NEW YORK — The big man wasn’t kidding: This is his house. Georgetown completed its romp through the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden with a 73-48 blowout win over Creighton, punching a shocking ticket to March Madness.
Patrick Ewing’s Hoyas entered the tournament with a record of 9-12 but won four straight at MSG, including wins over nationally ranked Villanova and Creighton. The latter was a 25-point beatdown in the conference championship game.
Ewing paid tribute to his late Georgetown coach John Thompson after the win. (Thompson died in August of last year.) Asked after the win what Thompson would have said to him in that moment, Ewing responded, “Boy, you shut them up. You showed them that big people are smart as well, big people can coach.”
Ewing has long contended that he was discriminated against for NBA coaching jobs in part because he was a center and not a guard.
Apologies to the players who actually did the winning, but the story here is all about the coaches.
The notoriously ham-handed MSG security team hassled Ewing after the Villanova win.
“I thought this was my building,” Ewing said Wednesday. “And I feel terrible that I’m getting stopped, accosted, and asked for passes. Everybody in this building should know who the hell I am. And I’m getting stopped, I can’t move around this building and I’m like, ‘What the hell? Is this Madison Square Garden?’ ”
Ewing is, of course, the most famous Knick of the last 50 years, seven feet tall, incredibly distinctive looking, and the Georgetown head coach. There is no plausible excuse for checking his credentials.
“We took another step in my house, by the way,” Ewing said after the Villanova win. “This is my house.”
His counterpart, Creighton coach Greg McDermott, came into the game a far less sympathetic figure. McDermott took leave and was then suspended for a racist speech to his players. “I need everybody to stay on the plantation,” McDermott admitted to and apologized for saying. “I can’t have anybody leave the plantation.”
It’s too cute by half to say that Georgetown’s players were fired up for their coach while Creighton’s players were checked out. But Creighton was extremely flat Saturday, surrendering a 46-8 run at one point. The Bluejays are still likely headed for next week’s NCAA Tournament.
Senior forward Chudier Bile led Georgetown with 19 points and eight rebounds.
