A new day on the Hilltop - Ed Cooley is Georgetown's Head Basketball Coach

Just 11 days after the dismissal of Head Coach Patrick Ewing, Georgetown has its new head coach. Ed Cooley will take over as the new head coach of the Georgetown Men’s Basketball Team.

This comes after wide speculation over the past several weeks, even before Georgetown parted easy with Ewing. Cooley was the most common name in the rumor mill and has now come to fruition as Georgetown’s new coach.

“We are deeply honored that Coach Cooley will be joining our community as the next leader of the Men’s basketball program,” Georgetown University President John DeGioia said in a statement released by the Athletic Department. “Ed is a proven leader and an experienced coach, whose values and knowledge of the game will lead our program into this new chapter.”

This new chapter for Georgetown basketball will not be easy. Whoever the university brought in to lead the basketball program had a monumental task ahead of them, but as DeGioia said, Cooley has experience and he has proven that he can turn a program into a winner.

In 12 seasons at Providence, Cooley led the Friars to 7 NCAA Tournament appearances, including a Sweet 16 run in 2021-22 in which the team won 27 games, tied for the second most wins in a season in program history, earning Cooley Big East Coach of the Year honors.

Prior to Cooley’s arrival, PC had made the tournament just four times in the previous 21 seasons while finishing below .500 in nine of those seasons.

Cooley’s decision will undoubtedly come with fallout. As a Providence native, for him to leave will not sit well for the Friar faithful. Beyond that, Providence is in a remarkably better position as a basketball program than Georgetown at the moment, so the move comes as a bit of a shock for much of the college basketball world.

With its prestige and history, however, Georgetown is seemingly the program with the ‘higher ceiling.’ They have the history of sustained success, although not recently, boast one of the best recruiting pools with D.C. known for its high school hoops and also have the deeper pockets.

Surely more to come on this in the days/weeks to come, but I already cannot wait for the two meetings next season between Providence and Georgetown, particularly the one in Rhode Island.