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

John Becker

When the Friars hired Cooley all those years ago, they plucked a promising young head coach from a local mid-major right when he was beginning to turn things around. There’s no telling what Fairfield could’ve or would’ve done had Cooley stayed beyond 2011, but it’s fair to say that hiring a head coach without NCAA Tournament experience was a bit of a risk. Why not look at another local mid-major coach, but one who has put teams in the Big Dance?

Becker was ironically born in Fairfield and spent time in Washington DC, serving as head coach at Gallaudet and an assistant at Catholic University, his alma mater. He joined the staff of Vermont way back in 2006 and became the Catamounts’ head coach five seasons later. Across the last 12 seasons, he’s led Vermont to five trips to the Big Dance and seven consecutive America East regular season titles, winning 280 games already in his career.

He knows how to recruit in New England and he knows how to win games; it’s hard to go wrong with someone like Becker leading the Friars into the future. The obvious downside is that this isn’t exactly an exciting name, even if he does have a winning pedigree. Providence will likely opt to throw their money at someone more prominent, but someone really ought to take a chance on Becker because what he’s done at Vermont has been excellent, establishing the dominant mid-major program of the northeast.