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.
The Big East currently has two teams sitting atop the league’s standings, two teams toiling away in the cellar and the other six teams beating each other to death in the middle. This has been the recipe each of the first three seasons of this configuration of the Big East. Villanova remains the most consistent. Jay Wright’s program has been among those two at the top all three seasons. The other program on high this season — Xavier — also appears to be in a position to stay there. That leaves teams like Butler, Creighton, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence and Seton Hall to bloody each other’s win/loss records in hopes of snagging the other three spots that make up the top half of the league.
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.
With NC State forward transfer Kyle Washington committing to Mick Cronin and the Cincinnati Bearcats on Wednesday its time for the Friar staff to turn their attention to the class of 2016 and beyond. The likelihood that there is still a player available that could contribute next season is almost nonexistent. The only scenario out there right now is probably a darkhorse international player but that is in the “massive longshot” category.
The first July live evaluation period is rapidly approaching and the Providence staff needs to be focused on players from the class of 2016 with an eye towards players in 2017. Some Big East compatriots have already gotten off to good starts in 2016 with Butler landing a pair of 4 star recruits in Joey Brunk and Howard Washington, Villanova picking up consensus top 20 recruit Omari Spellman and Xavier dipping into the New England Prep ranks to grab top 125 forward Tyrique Jones.
For the second year in a row a player who was pegged for a starter’s role and major minutes in the upcoming season has left the Providence program. Last year it was Josh Fortune announcing his intention to transfer on the Friday before Memorial Day. This year it was Paschal Chukwu a week before Memorial Day. Fortune started at the shooting guard position and likely was going to continue doing so in what would have been his junior season at Providence before announcing his intention to transfer, having his mom declare it was so that he could be closer to home and then opting to go to Colorado — a school further from his home in Virginia than Providence. Now that Paschal Chukwu has picked a new home and will get his change of scenery I thought it would be interesting to examine the entire situation and some of the comments made by Chukwu’s high school coach.
In what can only be described as a massive blow to Ed Cooley, freshman big man Paschal Chukwu is transferring from Providence, per a tweet from CBSSports.com’s Jon Rothstein. The 7’2 Chukwu just completed his first season at Providence and will have 3 years of eligibilty remaining after sitting out the 2015-16 season, per NCAA transfer rules.
The late transfer of Josh Fortune a year ago left Ed Cooley reeling to find some guard help for the 2014-15 Friars. The announcement coming on the Friday before Memorial Day put Cooley in a difficult spot to try and lure anyone that would be eligible immediately. Tyler Harris already announced his intentions to finish his career elsewhere after he graduates from Providence in mid-May. The other outstanding decision is one that needs to be made by Kris Dunn. Dunn has until April 26th to declare for the NBA Draft.
The offseason will get into full swing once the NCAA Tournament concludes on April 6th. The first live evaluation period for recruiting begins on April 10th and the Spring period begins on April 13th. Cooley and his staff won’t be resting on their laurels and once the offseason gets underway they will be looking to upgrade their roster, whether that is the 2015-16 roster or a future roster.
Here are some things that Providence fans want Santa Cooley to put on their wish list:
pcbb1917.com - Providence College Basketball 