Patrick Ewing, Georgetown win Big East championship at Madison Square Garden to clinch NCAA Tournament berth
Georgetown head coach Patrick Ewing cuts down the net after the Big East championship against Creighton on Saturday at Madison Square Garden. Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
Patrick Ewing climbed the ladder — only a few steps needed for the 7-footer — clipped the last string and held the net high.
Georgetown is champion of the Big East again, with the greatest Hoya of them all leading the way.
Ewing is taking Georgetown back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015 after the eighth-seeded Hoyas completed a surprising run to a Big East crown Saturday night with a stunning 73-48 rout of No. 17 Creighton.
On the 49th anniversary of the day Georgetown hired John Thompson, the late Hall of Fame coach who transformed the program into a national power and one of the most iconic brands in college basketball history, the Hoyas won their record eighth Big East Tournament title and first since 2007.
Was it fate? Destiny? Maybe Big John, who died in August at age 78, smiling down on Ewing and his Hoyas?
"I think so," Ewing said.
His team won with a dominant performance inside Madison Square Garden reminiscent of now-Coach Ewing's playing days at Georgetown.
The Hoyas (13-12) closed the first half on a 23-2 run that put them up 18 at the break against second-seeded Creighton (20-8). Then they picked right up early in the second half with a 16-3 spurt. Chudier Bile knocked down a 3-pointer — holding the follow through for a beat — with 14:58 left that made it 52-21.
Ewing called it a huge step for a program that has struggled to recapture old glory, and started this season picked to finish last in the Big East.
"A lot of people disrespected us. Talked bad about us. We believed in ourselves," said Ewing, who wondered earlier this week if they had forgotten him at MSG after security asked to see his credentials as he was moving around the building where he starred for the New York Knicks and his No. 33 jersey hangs from the rafters.
Bile matched a season high with 19 points and Jahvon Blair had 18 and went 4 for 7 from 3-point range for Georgetown. After missing 12 of their first 14 shots, the Hoyas finished shooting 46.6% from the floor.
Marcus Zegarowski scored 17 points to lead Creighton, which is 0-3 in Big East title games since joining the conference for the 2013-14 season.
Georgetown fans, the few dozen that were in the mostly empty building because of COVID-19 restrictions, chanted "This Is Our House!" as the Hoyas prepared to accept the championship trophy. Ewing carried a T-shirt with Thompson's image on it, his old coach's fist raised high.
Ewing and Thompson combined for three Big East Tournament championships, three Final Four appearances and a national title in 1984 during their time together at Georgetown. Ewing went on to call Madison Square Garden home with the Knicks.
The 58-year-old Ewing is in his fourth season as Hoyas coach, and up until this week there hasn’t been much to get excited about. The only postseason tournament appearance was a one-game stay in the 2019 NIT. The Hoyas were picked last in the Big East coming into this season and at the start of this tournament, Ewing was 58-58 as a head coach.
Now he is the first person in Big East history to be the most outstanding player on a Big East Tournament champion and coach a team to a Big East Tournament title.
BIG PICTURE
Georgetown: Became the first No. 8 seed to win the Big East Tournament and the lowest seed since Connecticut did it as a No. 9 seed in 2011. Georgetown's eighth title broke a tie with UConn for the most of any school
Those 2011 Huskies went on to win a national title. That seems unlikely for these Hoyas, who entered the Big East Tournament with a losing record. But Georgetown is now 10-4 since returning from a COVID-19 pause in mid-January, a run that coincided with Ewing inserting Bile into the starting lineup.
"Once you get to the NCAA Tournament anything is possible," Ewing said.
Creighton: The Bluejays scored a season-low 48 points and shot 29% from the field.
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Freshman point guard Dante Harris scored 10 points, with eight rebounds and five assists, to cap a strong week at MSG that earned him MVP of the tournament.
Blair and teammate Qudus Wahab also made the all-tournament team along with Zegarowski, Adama Sanogo of Connecticut and Jared Rhoden of Seton Hall.
UP NEXT
The Hoyas likely give the Big East four teams in the NCAA Tournament along with Creighton, Villanova and UConn.
