Losing streaks were a rarity for Georgetown when Patrick Ewing, Sr. anchored the middle for the Hoyas in the early 1980s.
“It’s a long time ago. Plus, the only year we struggled was my sophomore year, and that was because we were very young. So I can’t try to compare,” said Ewing, who was courtside to watch his alma mater and son, Hoyas sophomore Patrick Ewing, Jr., defeat Oral Roberts, 73-58, last weekend.
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The Hoyas lost 10 games during the 1982-83 season — Ewing, of course, led Georgetown to the NCAA championship game as a freshman, junior and senior.
Despite a two-game slide that dropped this year’s Hoyas out of the Top 25 after opening the season highly regarded, the legendary center knows that things are far from over.
“The year is still young,” said Ewing. “They can get it going, do well in the Big East, go into the Big East Tournament, and anything can happen.”
Last month junior center Roy Hibbert (Adelphi/Georgetown Prep) and senior guard Jonathan Wallace were on the regional cover of Sports Illustrated, and the Hoyas were ranked No. 8 in the country. This week Georgetown (6-3) received just two votes in the latest ESPN/USA Today poll.
“Coach Thompson always says those rankings are nice, but we never did anything for that,” said Hibbert. “So we fight our way to get to the top so at the end of the year when we’re playing for the national championship, then we can say we earned that.”
With two very different wins last week, the Hoyas appear to have righted the ship. They made a team-record 16 three-pointers against James Madison, and Hibbert rediscovered the imposing form that carried Georgetown deep into last year’s NCAA tournament with 23 points and 11 rebounds against the Golden Eagles.
“Coming off the two-game losing streak going into the week, we wanted to have a two-game win streak,” said junior forward Jeff Green (Hyattsville/Northwestern High). “I think [Oral Roberts] was a big game for us. They beat Kansas, so hopefully that will look good for us down the road … We have to keep growing as a team. Our defense is getting better, our communication is getting better, and at the end we’re going to be a much different team than we were at the beginning.”
Ewing isn’t the only person that knows things are far from settled.
“It’s hard to believe that team’s lost two games at home,” said Oral Roberts coach Scott Sutton. “That’s a very good basketball team.”
