Old friends reunite at Dunk
Cooley, Walsh bonded as assistant coaches
PROVIDENCE – It’s a framed picture that has a lot of meaning and has gone on to occupy wall space in two separate offices.
Nowadays, the photo of Ed Cooley and Bob Walsh that accompanied a March 2004 article in The New York Times is viewed as a quintessential moment frozen in time. Back then, Cooley and Walsh were assistant basketball coaches at Boston College and Providence, respectively. As the accompanying photo caption indicated, there was a firm purpose behind the meeting in the parking lot of a gas station just over the Rhode Island border.
Cooley and Walsh were there to exchange game film that would be dissected in preparation of their program’s respective NCAA Tournament opponents. The article mentioned that one of the coaches was driving a black Lexus while the other pulled up in a red Ford.
“I had the Lexus. We met in North Attleboro because I was living in Pawtucket at the time,” Walsh said. “It was like a basketball coaches’ version of a drug deal. You give me your tapes and I’ll give you our tapes.”
Walsh transformed the NYT article and picture of himself and Cooley into a nice keepsake. Nowadays it hangs in Walsh’s office at the University of Maine, which is in town to face Cooley’s Friars on Tuesday night (8:30 tip) at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. Before making the move to Orono to become the head coach of the Black Bears, Walsh had the snapshot of his past coaching life at PC displayed in a prominent place inside his Rhode Island College basketball work space.
The relationship between Cooley and Walsh is based on mutual respect. When Cooley was an assistant at BC, he lived on Brentwood Ave. in Providence. To make the time go faster as the morning traffic died down before heading to Chestnut Hill, Cooley would venture over to the PC basketball office and shoot the breeze with Walsh.
“Sometimes we would trade video tapes or just talk hoops,” Walsh recalled. “He’d bring in coffee for the staff and say hello.”
Walsh returns to a city that will forever be near and dear to him. He was 26 when then-Providence head coach Tim Welsh offered him a coaching job. After leaving the Friars in 2005, Walsh went a jump shot away to RIC where he became a head coach for the first time in his life. He went on to pilot the Anchormen for nine glorious seasons where conference titles and NCAA Tournament appearances became the norm rather than the exception.
“It’s a grind and a lot of work, but if you’re around the right people and you get a couple of breaks … Ed and myself are certainly blessed to be doing what we are for a living at the Division I level,” Walsh said. “It’s a pretty cool journey when you trace the steps. Ed is one of my closest friends in the business. He’s such a genuine guy.”
Cooley happily returned the favor with, “I’m really happy for Bob. He paid his dues. There’s only 351 jobs like this in the country. He’s somebody who earned it and did it the right way.”
Walsh is now in his second year at Maine. He says the idea of the Friars and Black Bears getting together was first talked about shortly after he made the jump from RIC and Division III to Division I. Agame was agreed upon for last season before Providence pulled out late. This season with Maine already committed to coming to Providence to face Brown, the Friars set aside a date that works to Walsh’s benefit. Maine will remain in Rhode Island for a Thursday afternoon game at Brown.
Walsh spent seven years as a Friar assistant and attended many PC games while at RIC. He probably didn’t need much help finding his way around The Dunk as Maine practiced there Monday. On Tuesday night, a feeling of nostalgia figures to wash over Walsh as he looks in the direction of the PC bench and sees another coaching success story in Cooley.
“It’s going to be really cool to bring our team in to face Ed’s team on Tuesday night,” Walsh said. “I would be lying to you if I said this game doesn’t mean a lot. It does.”
RIM RATTLERS: Walsh is very impressed with Providence’s earlyseason returns. The Friars (9-2) go for their fifth straight win and ninth win in as many tries at home. “Cooley has that program at a place where it’s the same thing year after year regardless of what the pieces are,” Walsh said. “Their player development and the way they put guys into their program … the most impressive thing is that they expect to win every night.” … Maine comes to town with a 4-7 record. Wes Myers is the team’s top point producer (14.7 ppg). … Tuesday’s game is also a homecoming of sorts for Antone Gray, the former St. Raphael all-state hoopster who’s now an assistant coach under Walsh at Maine.