Charles Nailen/The Hoya Under Esherick, the Hoyas made the NCAA Tournament only once. In 2002, Esherick angered fans when the team declined a postseason bid in the NIT, and this year, the Hoyas did not qualify for the NIT.
Craig Esherick’s tenure as the men’s basketball head coach at Georgetown ended almost as abruptly as it began.
In circumstances that are eerily similar, Esherick was fired in a meeting late Tuesday, just as he was informed five years ago in a late night meeting that he would be succeeding legendary coach John Thompson as the head of the men’s basketball program. Surprised by each announcement, Esherick’s responses to both notices were almost identical.
“When the news came, I was not prepared at all,” Esherick said in January 1999, after Thompson stopped by his house to tell him he was resigning.
“I was surprised,” Esherick said in a phone interview Wednesday, after his meeting with University President John J. DeGioia and Athletic Director Joseph Lang during which he was released.
Esherick’s career on the Hilltop, bookended by his unexpected promotion and dismissal, was turbulent and filled with highs and lows that saw the Hoyas travel to the Sweet 16 in 2001 and fail to qualify for the National Invitation Tournament this year.
When Esherick took the reins, it was after 25 years of Thompson’s leadership on the Hilltop. He played under Thompson for four years, graduating with a finance degree in 1978. He became a graduate assistant while attending Georgetown Law. Upon receiving his law degree and passing the Bar exam in 1982, Esherick fully expected to practice law, but when Thompson offered him a position as a full-time assistant Esherick saw it as an opportunity he could not pass up.
For the next 17 years Esherick served the program faithfully so that by the time of his sudden promotion, he had the experience and the knowledge to take over the Hoyas – not to mention the blessing of Thompson.
1999: Baptism by Fire
When Esherick took over the team midseason, Georgetown was in the midst of one of its worst years since 1972, the year Thompson was hired. The team was 12th in the Big East and winless in conference play, having dropped four of its last five. But Esherick, in his first game as head coach, led the Hoyas to an emotional upset victory over Providence.
But the honeymoon didn’t last.
The ensuing weeks were rough as Esherick went through a baptism by fire. In January the team struggled, falling in five close games including a one-point loss to West Virginia and a heart-breaking, double-overtime defeat by Villanova.
“January was a terrible month for me, it was awful,” Esherick said nine months later in an interview. “I wouldn’t wish that January on anybody.”
Despite the rocky start, Esherick and his team pulled themselves together in February and March to salvage a National Invitation Tournament berth. A win over Providence in the Big East tournament put the Hoyas at 15-15 on the season and sent the team to New Jersey to face Princeton in the first round of the NIT. It was a short postseason, however, as the Hoyas dropped the contest to the Tigers and were eliminated.
The loss put Georgetown at 15-16 on the year, the program’s first losing season since Thompson’s first year, when the team finished 12-14. Esherick finished his first season as head coach with an 8-10 record. Pleased with his performance thus far as head coach, Lang signed Esherick to a six-year coaching deal after the close of the season.
1999-2000: A Wasted Opportunity
Entering the 1999-2000 campaign Esherick felt more comfortable and his team was optimistic. All five starters returned and the program boasted one of the top recruiting classes in the nation. The Hoyas were ranked No. 19 in the nation in preseason rankings by Sports Illustrated.
But by season’s end there had been a sharp reversal of attitude. After all the hype, the season could be called nothing but disappointing. Georgetown finished the year at 19-15, an improvement, but far from what the team expected and was capable of achieving. The team finished on a high note, with a big win over Syracuse in the Big East tournament and a thrilling triple-overtime epic victory at Virginia in the first round of the NIT.
Entering the NIT the Hoyas were the favorite to win the tournament and were largely considered the best team not to make the NCAA tournament. The contest against the Cavaliers is still considered one of the best in postseason history. But Georgetown’s run was ended unceremoniously by University of California at Berkeley in the second round after the Hoyas returned to regular-season form and shot only 27.7 percent.
Esherick, in one of his defining moments as head coach, hung the NIT banner over the urinals in the men’s locker room rather than in McDonough Gymnasium to show how disappointed he was and to motivate the players to live up to their potential in the upcoming season.
And in 2000-01 the motivation appeared to work.
2000-01: Bitter Sweet 16
The buzz that the team created to close out the previous season looked to be legitimate, as the Hoyas started off the season 16-0. The wins included cupcake opponents like Coastal Carolina and Nicholls State, but also top-25 competition such as Seton Hall. The Hoyas earned their first top-25 ranking since 1996-97 and were well on their way to achieving Esherick’s one goal for the season: “to make the NCAA tournament,” he had said in December 2000.
But inconsistency again plagued Georgetown’s season. After their outstanding start the Hoyas went 4-7 and the one-time NCAA tournament shoo-in was being labeled a bubble team.
It took another big win over Syracuse to put the Hoyas back on track. At MCI Center the Hoyas trounced the then-No. 12 Orangemen and followed that win with a dominant performance over Notre Dame to solidify their NCAA bid.
In their first NCAA appearance in three years the Hoyas received a No. 10 seed in the West. Georgetown headed to Boise, Idaho, to take on No. 7 Arkansas, prevailing with a last-second layup. The Hoyas next faced No. 15 Hampton, a Cinderella squad that stunned No. 2 Iowa State in the first round. But the Pirates could not repeat their upset and the Hoyas advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in five years.
Three thousand miles away in Anaheim, Calif., Georgetown faced crosstown rival Maryland. In the “Battle of the Beltway” the Terrapins forced the Hoyas to settle for a bitter-Sweet 16 finish.
Despite their best finish in years the Hoyas again underachieved. A win over Maryland was never out of reach, even in the final minutes. Georgetown was the bigger team, yet Maryland outrebounded Georgetown, 51-41. And poor shooting once again plagued the Hoyas – the team finished the game at 30.8 percent from the field and senior center Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje was held scoreless for the game.
Yet, for the first time in three years, the team received almost no criticism for its seemingly weak finish. The NCAA tournament berth and Sweet 16 appearance were enough to appease the fans and alumni who had grown weary of a team with three straight NIT stints. HOYA Senior Sports Editor Sarah Walsh wrote that the program was “experiencing a renaissance” and that “Georgetown fans should be ready to R.S.V.P. to some more Big Dance invitations in the near future.”
2001-02: Team Rejects Tourney
Entering the following season, emotions and expectations still ran high. Predictions about Georgetown’s return to the national scene were optimistic and abundant. People saw 2001 as Esherick’s breakthrough year, with the Sweet 16 berth as the beginning of Georgetown’s return to the national stage. The Hoyas were picked to win the Big East West Division and the coaches’ preseason poll ranked them No. 14. Dave Hickman, the college basketball writer at Sports Illustrated, called the 2001-02 Hoyas “the deepest, most balanced team in the Big East.”
Esherick was more cautious, however, and said while there was nothing to make him think the team could not repeat, he did not want anyone to be overly confident. Esherick said the team needed to make improvements on offense and rebounding in order to replicate the NCAA tournament run.
“I don’t think we shot the ball . as well as we were capable of shooting the ball, and I think our shot selection, well, it got better – we were the second leading scoring team in the Big East. But I think we can even be better on offense,” he said at the start of the 2001-02 season. “Rebounding concerns me right now because of the loss of Lee [Scruggs] and Ruben [Boumtje-Boumtje].”
Esherick’s worries over potential weaknesses proved accurate as the new season got underway. The Hoyas had another impressive start, winning 11 of their first 12 contests, but those wins came over largely small-conference opponents. When Georgetown faced quality opponents, such as Virginia and UCLA, it met its doom with rebounding and poor shot selection.
The Hoyas did not fare much better in conference play. Rebounding and shooting woes were constant problems, as was an inability to close games. The Hoyas lost six games in 2001-02 by one point or in overtime, including a Big East classic that saw Georgetown fall to Notre Dame, 116-111, in quadruple overtime.
At times the Hoyas lived up to their potential, defeating then-No. 10 Syracuse by double digits in a match Georgetown controlled from beginning to end. The Hoyas picked up other quality wins over Boston College and Notre Dame and closed out conference play with three wins in a row, including a second victory over the Orangemen.
It was in February 2002 that Esherick had his second signature moment as head coach, albeit a more painful one than hanging a banner in a bathroom.
Trailing Connecticut 75-74 with only 34 seconds left, Esherick made the now-infamous decision not to foul sophomore forward Caron Butler as he carried the ball down the court. Butler, once he realized he was not going to be fouled, let the shot clock run down to two seconds before making his move and while his shot did not fall there was not enough time left on the game clock for the Hoyas to do anything with the rebound.
“I thought we had enough time left on the clock to set up a play,” Esherick said after the game of his decision to let the Huskies play out their possession.
In the end it was that loss that cost the Hoyas a shot at their second straight NCAA tournament at-large bid. Georgetown could have still made the tourney with an automatic bid, but the Big East Championship was not in the cards for the Hoyas that year. Georgetown barely escaped the first round of the tournament when a last-second dunk put the Hoyas on top of Providence, 68-67. But in the second round there were no last-second heroics as Georgetown fell to Miami in overtime, 84-76.
With a 19-11 record (9-7 Big East), the NCAA tourney was out of the question and the Hoyas faced another NIT appearance. Citing cross-country travel arrangements that would force his players to miss more than one day of classes, Esherick declined the invitation to the NIT. It was the first time in 27 years that the Hoyas did not make a postseason appearance.
“This is not something I took lightly at all,” Esherick said at the time. “I’ve been very proud that we made 27 postseason tournaments. This wasn’t a trivial decision. But looking at everything, I thought it was the right thing to do.”
Esherick said the decision was “a personal choice on [his] part” and that “basketball didn’t even factor into the equation.”
The criticism that was missing after the 2001 season came back at full strength when word spread that the team had made the NIT but refused the invitation. Criticism was squarely directed at Esherick, who took the blame for the Hoyas’ fate, both deserved and not.
Esherick weathered the storm and entered his fourth full season as head coach feeling comfortable. He had recruited most of the players on the team, including star junior forward Michael Sweetney, and was finally developing his own style of coaching. Esherick took pride in being involved in his players’ lives, including quizzing the players on current events and inviting the players to his home.
2002-03: The Last Gasp
Entering the 2002-03 season, Esherick used Georgetown’s failure to make the NCAA tournament in 2002 as a motivational tool as he had used the NIT banner years earlier.
“When we sat and watched the NCAA selection show and Georgetown wasn’t called, [the players] were just as hurt, if not more hurt than I was,” Esherick said as he prepared for the upcoming season. “I told them at the time, `Remember how you feel right now and don’t let this happen again.'”
Esherick also compiled a tape of other teams’ last-minute victories to illustrate how crucial it was for the team to learn to close out games if they wanted to make the Dance again. Esherick also scheduled the Hoyas’ toughest non-conference schedule in recent years, hoping to pick up quality wins early in the season that would earn the team national attention.
“This year’s schedule is an experiment,” Esherick said before the season began. “It was made a year and a half ago. In a year people might say the person who made this schedule should have his head examined. I feel good about this team’s ability to play this schedule. Whether we do this again in the future, I don’t know.”
The challenging non-conference schedule did garner national press; unfortunately for the Hoyas it came in the form of losses. Georgetown fell to Duke, Virginia and UCLA in its three marquee matchups.
The season overall was a tumultuous one for Georgetown. Georgetown opened with a seven-game win streak, but once the Big East rolled around the Hoyas flaws all came to the surface. Georgetown went 6-10 in the conference, and dropped six in a row midseason just as the team should have been coming together.
Amid the losses, Georgetown picked up an overtime win against West Virginia and Esherick used the opportunity to voice his displeasure with the officiating surrounding Sweetney. In a rant that ran on SportsCenter, Esherick offered to “pay the way to Washington, D.C., of any official if they want to sit down and watch a game with me and [what] Mike Sweetney has to put up with.”
Esherick was not suspended for the tirade, although he said at the time he expected to be. The comments put Georgetown back on the national radar, but not in the form the team hoped.
Despite Esherick’s showing of passion, following the loss at Syracuse in February the general discontent with the basketball program that had been growing all season peaked.
A banner appeared across the ICC arch in Red Square that read “Wanted: New Coach.” In mid-January Athletic Director Joseph Lang had told The Washington Post that making the NCAAs every year was an unreasonable expectation and copies of his statements were posted around campus.
A run to the NIT Championship game in early April again quieted the criticism.
Georgetown dropped the final game to St. John’s, 70-67, when a last-minute three by junior guard Gerald Riley fell short, but the contest was close and the NIT felt like anything but a second-tier tournament.
After the postseason run, Sweetney and sophomore guards Tony Bethel and Drew Hall all left Georgetown, for the NBA and other colleges, respectively. Many saw their departures as a sign the program was on the way down rather than on the way back up.
Yet even with their departures, in May Esherick was given a contract extension through 2009. Many felt the contract extension was premature, but support for Esherick in the university’s administration was unanimous.
“Craig has averaged over 20 wins per season in his four full seasons as head coach, leading us to the Sweet 16 and the NIT final,” Lang said. “We are confident entrusting our program and our students playing men’s basketball to his care.”
It is now well-known how the 2003-04 season turned out and that Esherick will not see the 2009 season in Blue and Gray.
When Esherick took over for Thompson in 1999 he said, “This day is not the type of day I thought I’d have when I became a head coach.”
One can only assume this was the same way he felt about leaving the position.
