PROVIDENCE, R.I. — For two-plus hours, more than 12,500 black- and/or white-clad Providence fans had been booing and jeering and taunting and sneering and hectoring and heckling their previously beloved and currently detested former coach.
But as the minutes whittled away in the second half, an unease settled over the thousands. To the surprise of most inside Amica Mutual Pavilion, a presumed waltz to victory against a lowly Georgetown team had turned to a creeping moment of hesitation in this most urgent hour of pride and payback.
It was looking easy for Providence, until it wasn’t. The Friars had a lead, until they didn’t. With less than two minutes remaining, Ed Cooley’s Georgetown Hoyas (still feels weird to type those words) managed to sneak back and turn a presumed Friars runaway into a game in doubt.
Then: a spasm of scoring from the most reliable player in the joint, a one-man 7-0 run that will put a ponytailed PC Friar into program lore. Junior guard Devin Carter sank a 3-pointer with 1:53 to put Providence up 71-69. Cooley — who is now the most hated public figure attached to this city, a place he grew up in, climbed out of poverty from and for more than a decade held court as its sports king — called a timeout.
Carter, the kid he’d convinced years ago to play for the Friars, just hit a shot to take the lead for good for the hometown team against his old hometown coach. Cooley has been in this boisterous building and felt a moment like this for the Friars a hundred-plus times.
Now, standing alone on the court with his Hoyas approaching, he was on the other end of it.
“That fan base? Ooooooh,” Cooley said. “I’ve played in some tough arenas — that was hard in there.”
And even as he stood amid the din, knowing thousands of eyes were looking at his every move, Cooley still couldn’t resist a sly grin. He knew all too well that Carter had that killer instinct; it’s why he brought him to Providence to begin with.
“A little bit of me was pissed at him,” Cooley said about Carter. “But a lot of me was happy for his success, you know, you don’t just recruit kids and forget about them.”
On the Hoyas’ possession out of the timeout, they immediately turned the ball over. Carter, again, took command and sank an off-balance transition layup (with a foul) that brought Amica Mutual Pavilion to volcanic levels. The building hit a volume heretofore not matched on the day, not even in the pre-game, when they were booing Cooley into every county across the Ocean State.
Providence — thanks in large part to Carter — uncorked an 11-0 run that in little time had Cooley steaming, the fans screaming and the Friars en route to an 84-76 win that no Providence fan will forget for a long time. This was a hated homecoming for Cooley, who 10 months ago walked away from his hometown for Georgetown and became the first basketball coach in league history to leave one Big East job for another.
“Twelve years, baby,” Cooley said. “Twelve years. Very emotional.”
This was the 82nd meeting between Georgetown and Providence, dating back to 1956, but none were ever like this. Not even close. Cooley’s decision has cracked a rivalry between schools, but also birthed a one-sided schism between a city and a man, a fan base and its former leader. Cooley holds no ill will toward Providence or its people. When he sat down for his postgame press conference, Cooley let out a breath and admitted to nearly 100 people in a packed media room, “It’s like mass. Well, I needed Jesus today.”
There was no miracle for Cooley in his first game back, but his Georgetown team had the signature fight of most of his previous Providence ones. The Hoyas are not an NCAA Tournament squad, not even close; Providence is still building out its case under first-year coach Kim English. None of that mattered Saturday. The hottest environment and the best panorama in sports played out in Providence, Rhode Island.
Bad feelings? For most Friars fans, yes. Seething anger. Judging by the looks of the fervent faces that decorated Amica Mutual Pavilion, many will need years and probably multiple bouts of therapy to really work through it. But for Cooley? He could not have handled the day any better.
“I love Providence,” he said. “There’s no question about it. … I’m very grateful. I’ll always be proud to be the former coach of Providence College. And I’m very proud to be someone who lived and grew up here.”
He defended his record and what he built — and how he built it — at a place that was an afterthought for far too long. At times, Cooley talked with the tone of a father who’d watched his children grow into something great.
“The energy that’s around the city and around the game, I was proud of that,” Cooley said. “Because when we came here 13 years ago that wasn’t there.”
If Cooley came out looking good amid the hate, Providence’s fan base looked enchanting amid the hating. For as outrageous as they were all morning and afternoon, it’s a positive testament to the passion of Friars fans that Saturday did not turn into a news story. They kept this a sports event, staying on their rowdiest behavior but never becoming unruly. (The school and the city teamed up to staff more 80 police officers and security personnel to keep the event safe.)
“It’s the most security, by far, since I’ve been here, that we’ve ever had,” Providence athletic director Steve Napolillo told CBS Sports before the game. “You throw something, you’re getting thrown out and arrested.”
Thankfully, it never came to that.
Cooley’s entrance on Saturday was a vision unlike anything college sports has seen in a long time. Nearly two dozen media members were on the floor (yours truly also guilty) and cramping Georgetown’s final pregame shootaround just as Cooley made his way out of the tunnel. The boos were ferocious. Hundreds of students, who’d waited outside since before 7 a.m., were deep in their cups and ready for blood.
“This wasn’t overnight that everybody came in here,” Cooley said. “If anything, I should ask Providence College for a bonus check based on the energy that was in here. And that’s no lie.”
As the team introductions took place, the public address announcer couldn’t even finish his introduction before being drowned out: “And the head coach of the Hoya—”
BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
Over the course of the game, the crowd broke out their “F—Ed-Coo-ley!” rally cry 12 times. (Compared to two “We-love-Eng-lish!” chants.) Men in the stands were wearing knock-off shirts that read “LIAR” instead of “FRIAR” — with Cooley’s likeness replacing the PC logo.
They booed Cooley from the soles of their feet one last time after the final buzzer, then quickly pivoted to an equally loud ovation for their Friars as they celebrated on the court. At the center of it was Carter, who finished with 29 points, four rebounds and four steals in an all-time performance for this program on such a powerful day.
“It was mixed emotions for sure,” Carter told CBS Sports.
Everything about the day was clearly cathartic for Providence fans, but to hear Cooley go over matters, this was an initial necessary cleansing for him as well.
“Providence College is a very special place, and it will hold something in my soul to the day I die,” he said. “I’m so grateful for the opportunity I had to be the head coach here. And I think everybody should embrace that. And then also, don’t worry about the person that left. Embrace the young, bright coach that you have. Y’all got a dynamite coach, a fantastic coach, who’s that young and you get a chance to develop with him? That’s what I would concentrate on, not the asshole that left.”
Cooley and English are friends; the two talk frequently, and even did so the night before the game.
Cooley was up at 5 a.m. and began the day with a walk by himself outside team hotel on the outskirts of Providence, knowing he’d never be able to anticipate the feeling of this day until it arrived. The loss is a stinger (had Georgetown won this game, we probably have a very different story here), but even he knew it was probably best for all parties for the game to go the way it did.
When questioned about the reasons for choosing Georgetown, Cooley reiterated how much more difficult it was for him to do this than most understand.
“It wasn’t easy to leave, guys. It wasn’t. Not even a little bit,” he said. “You feel and see what you just saw, that shit’s real. And I mean, you’ve got to treat people the right way. And people think of who, what, why, where, when it’s none of their business.”
Cooley added: “I’ll always be part of the fabric, I’ll always be part of the culture of this university. And the reason I made a business, family decision to move on — and many don’t have the courage, the courage to change because you’re content and you just want to go status quo.”
This man, once a boy living on Sassafras Street, just six miles from Providence’s campus, changed the course of this school forever. His decision to leave for Georgetown — the school of John Thompson Jr.; never forget how significant that is for Cooley — nevertheless ranks among the most controversial and polarizing moves in the history of the Big East. But it also makes a conference that has always bred high-stakes drama even more compelling.
Matt Norlander
Saturday was the best possible result for the conference, Providence fans and, shy of winning the game, the best outcome for Cooley.
Cooley believes a warm reunion with Friars fans will come in the future. The most generous reading of Saturday’s crowd was to see a community that is still in recovery. Nevertheless, Cooley expects to one day walk back into this place and be greeted with cheers, not boos and profanity and middle fingers.
“It’ll be repaired in time,” Cooley told CBS Sports. “You can’t erase history. So for all the good that was done, and somebody leaves and it’s a negative way, the good will always outweigh the bad. … It’s just not the right time right now. You can’t erase history. We did what we did. And we did it together, you feel me?”
Cooley’s the only coach to take Providence to five consecutive NCAA Tournaments. He won 242 games, made seven NCAA Tournaments and guided the program to its only regular-season Big East title in 2022. He’s never apologized for leaving and didn’t start today. He’s not asking for forgiveness from Providence fans because he believes there’s no need for such a request. Georgetown is the final stage of his career, whether it lasts a few years or another decade.
“I’m going to do what I want to do,” Cooley said. “Last time I checked, we have a democracy. Last time I checked, slavery ended years ago. Nobody owns me and I’m gonna do whatever the hell I want. And that’s okay. Period.”
There was no one better for Providence 13 years ago than Ed Cooley. He knew it then, before probably anyone. He has that same mentality at Georgetown now. It’s that force of will that might bring Georgetown back to relevance, back to actually meaning something positive in college basketball.
Providence loved Cooley for who he was and how he fought for their school, their city, their tiny corner of the country. Now they hate him for being just another coach to leave the Friars behind. But in their joyous display of hate, Providence fans proved to Ed Cooley that everything built over 12 years will link him to his city forever.
You feel that? They did it together.
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