Sources: Georgetown expected to hire Cooley

Georgetown is expected to hire Providence coach Ed Cooley as the Hoyas’ next coach, sources told ESPN. The sides have been in deep discussions Monday, and a deal is expected to be finalized in the near future, per ESPN sources.

The hire for Georgetown marks a significant upgrade from the doldrums the program endured under Patrick Ewing, which included a 29-game conference losing streak and 13-50 record the past two seasons.

Georgetown’s targeting and landing a Big East rival looms as a significant coup, as Cooley has consistently overachieved at Providence. He has reached the NCAA tournament in seven of the past nine years it has been held, and that run includes a Big East regular-season championship in 2021-22.

Georgetown has reached the NCAA tournament in just one of the past seven years that it has been held, and the school extended Ewing after he clinched his lone NCAA bid by winning the Big East tournament in a year that it finished 13-13. Georgetown hasn’t finished with a winning record in the Big East since 2014-15.

Considering Georgetown’s location in the middle of Washington, arguably the best basketball city in the country, the upside of the program is considered higher than Providence’s. The Hoyas have reached five Final Fours in program history and won the 1984 national title.

Cooley will be tasked with those types of expectations after a successful run at Providence, where he went 242-153 over 12 seasons.

Cooley, 53, has been pursued for other jobs in the past, most notably Michigan in 2019 when the Wolverines ultimately hired Juwan Howard. He withdrew from the job after conversations with Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, returning to a multiyear contract extension with Providence.

Providence officials went to great lengths to attempt to keep Cooley again this time, with sources saying he was offered a long-term deal with a pay raise.

Cooley, a Providence native, has spent his entire coaching career in New England. He started as an assistant coach at UMass Dartmouth and Stonehill College, his alma mater. He then spent a year as an assistant coach at Rhode Island before following Al Skinner to Boston College for a decade as his assistant.

Cooley’s first head-coaching job came at Fairfield, where he led the Stags to a MAAC regular-season title in 2011 before being hired at his hometown school to replace Keno Davis.

In 12 seasons with the Friars, Cooley won the Big East conference tournament in 2014, which led to the program’s second tournament title in its history. This season, Providence started 14-3 overall and 6-0 in conference play before struggling down the stretch en route to a first-round NCAA tournament exit to Kentucky, 61-53.