Reports: Providence hires George Mason coach Kim English to replace Ed Cooley

Princeton quickly found its replacement for Ed Cooley.

According tomultiple reports, the school has hired George Mason coach Kim English as its new men's basketball coach. Providence was in the market for a coach after Cooley left earlier this week for fellow Big East member Georgetown.

English, 34, has been a head coach for two seasons. He was hired at George Mason ahead of the 2021-22 season and the Patriots went 14-16 after going 13-9 in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. This past season, George Mason was 20-13 and finished fifth in the Atlantic-10. The Patriots lost to St. Louis by 28 in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic-10 tournament.

Before he was hired at George Mason, English was an assistant at Tulsa, Colorado and Tennessee. He got into coaching in 2015 after a three-year professional career that included stops around the globe. A second-round pick of the Detroit Pistons in 2012, English played college basketball at Missouri and was a key part of the Tigers’ Big 12 tournament-winning team in their final season in the conference.

Cooley left for Georgetown after the Friars finished ahead of the Hoyas in the Big East standings. Providence was 13-7 in the Big East in 2022-23 while Georgetown was last with a 2-18 record under Patrick Ewing. Providence was one of five teams from the conference that made the NCAA tournament and the Friars lost 61-53 as a No. 11 seed to Kentucky in the first round.

Cooley had a 242-153 record in 12 seasons at Providence and takes over a Georgetown program with a lot more history even as it's struggled in recent seasons with Ewing at the helm.