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.
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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