File Photo: Charles Nailen/The Hoya “I knew that we didn’t have a great year,” former Head Coach Craig Esherick said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “But I was surprised when Jack told me I was fired.”

Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia fired en’s Basketball Head Coach Craig Esherick (GSB ’78, LAW ’82) Tuesday, surprising many with his decision to end Esherick’s nearly 30 years on the Hilltop.

“This is as difficult a decision as one could possibly be asked to make,” DeGioia said in an interview with student press Thursday.

Esherick, whose team went 13-15 this year and was not invited to a postseason tournament for the first time in 30 years, was heavily criticized by alumni and students as the figurehead of a program that was falling woefully short of its previous levels of success under legendary Head Coach Emeritus John Thompson’s reign.

Yet the increasingly noisy pressure, in the form of planned rallies, petitions, letter campaigns, and chants and signs at games, was met with stalwart support for Esherick from the administration.

As recently as late February, DeGioia released a statement saying, “I have confidence that Craig Esherick – who helped to build our tradition of excellence in men’s basketball – is the right person to strengthen and lead our program.”

“I knew that we didn’t have a great year,” Esherick said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “But I was surprised when Jack told me I was fired.”

Something clearly changed for DeGioia, whose history at Georgetown is nearly as long as Esherick’s. DeGioia watched Esherick play as a student, graduating one year behind the lanky forward, and both men have spent nearly all of their adult lives at Georgetown.

“We’ve known each other all the years I’ve been here, and I recommended him for this position five and a half years ago. I’ve had a supervisory relationship to the program for about 20 years now. So it doesn’t get more difficult than this,” DeGioia said. “This is a man who has served this institution exceptionally well for 25 years and is an inextricable part of the success of Georgetown University basketball over this last quarter century.”

While Esherick was part of the rise of Georgetown basketball, serving as an assistant coach on the 1984 team that won the national championship, his time as head coach was markedly less successful.

His record was 103-74 since succeeding Thompson as head coach in the middle of the 1998-99 season. He took Georgetown to one NCAA tournament, in 2000-01, where they lost to Maryland in the Sweet 16. The following year, he turned down an NIT bid.

His tenure ended with two disappointing seasons that seemed to hinge on unfortunate circumstances. In 2002-03, Georgetown lost close games all too often, and time after time it seemed that a lucky bounce of the ball would have produced a different outcome. That team made a run through the NIT, losing the championship to St. John’s.

But after the season, Mike Sweetney decided to enter the NBA draft, and sophomore guards Tony Bethel and Drew Hall both transferred. That left this year’s team to finish the season with a nine-game losing streak, the longest since 1971-72. The team’s record was also the worst since Georgetown joined the Big East for the 1979-80 season.

The success of the program is measured with three main criteria – the quality of the players’ education, the amount of integrity with which members of the program conduct themselves and success on the court, DeGioia said, adding that Esherick fell short in the last category.

“When the season ended, I had the opportunity to step back and reflect on the overall trajectory of the program,” DeGioia said. “At the five and a half year mark, I just felt that the direction of the program warranted a change in leadership.”

Esherick was in Hutchinson, Kan., recruiting at the national junior college tournament with Assistant Coach Chuck Driesell. He said Athletic Director Joe Lang called him Tuesday morning and said that he and DeGioia would like to meet with Esherick that night.

“I said `Joe, I’m in Kansas . are you telling me I have to get on a plane right now?’ and he said yes. So I said, `Joe, you can’t be getting ready to give me a raise or anything, can you? This is serious,” Esherick said.

Assistant Coach Mike Riley picked up Esherick at the airport and took him to DeGioia’s office.

“Jack got right to the point and said he decided he wanted to make a change,” Esherick said. “I asked him, I said, `Jack, two weeks ago you made a public comment and Joe made a public comment endorsing me . What happened? What changed?’ And he basically said that he had come to a conclusion after careful thought and he just thought the program needed new leadership.”

DeGioia said he had no specific meeting with Thompson to discuss Esherick, but that he does see the now-radio talk show host often.

“I have a 29-year relationship with Coach Thompson, and I consult with him on a regular basis on lots of issues,” DeGioia said.

DeGioia had a meeting scheduled with the team for Thursday afternoon. Esherick met with them Tuesday night immediately after being told by DeGioia that he was fired.

“That was difficult,” Esherick said. “It was difficult for a lot of the guys and it made it more difficult for me the more emotional they got.”

Esherick then called all of the recruits and assistant coaches. One recruit, Tyler Crawford, who plays at Robert E. Lee High School in Staunton, Va., and has committed to Georgetown, told the News Leader, “I’m signed at Georgetown, and that’s where I’m going to play.”

Esherick said his phone was “ringing off the hook” on Wednesday and that there were “an awful lot of well wishers,” including Victor Samnick (MSB ’03), who called from France, and Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje (COL ’01), now with the Portland Trailblazers, among many others.

DeGioia said Trustee James Higgins (GSB ’70), a former captain of the basketball team, will lead the search for a new coach, which he said in his statement will be a “national effort.” DeGioia said Athletic Director Emeritus Frank Rienzo will support Higgins.

“I’ve asked Frank to begin consulting with a number of folks in the university community who have a strong interest in the program and who have some thoughts about what we might be looking for,” DeGioia said. “The expectation is [Higgins] will make recommendations to Joe Lang and me as soon as they’re prepared to do so.”

Preliminary names thrown out by national and local media have included Duke Assistant Coach Johnny Dawkins and Princeton Head Coach John Thompson III, neither of whom attended Georgetown.

While Georgetown has a tradition of hiring within the family (three of the four current assistant coaches are former Hoyas), DeGioia said that is not a prerequisite for the job.

“We don’t compromise, ever, for the very best person for the job and our assessment will be who is the very best person for this job at this point in time,” DeGioia said. “It will be open, but certainly people who have a grasp of the history and tradition and culture of this place will bring great strengths to that assessment process. We value both the grasp of the tradition and the talent of the individual.”