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

Tobin Anderson

It’s amazing how fast things can change in just one calendar year. Twelve months ago, Anderson was on nobody’s radar, humming along as a successful D2 head coach, but things have changed in a major way for Anderson’s career this past year and he’ll certainly come up as an intriguing name in coaching openings for years to come.

Though a native of Iowa, Anderson’s coaching career has taken him to the East Coast, with successful head coaching stints at Clarkson, Hamilton, and St. Thomas Aquinas at lower collegiate levels. He was brought to Fairleigh Dickinson this past offseason and engineered one of the most incredible turnaround seasons we’ve ever seen. After the Knights won just four games last season, they returned to the NCAA Tournament in his first year and won multiple games, including an all-time upset of 1-seed Purdue in the first round.

You could argue that Anderson needs far more experience than one year at a NEC school, especially since FDU didn’t even win their conference titles this season. You could also watch what he did with these Knights, especially during that Tournament run, and see that this is a coach that knows basketball, culture, and how to build a winning team. He preached and his players listened and Anderson will one day be a fantastic head coach at a higher level, even if Providence won’t pull the trigger today .