Cooley, Hurley feisty foes in the past
Dan Hurley is as feisty and emotional as any coach in the country. The man was ejected from two games within his first two months as UConn’s head coach.
Ed Cooley is an outgoing, gregarious type, but the Providence coach isn’t about to back down from anybody.
Put them on opposing sidelines and things could get interesting. It was supposed to happen on Thursday, when UConn and Providence were due to meet for the first time in seven years as Big East rivals, but that has been postponed. Still, Hurley and Cooley promise to provide great theater for years to come.
In fact, they already have.
In his six seasons as Rhode Island’s coach from 2012-2018, Hurley faced Cooley’s Friars each December in a heated intrastate rivalry. Cooley won the first five meetings, with Hurley finally snagging one in his final season in Kingston.
Emotions always ran high in those games, but never more so than on Dec. 5, 2013 at URI’s Ryan Center, when the two coaches engaged in a spirited shouting match and had to be separated by their respective assistants.
With just under four minutes to play in a tightly-contested game, URI’s Xavier Munford hit a 3-pointer to bring the Rams to within a point (47-46). Cooley called a timeout, and as PC guard Josh Fortune headed to the Friar huddle, he seemed to give URI’s E.C. Matthews a little bump. Matthews objected and appeared to shout some words towards Cooley & Co. Cooley seemed to respond, suggesting Matthews head to his own huddle.
Well, in Dan Hurley’s