Ed Cooley’s Perspective on His First Hundred Games

Ed Cooley

Game one:  I suffered a double-overtime loss to American. We’ll get better.

Game two: I suffered an overtime loss to Holy Cross. Fool me once … oh, it’s fine. We’ll get better.

Game five: Hasheem Thabeeet. He’s good.

Game six: Success! My first career win as a head coach. Welcome to the Cooley photo album, Central Arkansas.

Game seven: Roy Hibbert. He’s good.

Game eight: Rich Flemming. Not good.

Game 12: The box score will tell you that it was only a three-point loss to Manhattan just prior to our mid season break. Ignore the stats. I’ll tell you the real story of the game. “We were terrible. If there was a positive in this game, I thought our assistant coaches were well dressed,” I said.

Games 13 to 17: Five straight losses. That’s 14 losses in the first 18 games as a collegiate head coach. Not exactly the way we had it scripted, but remember my preseason warning: “Don’t judge us by our wins and losses.”

Game 18: Make that 15 losses in 19 games. I could really use a vacation right about now. Maybe I’ll look into that for next season.

Games 19 to 25: It started as an innocent slipup against Iona that led to an overtime contest, a game we went onto win after Mamadou Diakhate ‘08 nailed a three in the corner to tie the game just before the shot clock expired. Who would’ve thought that would’ve led to a six-game win streak.

Game 26: Make that seven. Maybe I’ll get cozy at this place after all. “No pressure on us. I love the way we’re playing coming down the stretch.”

Game 28 to 33: “Van Schaick put on his cape in the second half, he had his Aquaman belt on, his Batman suit on, and he was phenomenal down the stretch. That’s what seniors do, it’s something we’ve come to expect with Van Schaick.”

Game 33, Part Two: Roi Buchbinder. Not good.

Game 34: “You have to give a hand to Loyola; they made shots down the stretch. We have a lot of growing up to do. But we will. We will be better.”

Game 35: An 85-60 loss to start the season: unacceptable. An 85-60 loss to Wake Forest, on the road, and a 20-point outing from freshman forward Warren Edney on the first night of his collegiate career? I’ll take it. Maybe this year will be different.

Game 36: Blood on the court, and another blemish on our record. “It was a very emotional game, but it is something we will learn from,” I said.

Game 38: A cross-town rivalry. Now this is as close to the excitable on-court atmosphere I’m accustomed to in the Atlantic Coastal Conference (ACC) days.
Game 63: Jason Thompson. He’s good.

Game 63, Part Two: Devin Johnson. Not good.

Game 64: Déjà vu all over again: a season-ending loss to Loyola. But we’ll grow up, we’ll mature. We’ll get better.

Game 65: A 90-63 loss to start the season: unacceptable. An 90-63 loss to last year’s national championship runner-up, on the road, with a 24-point outing from forward Warren Edney on the first night of his sophomore season? I’ll take it. Maybe this year will be different.

Game 67: Regardless of the opponent, it is hard to soothe a seventeen-point defeat to Virginia Tech. Then again, we are in Puerto Rico, and it is a long season.
Game 68: (see above, Insert: Missouri for Virginia Tech)

Game 83: A double-digit loss to Siena. I expect more from a team ranked second in the preseason MAAC Coaches’ poll, even if we are playing the conference favorite. We need to learn. We need to mature. We need to get better.

Game 84: Ryan Thompson. He’s good.

Game 85: A 65-60 loss to Manhattan. No comment from my (former) point guard, no comment from me.

Game 93: My first postseason victory as a head coach. Move over on my coaching mantle, Central Arkansas.

Game 94: Credit Siena. “I thought as a program we got better this year with all the adversity we faced,” I said. “I can’t tell you how proud I am of our kids, as I said yesterday. Hopefully this is a learning experience for us.” We’ll grow. We’ll get better.

Game 97: Greivis Vasquez. He’s good. But, hey, Gary got a steal.

Game 100: A few mental errors and mistakes in a 84-80 loss to Hofstra, only our second of the season. We’ll learn from this. We’ll mature. We’ll get better. I just need that learning to translate … finally.

Maybe this year will be different.