The Friars’ season barely over, after being eliminated in the first round of “March Madness” against Kentucky, the leaders of the University of Providence must immediately tackle a major new issue: looking for and finding a new coach.
Because after twelve seasons at the head of the basketball program, Ed Cooley is leaving: he has just accepted the position of “head coach” of the mythical university of georgetownwhere he will therefore take over from Patrick Ewing, dismissed ten days ago after six seasons and a very disappointing record on the bench. alma mater (75 wins for 109 losses).
At the head of the Friars, Ed Cooley won 242 of the 395 games he coached, including winning the Big East Conference tournament in 2014 and qualifying the team seven times in twelve seasons for “March Madness”. A tactician still relatively young (53 years old) and therefore “aware” of developments in university basketball, he is particularly renowned for the quality of his offensive schemes and will thus have the complete mission of injecting a new good dynamic into the Hoyas, stuck in the slums of the Big East for months. A situation unworthy of the grandeur that was once that of the Hilltop program.
” It’s a very exciting day for the Georgetown basketball program as we welcome Ed Cooley and his family. Coach Cooley is an excellent mentor for young players, and a coach whose accomplishments have spoken for themselves throughout his career. » said Lee Reed, the athletic director at Georgetown. ” I am very confident that he will be able to bring our program back to center stage, both in the Big East and nationally. »
Rick Pitino has relaunched his coaching career
Coast St. John’sthis is possibly an even bigger blow since the legendary Rick Pitino takes the reins of the Red Storm. A native of New York, the mythical 70-year-old tactician therefore returns home, in Queens precisely where the university campus is located, through which Mark Jackson, Chris Mullin or even Metta World Peace (and rapper J. Cole, in particular) have passed.
Absolute legend of coaching, Rick Pitino currently has a record of 834 wins and 239 losses in 35 seasons, with 23 NCAA Tournament appearances (with five different teams) and 7 qualifications for the “Final Four”, an accomplishment achieved by only five other coaches in the story. He also holds the third-best winning percentage in NCAA Tournament history, with 54 wins for 21 losses, or 72%. Finally, last but our leasthe is the only college coach in history to have won two titles with two different programs: Kentucky in 1996 and Louisville in 2013.
For the past three seasons, he has served as “head coach” of the Gaels of Iona, a small university in New Rochelle, in the suburbs of his native New York, which he qualified for “March Madness” last year. past and this year. Eager to stay in the region if he were to change position, he thus offers himself a last very fine challenge at the head of the pure New York program, which achieves a very big blow.
The Red Storm could not have dreamed of a better way to relaunch its basketball program, clearly in the trough in recent months (15 wins and 24 losses in the Big East over the last two seasons).
