Despite owning four straight wins over Big East rival Georgetown on the basketball court, Providence suffered their worst loss to the Hoyas in years with prized head coach Ed Cooley leaving the Friars for a rare intra-conference move. You’d better believe that Providence’s athletic director is upset over it.
In an interview with ABC6, Providence AD Steven Napolillo admonished Georgetown AD Lee Reed for poaching Cooley. He said that he used to think of Reed as a friend and that relationships in the Big East were something special.
“I thought the AD at Georgetown was a mentor to me and a friend… I understand the business, but I thought, at the Big East, we had something different… We had respect. We had integrity… That’s been completely thrown out the door,” Napolillo said.
Napolillo said that it’s a symptom of the crossroads that college athletics is at where the business far outweighs the dedication to the student-athletes.
While it may have been a betrayal on some level, you can’t blame Georgetown for wanting the best coach they could get. The Hoyas have only reached the Sweet 16 once in the past 15 years and haven’t exactly been regulars since the late-great John Thompson retired.
Ed Cooley, on the other hand, took Providence to the NCAA Tournament seven times in his 12 years with the team, including a trip to the Sweet 16 in 2022. He had 11 straight seasons without a losing record and nine seasons with at least 20 wins dating back to his stint at Fairfield.
All’s fair in love and war and Big East basketball is now a massive battlefield.
Will Providence vs. Georgetown be the biggest rivalry in the Big East next year?