Cordischi ‘s Scoop: Will former Virginia Coach be Cooley’s Top Assistant?

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

It has been only two weeks since Ed Cooley was introduced as the new men's basketball coach at Providence College and the Friars coach may be on the verge of landing a big recruit! Hold on! It's not what you're thinking. Cooley isn't about to get a committment from a top high school player. Instead, he may get one from a top flight coach.

Former University of Virginia head coach Dave Leitao is considering joining Cooley as his top assistant at PC after being schmoozed by the Friars new coach the past few days in Houston at the Final Four.

While Cooley never stated publicly exactly what he was looking for to round out his coaching staff, sources tell GoLocalProv.com that he preferred an African-American coach with experience who is also a good recruiter. Leitao more than fits that description.

Leitao took over for former Friars coach Pete Gillen at Virginia in 2005 and was named ACC Coach of the Year in 2006-2007 when he led the Cavs to a 21-11 record (11-5 - ACC) and into the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Two years later, he was bought out of the remainder of his contract following a 10-18 campaign which was Virginia's worst record in 40 years.

Leitao also spent three years as head coach at DePaul from 2002-2005. Prior to that he was an assistant for Jim Calhoun at UConn for 6 years following his two year stint as head coach at Northeastern from 1994-1996.

A former Division-1 coach said of Leitao's possible hire at PC, "he is one of the top 10 recruiters of our generation."

It is not a given that Leitao will accept the job at PC but the chances got better recently when Fairfield settled on Princeton's Sydney Johnson to replace Cooley as head coach of the Stags. Leitao was in the running for that position as well as former St. John's coach Norm Roberts and Cooley's former associate head coach Bob Simon who will now follow him to PC.

OTHER COLLEGE BASKETBALL NOTES / RUMORS:

-Word out of upstate New York says that former Brown coach Glen Miller is Colgate's choice to be their new men's basketball coach. Miller spent this past season as UConn's Director of Basketball Operations and was highly thought of by Jim Calhoun and AD Jeff Hathaway. One thing that could make Miller think twice about taking the Colgate job would be if George Blaney decided to retire. That could possibly open up a spot for Miller to be Calhoun's associate head coach which would certainly be enticing enough to hang around Storrs for a while longer.

-NC State is a little red-faced after being turned down by VCU's Shaka Smart. Smart decided to re-up with the Rams on a new 8-year deal leaving the Wolfpack hanging in the balance. Word is that NC State sent feelers out to Austin to see if Rick Barnes would return home to Carolina for as much as 3.5 million per year. Barnes, however, remains happy at Texas where he has a better chance to win the Big 12 than he would the ACC at NC State. The Wolfpack play third-fiddle behind Duke and North Carolina in that town making it a challenging job. We're told that Cincinnati's Mick Cronin is now tops on NC State's wish list.

-And congrats for former URI, PC and Pitt assistant coach Pat Skerry. He will take over as the new head coach at Towson University in Maryland replacing Pat Kennedy. Skerry has a difficult job ahead of him mas well as Towson went 0-18 in the very competetive CAA this past season.