Former Georgetown assistant Kevin Broadus is officially back on the Hilltop, according to the Washington Post's Tarik El-Bashir via twitter. Broadus will serve as a special assistant to John Thompson III and will not be able to recruit on the road.
Broadus was an assistant at Georgetown for three years before leaving after the 2007 season to take the head coaching spot at Binghamton University. After initial success, he eventually left Binghamton following a scandal that included possible NCAA violations, and several arrests and suspensions of key players. I won't rehash everything that happened; you can read about it here. It is not pretty stuff, and despite a lack of proven NCAA violations, something does not sit right with the situation.
What does this hire mean for Georgetown?
(More after the Jump)
Kevin Broadus will help Georgetown immensely, but it will bring an incredible amount of scrutiny to the program as every writer in the country will be waiting for Broadus to slip up. And the extra attention is warranted given Broadus' imperfect past. I am fine with that. John Thompson Jr. was certainly not lacking in critics. Sports Illustrated and The Washington Post employed what seemed to be dedicated attack dogs in Curry Kirkpatrick and John Feinstein. I am sure Pete Thamel of The New York Times will be happy to carry on that role, after he is done penning his expose on the string of alleged athlete assaults on female students at his alma mater Syracuse, of course.
The burden of this hire is on John Thompson III. I am not here to defend Kevin Broadus. I know he succeeded as an assistant at Georgetown, but failed as a head coach at Binghamton. If it works, then kudos to Thompson III for giving a hard-working coach another chance. There have been plenty of coaches that were convicted of NCAA infractions that succeeded the second time around. If it fails, then I hope both Broadus and Thompson have succession plans. Similar to the successes, there are plenty of coaches that fell into the same roles the second time around.
As an alumnus and fan, Georgetown University has two identities. The first is depicted by the University Seal, which represents the oldest and most prestigious Catholic university in the nation, indicative of a group of schools that is consistently one of the most-desired and selective destinations in the country. This is where my allegiance lies as an alumnus. The second is illustrated by the Bulldog; representative of its athletic department, particularly its basketball program. This is where I stand as a fan. While the two identities should be managed separately, they will always be intrinsically linked. The athletic department should not do anything to tarnish the University, and the University should not hold the athletic department back. John Thompson III needs to be very aware of this.
Welcome back Broadus. I greet you with a cautiously optimistic demeanor. I think you can contribute a lot to the program and I hope you succeed. But learn from your mistakes.