Under increased pressure from angry students and fans, Georgetown University President John DeGioia fired men’s basketball Head Coach Craig Esherick(CAS ‘78 and LAW ‘82) on Monday night. DeGioia announced his decision at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, just 13 hours before a scheduled rally calling for Esherick’s resignation and additional funding for the men’s program.
“After careful deliberation I have decided that it is time to make a change in leadership in our men’s basketball program,” DeGioia said in a statement released on Wednesday.
The coach’s dismissal came less than a week after the Hoyas concluded a dismal 13-15 season in which they failed to qualify for the postseason for the first time in 31 years. The season ended with a nine-game losing streak, the longest since 1972-1973.
After the Hoyas fell to Boston College on Mar. 10, a student and alumni Internet petition calling for Esherick’s dismissal surfaced. As of March 17, the site www.savethehoyas.com had recorded 3786 signatures calling for Esherick’s resignation.
At the same time, several students led by Steve Thomas (CAS’97 and MA’01) and Steve Medlock (SFS ‘06) organized a rally, in which they would call for Esherick’s dismissal, a new on-campus arena and non-conference home games at McDonough Arena. “We want to ensure the state of the program for decades to come,” Medlock said.
While Esherick’s firing undercut much of the anticipated support behind the rally, about 20 current and former students attended the protest on Healy Circle. The reforms they seek were outlined in a petition letter, which they signed and carried to the president’s office. “We have alums from around the country who felt like they needed to do something but didn’t know what they could do,” Thomas said. “They’ve all emailed in this petition.”
Esherick’s tenure as coach of the school’s most heralded athletic program had come under fire throughout the season. New York City sports radio personalities “Mike and the Mad Dog” have referred to Georgetown as “the nation’s best coaching opening,” since December, and a variety of ESPN commentators suggested that his position would be tenuous if the team’s season went awry.
Esherick has been criticized for not focusing on molding winning teams. “Winning is only one facet of my job,” he told the Washington Post. He has maintained this position. “We didn’t win. That’s not a sin. That’s not a crime. Clearly it’s not acceptable to Jack [DeGioia]. But Jack is the one that is in charge of the University, and he’s the one that has to make those decisions. And I have to live with it,” Esherick told the Associated Press yesterday.
The student body, however, seems more interested in on-the-court successes. “We wanted this rally to show that Esherick and the Athletic Department have lost touch with the student body,” Medlock said.
The Hoyas were the last team to qualify for the Big East Conference Tournament this year. Their loss to Boston College in the first round marked the first time in conference history that Georgetown had not advanced to the tournament quarterfinals.
Indeed, Esherick’s teams consistently failed to live up to expectations. Esherick’s teams reached only one NCAA Tournament, in 1999. The team fell short of tournament experiences in 2002 and 2003 despite having eventual no. 9 NBA draft pick, Michael Sweetney.
Fans began to worry about the program when Athletic Director Joe Lang said that reaching the NCAA Tournament every year was “an unrealistic expectation” in Feb. 2003. Students on campus hung a sheet in Red Square reading “Fire Esherick,” and “Fire Esherick” chants were conspicuous at the remainder of the team’s regular season games.
Still, Esherick was able to use a strong Big East Tournament appearance to convince the athletic department to sign him to a two-year multi-million dollar contract extension that ran through the 2008-2009 season.
Nevertheless, Esherick was under fire from the outset of this season. As the season ran on, the “Fire Esherick” chants again emerged as losses piled up and attendance at home games dwindled.
Throughout his tenure as coach, Esherick has received pledges of complete support from the athletic department and University, most recently renewed by DeGioia two weeks ago. DeGioia said he had confidence that Esherick was the right person to “strengthen and lead our program” in a statement.
“I asked him, ‘what about the statement two weeks ago giving me his full support’,” Esherick told the AP. “And he said, ‘well, it was during the season’.”
Esherick’s firing also comes before the upcoming NCAA Tournament. The yearly championship tournament focuses more attention on college basketball than any other event in the year.
