ROSTERGATE: Georgetown Makes Scholarship Space with Manager Move

September 1st, 2022, seemed like a good day to quietly release the roster for the Georgetown Hoyas men’s basketball team. With the release, two not-so-quiet rumors were confirmed. First, Malcolm Wilson will be a manager for Patrick Ewing this semester, eliminating a presumed 14th scholarship issue. This does not necessarily feel fair for our favorite one-armed free-throw shooter, but Wilson may have bigger plans and it certainly helps the team.

The second piece of news is that Ronny Thompson is officially listed as the “Chief of Staff.” Might the man behind the curtain be stepping into the light?

Some fans had suggested that the roster release was delayed because Jay Heath was awaiting an NCAA transfer waiver. With the roster release and no indication that the waiver is secured, that was not likely the rationale for the release delay. We are still awaiting news on Heath’s waiver request. The hold-up could be the Wilson news, but rumors that Malcolm would be managing and/or graduating early have been whispered since July. It’s unclear what caused a delay.

It still doesn’t seem fair. This humble lunch blog contributor cannot see a way to justify this unfortunate demotion for Malcolm Wilson. The 7-footer has been very active in committees and leadership in Georgetown, the BIG EAST, and the NCAA. It appears that the term of Wilson’s appointment to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee was completed in May 2022. His statistics have never been terrific, even while Timothy Ighoefe was injured last year, but Wilson’s value was presumably his intelligence, work ethic, and high ceiling as a leader. Using a redshirt as a freshman, Wilson has plenty of athletic eligibility left. If his plans are to graduate early, perhaps a year of graduate school and basketball is in his future, on the Hilltop or elsewhere. Who could blame him? But as of today, plans seem to indicate he will only be practicing with this Georgetown team, unless something else changes drastically. Again, this just doesn’t seem fair to someone who epitomizes what being a leading Georgetown student-athlete means. All we can do is stay tuned and root for the best for Malcolm.

Regarding, Ronny Thompson, this is the first official acknowledgment of his role as “Chief of Staff” since his transition to the role presumably in 2017, with the hiring of Ewing. Why there is a need to formally announce it in 2022, after an 0-19 season, has been confusing to many fans.

There had been reports and rumors of Ronny Thompson having an office at McDonough—and even allusions to the role on Ewing and Doc Walker’s SiriusXM radio show—but nothing on GUHoyas until now. The transparency on whether Thompson collects a check was lacking and there have been many fan grumblings when Thompson would moonlight as a commentator for other conferences. Thompson has been recently spotted at team functions and NIL events, but one wonders if his level of public involvement with Georgetown may increase now with the formal title.

The roster release prior to October, when it was released last year, is a relief. Of course, the Hoyas were the last of the BIG EAST schools to release a roster for the 2022-23 season and among the very few stragglers in the nation.

Before the full roster release, there was an update to the “coaches” portion of the roster page but a graphic saying “the roster for the selected season is not available at this time” is provided instead of a list of student athletes. There are some newly listed administrators and even an announced scouting/video coordinator.

In the spring, Georgetown did a decent job with news articles on the additions of Murray, Primo Spears, Jay Heath, Akok Akok, Bradley Ezewiro, and Bryson Mozone to the 2022-23 roster. GU Athletics even came through with an early non-conference schedule.

Here is the 2022-23 roster (added players in bold):

1. 15 Bryson Mozone 6-6 200 G/F Grad. North Augusta, SC
2. 31 Wayne Bristol Jr. 6-6 205 G Sr. Upper Marlboro, Md. / St. Thomas More School (Conn.) Howard
3. 32 Malcolm Wilson 7-0 205 C Sr. Columbia, S.C. / Ridge View
4. 5 Jay Heath 6-3 195 G Sr. Washington, D.C. / Woodrow Wilson (waiver awaiting?)
5. 11 Akok Akok 6-9 205 F Sr. Manchester, NH / Putnam
6. 34 Qudus Wahab 6-11 240 Sr. Lago, Nigeria (waiver acquired)
7. 2 Dante Harris 6-0 170 G Jr. Washington, D.C. / Lakeway Christian Academy [Tenn.]
8. 12 Jordan Riley 6-4 195 G So. Brentwood, N.Y. / Brentwood
9. 21 Ryan Mutombo 7-2 252 C So. Atlanta, Ga. / The Lovett School
10. 0 Brandon Murray 6-5 214 F So. Baltimore, Md. / IMG Academy
11. 22 Bradley Ezewiro 6-8 246 F So. Torrance, Calif. / Oak Hill Academy
12. 1 Primo Spears 6-3 185 So. Hartford, Conn. / Mt. Zion (Md.) Prep
13. 4 Denver Anglin 6-2 Frosh. G from New Jersey
14. 23 D’Ante Bass 6-7 Frosh. F from Savannah, Georgia
15. 55 Victor Muresan 6-10 190 F Jr. Potomac, Md. (walk-on)