Redraft pick No. 9
Bennett adds Georgetown’s Ed Cooley and drops Washington’s Mike Hopkins
Sorry, Hop. I really thought you had something going in Seattle after you won the Pac-12 in 2019 and were bringing in multiple five-star recruits. It’s not you, it’s me. Well, OK, it’s kind of you. But best of luck the next six years.
So here I am again with the final pick in this exercise. That worked out pretty well with Hurley, who helped me post the highest score last season and climb out of the basement. I wrestled with so many options here, including Dusty May, Missouri’s Dennis Gates,
Kansas State’s Jerome Tang and even Rick Pitino. And suddenly, Izzo was available to me if I wanted to roll the dice. I really wanted to draft Pitino for the fun of it, but it’s probably going to take a couple years for him to really get
St. John’s going, and I don’t have that kind of time. (Does he? I hope so.). May and Gates perfectly fit my young-guys-with-upside criteria, but neither is at a school I can count on making a Final Four run — sure, May just did it, but the odds of Florida Atlantic repeating that magic seem astronomical. Both could be in bigger jobs in the next six years, but that seems risky. Tang might have caught lightning in a bottle with Markquis Nowell this March, and the expanded Big 12 — possibly with
Gonzaga at some point in the near future — is going to be absolutely brutal.
That’s why I’m going with Cooley. We know he’s a fabulous coach who has done great things at Providence, and now he gets even more resources at Georgetown. He’ll turn 54 before the season, so he should stick around a while. The early days in D.C. could be a bit bumpy; if you go to the
Hoyas’ 2023-24 roster page on their official team site right now, the only person listed is Ed Cooley. Not ideal! But we know he can work the transfer portal with the best of them, and I think he’ll get
Georgetown back rather quickly. In fact, I’m counting on it.
The full squads
Dana O’Neil: Mark Few, Buzz Williams, Mick Cronin, Eric Musselman and Kevin Willard
Brian Hamilton: Chris Holtmann, Mike White, Steve Wojciechowski, Tommy Lloyd and Greg McDermott
Seth Davis: Tony Bennett, Bill Self, Matt Painter, Bruce Pearl and Kelvin Sampson
Eamonn Brennan: John Calipari, Scott Drew, Sean Miller, Nate Oats and Shaka Smart
Brian Bennett: Chris Beard, Penny Hardaway, Dan Hurley, Jon Scheyer and Ed Cooley
t.co