ONE WEEK: Scary Quiet on the Transfer Front for Georgetown

One week ago, on March 25, 2021 at roughly 11AM, the name of the starting sophomore center for the Georgetown Hoyas appeared in the transfer portal. Since then, about 1,000 more Division I college players have joined him. The big question is, will any other Georgetown STUDENT ATHLETES enter their names in the portal?

Some folks are telling me not to jinx it, but the Georgetown recruiting rumors are too frequent to not believe there is at least one open spot. A quick estimate of 13 scholarship players on each of 350 teams means that there are about 4,550 players. If 1,000+ of 4,500 are leaving that’s coming up on a 25% loss rate. Is it still increasing into April?

Losing Wahab was heartbreaking for some. Losing your starting center, an all -conference tournament team honoree, is not a normal transfer. I don’t want to minimize it, but we’re moving on. Commentators will certainly remind viewers in every nonconference game that the Hoyas lost some 83.69% of their scoring from last year. But Georgetown having only one of thirteen players transfer so far this year appears to be well below the average—and would be absolutely insane for hashtag 2021.

Feel free to check my roster math (or hastily speculate that a magical red-shirt, double-secret-official visit might allow for two extra scholarships), but Hoyas fans have a general consensus that with (i) the departure of Qudus Wahab and (ii) Don Carey expected to stick around, the Georgetown Hoyas are at the scholarship limit. I don’t want to cause any panic, but why is Ewing’s staff still a flurry of recruiting?

Georgetown has reached out to about a dozen transfers—usually guards and stretch forwards—but there does not appear to be a scholarship open. Right? That indicates to some that another shoe might drop and many of the Hoya-faithful are holding their breaths.

It’s been a week and no news of the one or two guys that are (statistically) expected to leave. It is my understanding it used to take 24-48 hours to appear in the portal, but the list is clearly long, so maybe the decisions have been made and the names are going to pop up like lotto balls? Or maybe no one at GU will announce they are transferring until someone else commits? Ugh.

I personally have a hard time believing that Patrick Ewing would tell a kid his scholarship status has been terminated—particularly after he ostensibly has refused to let any assistant coaches go over the past four years. But, apparently many kids may be hearing the requests across the nation. Would Ewing take an upgrade from the portal and boot a kid? Is that how you build a program to compete in 2022?

Maybe? I’m still patiently waiting for news of another transfer or two first, then (hopefully) cushioned by a big signing or two like a sharpshooting 5-star forward and an extra ball-handler transfer. Hopefully. The question then becomes: what is everyone waiting for?

Other BIG EAST schools are losing kids at an abnormal rate, too. Seton Hall, Marquette, Providence, UConn, and DePaul all lost guys recently.

Some top of the bench talent, too. St. John’s has lost 6 already to the portal! Even Villanova lost Cole Swider.

This transfer portal is only getting crazier headed into April. Ewing and the Hoyas, like many other schools, want to advance their position. Only time will tell how the NCAA and Georgetown get through this extremely strange free agent-like situation. Is there any way Georgetown has no more moves this spring? We at least need to hear if any graduates will return.

I will do my best to update our unexpectedly polite transfer rumor tracker, but be sure to check LCPolo’s recruiting and transfer spreadsheet to track the action.