and to 25 games if they did not, and required them to play at least 13 games against Division I opponents during the 2020–2021 season to qualify for the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament.^[14]

As practices finally began on October 14, the NCAA announced additional changes. It established a requirement that all teams institute a COVID-19 testing program and that any team with a positive COVID-19 test quarantine itself for 14 days, with the quarantine extended if additional positive tests occurred.^[15] Scheduled games during any quarantine period were to be canceled or rescheduled. It also announced its decision to grant basketball players an additional year of college eligibility, a step taken because of the various negative effects the ongoing pandemic was expected to have on the 2020–2021 season, including games played without fans and seasons shortened by cancelled games, and the possibility of the season not being completed.^[16] The move meant that players could compete for five seasons over a six-year period rather than the normal four seasons over a five-year period,^[16] and that no players on Georgetown′s 2020–2021 roster were in their final year of eligibility during 2020–2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic wrought havoc on the Hoyas′ 2020–2021 schedule as schools and conferences struggled with the challenges of playing the season without endangering players, staffs, and fans. The first casualty of Georgetown′s schedule was the Wooden Legacy, a tournament scheduled for November 26–27, 2020, in Anaheim, California. In November 2019, Georgetown had committed to play in the 2020 edition of the Wooden Legacy along with Kansas, UCLA, and Virginia,^[17] with speculation by the spring of 2020 that Georgetown most likely would face either Kansas or Virginia in the first round.^[18] In August 2020, however, the first signs that the 2020 Wooden Legacy would face disruption came when the Pac-12 Conference announced the cancellation of all sports events for its member schools until January 1, 2021, because of the ongoing pandemic, threatening UCLA's participation — although UCLA never withdrew from the Wooden Legacy, apparently because of the advent of rapid COVID-19 testing for players and staffs.^[19][20] In September 2020, ESPN announced plans to move the 10 college basketball nonconference events it planned to run in November and December, including the Wooden Legacy, to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Kissimmee, Florida, in an effort to keep players and staffs safer during the pandemic.^[21] The announcement prompted Georgetown and Virginia to withdraw from the tournament, and Seton Hall and Boise State replaced them.^[17] Georgetown's quick withdrawal initially raised concerns that Ewing was again trying to avoid early competition against challenging opponents, as he had said he was doing when he withdrew the Hoyas from the Phil Knight Invitational shortly after taking the helm at Georgetown in 2017,^[20] but the school later explained that pandemic-related restrictions on travel to Florida had made the trip to Kissimmee impractical.^[22] Ultimately, ESPN cancelled all ten of the 2020 tournaments, including the Wooden Legacy, in late October 2020.^[23]

More changes came when the Big East Conference held its annual preseason media day — virtually instead of at its customary venue, Madison Square Garden in New York City^[15] — on October 28.^[15] Commissioner Val Ackerman announced a number of measures the Big East would take to adapt its 2020–2021 season to the circumstances of the pandemic. The 2020 edition of the Gavitt Tipoff Games^[15] — an annual series of eight meetings between Big East and Big Ten Conference teams begun in 2015 and scheduled for November 16–20, 2020^[24] — was cancelled because of the NCAA's decision to push back the start of the season;^[25] Georgetown had been among the Big East schools slated to participate in the games in 2020.^[26] The conference planned a full slate of 20 conference games for each team to give each team a home-and-home series with each of its conference opponents, but took unusual steps to allow greater scheduling flexibility later in the season in order to increase the chances of rescheduling games postponed due to the pandemic. These included starting the conference season on December 11,^[25] rather than in late December as in previous years, and announcing the conference schedule only through December 23.^[15][25] Conference officials explained that the Big East planned to take a one-week break after that and resume play on December 30, but that the schedule for games played on or after December 30 would be announced later, allowing the conference to make adjustments based on its success in holding games between December 11 and 23.^[15] The conference expressed a preference for a traditional travel schedule for its teams,^[15] but by the time of the media day it held open the option of teams playing games during the spring semester in a quarantined "bubble" format, in which players and staffs remained in isolation to avoid contracting COVID-19, either for the entire semester or during concentrated periods of play between three or five teams.^[15][25] The Big East required teams to undergo testing for COVID-19 three times a week beginning in the second week of November.^[15]

After withdrawing from the 2020 Wooden Legacy, Georgetown had no multiteam event on its schedule, restricting the Hoyas to a 25-game schedule in 2020–2021. With the Big East expanding its schedule to 20 games because of Connecticut′s arrival in the conference, Georgetown was limited to only five non-conference games. It preserved the annual non-conference game against Syracuse, a tradition since the 2015–2016 season, but for the first time the schools scheduled the meeting for January rather than December. The Hoyas thus played only four non-conference games before beginning the Big East season in mid-December.

Because of public health restrictions in Washington, D.C., during the pandemic, Georgetown played its entire home schedule on campus at McDonough Gymnasium for the first time since the 1980-1981 season, rather than at its usual home court at Capital One Arena.^[27] The team did not permit fans, the band, or the pep squad at McDonough during the season, and the Hoyas played there with only cardboard cutouts of fans and their pets in the stands.^[28] With little or no media presence permitted at McDonough or at any other Big East venue, longtime Georgetown radio play-by-play man Rich Chvotkin called Georgetown′s games throughout the season by watching television monitors at the studios of WJFK-FM in Washington.^[29]

Like other college basketball teams, the Hoyas entered the season in late November hoping to avoid exposure to COVID-19 but expecting further disruptions to their schedule, including the postponement, rescheduling, and cancellation of games. As play began, it was not clear that a full schedule would be possible, or even that the season could be completed at all.

Early season[]

Georgetown opened the season with a six-game homestand at McDonough Gymnasium which began on November 25 with the Hoyas hosting UMBC. Before tipoff, the Hoyas commemorated the late John Thompson, Jr., with a ceremony naming their home court "John Thompson Jr. Court," the team kneeling in his honor during the ceremony;^[7] plans called for another ceremony to name the court at Capital One Arena after Thompson once pandemic restrictions were lifted and the team could resume play there.^[7] As a tribute to Thompson, Patrick Ewing kept a white towel draped over his right shoulder — a trademark of Thompson's in his coaching days — during the game,^[7][30] as did other coaches across the United States during their season openers.^[7] With no fans, band, or pep squad looking on, the Hoyas used a 20–5 run in which Qudus Wahab scored on three straight possessions to take the lead for good and won 70–62, led by Jahvon Blair′s 23 points.^[30][31] Wahad had a double-double (12 points and 12 rebounds),^[30][31] Donald Carey scored 13 points, and Jamorko Pickett added 10 points.^[31] Six days later, Georgetown opened December with only its third game against Navy in 43 years and its first in 14 seasons and suffered a disappointing loss, giving up a career-high 28 points to Midshipmen senior guard Cam Davis.^[32] Blair and Pickett each scored 17 points, Wahab finished with 16, and Jalen Harris had 12,^[32][33] but Navy forced the Hoyas into 13 turnovers^[34] and controlled the game except for a brief period early in the second half when the Hoyas took a short-lived lead.^[35] It was Georgetown′s first loss to Navy since January 1977^[35][36] and the first time Navy had defeated a Big East opponent since a win over Pittsburgh in 1996,^[34][35] as well as the first time the Midshipmen had beaten a Big East team on the road since defeating Syracuse during the 1986 NCAA Tournament.^[34]

Georgetown next played in the Big East–Big 12 Battle, an annual event in the second year of its planned four-year run in which each of the Big East teams — except for newly arrived Connecticut — faced one of the ten Big 12 Conference teams. The Hoyas hosted No. 11 West Virginia, a rival in the original Big East Conference and their first ranked opponent of the season.^[36] It was the first meeting of the schools since they played one another in the first round of the 2014 National Invitation Tournament,^[36] coincidentally also in a game at McDonough. The Mountaineers′ leading scorer and rebounder, junior forward Derek Culver, who was averaging a double-double per game, got in early foul trouble and played only four minutes during the first half, scoring only three points before halftime, and the Hoyas took advantage of his absence to establish a 34–32 lead at the intermission.^[36] The game was tied 62–62 with six minutes remaining,^[36][37] but West Virginia then embarked on a game-ending 18–9 run sparked by Culver, who scored four straight points to make the score 69–62 and finished with 14 points and nine rebounds, 11 of the points and all of the rebounds in his 14 minutes of play in the second half.^[36][38] Each team had 43 rebounds,^[36] but Georgetown committed 15 turnovers to West Virginia′s five,^[36] scored only four points off turnovers to West Virginia′s 21,^[36][39] and went only 5-for-10 in free throws to the Mountaineers′ 22-for-33.^[36][39] Jahvon Blair led the Hoyas with 19 points, Jamorko Pickett had 11, and Chudier Bile came off the bench to score 10, but the Hoyas lost 80–71, their sixth loss to West Virginia in the last seven meetings of the schools.^[36][38] The loss dropped Georgetown's record below .500 at the earliest point in any season of Ewing′s tenure as head coach.^[36]

The Hoyas evened their record at 2–2 with a blowout win over Coppin State in which Jahvon Blair led the Hoyas with 22 points, Jamorko Pickett had a double-double with 19 points and a career-high 18 rebounds, and Chudier Bile came off the bench to score 13.^[40][41][42] Kobe Clark was forced to leave the game with an ankle sprain.^[43] By the time the Coppin State game was over, the Hoyas had established two characteristics of the team that would last all season: good rebounding and sloppy ball-handling. Against Coppin State, the Hoyas committed 26 turnovers to the Eagles′ 12 and trailed the Eagles at the middle of the first half, but they soon pulled out to a commanding lead, and they outrebounded Coppin State 53–29.^[42]

Conference season begins[]

In their conference opener three days later, the Hoyas faced their second ranked opponent of the season, No. 9 Villanova, on December 11.^[27] Villanova's first game at McDonough since February 14, 1981, it concluded a season-opening six-game stretch of road games for the Wildcats that resulted from pandemic-related cancellations of three of Villanova's early home games, the first time the Wildcats had played their first six games on the road since the 2003–2004 season.^[27] It was the first conference game of the season for both teams, and with Villanova picked preseason to finish first and Georgetown last in the Big East, the Wildcats were an 111⁄2-point favorite.^[27] Nonetheless, during the first half the Hoyas shot 58.1 percent from the field including 50 percent from three-point range,^[43] and out-rebounded the Wildcats 21–15.^[43] Georgetown led by 18 points with four minutes left in the first half and at halftime held a 46–33 lead and seemed in position to pull off a major upset.^[27][44] In the second half, however, the momentum shifted toward Villanova, which improved on its 7–for–22 (31.8%) three-point shooting performance in the first half to connect on 8 of 17 (47.1%) three-pointers after halftime.^[27][43] Villanova began the second half with a 20–4 run,^[43] including a 15–0 spurt early in the second half which gave the Wildcats a 53–50 lead with 13:40 left to play,^[44][43] and they followed that with a decisive 13–2 run over the game′s final 51⁄2 minutes to win their ninth-straight conference opener and hand the Hoyas a 76–63 defeat.^[27][44] The Wildcats outscored the Hoyas 43–17 in the second half, during which Georgetown shot only 26.7 percent from the field and 1-for-11 from three-point range and committed nine of its 12 turnovers.^[43] Jamorko Pickett had a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, both team highs,^[45] and Qudus Wahab scored 12 points,^[45] while the Wildcats held Jahvon Blair, Georgetown's scoring leader with 20.3 points per game on the season, to only 11 points.^[27][45]

Meanwhile, the first disruption of Georgetown′s 2020–2021 schedule occurred, when the Connecticut men's basketball team announced a positive COVID-19 test result on December 6, requiring a quarantine that made its scheduled visit to Georgetown on December 13 impossible.^[46] The UConn game was postponed; it eventually was rescheduled, initially for February 24, then for February 23.^[47] The Big East had not yet announced a date for the annual visit of St. John's to Washington to play at Georgetown when the UConn game was postponed, so it quickly scheduled the Red Storm to play at Georgetown in place of UConn that evening.^[46] It was the 117th meeting of the schools.^[48] Jalen Harris sat out the game with back spasms,^[48] so Dante Harris started at point guard instead.^[48][49] Georgetown led 88–86 with only a second left to play when St. John's junior guard Greg Williams Jr. took an inbound pass under the basket and scored at the buzzer to tie the score at 88–88 and force overtime.^[48][50] In overtime, the Hoyas used a late 6–0 run during which Wahab blocked a potential game-tying shot to come away with a 97–94 win,^[48] evening their overall record at 3–3 and their conference record at 1–1. Dante Harris scored a team-leading and career-high 22 points.^[50] Three other starters also scored in double figures, Jahvon Blair finishing with 20 points and Donald Carey shooting 7-for-9 from the field to add 19, while Qudus Wahab nearly had a triple double with 17 points, 10 rebounds, and nine blocked shots.^[48][50]

On December 18, Patrick Ewing announced that graduate transfer and starting point guard Jalen Harris was taking a leave of absence from the team for undisclosed "family reasons" after seeing action in only five games as a Hoya.^[49] He did not return to the team. With him gone, Ewing moved freshman Dante Harris — Big East Freshman of the Week thanks to his 22-point performance in 43 minutes of play against St. John's — to the starting point guard role.^[49]

The last-minute scheduling of St. John's to play at Georgetown on December 13 led to a scheduling quirk for the Hoyas, who already were scheduled to visit St. John's in their next game a week later, giving Georgetown back-to-back games against the Red Storm. Played at Carnesecca Arena, it was the 118th game between the schools, the first road game of the season for the Hoyas, and Georgetown's first game against the Red Storm on the St. John's University campus in Queens, New York, since the 1980-1981 season.^[51] This time, St. John's used a decisive 18–5 run over a four-plus-minute stretch in the second half to pull ahead 76–57 on the way to a 94–83 victory over the Hoyas.^[51] Jahvon Blair led the team with 25 points, Donald Carey had 19 for the second consecutive game, and Qudus Wahab finished with 12 before fouling out.^[51][52]

The loss at St. John's began a five-game losing streak for Georgetown. Three days after playing at St. John's, the Hoyas visited Seton Hall, and the Pirates never trailed in the game as Georgetown gave up a career-high 30 points to Seton Hall senior guard/forward Myles Cale.^[53] The Hoyas' next game was to have been at home against No. 11 Creighton on December 30, but the game was postponed until February 9 because of COVID-19 issues on the Bluejays team.^[47] Georgetown thus bided its time until January 2, when it returned to McDonough to face Marquette. The Hoyas held Marquette to 20 points in the first half — a Golden Eagles season low — but collapsed in the second half as Marquette came back from a 16-point deficit at halftime to hand Georgetown its third straight loss, with Marquette senior forward Jamal Cain scoring a career-high 23 points.^[54][55] Ewing blamed the loss on turnovers and poor shot selection by the Hoyas.^[55] Playing before fans for the first time all season four days later at Butler,^[56] Georgetown suffered a fourth straight loss when the Bulldogs, despite being the Big East's lowest-scoring team, came from 11 points behind for the win, scoring 18 points off 15 Georgetown turnovers and leaving the Hoyas with a 3–7 record overall, 1–5 in the Big East.^[57][58] Jahvon Blair scored 14 points at Seton Hall,^[53] came off the bench against Marquette — he did not start because of an unexplained "coach's decision," but played 37 minutes — to score 20,^{[54][55][59][60]} and finished with 11 points at Butler.^[57][61] Qudus Wahab had double-doubles at Seton Hall (16 points and a career-high 13 rebounds)^[53] and against Marquette (13 points, 10 rebounds),^[54][60] and just missed a double-double at Butler, scoring nine points and pulling down 12 rebounds.^[57][61] Jamorko Pickett had a double-double in the Butler game with 12 points and 11 rebounds.^[57][61] The losing streak left Georgetown in 10th place in the Big East, ahead of only DePaul.^[62]

By the time of the loss to Butler, a troubling pattern had emerged for the Hoyas in which they built leads, collapsed, and lost.^[62] They had led two ranked teams — West Virginia and Villanova — and held double-digit leads over Villanova, Marquette, and Butler, but went down to defeat in each case.^[62] Ewing summarized the situation to the press by saying, “We’ve showed that we can compete with anybody in the country that we’ve played so far. But our problem is we don’t do it for the whole 40 minutes. We do it for 37 minutes or 30 minutes and then we self-destruct.”^[62] Although Jahvon Blair was sixth in scoring in the Big East with 18.2 points per game,^[62] Georgetown was last in the conference in field-goal percentage (41.7 percent)^[62] and second-to-last in scoring, at 71.7 points per game.^[62] Jamorko Pickett had played inconsistently,^[62] and Chudier Bile and Donald Carey each had only shown occasional flashes of offensive prowess.^[62] An even bigger problem was turnovers: The team's propensity for sloppy ball-handling led to the Hoyas averaging 16.2 turnovers per game over their first ten games; fourth-worst team in the country entering the Butler game, they were 328th out of the 330 Division I teams included in the statistics as of January 8, with a minus-6.1 turnover margin.^[58][62] The departure of experienced point guard Jalen Harris and his replacement by freshman Dante Harris also was a matter of concern, as Dante Harris had been thrust into an important role before gaining much experience at the collegiate level.^[62] One positive for the team was rebounding, in which the Hoyas led the Big East;^[62] Qudus Wahab was tied for first in the conference with 8.8 rebounds per game,^[62] while Pickett was third with 8.7 per game.^[62]

The slumping Hoyas next stepped away from Big East competition for a non-conference game on January 9 at Syracuse — Georgetown′s main rival in the original Big East Conference of 1979–2013 — in what had become an annual tradition since 2015, although it was the first time the schools had played outside of December since renewing their rivalry. It was the 96th meeting of the teams, dating back to 1930.^[63] The Hoyas shot well at first and built a 16–11 lead,^[64] but the Orange responded with 10 straight points to pull ahead 21–16.^[64] Led by Jahvon Blair, the Hoyas answered with eight points of their own to retake the lead, 24–21.^[64] Syracuse closed the first half with a 22–6 run, however,^[64] and at halftime the Hoyas trailed 43–30.^[63][64] Although Georgetown led the Big East in rebounds, Syracuse grabbed 12 more than the Hoyas during the first half.^[64] During the second half, Syracuse extended its lead to 16 points,^[63] although a Georgetown comeback ensued in which the Hoyas trimmed the Orange′s lead to 68–65.^[64] Georgetown committed four of its 12 turnovers in the game's last four minutes, and Syracuse quickly scored four straight points to pull out to a 72–65 advantage with 1:15 left to play on the way to a 74–69 victory.^[63][64] Jamorko Pickett just missed a double-double with 17 points and nine rebounds, Jahvon Blair had a double-double with 16 points and a career-high 10 assists, and Donald Carey added 10 points,^[63] but Georgetown's all-time record against Syracuse fell to 44–52,^[63][64] and the Hoyas lost their fifth game in a row to drop to 3–8 on the season.^[63][64] The losing streak was tied for the second-longest of Ewing′s tenure as head coach.^[64]

January pause[]

After the Hoyas returned from Syracuse, a positive COVID-19 test in the Georgetown program forced a pause in Georgetown's schedule which Patrick Ewing described as "trying" and "rough."^[65] During the pause, players were in quarantine, required to remain locked in their rooms, eating meals dropped off at their doors, emerging only for daily coronavirus tests.^[65] No practices took place, and team meetings were held virtually.^[65] The Hoyas did not resume practices until January 24.^[65] Meanwhile, four games — a meeting at McDonough with DePaul^[4] and visits to Providence,^[66] Marquette,^[66] and Xavier^[67] — were postponed.^[65] Ultimately, none of the games were rescheduled, reducing Georgetown's slate of conference games for the season from 20 to 16 and its overall regular-season schedule for 2020–2021 from 25 to 21 games.

Later season[]

After a 21-day layoff, Georgetown finally returned to action and, seeking its first win in nearly seven weeks, resumed its Big East schedule with a home game against Providence. Most of the Georgetown players and staff wore pink Air Jordan XXXV basketball shoes in support of the Coaches vs. Cancer charity.^[68] Timothy Ighoefe rather than Qudus Wahab started at center for the first time all season.^[68] The Hoyas fell 15 points behind in the first half,^[68][69] but from there chipped away steadily at the Friars' lead.^[68] A Wahab jumper with 1:16 left to play put Georgetown ahead for good at 70–69,^[68][70] and the Hoyas broke their five-game losing streak with a 73–72 victory.^[68] Coming off the bench, Chudier Bile just missed a double-double, leading the team with a season-high 19 points, hitting 10 of 12 free throws, and grabbing nine rebounds, another season high for him.^[68][70][71] Starters Jamorko Pickett and Donald Carey also scored in double figures, Pickett finishing with 12 points and Carey adding 10.^[70][71] Entering the game 304th in the United States in turnover average with 15.8 turnovers per game, the Hoyas gave up a season-low seven turnovers to the Friars.^[68]

Georgetown next faced the prospect of back-to-back games against No. 15 Creighton, visiting the Bluejays on February 3 and then hosting them in Washington on February 9. On February 2, however, the news broke that Xavier's program had gone into quarantine after a positive COVID-19 test, forcing the postponement of the Musketeers' game at No. 3 Villanova on February 7.^[72] Although a rumor arose that Villanova would play No. 1 Gonzaga instead, the Big East moved swiftly to reschedule Georgetown's visit to Villanova, moving it from February 17 to February 7 to replace Xavier on Villanova's schedule.^[47][72] The change presented the Hoyas with three consecutive games against ranked opponents in six days, two of them on the road.

On February 3, Georgetown — with the second-worst team shooting percentage in the Big East^[73] — was on the road to play as a 13-point underdog against Creighton, which was riding a three-game winning streak.^[73] It was Creighton's 11th annual Pink Out game, an event to benefit the Coaches vs. Cancer charity for breast cancer research, and the Bluejays wore pink-trimmed uniforms and Pink Out-themed warm-up gear;^[73][74] a limited number of fans were allowed to attend,^[75] making it Georgetown′s second and last game of the regular season before fans. Ewing made a change in the line-up, placing Donald Carey on the bench and starting Chudier Bile for the first time instead, and Qudus Wahab returned to the starting lineup.^[74][76] Georgetown never trailed after the first six minutes of the game, pulled ahead by as many as 11 points during the first half, and led 44–39 at halftime.^[73] The Bluejays scored the first five points of the second half to tie the game at 44–44, but the Hoyas took the lead back on a Jamorko Pickett three-pointer on their next possession. Georgetown built its lead to 67–57 before the Bluejays closed to 72–66 with 4:39 left to play. The Bluejays got no closer, and Georgetown upset Creighton 86–79^[73] in a game that was not as close as the score made it sound.^[77] It was Georgetown's first victory over the Bluejays in a game played in Omaha in six tries.^[73] During the first half, Georgetown had a field-goal percentage of 57.1 percent, 61.7 percent from three-point range, and overall the Hoyas shot 50 percent from the field — their best offensive showing since their victory over St. John's on December 13 — and connected on 10 of 21 three-pointers (47.1 percent).^[73][74] They also forced Creighton into 15 turnovers and scored 19 points off them.^[73] Jahvon Blair sank five three-pointers and scored a team-leading 22 points,^[73] while Chudier Bile scored 17 points, 15 of them in the second half, Jamorko Pickett finished with 16, and Qudus Wahab added 12.^[73][78] It was Georgetown's first road victory^[73] and first victory over a ranked team of the season,^[74] as well as the highest-ranked opponent the team had beaten during Ewing's tenure as head coach,^[73] and it brought a five-game Georgetown losing streak against Top 25 teams to an end.^[73] It arguably was Georgetown's best game of the season at the time,^[79] and it was the first time all season Georgetown had won two games in a row.^[74][80]

Four days later, the Hoyas were at Villanova for their rescheduled game with the No. 3 Wildcats, with Patrick Ewing wearing a mask adorned with a picture of the late John Thompson Jr.^[80] The game saw 17 lead changes.^[80] Georgetown trailed 37–35 at halftime, but led with only six minutes left to play.^[80] Over the final four minutes of the game, however, the Hoyas shot only 1–for–8 from the field, and Villanova closed the game with a 14–5 run^[80] that began with 4:23 remaining.^[81] Although Georgetown was still only five points behind with 54 seconds remaining,^[80] Villanova continued to build its lead as time wound down and won 84–74.^[80] Georgetown's all-time record against Villanova fell to 44–44,^[80] and Ewing's record against the Wildcats as a head coach dropped to 1–7.^[80] Jahvon Blair scored a team-high 18 points, Qudus Wahab tied his own career high with 17 points, and Jamorko Pickett finished with 12.^[80] Chudier Bile, who had scored in double figures only once prior to Georgetown′s January pause, did so for the third straight game since the pause, making his second consecutive start and scoring 12 points before he fouled out.^[80] In postgame comments, Ewing said the Hoyas were "still making too many mistakes" and expressed disappointment in the loss in what had turned out to be a winnable game, but also said that he took pride in the team's growth since the beginning of the season.^[80]

Georgetown returned to Washington for a four-game homestand, beginning it two days after the Villanova game by hosting Creighton — now ranked No. 19 — in a make-up meeting for the postponed December 30 game.^[77][79] The Hoyas had dominated Creighton in the upset six days earlier^[77] and had made a strong showing against Villanova, but this time Georgetown was lethargic and it was Creighton that had a dominating performance.^[77] Relying on quick three-point attempts rather than patiently working the ball inside against Creighton′s man-to-man defense^[77] — Georgetown attempted a season-high 20 three-pointers in the first half alone and went 9–for–31 (29%) from beyond the arc during the game^[77][79] — the Hoyas shot only 27.6 percent overall from the field,^[77] their worst single-game shooting percentage since a 25 percent performance during a loss to Cincinnati on February 23, 2011,^[77] and had their lowest offensive output of the season at the time.^[79] Creighton made a school-record 19 steals, 11 of them in the first half alone, and Georgetown — which entered the game averaging 14.9 turnovers, second-worst in the Big East^[79] — committed 24 turnovers, 13 of them in the first half.^[77][79] Jamorko Pickett, with a double-double (16 points and 12 rebounds), was the only Georgetown player to score in double figures.^[77][82] The Bluejays never trailed^[77][79] and the Hoyas never threatened;^[79] Creighton led Georgetown 33–21 at halftime^[77] and won 63–48,^[77] dealing the Hoyas a second straight defeat. Georgetown had 13 turnovers in the first half alone,^[79] allowing Creighton to steal the ball 11 times before halftime,^[79] and committed 24 turnovers overall during the game.^[79] It was probably Georgetown's worst game of the season at the time,^[79] and in postgame comments, Ewing described his team′s play as "selfish."^[77][79]

The Hoyas′ offense recovered for the next game as Georgetown cruised to victory over Butler, breaking a five-game home losing streak against the Bulldogs.^[83] The Hoyas shot 54 percent from the field in the first half and 50 percent in the second,^[84] went 11-for-22 from three-point range,^[84] and sank 19 out of 22 free throws.^[84] During the final 28:46 of the game, Georgetown's lead never fell below double digits;^[83] the Hoyas led by 16 points at halftime^[84] and later by as many as 25 points.^[84] Their hot shooting made up for some sloppy ball-handling by the team and technical fouls on both Jamorko Pickett and Jahvon Blair.^[85] Blair and Chudier Bile each scored 17 points,^[84] and Pickett finished with 13 points,^[84] Qudus Wahab with 13,^[84] and Donald Carey with 10.^[84] The Hoyas outrebounded the Bulldogs 38–22^[84] and held them to 39 percent shooting from the field.^[84] Just before halftime, Blair became the 48th player in Georgetown men's basketball history to score 1,000 points,^[83] and Pickett followed him as the 49th player to do so with 16:10 left in the game.^[83]

With a week off before Georgetown's next scheduled game, Ewing expressed a desire to schedule a Big East opponent for a make-up game during the interval.^[83] No teams were available, however, and the Hoyas thus sat idle for a week before continuing the homestand by hosting Seton Hall, which was in third place in the Big East and considered a possible 2021 NCAA Tournament team.^[86] The Hoyas pulled out to a 28–16 lead^[86] before the Pirates closed to 38–35 at halftime.^[86] Seton Hall then scored the first seven points of the second half to take the lead.^[86] With the game tied 67–67, the Hoyas embarked on an 8–2 run to lead 75–69 with 2:32 left to play,^[86] and continued their strong stretch of post-pause play by defeating the Pirates for their second consecutive win and fourth in six games.^[86] Although Jahvon Blair, the Big East′s fourth-highest scorer with 17 points per game,^[86] managed only three points,^[86] five Georgetown players scored in double digits for the second straight game.^[86] Jamorko Pickett scored a season-high 20 points.^[87] Chudier Bile added 17 points, and Dante Harris had a very active game with 14 points, seven rebounds, and eight assists, while Donald Carey and Qudus Wahab finished with 11 points each.^[87][88]

Next up was a game at McDonough against Connecticut, a make-up game for the postponed December 13 meeting of the teams. The first time the Hoyas and Huskies had met as conference rivals in the new Big East, the game renewed a rivalry from the original Big East Conference of 1979–2013. Although the teams had played non-conference games in 2016 and 2017, the conference rivalry had gone into hiatus after Georgetown left the original Big East after the 2012–2013 season to join the new Big East while UConn remained behind in the old conference, which became the American Athletic Conference, until moving to the new Big East for the 2020–2021 season. UConn started the game with a 10–0 run^[89] and later in the first half the Hoyas scored nine unanswered points — seven of them on free throws — to get back into the game and take a 23–22 lead.^[89] Otherwise both teams played poorly, combining for only 19 field goals and committing a combined 20 turnovers during the first half.^[89] Georgetown led 26–25 at halftime,^[89] but in the second half, UConn made a decisive 20–6 run and with 3:50 left to play led Georgetown by 11 points.^[89] The Huskies won, 70–57.^[89] Qudus Wahab finished with a double-double (10 rebounds and a career-high 18 points)^[89] and Jamorko Harris and Dante Harris added 10 points each,^[89] but as a team the Hoyas shot only 35.8 percent from the field.^[89] The loss dropped Georgetown to 7–11 overall and 5–8 in the Big East.

Georgetown visited DePaul four days later. Jahvon Blair, the Hoyas' top scorer, did not dress for the game, Ewing saying only that he would not play due to a "coach's decision" and would return to action in the next game.^[59][90] Despite Blair's absence, Georgetown used an 18-0 run in the second half to open up a 19-point lead that carried them to a win.^[91] Chudier Bile had a double-double (19 points, 10 rebounds), and Jamorko Pickett and Dante Harris each scored 14 points.^[91] Another win followed when Georgetown hosted Xavier on Senior Day at McDonough on March 2, as Pickett scored 18 points, Bile had another double-double (16 points and 11 rebounds), and Qudus Wahab finished with 13 points.^[92] Jahvon Blair returned to action but did not start, again due to a "coach's decision,"^[90] but he came off the bench to add 12 points and he sparked a key Georgetown first-half scoring run.^[92] With one game to go in the regular season, Georgetown's post-pause surge — a 6–3 record since January 30 and wins in four of their last five games — meant that the Hoyas at a minimum would avoid the last-place Big East finish predicted preseason and even had a chance to finish as high as fifth place in the Big East,^[5] and with a .500 conference record.

In the final game of the season — a visit to UConn on March 6 — the Hoyas suffered what Ewing called "a royal ass-kicking" at the hands of the Huskies.^[93] The Casual Hoya website described Georgetown′s play early in the game as "disorganized, selfish, and lacking in focus and intensity,"^[93] and UConn took advantage of it to open the game with 12 unanswered points^[93] and never relinquished its lead.^[94] Georgetown made only six field goals and had only one assist during the first half^[93] and at halftime trailed 51–24;^[93][95] it was UConn's highest-scoring first half of the season,^[95] and at one point the Huskies held a 23–9 edge in rebounds.^[93] Less than a minute into the second half, UConn extended its lead to 29 points with the score at 55–26.^[93][94] Although in the second half Georgetown had its highest-scoring half of the season,^[95] outscoring the Huskies 58-47,^[95] it was not enough to bite very far into the Huskies′ lead; in fact, after jumping ahead to a 21–11 lead with 11:35 left to play in the first half, UConn held a double-digit lead for the rest of the game.^[94] Jahvon Blair came off the bench again and scored a game-high 22 points,^[95][96] Wahab finished with 16 points,^[95][96] and Bile added 15,^[95][96] but the Huskies won 98–82,^[93][95] the second-highest score by a Georgetown opponent of Ewing′s five-year tenure as head coach.

Georgetown finished the regular season with an overall record of 9–12^[95] and a conference record of 7–9,^[95] avoiding the possibility of finishing 10th or 11th, but with no chance of anything higher than a seventh-place finish. When the final Big East games of the regular season were finished later in the day, the Hoyas were in sole possession of eighth place. After a 3–8 start, the Hoyas had gone 6–4 since the January pause, and observers credited the surge to Ewing's decision to make Chudier Bile a starter and move Donald Carey to the bench,^[5] as well as to Georgetown's defense finally jelling, with Dante Harris, Jamorko Pickett, and Qudus Wahab putting out consistently solid defensive efforts: Wahab had 1.8 blocks per game, second-best in the Big East.^[5] Ewing continued to dodge the question of what had made him relegate top scorer Jahvon Blair to the bench, saying only that "we need him to do more than just score points,"^[5] but Blair was named all-Big East honorable mention for 2020–2021, the only Hoya to receive a conference accolade for the regular season.^[5]

Big East Tournament[]

Georgetown was seeded eighth in the 2021 Big East Tournament, a favorable bracket that allowed the Hoyas to avoid meeting Creighton or UConn again before the championship game. A meeting with top-seeded No. 14 Villanova loomed in the quarterfinal game, but Villanova senior guard Colin Gillespie had suffered a season-ending injury and sophomore guard Justin Moore was uncertain for the tournament with an ankle injury of his own, leaving the Wildcats vulnerable to an upset.^[97] Combined with Georgetown′s resurgent play since the January COVID-19 pause, and despite the team's lackluster performance against UConn to close out the regular season, the tournament bracket prompted cautious optimism among the program and the press that the team could make a run in the tournament.

In the first round, the Hoyas met ninth-seeded Marquette.^[97] With centers Qudus Wahab and Timothy Ighoefe preventing Marquette from establishing an inside game,^[97] the Golden Eagles made only six field goals^[97] — including only 2-for-13 (15.4 percent) shooting from three-point range^[97] — before halftime as the Hoyas limited the Golden Eagles to a season-low 14 first-half points.^[97] Meanwhile, Georgetown jumped out to an early 10-point lead^[97] and over the final 6:07 of the first half used a 10–0 run to go into the locker room at the intermission leading 32–14.^[97] Georgetown won 68–49,^[97] the program′s first Big East Tournament win since 2016^[97] and the first of Patrick Ewing's tenure as head coach.^[97] Wahab finished with 19 points,^[97] and Jahvon Blair came off the bench for a game-high 20 points.^[97] The loss handed Marquette — whose 49 points was a season low^[97] — its first losing season since 2014–2015.^[97] It was Marquette′s final game of the season, and on March 19 Marquette University announced that it had fired Golden Eagles head coach Steve Wojciechowski^[98]

Georgetown advanced to meet top-seeded and 14th-ranked Villanova in a quarterfinal game, playing before perhaps a few dozen fans;^[99] to comply with strict New York state restrictions on building occupancy during the pandemic, Madison Square Garden sold no tickets to the tournament to the general public, allocating only 100 tickets to each team for use by family and friends.^[99] Despite the loss of Gillespie and Moore′s injury, the Wildcats — who had won four straight games against the Hoyas,^[99] 13 of the previous 15 meetings of the schools,^[99] and the last three Big East Tournaments^[99] — were a 61⁄2-point favorite.^[100] Moore came off the bench and played 27 minutes for the Wildcats during the game, showing little sign of his ankle injury and scoring 10 points.^[101] Georgetown clung to a 37–35 lead at halftime, but with 1:29 left in the game Villanova scored on two consecutive three-pointers to take a 70–65 lead.^[99][102] Dante Harris made two free throws and Qudus Wahab followed with a basket and a free throw to tie the game at 70–70.^[99][102] Wildcats forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl made one of two free throws to give Villanova a 71–70 lead,^[99][102] but on Georgetown′s next possession, Harris drew a foul with 4.7 seconds left, then sank both free throws to clinch a 72–71 upset victory.^[99][102] Georgetown went 23-for-23 in free throws,^[99] the first time in Big East Tournament history that a team had scored on 100 percent of its free throws when attempting 20 or more in a game.^[99] Harris led the team with 18 points,^[99][101] Wahab finished with 17,^[101] Jahvon Blair came off the bench to add 14,^[101] and Jamorko Pickett scored 12.^[101] It was only Georgetown′s third defeat of Villanova in the last 19 meetings of the schools, but it put the Hoyas back ahead 45–44 in the all-time series against the Wildcats.

Georgetown reached the semifinals for the first time since 2015^[99] and as a 31⁄2-point underdog faced fifth-seeded Seton Hall.^[103][104] The Hoyas extended their 23-for-23 free-throw performance of the previous day by hitting their first eight free throws against the Pirates before Qudus Wahab finally missed one with 3:55 left in the first half.^[104] Georgetown also made five of its first six three-point shots of the game and pulled out to a 32-21 lead, but Seton Hall came back with a 13–4 run to end the half that narrowed the Hoyas' lead to 36–34 at the intermission.^[104] Late in the second half, Chudier Bile broke a 57–57 tie by scoring a basket, drawing a foul, and then hitting the resulting free throw to give Georgetown a 60–57 lead with 1:36 left to play.^[104] Bile and Wahab then combined to block a driving layup by Seton Hall senior guard Shavar Reynolds, Jr., and Dante Harris was fouled on a three-point attempt and sank all three free throws to give the Hoyas a 64–58 lead with 21.4 seconds left.^[104] Jamorko Pickett scored on two more free throws as the clock wound down, and Georgetown defeated Seton Hall 66–58 and advanced to the Big East Tournament's championship game for the first time since 2010.^[104] Jamorko Pickett's play on defense limited Seton Hall forward and Big East co-Player of the Year Sandro Mamukelashvili to eight points on 3-for-16 (18.8 percent) shooting^[104][105] — only the second time all season he failed to score in double figures^[104] — and only sophomore guard/forward Jared Rhoden scored in double figures for the Pirates.^[104] The Hoyas went 18-for-25 (72 percent) in free throws during the game,^[104] compared with 5-for-11 (45.5 percent) for the Pirates.^[104] Pickett scored 19 points^[104] and Harris finished with 15,^[104] while Wahab added 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds.^[104] It was the first time in Patrick Ewing′s four-year tenure as head coach that Georgetown won three games in a row against Big East opponents.

The following evening, Georgetown faced second-seeded Creighton for the tournament championship.^[106] Ranked No. 17 in the Associated Press Poll,^[106] the Bluejays were an 81⁄2-point favorite.^[107] The Hoyas missed 12 of their first 14 shots from the field, but finished the first half with a 23–2 run that gave them a 36–18 lead at halftime,^[106] then began the second half with a 16–3 run that made the score 52–21 with 14:58 left to play.^[106] The Hoyas shot 46.6 percent from the field for the game, and Georgetown defeated Creighton 73–48 in what the Associated Press described as a "stunning rout."^[106] Chudier Bile matched his season high with 19 points,^[106][108] Jahvon Blair came off the bench to score 18,^[106][108] Qudus Wahab had a double-double (11 points, 12 rebounds),^[108] and Dante Harris added 10 points.^[108] On the 49th anniversary of the day — March 13, 1972 — when Georgetown hired John Thompson, Jr., who built Georgetown into a national power in his 261⁄2 seasons as head coach, the Hoyas won their first Big East championship since 2007^[106] and an automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Tournament.^[106]

The 2020-2021 Hoyas were the first eighth-seeded team to win a Big East Tournament^[106] and the lowest seed to win one since ninth-seeded Connecticut did it in 2011.^[106] The win gave Georgetown its eighth Big East Tournament title^[106] — the most for any school in the combined history of the original Big East Conference of 1979–2013 and the new Big East, breaking a tie with UConn^[106] — and its first since the formation of the new Big East, while Creighton dropped to 0–3 in Big East Tournament championship games.^[106] For the first time since winning its season opener in November, Georgetown (at 13–12) had an overall season record above .500.^[106] Ewing, whose overall record as Georgetown′s head coach improved to 62–58 during the tournament, became the first person to win Most Valuable Player honors in a Big East Tournament (twice, in 1984 and 1985) and win the tournament as a head coach.^[106] Dante Harris was honored as the Big East Tournament′s Most Valuable Player for 2021,^[106] and Harris, Jahvon Blair, and Qudus Wahab all were named to the 2021 all-tournament team.^[106] Wahab averaged 14.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per game during the tournament.^[109]

NCAA Tournament[]

Making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2015 and first in a postseason tournament since the 2019 National Invitation Tournament as well as the first NCAA Tournament appearance of Ewing's tenure as head coach,^[110] Georgetown received the 12th seed in the 2021 NCAA Tournament′s East Region.^[111] The term "East Region" had little meaning in 2021; although all four regions retained their customary regional titles in 2021, all games in the 2021 tournament were played in Indiana, mostly in the Indianapolis area, as a means of reducing the chances of players or staffs being exposed to COVID-19.^[112] Like all the other players on the tournament teams, the Hoyas were required to pass seven consecutive daily COVID-19 tests^[112] — one of which had to be a polymerase chain reaction test^[112] — before arriving in Indianapolis, then pass two more tests after arriving before being allowed to participate.^[112] Masks were mandatory except for players on the court.^[112] In case a team had to withdraw before or during the tournament, the NCAA designated four non-tournament teams as alternates for the first four teams forced to withdraw.^[112] If all four alternates had entered the tournament and another team had to withdraw, then that team′s opponent in its next game would advance to the next round automatically.^[112]

Georgetown first faced the East Region's fifth seed, No. 22 Colorado — the first meeting of the schools^[113] — at a familiar location, Hinkle Fieldhouse^[111][114] on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, which the Hoyas had visited annually since the 2013–2014 season, posting a 6–2 record against the Butler Bulldogs there.^[115] Georgetown's 10–4 record since the January pause and success at Hinkle Fieldhouse, as well as the national attention the Hoyas received as the Cinderella team of the Big East Tournament made Georgetown, a six-point underdog,^[116] a trendy pick to pull an upset against the Buffaloes.^[117] Georgetown out-rebounded the Buffaloes 29–28,^[118] but against a hot-shooting Colorado team, Georgetown showed no sign of either the offensive or defensive prowess it had exhibited during the Big East Tournament. Almost the entire Georgetown team shot poorly against a strong Colorado defense,^[110] making only 30 percent of its shots during the first half,^[119] and the Hoyas had no defensive answer to good Colorado ball movement (Colorado finished with 27 assists)^[110] and a barrage of three-pointers the Buffaloes put up.^[110] Although only the 49th-best three-point-shooting team in the United States,^[110] Colorado shot 16-for-25 (64 percent) from beyond the arc.^[110] Colorado led 47–23 at halftime — at 24 points, Georgetown's biggest halftime deficit ever in an NCAA Tournament game^[120] — and widened its lead to 30 points (57–27) less than four minutes into the second half^[110] and later to a high of 32 points at 84–52.^[110] Overall, the Buffaloes shot 60.7 percent from the field, a school record in an NCAA Tournament game. Winning 96–73, Colorado knocked Georgetown out of the tournament and advanced to the Round of 32 for the first time since the NCAA Tournament's expansion to 64 teams in 1985 to meet fourth-seeded Florida State. Qudus Wahab finished with a team-leading eighth double-double of the season (a career-high 20 points along with 12 rebounds),^[121][109] Donald Carey scored 17 points,^[121] and Chudier Bile added 10,^[121] but the Buffaloes limited Jamorko Pickett to 11 points on 3-for-13 (23 percent) shooting^[121] and Georgetown's leading scorer Jahvon Blair — who again came off the bench but played 28 minutes^[121] — to only five points.^[121]

Since their 2007 Final Four appearance, the Hoyas had appeared in seven NCAA Tournaments and three National Invitation Tournaments without ever advancing beyond the first weekend. With the loss to Colorado, Georgetown's record in NCAA Tournament games during that stretch fell to 3–7. However, the low expectations for the 2020–2021 team made the first-round loss in 2021 less of a disappointment than had previous early exits from the NCAA Tournament.

Wrap-up[]

Jahvon Blair played in 25 of Georgetown′s 26 games, starting 17 of them, and finished as the team′s leading scorer, with 15.4 points per game.^[122] He shot 39.3 percent from the field, 35.1 percent from three-point range, and averaged 3.6 rebounds per game.^[122] Qudus Wahab played in all 26 games, starting all but one, and finished with 12.7 points per game on 59.1 percent shooting from the field and averaging 8.2 rebounds;^[122] he led the team with eight double doubles on the season.^[123] Jamorko Pickett started all 26 games, shot 38.5 percent from the field and 37.3 percent in three-pointers, and finished with 12.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.^[122] Chudier Bile, a reserve during the first half of the season and then a starter, played in all but one game, started 14, averaged 10.2 points and five rebounds per game, and shot 40.7 percent from the field and 39.4 percent from beyond the arc.^[122] Donald Carey played in all 26 games, starting 20 of them, shot 46.7 percent overall from the field and 49.2 percent from beyond the arc, and averaged eight points and three rebounds per game.^[122] Jalen Harris, who played in only five games before leaving the team, averaged four points per game on 25 percent field-goal shooting along with 3.2 rebounds.^[122] Dante Harris, who came off the bench to relieve Jalen Harris as point guard during each of the first five games of the season, then was the starting point guard for the remaining 21 games, shot 34.9 percent from the field and averaged eight points and 3.4 rebounds per game.^[122] Timothy Ighoefe, who played in all but one game and started one, finished with 2.5 points and 3.2 rebounds per game,^[122] while Malcolm Wilson appeared in 12 games and averaged 0.4 points and 1.2 rebounds.^[122] Among the freshmen, T. J. Berger and Collin Holloway each averaged 1.5 points,^[122] Berger in 14 appearances off the bench and Holloway in 10,^[122] while Jamari Sibley played in 21 games and scored 1.2 points per game,^[122] and Kobe Clark started a game and played in nine others and finished with 0.6 points per game.^[122]

Georgetown won the Big East Tournament for the first time in 14 years and returned to the NCAA Tournament after a five-season absence, but finished the season at 13–13,^[120] its second straight year without a winning record, giving Patrick Ewing an overall record in four seasons as head coach of 62–59^[119] and a combined NCAA Tournament and NIT record of 0–2.^[119] The team also finished without a winning Big East record for the sixth consecutive season, Ewing's conference record standing at 26–44 at season's end. For the sixth straight season, the Hoyas never made the Top 25 in either the Associated Press Poll or the Coaches Poll – the first time that had happened in six consecutive seasons since the Hoyas' 23-season absence from the rankings between 1953 and 1977. Given Ewing's middling coaching record, the exodus of players during and after the 2019–2020 season, the Hoyas′ mediocre conference and overall records in 2020–2021, another first-round exit from the NCAA Tournament, and the season-ending drubbing Georgetown had received on a national stage at the hands of Colorado, some observers wondered in the aftermath of the Colorado game whether Georgetown was advancing toward its goal of becoming a national power again,^{[117][119][124]} suggesting that the 2021 Big East Tournament championship run was more of a fluke rather than a sign of true progress and that in fact Georgetown was merely a mediocre team that had gotten lucky in the conference tournament.^[117] But there also was optimism within the Georgetown program^{[109][117][124]} because of the team's surge and growth since its January COVID-19 pause, its surprise run to the Big East Tournament title, the promising development of younger players such as Qudus Wahab and Dante Harris, and an incoming recruiting class for the 2021–2022 season that was ranked ninth in the United States.^[109][124] After the loss to Colorado, Ewing told the press, "I think our story is still being written."^[110]

On the morning of March 25, within five days of the season-ending loss to Colorado, the program's optimism for the future was tempered by the unexpected news that Qudus Wahab had decided to transfer from Georgetown, the sixth player to do so since December 2019.^{[109][123][125][126][127]} Over his two seasons with the Hoyas, he had played in 58 games and averaged 8.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.^[125] The transfer came as a surprise to sports pundits and fans, who cited Georgetown′s reputation as a program centered around the "big man," Ewing's status as a Hall-of-Fame college and NBA center and extensive experience as an assistant coach in the NBA, Wahab′s development as a player under Ewing, Ewing′s praise of Wahab as having the potential to be Georgetown′s next great center, Georgetown′s unexpected success during the latter half of the 2020–2021 season, and the likelihood that the following season would see a much-improved Hoya team.^{[109][123][125][126][128]} On April 3, Wahab announced that he would transfer to Maryland.^[129]

Other departures were less surprising, especially given that Ewing had recruited five freshmen and two transfers for the 2021–2022 season.^[130] On April 14, moreover, the NCAA approved a new transfer rule allowing Division I players to transfer once during their college careers and begin play immediately for their new schools, repealing a rule instituted in the 1960s requiring a transferring player to sit out two semesters before resuming play, and this removed a major disincentive to transferring.^[131][132] Freshman point guard T. J. Berger — who had played only 69 minutes all season, scoring a single-game high of seven points at St. John's — announced on April 21 that he was entering the transfer portal;^[133][134] news that he had transferred to San Diego broke on April 27.^[135] Later April 21, senior Jahvon Blair announced that he would enter the 2021 NBA draft, opting to forego the special fifth year of eligibility the NCAA had granted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[136] During his four-year career at Georgetown, he had played in 118 games, starting 31 of them, shot 36.3 percent from the field overall and 33.5 percent from three-point range, and averaged 9.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game;^[137] he scored a total of 1,120 points and sank 210 three-pointers during his college career.^[136] On May 13, senior Jamorko Pickett similarly announced his decision to depart Georgetown for the NBA draft rather than take advantage of his fifth year of eligibility.^[138] During four years with the Hoyas, he had played in 119 games, starting 109 of them, shot 37.8 percent from the field overall and 36.5 percent from three-point range, and averaged 9.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game; he scored a total of 1,124 points and sank 174 three-pointers at Georgetown.^[139]

Graduate student Chudier Bile and freshman Jamari Sibley also left, departing after only a single season as Hoyas. Sibley, Georgetown's only four-star recruit for the season, had seen only limited action — averaging fewer than six minutes per game — and on May 17 announced he would enter the transfer portal, which by then included more than 1,600 players;^[140] he announced his transfer to UTEP on June 10.^[141] Bile — who after a slow start had played an important role in Georgetown's late-season resurgence — opted not to use his fifth year of eligibility, announcing on May 31 that he would enter the NBA draft.^[142]

The 2020–2021 season saw Georgetown perform above expectations — finishing eighth in the Big East despite being picked preseason to finish last — win the Big East Tournament for the first time since 2007, and return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015. However, it also was the fifth non-winning season for the Hoyas in six years — the first stretch of its kind since Georgetown had one winning year during the seven seasons from 1967–1968 through1973–1974 — and it ended with major roster losses that suggested another rebuilding year loomed in 2021–2022. Although Georgetown received some votes in the final week of the Top 25 polls after its Big East Tournament championship, the season also extended the school's absence from the Associated Press Top 25 to 114 consecutive polls, starting with the first poll of the 2015–2016 season.^[143]

Rankings[]

Georgetown was not ranked in the Top 25 in either the Associated Press Poll or the Coaches Poll during the season, but the Hoyas received a Top-25 vote in the AP Poll^[144] and two Top-25 votes in the Coaches Poll^[145] after they won the Big East Tournament.

^Coaches did not release a Week 1 poll.

Schedule and results[]

Notes[]

References[]