Published By: Sports Desk
Last Updated: January 27, 2024, 00:30 IST
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Ed Cooley figures he has a fairly good thought of what to anticipate when he brings his present group, Georgetown, to play on the dwelling of his former group, Providence, in a Big East matchup Saturday that’ll function a kind of homecoming for the basketball coach.
WASHINGTON: Ed Cooley figures he has a fairly good thought of what to anticipate when he brings his present group, Georgetown, to play on the dwelling of his former group, Providence, in a Big East matchup Saturday that’ll function a kind of homecoming for the basketball coach.
“I’m probably going to be heckled. Ridiculed. Signs, posters, booing,” Cooley stated. “I’m going to take that as a ‘Thank you, Coach. I appreciate you helped create this.’”
Cooley angered loads of people in Rhode Island when he left the Friars after seven NCAA Tournament appearances in 12 seasons seasons to take the job with the Hoyas, changing Patrick Ewing.
“Here’s my reaction to it: It’s like a divorce. What divorce ends amicably? It doesn’t. They loved Ed Cooley and Ed Cooley loved them. And so when the love kind of broke off — or he decided to go and pursue something that he wanted to do; he felt it was time to leave — I knew that would kind of be a natural reaction. Because they loved Coach. They dearly loved him. And because he did a lot for them,” stated Ivan Thomas, who was with Cooley at Providence and is now his affiliate head coach at Georgetown. “So they just couldn’t understand how he could make a decision that he needed to make for his life and that … he earned that right (to make) because of what he did for the city.”
The response in Providence when Cooley left in March — and what is perhaps heard and seen on Saturday in that college’s enviornment 10 months later — stemmed from what was seen by some as a betrayal.
Cooley was, in any case, the primary males’s basketball coach to maneuver instantly from one Big East faculty to a different. (Another former Providence coach, Rick Pitino, is now at St. John’s.)
“Presidents have done it. Athletic directors have done it. I think the anger is I used the word ‘never,’ which was a mistake, because ‘never’ is forever. I have to learn to be cautious with words,” Cooley stated. “I’m from the city. Born in the city. And I can feel the angst.”
He knew he was enterprise fairly a challenge at Georgetown and his present group enters this recreation with an 8-11 file, together with 1-7 in Big East play and 1-5 on the street. The Hoyas are at the moment on a 4-recreation shedding streak; they had been overwhelmed 90-66 by Butler on Tuesday of their most up-to-date outing.
Georgetown is tenth within the 11-group league, forward solely of DePaul, which is winless in Big East play and three-16 general and simply fired its coach.
Under Cooley’s successor, Kim English, who left George Mason to educate the Friars, Providence is 13-6, 4-4 within the league, and has gained two video games in a row.
“I know the fans have emotion,” English stated, waiting for Saturday, “but our focus is going to be on the court.”
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(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
