By Aidan Joly
Monday brought two of the bigger coaching searches across the country to a close, and both of them bring massive changes to the Big East.
First, it was announced that former Providence head coach Ed Cooley would make the trip to Washington, D.C. to become the head coach at Georgetown.
A short time later, it was announced that Hall of Famer Rick Pitino would leave Iona to become the head coach at St. John’s.
Both of these are massive hires for programs that have had success in the past, but haven’t had it in recent years. Both of these hires give opportunities for these men to bring these programs back to relevance.
Cooley had spent the last 12 seasons as the head coach of the Friars, winning 242 games and reaching the NCAA tournament seven times, the longest appearance being in the Sweet 16 one year ago.
This hire reminds of the Mick Cronin-to-UCLA hire in 2019. Cooley, like Cronin, had seemingly brought a program to its absolute ceiling and will now be able to take over the reins of a program that has a rich basketball tradition with resources. It will give an opportunity for Cooley to recruit elite talent with the brand of Georgetown and the success that it has had in the past; an opportunity to restore that glory, a program that has only been to the NCAA tournament once since 2015. Similar to what he did at Providence, NIL will be a major part of what Cooley has to do at Georgetown.
It’s realistic to think that Cooley can be the guy to handle that rebuild. It’s tough to see Georgetown being a national championship threat year in and year out, but it needs to be a program that is consistently in the postseason and can make the second weekend on a semi-regular basis. To start, making the NCAA tournament in year two is a realistic goal, and go from there. It’s a highly desired job in the coaching ranks because of its potential. Cooley is the latest to take on that challenge.
Cooley was highly unlikely to ever win a national championship at Providence, or even make the Final Four, something that has only happened to the program twice and one of them was in the days of the old Big East in 1987, the most recent time (the other was 1973, when the tournament only had 25 teams to begin with).
Providence is now in a precarious spot. Before Cooley, Providence had not been to the NCAA tournament three years in a row since the days of Dave Gavitt, and will need someone to be a calming influence after Cooley’s departure to a Big East rival. Will it be George Mason head coach Kim English, a name that was almost immediately thrown around? Penn State’s Micah Shrewsberry has been thrown around as well, if Providence can get enough money to do it. We will see.
Meanwhile, St. John’s brought in the Hall of Famer in Pitino. The 70-year-old had spent the last three years at Iona rebuilding his reputation after his ugly departure from Louisville, making the NCAA tournament twice in three years, including this year. Meanwhile, he had his name cleared by the NCAA’s IARP of any wrongdoing during the FBI’s investigation into college basketball recruiting, an investigation that Louisville was a part of.
Pitino’s resume speaks for itself. Two national championships, seven Final Fours, over 800 (unofficially) wins and 14 conference championships in his illustrious career.
He takes over a program with a great brand and the promise of playing in New York City and Madison Square Garden on a regular basis. That being said, despite the rich tradition, like Georgetown, St. John’s has only made the NCAA tournament once since 2015 and has not won an NCAA tournament game since 2000.
Pitino signed a six-year contract, making it likely that this is the final stop in his career. But, he had said Iona was his last stop, so there’s that. This will bring St. John’s a much-needed kick in the pants to bring a winning college basketball team back to Madison Square Garden, which has struggled to have sustained success and has not made the Final Four since 1985.
Pitino takes over for Mike Anderson. There’s no question that the talent was there with Anderson, but the culture within the program had soured in the past two years. That being said, this may be less about roster improvements and more about changing the culture. However, making sure star players stick around, including star big man Joel Soriano for his final season, will also be a priority.
Similar to Georgetown, this is New York City, the NIL opportunity is obviously there as well. It was more of a challenge to do so at a small college in Iona, but that will have to become a big part of Pitino’s recruiting pitch.
There’s no doubt that Pitino has what it takes to bring St. John’s back to relevance, the question is how quickly can he do it as he joins the already star-studded Big East coaching ranks, a group that can somewhat remind older fans of the Big East of the 1980s.
Where does Iona go from here? Pitino getting the Gaels to the NCAA tournament was never a new thing, it had been plenty of times under Tim Cluess; winning a game would have made it a different story. We got that answer quickly on Tuesday morning as the Gaels have hired Fairleigh Dickinson’s Tobin Anderson, the man who guided the Knights to the second-ever 16 over 1 upset in the NCAA tournament last week. Anderson will be tasked with keeping Iona’s dominance over the MAAC going.
This all being said, both of these hires will certainly send seismic shock waves into the foundation of the Big East. Rebuilds are necessary at both, but it’s hard to bet against either of these guys to do it.
AJ Hoops 