Maybe Take a Deep Breath - Kevin Stacom
Kevin Stacom, Sport Analyst
Maybe Take a Deep Breath - Kevin Stacom
When our old friend, coach Ed Cooley, recently received a one-game suspension for tossing a water bottle into the stands as the clock was winding down on a Georgetown home loss to Xavier on December 20, a number of thoughts came to mind.
Here is a well-seasoned, experienced, successful head coach temporarily losing his composure in a very demonstrative way.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTPressure is and always has been an integral part of the drama that makes sports, especially at a high level, so appealing. But is this incident better understood as one flash-bang symptom, a reflex action to the heightened frustration of many coaches being forced to operate in such a disorienting world of never-ending drastic change?
One glaring example alone is enough to illustrate just how far the pendulum has swung in such a relatively short amount of time and how insanely arrogant and tone-deaf the NCAA was in its initial disposition of the case against James Wiseman.
A Short Version
Going into the 2019-2020 college basketball season, James Wiseman was considered by most NBA evaluators as a top 3 pick for the next 2020 NBA Draft.
I was present at the University of Memphis’ preseason Pro Day prior to that season, where just about every NBA team sent a representative to get an early glimpse of Wiseman and his teammates being put through a workout for our benefit.
Shortly thereafter, an NCAA investigation found that back in 2017, Penny Hardaway had given Wiseman’s family $11,500 to help move them from Nashville to Memphis. Even though Hardaway, at the time, was not a coach at Memphis, it was still ruled “impermissible recruiting activity” because Hardaway had previously donated a million dollars to his alma mater, thereby placing him in the “booster” category, which would make his financial assistance to the Wiseman family a violation of NCAA rules.
After playing his first three games for Memphis (where he averaged 19.7 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 3 blocks), he was declared ineligible. In the ensuing process, it was determined by the NCAA that Memphis would have to forfeit the three games Wiseman played in, he would be suspended for 12 more games, and he had to pay back the $11,500 he received to a charity of his choice.
By December of 2019, he dropped his lawsuit against the NCAA and left Memphis to prepare for the 2020 NBA draft, where he was eventually selected by Golden State with the 2nd pick. This episode occurred as many court cases throughout the country were percolating in a direction that was obvious to see, with the ensuing commencement of the NIL world on July 1, 2021, culminating in the House vs NCAA lawsuit settlement on June 6, 2025.
Top Coaches Leaving
A quick look at some of the more prominent college coaches who have either implicitly or explicitly bailed on a profession that many of them spent a lifetime building, due to the disorienting obliteration of the rules they operated under for many years:
Mike Krzyzewski - Duke
Roy Williams - UNC
Jay Wright - Villanova
Jim Boeheim - Syracuse
Tony Bennett - UVA
Jim Larranaga - UMiami
Leonard Hamilton - FSU
Lon Kruger - Oklahoma
Bruce Pearl - Auburn
Now granted a lot of the guys were near the end of their career spans anyway, but most of them were very honest about what pushed them over the edge to embrace retirement. Also, you have to take notice when coaches like Wright, Bennett, and Pearl, at the height of their coaching prowess, and collectively just a few short years from a number of Final 4 appearances and 3 NCAA Championships between them, call it quits.
Former Providence College player and now former U of Miami coach Jim Larranaga (one of only six coaches to lead two different programs to a Final 4) was very direct in his comments in his press conference announcing his retirement:
“It’s the system now, or lack of a system. I didn’t know how to navigate through this. In order to win, you’ve got to be totally committed. And at this point, after 53 years, I just didn’t feel like I could successfully navigate this whole new world I was dealing with. Because my conversations were ridiculous, with an agent saying to me, “Well, you can get involved if you’re willing to go to 1.1 million…the schools that can figure out a way to either put so much money to it or figure out a way to live with less. But I talked to a lot of my friends and they’re having a lot of the same problems I’m having. How long they will last is anybody’s guess.” (On3/Rivals- Alex Byington)
And if things weren’t crazy enough, just within the last couple of weeks, a number of schools have announced the signings of a combination of European professional players, a NBA 2023 Draft pick, and an NBA G-League player (actually announced in October):
Baylor - James Nnaji 2023 NBA Draft pick (31st) 2025 Knicks Summer League
Louisville - London Johnson - NBA G-League
Oklahoma - Kirill Elatontsev, 6’11” professional from Russia
U of Utah - Lucas Langarita, Spanish pro guard
BYU - Abdullah Ahmed, G-League Center, NY Knicks
Coach Dan Hurley of UConn’s reaction on social media to these developments:
“Santa Claus is delivering mid-season acquisitions...this sh-t is crazy!”
Coach Kevin Willard of Villanova:
“The NCAA is totally clueless, lost...”
Mark Gottfried, former Alabama, NC State coach (who I worked with briefly in Dallas) on his podcast:
“The NCAA governing body, as we’ve known it for the last 50-100 years, it’s done. It’s over. It’s crumbling right beneath their feet right now….”
And finally, Tom Izzo:
“Now we’re taking guys that were drafted in the NBA and everything?... What we’ve done in the NCAA has been an absolute travesty to me… We’re just worried about getting sued, and we’re not going to fight anybody. And I think leadership means you fight and you make decisions that are sometimes unpopular” (NJ.com, 12/26/25)
Speaking of leadership, where is the modern-day Dave Gavitt when you need him to bring all these disparate parties together, coaches, administrators, AD’s, conference honchos, players, agents, TV paymasters, and of course, the lawyers, to restore a functioning order. Obviously, a little proactive preventative medicine would have gone a long way and would have been very beneficial.
From the Macro to the Micro:
I presented this quick primer on the overall state of college basketball to hopefully bring some perspective to the evaluation of the Providence College program as it stands now. Since returning from the west coast Thanksgiving jaunt of 2 losses to Wisconsin and Florida, PC took care of business, winning the next 3 home games (FDU, URI, Brown) in mostly convincing fashion to set the stage for reclaiming a positive start to the Big East season vs Butler and Seton Hall.
The outcome of those two games was not what we wanted. Like in the Virginia Tech game ( OT 107-101 L), both the Butler (OT 113-110 L) and Seton Hall (72-67 L) were more than winnable. Everyone’s mood right now would be a lot better if PC stood 10-3 with 2 Big East wins under its belt. It didn’t happen.
But on the bright side, as frustrating as those two games were, we know those are two beatable teams, as are the bulk of the league members, albeit with UConn and St John’s presenting more challenges than the rest
Right now, as the league stands, UConn and Creighton are 3-0, Villanova and St. John’s 2-0, Seton Hall 2-1, Butler, Georgetown and Xavier 1-2, and DePaul and Marquette are 0-3 Providence, 0-2. Not exactly an insurmountable situation for the Friars.
The record isn’t where we wanted it at this point but there is a good amount of talent on this squad - a good amount of quickness, speed and athletic ability. There are some things to work out - point guard by committee is difficult to sustain at times but most of the guys getting serious minutes are not averse to sharing the ball as evidenced by their very positive assist to turnover ratios:
Jason Edwards - 46 assists/ 19 TO’s (Impressive turnaround from his last year at Vanderbilt - 44 assists/53 TO's!)
Jaylin Sellers - 18 assists/10 TO’s
Stefan Vaaks - 44 assists/27 TO’s
Jamier Jones - 20 assists/12 TO’s
Corey Floyd Jr - 38 assists/15 TO’s
Ryan Mela - 31 assists/19 TO’s
As a team - 218 assists/149 TO’s - very respectable
Also, their collective free-throw shooting is 79% as a team, with three key players, Edwards, Sellers, and Mela, shooting 80%, 92%, and 83% respectively, enabling them to stay in the hunt in all these close games
They have been thin up front, especially matching up with bigger lineups, but hopefully, as Duncan Powell gets his legs and Pinnis continues to develop help is on its way
There is still a lot of time to turn this season around, and what better way to do it than going into MSG and grabbing a W from St John’s and Rick Pitino on January.
The beauty of playing at Providence is mostly due to the tradition and passion of its fan base. Sometimes, the flip side of that passion expresses itself demonstrably with strong disapproval. When you add to that the current state of college sports, where everyone is painfully aware of the large amounts of money changing hands, patience erodes under the weight of higher expectations
The pressure mounts, and water bottles start flying.
In terms of some of the frustration expressed concerning the progress of the current program, I would like to present some examples of the early coaching records of some great former coaches we are familiar with:
Coach Krzyzewski:
1980-81 Duke 17-13
1981-82 Duke 10-17
1982-83 Duke 11- 17
Jay Wright:
2001-02 Villanova 19-13
2002-03 Villanova 15-16
2003-04 Villanova 18-17
Jim Calhoun:
1986-87 UConn 9-19
1987-88 UConn 20-14
1988-89 UConn 18-13
Al Skinner:
1988-89 URI 13-15 1997-98 BC 15-6
1989-90 URI 15-13 1998-99 BC 6-21
1990-91 URI 11-17 1999-00 BC 11-19
All of these coaches went on to preeminent careers, and three of the four ended up in the Basketball Hall of Fame. The patience bestowed upon them was more than well rewarded.
I realize in the current state of college sports in general and in college basketball in particular, it’s a lot to ask for, but patience might be the best strategy as everyone learns to deal with all the chaos on the fly.
I can see Red sitting back in his swivel chair, taking a long draw out of his cigar, and in his slow, deliberate tone, gesturing with his palms downward, “Relax, don’t panic!”