Coaching great John Thompson of Georgetown dead at 78

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Hall of Fame basketball coach John Thompson is dead at age 78. Thompson turned Georgetown into a “Hoya Paranoia” powerhouse and became the first Black coach to lead a team to the NCAA men’s basketball championship.

His death was announced today in a family statement. No details were disclosed. Thompson took over a moribund Georgetown program in the 1970s and molded it into a perennial contender, culminating with a national championship team anchored by Patrick Ewing in 1984.

At 6-foot-10, Thompson literally and figuratively towered over the Hoyas for decades, becoming a patriarch of sorts after he quit coaching in 1999.

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