Despite having won the 2021 Big East men's basketball tournament and a highly ranked 2021–2022 recruiting class, the Hoyas had a historically bad season.

NOTE: Chudier Bile, Jahvon Blair, and Jamorko Pickett all declared for the 2021 NBA draft after a four-year college career, opting not take advantage of the special fifth year of eligibility the NCAA granted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Graduate transfer point guard Jalen Harris, who played only five games with the Hoyas in 2020–2021 before taking a leave of absence for "family reasons", never returned to Georgetown.

[7][8] Sophomore starting center Qudus Wahab, who Ewing had said could be Georgetown's next dominating "big man", had surprised sports pundits and fans by transferring to Maryland.

[18] Three-year recruited walk-on Jaden Robinson, who had not appeared in a game during the 2020–2021 season, also left the program, opting not to return for a fourth year with the team.

They included senior guard Donald Carey, Georgetown's top three-point shooter in 2020–2021; sophomore starting point guard Dante Harris, the 2021 Big East tournament Most Outstanding Player; junior centers Timothy Ighoefe — the presumptive starter after Wahab's departure — and Malcolm Wilson; and sophomore forwards Kobe Clark and Collin Holloway.

Two transfers arrived at Georgetown, senior Tre King from Eastern Kentucky and graduate student Kaiden Rice from The Citadel; the program hoped that King, a projected starter, could fill a gap at power forward as well as pose a three-point shooting threat,[20] while Rice also was a skilled three-point shooter with the potential to make the starting lineup.

On April 15, 2021, media reports indicated that Georgetown would play in the Orlando Invitational at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Kissimmee, Florida, on November 25, 26 and 28.

[33] To increase attendance in the lower bowl of Capital One Arena — an oversized venue for most college basketball games — and overcome the television optics of many empty seats down close to the court, Georgetown introduced a new ticket strategy for 2021–2022.

In addition, the school redistributed seats to help fill the lower bowl for the games, allowing some season-ticket holders and their guests to sit closer to the court than they otherwise would have.

[38] In their annual preseason poll in October, the Big East's coaches picked the Hoyas to finish in 10th place in the 11-team conference,[23] a slight improvement over their 11th-place selection a year earlier.

[23][39][40] The loss of Tre King was a blow, and the 2021–2022 squad was a young team, rebuilding from its offseason roster turnover and facing possible frontcourt weaknesses.

Sports pundits did not have high hopes for Georgetown to return to the NCAA tournament in 2022 and expected the Hoyas to finish in the bottom half of the Big East.

[41][42] However, if the Hoyas made a successful non-conference showing and demonstrated an ability to stand up to powerhouse teams in the Big East, a National Invitation Tournament bid in 2022 seemed a reasonable possibility as the 2021–2022 season began.

[45] With all tickets free to anyone who requested one, the Hoyas drew 8,641 fans — including former Georgetown and NBA great Dikembe Mutombo, who saw his son Ryan make his collegiate debut — to their opener against Dartmouth on November 13, the first game of a three-game homestand at Capital One Arena.

[47] The Hoyas mounted another comeback, scoring the next 10 points, and took their only lead of the game at 50–48 with 10:56 left to play,[24][47] but they held it for only 16 seconds as Dartmouth responded with a decisive 18–3 run and won 69–60 in a shocking upset.

An eight-team tournament from 2013 through 2019, the Wooden Legacy debuted a new four-team format in 2021, and Georgetown faced San Diego State in the semifinals on Thanksgiving night.

[55][56] It was the Aztecs' sixth straight win against the Big East, the longest active streak in the United States,[55] and it evened the all-time record between the schools at 1–1.

[55] The next day, San Diego State met USC in the tournament championship, while Georgetown was a 7+1⁄2-point favorite against Saint Joseph's, a 2–3 team, in the third-place game.

[57] Although Georgetown switched to an aggressive and effective full-court press and cut the lead to eight, the Hoyas shot only 30 percent from the field in the first half and at halftime Saint Joseph's led 36–26.

[57] Saint Joseph's senior forward Taylor Funk had an outstanding performance, scoring a game-high 29 points on 9-for-11 (82 percent) shooting, including 8-for-10 from three-point range, and grabbing seven rebounds.

[73] With Timothy Ighoefe still out of action, Jordan Riley out indefinitely with a shoulder injury suffered during the UMBC game that required surgery, and Jalin Billingsley and second-leading scorer Kaiden Rice (at 14.5 points per game on 43.3 percent three-point shooting) sidelined by a non-COVID-19-related illness, the Hoyas — with only seven scholarship players available — were shorthanded four days later when they hosted a Howard team that was much improved from its previous two seasons.

[74] Bison fifth-year senior guard Kyle Foster scored a career-high 26 points during the game and Howard led 31–22 in the first half before the Hoyas took the lead for good with a 24–6 run before halftime.

What turned out to be a school-record losing streak began when Georgetown finished its non-conference schedule by hosting TCU on December 18 in the final game of the annual Big East–Big 12 Battle.

[88] Collin Holloway led the team with 17 points, Dante Harris added 15, and Aminu Mohammed finished with 12,[88] but the Hoyas shot only 4-of-18 from three-point range and only 30 percent from the field overall,[89] and Marquette won 92–64, a season-high score for a Georgetown opponent.

Three days later, with Dante Harris returning to action and scoring 13 points but Donald Carey, Kobe Clark, and Ewing still sidelined and Orr again coaching the team,[93][94][95] the Hoyas' losing streak grew to four games in a loss to St. John's at Madison Square Garden.

Returning from a week-and-a-half of inactivity due to COVID-19 protocols, Donald Carey scored 21 points[96][98] and Kaiden Rice added 19 off the bench[96][98] while Aminu Mohammed finished with 12.

"[104] Three days later, with ESPN questioning whether Ewing's head-coaching tenure could survive the 0–5 conference start,[105] the Hoyas were on the road to play their third straight ranked opponent, visiting No.

"[131] On March 2, Georgetown University athletic director Lee Reed issued a public statement in support o Ewing, acknowledging the "disappointment of a difficult season," but continuing: "In this ever[-]evolving landscape of college athletics we are committed to Coach Ewing, and we are working with him to evaluate every aspect of the men’s basketball program and to make the necessary changes for him to put us back on the path to success for next year.

In the first, held the evening of March 2 not long after Reed's statement that day, the Hoyas lost to Seton Hall, with Kaiden Rice leading the team with 17 points, Collin Holloway adding 16, Dante Harris finishing with 12,[132] and Donald Carey scoring 11.