Ed Cooley is hired by Georgetown to revitalise the Hoyas men's basketball team.

Ed Cooley is hired by Georgetown to revitalise the Hoyas men’s basketball team.

Georgetown’s new head coach is Ed Cooley, the university announced on Monday.
The hiring of Cooley represents a substantial improvement over the doldrums that Georgetown’s programme faced under Patrick Ewing, which included a 29-game conference losing streak and a 13-50 record the previous two seasons.

“Ed is a proven leader and an accomplished coach, whose principles and expertise of the game will lead our programme into this new chapter,” Georgetown president John J. DeGioia said in a statement. “His drive to greatness on and off the court will bring out the best in our basketball programme and will provide each member of our team with the experiences and support they need to develop.”
Georgetown’s pursuit and signing of a Big East competitor is a huge coup, since Cooley regularly outperformed at Providence. He has made the NCAA tournament seven of the last nine years, including a Big East regular-season title in 2021-22.
“I am delighted about the chance to head the men’s basketball team at Georgetown University,” Cooley remarked. “I want to hit the ground running, going to work on the court and building contacts in and around the District. Taking this position with Georgetown was not a choice I made lightly.”
Georgetown has only made the NCAA tournament once in the last seven years, and Ewing received an extension after winning the Big East tournament in a year when the team finished 13-13. Georgetown hasn’t finished with a winning record in the Big East since 2014-15.
“Coach Cooley is a mentor to young men and a perennial winner with an amazing body of work,” athletic director Lee Reed said. “I am convinced that he is the coach who can restore our program’s status in the BIG EAST and nationally.”
With Georgetown’s location in the heart of Washington, D.C., probably the finest basketball city in the nation, the program’s potential is seen as greater than Providence’s. Throughout programme history, the Hoyas have made five Final Four appearances and won the national championship in 1984.
Cooley will be saddled with such expectations following a great career at Providence, where he finished 242-153 in 12 seasons. After Cooley’s resignation, Providence says it would begin the hunt for a new head coach.
Cooley, 53, was previously sought for various positions, most notably Michigan in 2019, when the Wolverines hired Juwan Howard. He withdrew his contention for the post following discussions with Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, returning to Providence on a multiyear contract extension.
Providence authorities went to considerable pains to retain Cooley this time, with sources suggesting he was given a long-term agreement with a salary hike.
According to ESPN, two names on Providence’s list are Penn State’s Micah Shrewsberry and George Mason’s Kim English.
Cooley, a Providence native, has spent his entire coaching career in New England. He began as an assistant coach at UMass Dartmouth and subsequently at Stonehill College, his alma mater. He subsequently worked as an assistant coach at Rhode Island for a year before joining Al Skinner’s staff at Boston College for a decade.
Cooley’s first head-coaching position was at Fairfield, where he guided the Stags to the MAAC regular-season championship in 2011 before being hired at his alma mater to succeed Keno Davis.
Cooley won the Big East conference championship in 2014, leading the Friars to their second tournament win in school history. This season, Providence began 14-3 overall and 6-0 in conference play before faltering down the line on route to a first-round NCAA tournament loss, falling to Kentucky 61-53.
Earlier on Monday, ESPN 100 prospect Garwey Dual announced his decommitment from Providence and restarting his recruitment. Duo, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard, is rated No. 37 in the 2023 class. After committing to the Friars last summer, he never signed a letter of intent for the fall.
Dual informed ESPN that he wants to thoroughly restart his recruitment and would not just follow Cooley to Georgetown.

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