For the past two seasons, I’ve watched.
Watched head coach Ed Cooley stride off of the floor at the Times-Union Center in a pseudo-limp – as if indicative of the battle that the Stags just went through.
Watched him shake hands with a stark face and rush his way down the line. Watched him turn his head to the rafters.
Watched him just gaze.
It’s hard to define what it is a coach feels in a moment like that. Hell, it’s hard enough to define what a coach really thinks when he talks to the media in cliche-lish, no less when he delves into the inner recesses of his soul one of those me-moments.
Then comes the moment that follows. The moment he faces his players. The moment when he chooses: yell, scream, cuss; praise, laugh, applaud; preach, teach, learn.
It’s impossible to predict Cooley’s choice of words in that “fly on the wall” moment 24 hours ago in the Stags’ locker room following the Stags 62-60 loss to Siena, which stretched its consecutive win streak in Albany to 34 straight games.
It’s a lot easier to predict his words, say, three weeks ago, when the Stags were missing in action and Rider shot the lights out at Harbor Yard. A loss at home to a middle-of-the-road team? Odds are his words were far from kind.
Or against Iona, on the road, when the Stags allowed three after three and missed free throw after free throw to allow Iona to dance into second place in the conference. None too pleased would probably be an understatement.
But last night, I’d like to think Cooley went soft.
Not soft to the point that he ignored the team’s 17 missed three-pointers, or their 15 turnovers to 12 assists, but a kinder, gentler Cooley that one would presume enter the room following a loss of that magnitude when the game is so close, so winnable, so big.
Cooley is well aware of the dire circumstances that fell upon the team a week ago, when junior forward Yorel Hawkins, perhaps the team’s most dynamic player, was diagnosed with an apparent season-ending knee injury.
Whether or not he has played his last game of the season remains to be seen, but it was clear from the outset that the injury could not have happened at a worse time, and that Stags faced an uphill battle in perhaps their most difficult stretch of the season.
What happened, in both games, was convincing, if not impressive. The Stags handled St. Peter’s, which entered the game poised to overtake Fairfield for third-place in the conference. Two days later, they stood eye-to-eye with Siena in the MAAC’s capital region and didn’t blink.
Even the most ardent Fairfield fan wouldn’t have predicted either a week ago. In fact, a pessimist would’ve said that the season wasn’t over, but that, without Hawkins, any chance of a March to remember had vanished.
Something tells me Cooley reminded the team of that misconception after last night’s game.
Maybe the Stags will be alright. Maybe they planted a seed in Siena’s head poised to spring some March. Maybe the next time Cooley looks to the sky after a game in Albany, he won’t have to think of a conciliatory speech anymore.
Leave a Reply