New Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing will meet on Friday with Tremont Waters, Ewing said Thursday on The Dan Patrick Show.
Ranked the No. 33 player in the Class of 2017 out of Notre Dame (CT) High School, the 5-foot-9 Waters was the top commit for the Hoyas under former coach John Thompson III but asked for his release before JT3 was fired.
“I don’t think it’s going to be that much difficult,” Ewing said of the recruiting process Wednesday on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption. “It’s all about selling yourself, selling your program. This is a great University, I think I’m a very good coach. I’m just going to have to go out there and sell myself.”
Ewing on Mike and Mike right now. Mentioned he's on a flight Friday morning to meet with Ed and Tremont Waters.
— SuperHoops (@SuperEricRogers) April 6, 2017
Ewing also said he is trying to get former Hoyas great Allen Iverson involved in Waters’ recruitment, which seems appropriate since Waters said the former Georgetown staff had compared him to a young Iverson. However, as Scout.com pointed out, it would be a recruiting violation for Ewing to set up a meeting between Waters and Iverson or have them speak on the phone.
Patrick just said on @dpshow that he wants to get Tremont and AI either in the same room together or at least on the phone @CasualHoya
— Jadon O'Donnell (@J_ODonnell5) April 6, 2017
@therealRuiGirao @BSnowScout @AdamZagoria @tsnmike pic.twitter.com/oB8svq9VEQ
— Jimmy Blair (@jimmybgocards) April 6, 2017
Beyond Waters, Ewing knows he will have to add some killer recruiters and people with coaching experience to his staff.
“You have to make sure in my case I surround myself with outstanding coaches who can go out and recruit,” Ewing said on PTI. “The recruiting piece is extremely important and we have to make sure that we can go out and find guys that can get the job done.
“Next season is probably a wrap in terms of getting quality guys that can come into the program, but make sure the next year [2018] that we start the building process.”
Georgetown loses Rodney Pryor, Bradley Hayes and Reggie Cameron to graduation, L.J. Peak to the NBA Draft and Isaac Copeland to transfer.
Before committing to Georgetown, Waters listed UConn, Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, and Yale.
“In all fairness to [Georgetown] and also the family, I just want to deal with the process first and then maybe we can speak on things afterwards,” Ed Waters recently told ZAGSBLOG.