Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Georgetown fires Ewing
Patrick Ewing was fired as men’s basketball coach at Georgetown on Thursday after the latest in a series of rough seasons at the school he led to a national championship as a player in the 1980s.
Ewing was never a head coach at any level of the sport until getting the job with the Hoyas in 2017, and he leaves after a halfdozen years with a record of 75-109. His last game was an 80-48 loss to Villanova on Wednesday night in the first round of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden, the arena where Ewing was a star for the NBA’s Knicks for so many years.
Georgetown went 7-25 this season, including 2-18 in regular-season conference play, a schedule capped by a 40-point loss to Creighton. Ewing presided over a 29-game Big East losing streak that began in March 2021 and ended this January, the most consecutive defeats in league history.
The last two seasons were particularly poor: The Hoyas won a combined total of 13 games while losing 50, a winning percentage of .206.
Ewing’s tenure included only one winning season, zero NCAA Tournament and just one appearance in the Big Dance.
The unquestioned highlight of his return to Georgetown was the 2021 conference tournament at his old stomping grounds of MSG. The Hoyas surprisingly reeled off four victories in a fourday span to earn that title and the automatic NCAA berth that came with it; they were bounced by Colorado by 23 points in their opening game of March Madness.
Self to miss all of Big 12 tourney: Kansas coach Bill Self will miss the Big 12 Tournament after going to the emergency room Wednesday night for what doctors called “a standard procedure,” and it’s uncertain whether he will be back for the NCAA Tournament.
Dr. Steve Stites, the chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System, said Self didn’t have a heart attack, which some outlets had reported, but that he remained a patient. Stites also didn’t describe the nature or extent of the procedure, though the 60-year-old Hall of Fame coach is expected to make a full recovery.
“We didn’t really let the guys know until this morning because nothing was concrete what was going on,” said Kansas assistant Norm Roberts, who led the No. 3 Jayhawks to a 78-61 win over West Virginia in the quarterfinal round. “Coach is doing good. He already wants to watch film and all of that.”
Layups: Gabe Kalscheur hit six 3-pointers and scored 24 points to help Iowa State beat No. 10 Baylor 78-72 in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament. The fifthseeded Cyclones will play top seed Kansas in Friday’s semifinals . ... Tyler Kolek scored all 19 of his points after halftime, including the tiebreaking FTs with 15.8 seconds left in OT, and No. 6 Marquette rallied for a 72-70 win over St. John’s in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals. The top-seeded Golden Eagles will play 11th-ranked UConn, the No. 4 seed, in Friday’s semis . ... Cal fired coach Mark Fox after four seasons. The Golden Bears were 3-29 this season.