Love it. There were rumors of Shaka Smart, Mike Brey or Tommy Amaker, but seemingly none wanted to be part of the politics involved with JT2 still holding so much influence over the program and that's understandable. At some point we will need to make a clean break from the JT era, but this is still one of the most desirable jobs in the game and probably the easiest transition at this point.
I think comparisons to Mullin or Drexler are kind of a joke. Neither had coached at any level before. Ewing has been an NBA assistant for a long time now and yes, he has name recognition for local recruiting, despite being retired for a long time. The two biggest names associated with the program are JT2 and Ewing - they built the friggin thing.
I would have been perfectly fine with a clean break and going with someone like Smart or Amaker, I might have even preferred it, but given the situation at hand I think this was a smart move, both in ability and recruiting. They'll give him the resources to get up to speed on the logistics of recruiting and will have the asset of the other former players - Mourning, Mutombo, Iverson, etc, these guys run together even to this day and the return trips to campus of all the big former players were and are still legendary in D.C. This is a good step.