Loyola of Chicago Fires Larry Farmer

Former UCLA player and coach Larry Farmer was fired Wednesday as Loyola of Chicago’s coach.

Farmer, a standout player at UCLA from 1970-73 and coach from 1981-84, had been an assistant at Rhode Island when he came to Loyola in May 1998. Farmer had a 73-102 record in six seasons as Rambler coach.

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Texas A&M; Coach Melvin Watkins said he would resign at the end of the season. The Aggies (7-20) play Missouri tonight in the first round of the Big 12 Conference tournament at Dallas.

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TOURNAMENTS

Eastern Washington (17-12) earned its first trip to the NCAA tournament with a 71-59 victory over Northern Arizona (15-14) in the Big Sky Conference championship game at Cheney, Wash. The Eagles will join local rival and third-ranked Gonzaga in the NCAA tournament, giving the Spokane, Wash., area two teams in the event.

Monmouth (21-11) earned its third trip to the NCAA tournament since 1996 with a 67-55 victory over Central Connecticut State (14-14) in the championship game of the Northeast Conference tournament at West Long Branch, N.J.

Conference USA -- Marquette (17-11), which made the Final Four last season, probably had any chance of returning to the tournament dashed with a 64-62 loss to Texas Christian (12-16) at Cincinnati.

Big East -- Boston College (22-8) sent Georgetown (13-15) to a ninth consecutive defeat with a 68-57 victory at New York. Not only will the Hoyas miss the NCAA tournament for the fifth time in six seasons, they won’t be invited to postseason play for the first time since 1975.