There's no question Georgetown is better now than it was two days ago. But Cooley immediately raises the floor for Georgetown - a floor that didn't exist under Ewing, whose team at one point lost a conference-record 29 straight Big East games. (or even Thompson III) remains to be determined. Whether Cooley raises the Hoyas' ceiling to what it was under Thompson Jr. This is a great hire. At Providence, Cooley churned out hard-nosed, quality teams that won close games, a must in the Big East. Sources told our Matt Norlander that Georgetown had been targeting Cooley for weeks, and Matt describes this as "a tectonic in the Big East this amounts to a coup for Georgetown, which strengthens its program and theoretically weakens its Rhode Island intra-conference brethren." Then came Thompson Jr.'s former player and assistant coach Craig Esherick (1998-2004) and John Thompson III (2004-17) before Ewing, who starred at Georgetown under Thompson Jr. Ewing had been the fourth straight coach connected to John Thompson Jr., the Hall of Famer who led Georgetown's rise starting in 1972.Cooley will take over for Patrick Ewing, who was fired earlier this month after going 75-109 over six seasons. The Friars won their first Big East regular-season title in 2021-22. Across a dozen seasons at Providence, Cooley, 53, went 242-153 (.613 win pct) and made the NCAA Tournament seven times.The Hoyas hired Providencecoach Ed Cooley to take over a once-proud Hoyas program looking to return to relevance. The Final Four is set for Saturday, April 1, with the national championship game on Monday, April 3.Good morning to everyone but especially to.įor just the fifth time in five decades, Georgetown is hiring a new coach. The remaining eight teams will face off on Saturday and Sunday. Thursday's gamesįour games each will be played on Thursday and Friday, with the first tipoff at 6:30 p.m. MSU has gotten big contributions from a couple of players who transferred from other schools, including leading scorer Tyson Walker. At this level, if you're half in, you're nowhere."ĭespite his skepticism, Izzo has taken advantage of the portal - and it's helped his team in this tournament. "What to me is bad about it is the fact that every kid who has a bad day just thinks about leaving. every place isn't for everybody," Izzo said recently. Michigan State's head coach Tom Izzo, a frequent transfer portal critic, says there are pluses and minuses. It's had a big impact on spreading talent: Last year, about 1,650 Division I men's college basketball players went into the portal.Ĭoaches and programs are still figuring out how to adjust - and how to retain top players. The NCAA changed its transfer portal system in April of 2021 to allow athletes to switch schools and play immediately. From 1980 to 2019, at least one of those teams got this far in every year's tournament. This is the second time in three years that four of the top "blue blood" programs - North Carolina, Kansas, Duke and Kentucky - are not in the Sweet 16. To find a recent NCAA champion in the current field, you have to go all the way back to 2014 winners UConn. It's a good year for new blood, rather than blue-bloodĮleven conferences are represented in this year's Sweet 16. 9 seed has rejected the Cinderella label, saying its 33-3 record came from hard work and focus, not a fairy godmother. The Tigers are making the case that their offense and rebounding is good enough to hang with the country's best teams. Two teams are getting the Cinderella label, especially the lowest seed still playing: No. 1 seeds, Purdue and defending champion Kansas, are out. 1 seeds, Alabama and Houston, have looked like the hands-down best team. But this year is kind of hard to pin down. Sports March Madness brackets are all busted, but the Sweet 16 beckons The Big Dance's floor is wide openīy this stage of the tournament, an air of destiny often begins to settle on one or two teams that have the right mix of talent and momentum to reach the final.
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