First, which John Thompson are we talking about? If its the elder, Cooley does realize he hasn’t been their coach since 1999, right?
Cooley deserves praise for it because he was a big reason why but he has also had way better resources and facilities than previous providence coaches too. I still maintain, despite his loss yesterday, shaka is a better coach than cooley.
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Cooley - 61%
Welsh - 53%
Davis - 48%
Gillen - 58%
Barnes - 58%
Pitino - 64% (only there 2 seasons)
I think we need to accepts that wins and tournaments drive payroll more than Kenpom.
I’m also not sure we have Kenpom metrics from Pete Gillen and Rick Barnes’ tenures, so I’m not sure how you’re driving that comparison.
He’s a pretty good (not great) coach operating the program at a level they haven’t seen since Dave Gavitt, has shown an aptitidue for the “new world” of team formation, and recruits the same ground as Georgetown, who has been absolute dog water since 2015.
I think it’s a solid hire.
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i will graciously admit that i have next-to-no idea about how georgetown admissions works 
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This is actually a really good point about the old vs current Big East.
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Cooley is a high floor hire, I think, which is a defensible path for GTown, which can’t go another five years like the last 8.
$6 is indefensible but yolo - I will not be contributing to next call from Athletics Department, but I wouldn’t have anyway …
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Ed Cooley median KenPom rating at Providence: 54
All Providence KenPom seasons predating Cooley (97-11): 77
A slight step up… but not a particularly impressive jump. Particularly since that stretch I put there is probably the worst Providence stretch of their history. That gets into the last two years of Pete Gillen and we could probably use SRS if we wanted to go back further in Barnes/Pitino.
He’s not horrible! He’s just very meh.
I agree that wins and making the tournament drives the decision makers more. I just think it’s a bad metric when predicting the future (and when we were discussing Cooley to UM, whether to decide whether I’d want Cooley).
Cooley is a good coach who knows how to run a program well IMO. I’m not as crazy about how they play stylistically as some other coaches as far as what I’d like to watch on a nightly basis.
But they definitely play hard, are well coached and seem to get the most out of their rosters.
All things that you can’t say about Georgetown for a long time.
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Getting aside, but has realignment hurt the BE, or the demise of Georgetown, and (sort of) St. Johns? They lost Syracuse, but they stink, and UConn left for a bit (but they stank too during that time), but they added Marquette, Creighton, Xavier (and DePaul and Butler, no so hot). That seems like it balances, right?
Lol, I totally forgot about Louisville.
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Ugh DePaul. I didn’t experience but I wasn’t too far removed from the glory days. Certainly they were relevant nationally in the way of XAVIER Lasalle Marquette and other Catholics.
DePaul is a not tiny part of why Cooley gets hired.
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I just think it’s a lot for a guy who basically has shown that he’ll get a team in the tourney but won’t do much there.
Georgetown has been bad the last decade, but it’s still (imo) a program with a very high ceiling. They’ve won a national title, after all. And they’re in a talent-rich area.
I don’t think it’s a bad hire by any means but it seems like they’re overpaying.
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High expectations but like you say, you could recruit a great team just by keeping DMV kids at home (and I guess, bringing DMV kids back home…). It is a good spot in that sense and the history is obviously there.
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Cooley makes $4 million at PC, and he was going to have to get a raise I imagine - if he’s your guy, go spend it, whatever, I don’t care about Georgetown but even if I did, I’d say “it’s not my money…”
Aside from their first round loss this year (hard to get too mad at him for losing to Kentucky when his best player was a guy Calipari wouldn’t play) it’s hard to point at his tourney record and find under-performance.
it’s my money, and I need it now!
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So I always root for GTown cause I loved the early JTIII teams with Green/Hibbert. but if Cooley gets them rolling again it goes against everything I’ve said about him… I hate this
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In at least 3 different eras, Georgetown was the coolest team in college basketball
hopefully this works
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Verrrry curious to see who is on Cooley’s staff at Georgetown.
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