A source told pcbb1917.com that Providence head coach Ed Cooley has hired Nikola Knezevic — pronounced NEE-koh-lah kuh-NEH-zhuh-vich — to fill the open Associate Director of Player Development position vacated when Cooley promoted Ivan Thomas to assistant coach in April. The source indicated that the hiring was slowed because Providence had to work out visa issues for the native of Belgrade, Serbia. Knezevic played 4 years at California from 2006-2010 and then was a graduate assistant at Providence from 2013-2015 after a 2 year professional career in Serbia. Knezevic played in 105 games at Cal and the Bears made back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament in his junior and senior seasons. Knezevic was primarily a backup point guard for Cal and specialized on the defensive end of the floor.
Category Archives: Coaching Staff
God Leaving Providence for the NBA, Again
Jon Rothstein is reporting that God Shammgod is leaving Providence to join the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA in the role of assistant of player development. Shammgod has been a mentor and trainer for several prominent recent Friars, including Bryce Cotton, LaDontae Henton, Ben Bentil and Kris Dunn.
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Ed Cooley Promotes Ivan Thomas to Vacant Assistant Coach Position
Ed Cooley is now being forced to hire a replacement assistant coach for the second straight offseason. Last Spring, Bob Simon left for Alabama. This Spring, Andre LaFleur left for UNLV. Cooley also had to make another coaching hire last offseason that may have flown under the radar, but now seems more significant. Mike Jackson left his position on Cooley’s staff as the Coordinator of Basketball Operations, which was filled by Kevin Kurbec. Kurbec moved up from his position of Associate Director of Player Development/Video Ops. That musical chairs led to Cooley hiring Kecoughtan High School head coach Ivan Thomas to Kurbec’s former position. Fast-forward to the present and Cooley has decided to promote Thomas to the vacant assistant coach position vacated by LaFleur’s departure on April 21st. That’s quite a whirlwind move for a former Virginia high school and AAU coach. Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal first reported the news of Thomas’ promotion.
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Report: Providence Associate Head Coach Andre LaFleur Taking Position at UNLV
A report from Mark Anderson of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on Thursday that Providence associate head coach Andre LaFleur would join Marvin Menzies staff at UNLV. Menzies was hired on April 16th. This means Ed Cooley is losing his associate head coach for the second straight offseason after Bob Simon took a job on newly hired Alabama coach Avery Johnson’s staff last April. LaFleur and Simon were co-associate head coaches during Simon’s final year with the Friars. LaFleur joined Cooley’s staff at Providence after being at Connecticut under Jim Calhoun from 2001-2011. LaFleur was Calhoun’s point guard at Northeastern. LaFleur grew up in Los Angeles, CA.
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Providence Adds Former HS Coach Ivan Thomas to Coaching Staff, Former Big East Commish Mike Tranghese to be Senior Advisor for Basketball
Providence announced on Monday that they are making some additions to their basketball program staffs. The one that was rumored to be in the works for some time now is Ed Cooley bringing Ivan Thomas into the fold as the Associate Director of Player Development and Video Operations. Thomas moves into Kevin Kurbec’s role as Kurbec slides up into the Coordinator of Basketball Operations role previously held by Mike Jackson. Kurbec served a similar role under Tim Welsh from 2005-08. Jackson is no longer with the Providence program. It has long been believed that Jackson wants to get more into the athletic department side of college basketball and is working towards that.
The part of the announcement that came as a bit of a surprise is that Providence is bringing former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese back into the fold at Providence as a Senior Advisor for Basketball. Tranghese is currently part of the College Football Playoff committee, though he is expected to step down from that post after the current college football season ends. Tranghese “will assist Athletics Director Bob Driscoll with a variety of items involving the College’s basketball programs,” according to the release sent out by Providence’s athletic department.
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Ed Cooley Hires Jeff Battle as Assistant Coach
Ed Cooley called upon a close friend to replace former associate head coach Bob Simon by reaching out to Jeff Battle. Simon took the associate head coach position at Alabama under newly hired head coach Avery Johnson on April 19th. Battle was out of coaching this past year after being at Wake Forest for 13 years as the associate head coach for 3 different head coaches. Battle joins associate head coach Andre LaFleur and assistant coach Brian Blaney to make up Cooley’s 3 recruiting assistant coaches. The terms of Battle’s contract with Providence were not released.
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Potential Candidates to Replace Bob Simon
With associate head coach Bob Simon leaving Providence to join newly hired Avery Johnson’s coaching staff at Alabama there is now an open spot on Ed Cooley’s staff. That open spot is a big one as Simon was a tireless recruiter for Cooley and a very good X & O coach. I’m a little disappointed Simon left Providence for a lateral title and not to be a head coach but being the associate head coach for an SEC school will likely help his head coaching prospects. Simon also probably got a nice pay increase from that football money and that money will go farther down in Alabama than it would in Rhode Island.
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