Providence Basketball: 10 candidates to replace Ed Cooley as head coach

Micah Shrewsberry

Most of Shrewsberry’s life has been spent in the state of Indiana, one of the best basketball states in the nation, but that doesn’t stop him from being a legitimate candidate at Providence for several great reasons. For starters, he’s the only name on this list who’s currently a power conference head coach and he’s significantly increased his profile with his team’s play in recent weeks.

A native of Indianapolis, Shrewsberry was an assistant at Butler when the Bulldogs made two straight trips to the national title game and later followed Brad Stevens to the Boston Celtics, working in the NBA for six years. He was also briefly an NAIA head coach and an aide to Matt Painter at Purdue before taking the Penn State job in 2021. After a tough debut season, he led the Nittany Lions to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in twelve years, getting an opening-round win over Texas A&M last week as well.

Shrewsberry did great work with the Celtics in nearby Boston and would actually fit in well down at Providence. He’d move to another power conference program, but a Providence program that puts basketball first, which certainly can’t be said about Penn State. He’ll likely be one of the Friars’ top targets and has been a name that’s come up for several jobs in recent weeks. You also have to wonder if he’ll end up at one of the Indiana jobs in the future, with Notre Dame still open right now.