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Ed Conroy expected to be let go as Tulane head coach

Ed Conroy

Ed Conroy

AP

Ed Conroy is expected to be fired as head coach at Tulane, a source told NBCSports.com.

Conroy was head coach of the Green Wave for the past six seasons, reaching the postseason twice -- the CIT and the CBI once apiece -- while winning 20 games just once. Conroy is 12-21 after beating Houston on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the AAC tournament.

Conroy, 48, never finished above .500 in league play.

He was previously at The Citadel, where he coached for four seasons.

The news was first reported by The Hullabaloo, Tulane’s impeccably named student paper, but the reports went viral during the second half of Tulane’s come-from-behind, upset win over Houston in the AAC tournament. It’s been an open secret in college basketball circles that Conroy was likely going to be out at the end of the year, so this wasn’t a surprise for him. What may have been a surprise, however, was learning that he had been “fired” while coaching his team.

“I had two guys behind the bench put their phone up and tell me ‘Hey, Coach you’re gone.’ So that was fun,” Conroy said.

Here are his full comments from after the game:

I know I had two guys behind the bench put their phone up and tell me “Hey, Coach you’re gone.” So that was fun when you’re trying to come back from an eight-point deficit. But you know what? I talked to our guys about it before the game and what we have been saying all along, we are the madness. We can be a part of that and this is a -- nobody loves college basketball more than me. This is a new story for March Madness, right. I got axed because we’re down 8 at the half. But I talked to the players about it before the game and I don’t mind you asking.

They have been through a lot, and a few weeks ago there was some comments made about people didn’t like our program. And then that was right before a key basketball game. Then two days before we come here, they said that I was fired. Today it came out that I was leaving them. It’s almost like somebody’s putting something out there every 24 hours to try to distract this group. And as you can see, that’s going to be a tougher job than they think. Because they’re pretty focused about what they’re doing. And the thing I would say is, anybody putting those things out doesn’t care about these kids. It’s about them, and this is their time. March is a really special month to me, and everybody that ever grew up wanting to play college basketball, and this is Louis Dabney’s last March and Cameron only has a couple more.

So to do anything that would distract or take away until this thing is done, I think is really not thinking about the students and the student-athletes. It’s a shame. But it gave our guys a chance through adversity to step up and show people what they’re made of, and I love them for it.