As expected, a thunderstorm of boos cascaded from every section of the Amica Mutual Pavilion when Ed Cooley strode into the arena at 12:26 last Saturday afternoon.
The noisy, sold-out crowd of 12,580 resumed booing when Cooley was introduced with his Georgetown basketball team. Providence College students — 2,000 behind each basket — used more colorful language. “F#@& Ed Cooley!” they sang from time to time.
Ed Cooley, the native son who shocked Friartown last March by leaving for Big East rival Georgetown, had returned home. Aside from the boos and the students’ sing-song F bombs, this matinee played without incident. For the most part, class prevailed over crass.
PC’s dramatic 84-76 victory certainly helped. Guard Devin Carter saved the day for the Friars with a brilliant 29-point, 2-assist, 4-steal performance. He was 10-14 from the field and 7-9 from the free throw line.
PC trailed 69-66 with 2:57 to play but outscored Georgetown 18-7 in the run to the buzzer. Carter had 11 points, the last four on a fast break driving layup with 38 seconds to go and a fast break dunk with 31 seconds left, generating a crowd roar louder than any boo.
The AMP atmosphere was as good as it gets, befitting a showdown between conference contenders, not a late January date between a Big East 1-7 Georgetown and 4-4 Providence.
“There’s no better college basketball atmosphere than right here,” Cooley said after the game. “They’re passionate fans, which they should be. They should be that way. And it’s okay, right?”
Sitting on a platform in a packed media interview room, he tackled the obvious: his departure 10 months ago from the city and school he says he loves.
“Let’s just talk about the elephant in the room. Let me tell you something. I could not be the Georgetown coach without the 12 incredible years that [former president] Brian Shanley, [former athletics director] Bob Driscoll, and now president Ken Sicard gave me, the opportunity to change my life,” he said.
“I couldn’t be more grateful and thankful to walk into this building and see how fresh and how thirsty and how great this place is. Being born here, being raised here, being the first African-American coach, and God bless [athletics director] Steve Napolillo and Ken Sicard for having another one [Kim English]. Providence College has one of the brightest young coaches in all of college basketball.”
Cooley again professed his affection for PC, feelings that, had he expressed them last March, might have spared him the grief he received upon leaving.
“I’ll always be part of the fabric, I’ll always be part of the culture of this university,” he said. “I made a business and family decision to move on — and many don’t have the courage to change because you’re content and you just want to go status quo. I love Providence. There’s no question about it.”
Cooley mentioned many personal relationships he developed “that will never go away.” He was proud of the energy in the city surrounding the game because “when we came here 13 years ago, that wasn’t there,” he said.
“I’ll always be proud to be the former coach of Providence College, and I’m very proud to be someone who lived and grew up here. My parents are still here. The people I love the most are here. My son is still here.” But, Cooley said, “change was in the air.”
“When you make a change like that, anything is possible. What you do is you appreciate the time that you had. And you appreciate how you’re going to move forward. I don’t have one bad feeling. I’m so grateful and humbled that I was the head coach at Providence College, a kid from our city. It’s humbling, and [I’m] incredibly grateful that we had an opportunity to spend so much time together. So it’s on to the next chapter of your life, and I’m looking forward to that chapter because that’ll be the best chapter that’s in that book.”
Cooley professed his gratitude to Georgetown “to have an opportunity to do something where we’re gonna prove everybody wrong. It’s just a matter of time.”
