Georgetown University Head Men’s Basketball Coach Patrick Ewing announced his coaching staff for the 2017-18 season, his first at the helm of the Hoyas program.
Ewing tabbed Louis Orr and Robert Kirby as well as Akbar Waheed, who was on the Georgetown staff last year, as his full-time coaches and recruiters. Orr is a former BIG EAST Conference player, assistant coach and head coach, while Kirby is recognized as one of the top recruiters in the country and Waheed is a skilled talent evaluator who is a native of Washington, D.C.
“I’m very excited to have experienced and well-rounded coaches on my staff,” Ewing said. “From the day I returned to my alma mater, my primary goal was to get my staff assembled and get our coaches out on the road and recruiting the best student-athletes to Georgetown. We’ve been hard at work over the last two months getting our staff out there and we are excited about the future of Georgetown basketball.”
Orr comes to Georgetown with familiarity to the BIG EAST Conference as both a coach and a player. A 1980 Syracuse graduate, Orr had stints as an assistant coach at Xavier (1991-94), Providence College (1994-96) and Syracuse (1996-2000) and was the head coach at Seton Hall from 2001-06.
Most recently, Orr was the head coach at Bowling Green State University from 2007-14. He led the Falcons to a pair of postseason appearances and was named the Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year after guiding BGSU to a 19-14 record and an appearance in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in his second season.
Prior to his arrival at Bowling Green, Orr was the head coach at Seton Hall from 2001-06, where he compiled an 80-69 record. He was named the BIG EAST Conference’s Coach of the Year in 2003, becoming the first person in league history to receive league honors as both a player and a coach. Orr, the first former BIG EAST player to coach at a conference institution, guided the Pirates to three postseason appearances, twice going to the NCAA Tournament (2004 and 2006) and once to the NIT (2003), in five seasons.
Orr also served as the head coach at Siena College in 2000-01, guiding the Saints to a 20-11 record and a tie for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season title.
Orr played in the NBA for eight years, including six season with the New York Knicks alongside Ewing.
Kirby, in his 33rd year as an assistant coach at the NCAA Division I level, returns to Georgetown for his second stint as an assistant coach after spending the 2016-17 season at LSU. He coached on the Hilltop from 2010-12.
Recognized as one of the top assistant coaches in Division I basketball, Kirby previously had coaching stints at LSU (2012-13, 2016-17), Memphis (2013-15), Georgetown, Mississippi State (1998-2010; 1989-93), Houston (1993-98), Southeastern Louisiana (1988-89) and UALR (1985-88). He has been involved in more than 580 NCAA Division I victories and 18 postseason squads.
Kirby, a Memphis native, has been recognized by Rivals.com as one of the nation’s top recruiters and HoopScoop as one of the country’s top assistant coaches. He is a recipient of the NABC distinguished Years of Service Award.
At Georgetown from 2010-12, Kirby was part of a team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament in both seasons, helping to recruit consecutive classes ranked in the top-15 nationally, including Otto Porter, who was a First Team All-American and National Player of the Year candidate.
Kirby spent 12 years as an assistant at Mississippi State, helping guide the Bulldogs to an average of nearly 21 wins per year, including a school-record 27 victories during the 2001-02 campaign. Kirby brought in several nationally-ranked recruiting classes to Mississippi State, was part of teams that had 10 postseason appearances, including six NCAA Tournaments, and he coached five All-Americans and 11 all-conference performers.
Kirby, a two-year basketball letter winner and 1983 graduate of Pan American University (now known as Texas-Rio Grande Valley) in Edinburg, Texas, also coached at Arkansas College (now Lyon College) in 1984-85 and his alma mater as a student assistant in 1982-83. Waheed joined the Georgetown men’s basketball staff as an assistant coach in May 2016 and was retained by Ewing as a member of his first coaching staff. He came to the Hilltop after spending the 2015-16 season as an assistant coach at Hofstra University. The Pride finished the 2015-16 season with a 24-10 record and an appearance in the NIT.
A native of Washington, D.C. and a graduate of Gonzaga College High School, Waheed is a skilled recruiter and a strong developer of talent who has recruited and developed a multitude of players who have gone on to the professional ranks.
Waheed, who spent the 2014-15 season as a scout with the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association, has nearly 15 years of NCAA Division I coaching experience, with stops at Niagara and Boston College, in addition to Hofstra.
In his career as an assistant coach, Waheed has been part of five postseason teams, including two squads that advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Prior to spending the 2014-15 season with the Thunder, Waheed worked at Boston College from 2010 to 2014.
A 1999 graduate of Niagara, Waheed spent 11 years as an assistant coach at his alma mater, helping guide the Purple Eagles to a 208-135 record during that time, including a pair of NCAA Tournament berths and four 20-win seasons.
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