Hoyas End Another Frustrating Season With More Questions Than Answers

Georgetown’s season once again ended in an opening round loss in the Big East Tournament as the Hoyas blew a 15-point second half lead before falling 75-62 to St. John’s on Wednesday night.

The Hoyas welcomed back big man Omer Yurtseven (8 points, 6 boards, two blocks) after missing the last five games but the fun only lasted for 25 minutes. Georgetown failed in an attempt to beat St. John’s for the third time this season as the Red Storm scored the final 23 points over the last seven minutes.

The Hoyas (15-17) finish with a losing record for the first time since 2017 while coach Patrick Ewing falls to 0-3 in the Big East Tournament.

Georgetown last won a conference tournament game in 2016 and has gone one and out in their last four appearances at Madison Square Garden’s marquee postseason event.

Terrell Allen did all he could by scoring 18 first half points as the Hoyas built a 42-33 at the break. Allen finished with 21 points, one short of a career high but did break the 1,000 career point mark in likely his final collegiate game.

As always, sports gives everyone the ability to second guess and there’s no shortage of that after tonight’s second half thud. The big question tonight was why did Ewing go with Yurtseven so long in the second half after starter Qudus Wahab (8 points, 8 boards, three blocks) had established himself well in his 18 minutes.

Ewing said Yurtseven had practiced the last two days but didn’t know for sure that he would play until Wednesday. The N.C. State transfer was eased into the first half only playing five minutes without taking a shot.

The all changed after the half as Yurtseven checked in around the first media timeout for Wahab and that was it for both players. Yursteven played and Wahab sat. Wahab went out with the score at 48-37 Hoyas.

When asked, Ewing had this to say about riding with Yurtseven to end the game: “He played well in the first half. Went a little longer with him in the second half. It was winning time. We were right there, up 10 with about six minutes to go, just couldn’t score after that.”

So now where are we?

Well going into Ewing’s fourth year there will be just as many questions as there were when he arrived back on the Hilltop.

Allen and Jagan Mosely - both of whom played so well for the shorthanded Hoyas - are out of eligibility.

Ewing said afterwards that Yurtseven still had a decision to make as he has another season available should he want to take it.

Mac McClung just had a procedure on his foot and was only able to play once since Jan 28.

Jahvon Blair and Jamorko Pickett will be the seniors on a team that will need to once again go out in the transfer market and look for the next Allen at the very least. Georgetown could really used two grad transfers for 20-21 after all of the shakeup this past season.

The defense needs to improve. The 3-point shooting needs to improve and the idea of pounding it down low needs to be reevaluated.

A lot can change between now and November but right now Georgetown doesn’t look any closer at getting back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015 than they did before Ewing coached his first game.

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Mosely finished his final game as a Hoya with four points, three rebounds, and three assists in 38 minutes.

“It still doesn’t feel real, to be honest with you,” Mosely said. “After their, I guess, 20 — 20-0 run, it kind of still hasn’t hit me that the game ended like that. You never want to go out on a loss. Obviously, 95 to 99 percent of the teams in college end their careers.”

Allen needed 15 points coming to get to 1,000 for his career and he wrapped that up before halftime. The one year player for the Hoyas will go down as one of the more beloved guys to have just a lone season on the Hilltop.

“I’m just glad I was able to play with Coach Pat, great coach. With everything that he went through this year he continued to make us believe and continue to keep fighting every single day. And then playing with Jagan, he’s one of the best I’ve ever played with.”