Washington Sports

Former Georgetown Hoya’s Head Coach Craig Esherick sat down with my Sports Journalism class on Thursday to relate his personal experiences to our class topics.
Of course, this feat proved very easy for Craig considering he was a co-author of our class textbook.
His presentation started out very casual. In fact, he was seated the whole time. His first topic of discussion was about his experiences putting our textbook together.
He also weighed in on what he currently is doing. He is a professor at George Mason University and teaches Sports Management.
He also is a commentator for college basketball games. He was formerly an assistant basketball coach and scout for the 1988 U.S. Men’s Olympic basketball team.
With all of his basketball experience I found it only fitting for him to weigh in on our schools current basketball team.
He stated his concern on why the team wasn’t getting the proper ranking. Craig said “they don’t have the television package the big six conferences”. Meaning they aren’t in one of the more popular conferences that get most of the nation’s attention.
Craig also stated, “That’s why they are not ranked in the top 25. They should be 13 or 14”.
This conversation led him into his personal experiences as a head coach in the NCAA. Perhaps, one of the most interesting story lines in this conversation was the amount of basketball legends Craig has coached. He has coached Allen Iverson, Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, and Dikemba Matumbo.
Craig was very involved in Georgetown’s recruiting. He said, “You try to judge a person’s athletic ability and character in a short window of time”.
Since recruiting can make or break a college organization finding the right players to fit in is a crucial responsibility.
One of the Toughest and best decisions Georgetown ever had to make was to recruit Allen Iverson. At the time Allen Iverson was ready to play College Basketball he had a felony charge pending. Allen Iverson’s mother brought her son to Craig and asked him if Georgetown would take Allen.
Craig said, “Allen was coachable. The media was fair with Allen. Allen was liked they respected someone that small that could play that hard. He was not concerned about the media.”