Two weeks have passed since Ed Cooley stunned his Providence College family and left Friartown for Georgetown — and more money, prestige, opportunity.
His departure still doesn’t feel right and not because he left. Let’s be frank. As prominent as PC is in Rhode Island and New England, in the wider basketball world Providence College is a stepping stone. Basketball coaches usually do not come to PC to retire. More on that below.
No, it’s the way Cooley left his hometown and the job he professed to love. It happened so quickly — only two days after the Friars lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament — that any reasonable person would conclude that negotiations had to have begun prior to the announcement or, in other words, while PC’s season was still underway.
Cooley denied that suggestion in an interview with John Fanta of FOX Sports, saying he never listened to overtures until his season was over.
“Do not mess with me until the end of the year. So, right when the season ended, we got contacted. . . . The conversations happened when they happened, and 48 hours later, 72 hours later here we are in D.C. now the head coach of Georgetown,” he told Fanta.
Okay, I believe Cooley, but it still doesn’t look good. Think about it. Georgetown fired coach Patrick Ewing on March 9, a day after the Hoyas bowed out of the Big East Tournament. His dismissal was all but assured given his team’s 13-50 record the last two seasons, a six-year mark of 75-109 — 28-81 in the Big East — and one NCAA appearance. Speculation as to his successor began immediately, and Ed Cooley’s name was at or near the top of any list. Cooley dodged all questions about his interest in the position.
Now think about this. On Friday, March 17, Cooley was coaching the Providence College Friars against Kentucky. On Sunday, March 19, Cooley was considering a Georgetown offer. On Monday, March 20, he was coaching the Hoyas. And on Wednesday, March 22, he was meeting the D.C. press.
Three days from a post-game press conference to a hiring announcement? That ’s quick, and it surprised even close followers of the Providence program.
Compounding the pain, this was the first time in Big East history — the conference was founded in 1979 — that a Big East school poached a head basketball coach from another Big East school.
Something Cooley said during his introductory love fest at Georgetown surprised me.
“I needed a change,” he said.
A change? Why? He has the second-most victories in Providence College basketball history. He has Big East regular-season and tournament championships. He has sent players to the NBA. He is, or was, beloved in his hometown and around the college basketball world.
Cooley told his Georgetown audience that he had spent a difficult 48 hours deciding what to do. Turning light-hearted, he said the fact that his daughter Olivia is a Georgetown senior and intends to stay in the D.C. area after she graduates in May influenced his decision. He told Fanta that his wife Nurys wants to live in a city.
Seriously, if Cooley needed a change, what really was the problem? I reached out to his lawyer, Dennis Coleman, whom Cooley praised as the best attorney in America. Coleman replied via email that he could not comment. Confidentiality. I get it. I also reached out to Cooley, but with the NCAA Championship Monday night in Houston, the transfer portal to monitor and recruiting to continue, I suspect it will be some time before he responds.
Cooley’s future at PC was not in jeopardy. Yes, Providence slumped big-time at the end of the season. The Friars lost 7 of their last 11 games, including the quarterfinals of the Big East to Connecticut and the first round of the NCAAs to Kentucky, when March Madness turned to March Sadness in the Friars camp.
Providence finished 21-12, 13-7 in the Big East. The NCAA appearance was PC’s seventh in Cooley’s 12 years, and these days coaches are measured on NCAA appearances more than wins alone. His job was safe, even before PC extended his contract last September with a significant bump in compensation to about $4 million year and other perks.
“Providence is my home and Providence is where I want to be,” Cooley said at that time. “Not many coaches are able to live the dream of coaching in their hometown, and I feel blessed every day that I have this opportunity. I have had the good fortune of working for great administrators and coaching some of the best players in the country. I believe in the leadership at Providence College and with that I want to thank Fr. [Kenneth] Sicard and [AD] Steve Napolillo for allowing me to continue my career in Friartown.”
That dream was a little more than six months ago. A friend who knows Division I athletics from the inside mused recently that Cooley should have been careful in saying how much he loved his job at PC..
Cooley, 53, could have stayed at Providence College for a long time. But at some point Georgetown called, and Coleman went to work on behalf of his client. By Monday afternoon PC and the Friars were fading fast in Cooley’s rear-view mirror.
As I mentioned above, with a few exceptions, coaches move on from PC. Since 1955 only three have left the PC bench and not coached again. Dave Gavitt coached 10 seasons and stepped aside in 1979 to form the Big East Conference and serve as its first commissioner. Gary Walters lasted two years after Gavitt and left to work in finance and sports management and then for 20 years as athletics director at Princeton. Tim Welsh made two NCAA appearances in his 10 seasons and retired to become a television analyst.
Of the coaches who continued diagramming plays, Joe Mullaney left for the Los Angeles Lakers in 1969 after a 14-year run with PC. He coached six different teams in the NBA and ABA, spent three years at Brown and closed his career with a return to Providence from 1981through 1985. Rick Pitino followed Mullaney’s second tour and left for the Knicks after the 1987 Final Four season. Gordie Chiesa lasted only the 1988 season but then spent 16 years as an assistant coach with the Utah Jazz. Rick Barnes made three NCAA appearances in six years and took the Clemson job. Pete Gillen coached four years and went to Virginia. Keno Davis struggled for three years and moved on to Central Michigan.
We can add Ed Cooley to that list now. It’s just too bad that the way he left and the fact that he went to a Big East rival made giving him a rousing and heartfelt farewell impossible.
Mike Szostak can be reached at mszostak@ripr.org.
