Georgia interviews Matta for position

Georgia officials interviewed former Ohio State coach Thad Matta Monday, launching their coach search only two days after the school fired Mark Fox.

Matta, 50, led Ohio State to nine NCAA tournaments, including two Final Four appearances, and five Big Ten regular season championships in 13 years.

He also led Xavier to the NCAA tournament in each of his three years at the school and had another NCAA appearance in his only season as Butler’s coach.

He was fired by Ohio State after a 17-15 finish in the 2016-17 season.

Matta’s visit to Athens was monitored by his older brother, Greg Matta, who is the coach at North Cobb Christian School about a 90minute drive away. He said his brother told him before the interview “what an exciting place” Georgia is as a possible next coaching job.

Women’s NIT

The NIT bracket was announced and four district teams made the field. Miami, Ohio (12-6 MAC) will host Duquesne (23-7), Penn State (16-15) will host Radford (15-3 Big South) and West Virginia (21-11) will host Bucknell (15-3, Patriot) on Thursday. Robert Morris will play at Drexel (16-2, Colonial) on Friday. No times for the matchups had been released last night.

Pepperdine

Lorenzo Romar is returning to Pepperdine for a second stint as men’s coach. Athletic director Steve Potts said Romar will be back in Malibu as soon as Arizona’s season ends. Romar is an assistant at Arizona, which is in the NCAA tournament.

Elsewhere

A computer science professor at University of Illinois has created a formula that predicts NCAA tournament upsets at double the success rate of someone picking at random. This year’s upset picks both come out of the South Region. They are No. 13 Buffalo against No. 4 Arizona and No. 14 Wright State against No. 3 Tennessee.