Although Michigan hired Juwan Howard last week to become its next head coach, current Providence head coach Ed Cooley’s name was heavily linked to the position.
Cooley joined Jeff Goodman on his “Good N’ Plenty” podcast to discuss his interest in the Michigan position. The link between Cooley and Michigan was established due to Cooley’s relationship with Turnkey Sports, the search firm the Wolverines used.
“Gene DeFilippo was one of their spokesmen,” Cooley said on the podcast. “I’ve known Gene a long time when he was the AD at Boston College when I had an opportunity to work for Al Skinner. Gave us a call and said would you have an interest?"
For Cooley to leave Providence, he said it would take somewhere that fit for him. U-M was not the first school that has called looking to bring Cooley in.
“Through my whole tenure at Providence, there really wasn’t a school that got me to at least consider,” he said. “There’s been some great opportunities that have been presented, but my whole thing is fit. Not comfort, [it’s] fit. I think so many people don’t look into fit and how they can have success knowing what they know, how they know it.”
Michigan was an attractive school for Cooley.
“This Michigan opportunity, I had to listen to them,” Cooley said. “It wasn’t so much that you wanted to do it, I needed an opportunity to sit and talk with Warde [Manuel]. Let’s face it, [Michigan] is one of the best athletic brands in all of college sports. That’s how it came about. Then I had an opportunity to speak with Warde who I’ve known when he was in the Big East, when he was the athletic director at UConn. That’s kind of how that all unfolded.”
While Cooley end up at Michigan, he had strong feelings about the Wolverines.
“Warde made it really hard, very, very hard,” Cooley said. “Warde and Doug, his assistant, did a really good job pointing out the positives, pointing out where they’re trying to go. Obviously, the Big Ten is a very good league. The coaches are very good coaches.
“It was very, very difficult … At the end of the day, fit was everything to me. Not so much being home but leaving home and the locker room of the players we’ve recruited, the kids that came to Providence because of the way they were recruited, and I just didn’t think now was that time.”
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