Ed Cooley's return to Providence with Georgetown basketball is a case study in breakups
PROVIDENCE — So, here we are.
This date that’s been circled on the calendar since the Big East schedule was released. The return of Ed Cooley to a home city unlikely to ever welcome him as warmly as it once did.
That’s the everlasting price of his move from Providence to Georgetown. A conference tournament champion, the first regular-season league champion in program history, a Sweet 16 qualifier, the Naismith National Coach of the Year — that resumé became irrelevant once the next line was written.
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Saturday’s scheduled 12:30 p.m. tip at Amica Mutual Pavilion will be more than a basketball game. It’s a psychological and sociological case study on what happens when relationships break apart, feelings are hurt and the collective power of fandom is stoked unchecked by toxic outside factors.
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We all know the history. Cooley left the Friars after 12 seasons to start fresh with a conference rival, the first men’s basketball coach since the league’s founding to jump directly from one team to another. The Hoyas are helpless at the outset of a rebuild, the opposite of what Cooley presided over by the close of his tenure downtown.
Why? That’s the lingering question. Cooley’s public answer has been consistent — change. For himself, for his family, for his professional growth — he felt compelled to start over in a different place. Cooley traded the perceived security of a long-term contract with Providence for the risk that comes with beginning anew in a different city.
It's never made much sense on the surface. The Friars reached seven NCAA Tournaments and modernized their program under Cooley. The support he received from the school’s administration was unprecedented. The next step could have involved something more — playing deeper into March, targeting superior recruits, continuing to add roster firepower via the transfer portal and new name, image and likeness revenue streams.
Georgetown was in ruins by the end of Patrick Ewing’s six seasons in charge — a 2-37 conference record over the last two, a lone March Madness berth since 2014-15. Fan support has dwindled to a fraction of the capacity at Capital One Arena. DePaul is the only program keeping the Hoyas out of the conference basement — that's no consolation for anyone.
And still, with all that said, Cooley was enticed by Georgetown athletic director Lee Reed and his naked ambition. There wasn’t anything collegial or collaborative about his approach. Providence counterpart Steve Napolillo has admirably kept his cool in public settings, but you might imagine he’d have a harsh word or two for Reed in a private moment.
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Napolillo exhausted all options to retain Cooley — an improved contract, program funding promises deep into the 2020s, an athletic department humming on all cylinders that he took over from Bob Driscoll. Both parties moved on quickly, with Napolillo identifying and hiring Kim English as Cooley’s successor in short order.
Was it something outside Cooley’s professional life? Rhode Island being the small state that it is, everyone knows a guy who knows a guy. Rumors have run wild on social media and message boards for months — none have been verified through any sort of credible evidence such as a police report, civil court documents or a first-hand account.
The truth, as is generally the case, resides somewhere in the margins. Some of the same fans who will savage Cooley on Saturday also might have believed he had peaked with the Friars. His antiquated flex offense, recent misses in freshman recruiting, his seemingly distracted nosedive at the close of 2022-23 and five first-game exits in the NCAA Tournament — perhaps someone else, after all this building and all these improvements, could do better.
English would be the coach to benefit from that progress, and he's likely better aligned with Napolillo to maximize its impact. They're essentially starting together with the Friars — Cooley was Driscoll's hire and had been in the department for a decade before Napolillo was promoted from his leading role in athletics development. The loyalty Cooley displayed to Driscoll by rejecting previous advances from the likes of Michigan? It could be English making a similar decision down the road if Providence has advanced closer to becoming a true annual power in the sport.
Cooley, like most coaches, basks in the adulation that comes with success. Naysayers generally aren’t welcome, and their opinions certainly aren’t taken into any great consideration. Leading the Hoyas means a chance at resurrecting the legacy of John Thompson, one of Cooley’s heroes, at a place with a strong surrounding recruiting area, the largest endowment in the league and a greater history of success in March.
It won’t ever be enough for some Friars fans to beat Cooley’s team on the court. They need to see him destroyed. Failed professionally, shamed personally, a shell of the man who led their team to some of the proudest moments in recent program history — that's what they crave.
What you'll have to settle for are these 40 minutes between the lines twice a year — and, perhaps, a bonus engagement at Madison Square Garden as part of the conference tournament. A ticket buys you the right to publicly air grievances as allowed by a given venue and as you see fit. It won’t bring Cooley back, dent his personal self-worth in any meaningful way, make Providence a better program going forward or present any sort of marketable image on a national broadcast.
The games themselves — if not this one, perhaps the next — will eventually have to be enough.
bkoch@providencejournal.com
On X: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Georgetown basketball coach Ed Cooley returns to Providence to face ex-team
