The Hoyas, led by first-year head coach Patrick Ewing, played their home games at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. as members of the Big East Conference.

[4] Sources: On April 3, 2017, Georgetown hired Patrick Ewing to replace the fired John Thompson III as head coach.

[5] He also told reporters that he thought he could improve Georgetown's recruiting efforts by offering players an easier path to the NBA, which he believed he understood better than most college coaches.

Four freshmen – guard Jahvon Blair, forwards Jamorko Pickett and Antwan Walker, and 7-foot-3 (221-cm) center Chris Sodom – joined the team.

On August 2, in accordance with Ewing's wishes, Georgetown withdrew from the PK-80–Phil Knight Invitational, a high-profile, 16-team, two-bracket tournament in Portland, Oregon, scheduled for November 23–26, in which the Hoyas would have opened with a game against Michigan State, a preseason Top Five team, then faced either Connecticut or 2017 Final Four participant Oregon in the second round the following day,[14] and finished two days later with a final game against Arkansas, North Carolina, or Portland.

"[25] Regardless of the debate over their schedule, the Hoyas began their season two months to the day after it was announced, on November 12, opening a three-game homestand by facing Jacksonville at Capital One Arena, as the Verizon Center had been renamed in August 2017.

[28] The crowd cheered loudly when Ewing first walked onto the court about 10 minutes before the opening tipoff,[27] and gave him an ovation when the spotlight fell on him during pregame introductions.

[27] Over the next six days, the homestand continued with victories over Mount St. Mary's, which had not defeated Georgetown since 1961,[29] and Maryland Eastern Shore, which was missing five players projected preseason as starters because of eligibility problems and other reasons.

With former Georgetown head coach John Thompson Jr. making the trip and looking on from the stands,[34] the Hoyas led by only 40–39 at halftime[33] and had to fend off a Richmond surge in which the Spiders took a 59–57 lead with 9:26 left to play[33] before pulling back ahead and hanging on for an 82–76 win.

By the time the Hoyas returned to Capital One Arena on November 28 to begin an eight-game homestand by meeting Maine, their first five opponents had a combined record of 9–25 (.265) on the season, and two of them had won only one game.

[45] Sodom had had little impact on the team, appearing in only six games and playing only 27 minutes as a Hoya,[44] but his departure left Georgetown with a shortage of depth among its "big men;"[44] with Sodom off the team, Ewing's only option for the rest of the season as a backup for center Jesse Govan and forward Marcus Derrickson became freshman forward Antwan Walker.

[44][46][47] The Hoyas completed their non-conference schedule with two more home games, beating North Texas in the first meeting between the schools[48] and then defeating winless Alabama A&M.

[48] Three days later in the rout of Alabama A&M – which entered the game with a record of 0–12 and ranked 344th in RPI among the 351 Division I schools[47] – Antwan Walker made his first collegiate start and first appearance in a game since December 9,[47] played a career-high 15 minutes[47] and scored in double figures for the first time with 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field and 4-for-4 from the free-throw line,[49] while Jahvon Blair, making his second collegiate start, scored 13 points.

[51] Sports pundits understood Ewing's desire to pad the team's schedule given its limited prospects for the season and its need to rebuild in terms of both talent and confidence.

[40] However, sports commentators also viewed the nonconference portion of Georgetown's schedule as harming the team's chances of making the NCAA Tournament even if it won most of its conference games,[40] as well as poorly preparing the Hoyas for the rigors of the upcoming Big East season.

[52] The Hoyas then embarked on a two-game road trip in which they finished 2017 with a loss at Marquette and began 2018 with their first conference victory of the season in a game at DePaul.

[60] The Hoyas staked themselves to a 12–3 lead to start the game,[60] but the Pirates took advantage of Georgetown turnovers to come back with a 29–10 scoring run in the final 11 minutes of the first half[60] and go into the locker room with a 44–31 at halftime.

[60] It was Seton Hall's fifth straight victory over Georgetown,[60] and the Pirates improved their all-time record against the Hoyas to 47–57[60] – dating back to the first meeting between the schools on December 10, 1909[60] – and to 21–41 since the two teams joined the original Big East Conference as charter members in 1979.

[62] It was the first time Ewing had faced Villanova in any capacity since the Wildcats upset the Hoyas in his final game as a college player to win the national championship in the 1985 NCAA tournament.

[62] Jesse Govan, the only Georgetown player to score in double figures, finished with 12 points,[62] and Trey Dickerson left the game with back spasms during the first half.

"[62] The homestand continued with two close games in which the Hoyas completed a regular-season sweep of the series with St. John's in a double-overtime win[63] but then lost to DePaul.

[67] In overtime, the Musketeers scored no field goals,[67] but they went 10-for-10 from the free-throw line,[67] and Bluiett – who finished with a season-high 31 points[67] – hit two free throws with 10 seconds left to clinch a 96–91 Xavier victory,[67] the Musketeers′ sixth win in a row.

[69] The Hoyas returned home to meet Seton Hall at Capital One Arena and won their first game in three weeks, despite blowing a 17-point early-second-half lead;[71] the Pirates took their first lead of the game at 69–67 with 5:36 left to play after a 10–0 scoring run,[71] but Marcus Derrickson scored a game-winning deep three-pointer with 4.2 seconds remaining[71] and the Hoyas hung on to win 83–80.

Georgetown's season-ending losing streak began when, after an eight-day break in action, they returned to Capital One Area to begin a three-game homestand with their fourth game of the season against a ranked opponent, a rematch with Xavier, which had climbed to No.

[81] Winning 88–77,[81] St. John's upset the Hoyas, knocked Georgetown out of the Big East tournament in the first round for the second straight year, and advanced to face Xavier in the quarterfinals.

Kaleb Johnson started all 30 games; he ended the season with a field-goal percentage of 54.2 – 34.0 from three-point range – and with per-game averages of 7.9 points and 4.2 rebounds.

[86] Hines, the Hoyas′ one-time student manager, had made the team for two seasons as a walk-on, playing a total of 22 minutes in 11 games, scoring three points and grabbing one rebound.

[74] During the season, Georgetown's backcourt had struggled, but the Hoya frontcourt had shown great promise, with Marcus Derrickson, Jesse Govan, and Jamorko Pickett all impressing sports media figures and fans with their offensive prowess.

Beginning with the Syracuse game and extending through the Big East season, however, the 2017–18 Hoyas showed a tendency to surrender leads during the second halves of games and "looked nervous and unprepared in late-game situations;"[25] in six of its 13 Big East losses, as well as in its non-conference loss to Syracuse, Georgetown had blown a second-half lead.

"[25] At least some observers blamed Georgetown's non-conference schedule for the team's apparent lack of preparedness for tough late-game situations and frequent inability to hold second-half leads.