New Miami Coach

[GP1]

Press Notice

[ZachTheZip]

OSU's old football coach?

[Dave in Green]

Cooper not only has a fine coaching record, but he has to be the MAC's first head basketball coach who was a Rhodes Scholar candidate. I'm impressed.

[GP1]

TSU went 12-18 the year before he became coach and in three years he had them at 20-13. TSU had not had a 20 win season in 20 years.

For the younger crowd, the Zips used to be in the OVC. It was then and still is a good basketball conference. Turning a program around in that league in only three years is a good accomplishment.

[Dave in Green]

@GP1, as good as that turnaround in season record was, Cooper was also pretty good at getting his team up for the big games:

Perhaps TSU's most impressive victory this past season came on Feb. 9 when it defeated seventh-ranked Murray State, 72-68. The loss was only one of two in `11-12 that was suffered by the 31-2 Racers. Cooper's team nearly earned a berth in the 2012 NCAA Tournament, losing at the hands of Murray State by a score of 54-52 in the OVC Tournament final.

[Z.I.P.]

Okay trivia buffs, who can forget that the biggest upset in Akron basketball history was over the undefeated Tennessee State Tigers in the NCAA national semifinals at Evansville, Indiana in 1972? The star of that Tiger team would go on to start several seasons and win an NBA championship with the Portland Trailblazers -- Lloyd Neal.

[GP1]

Article

Wants up-tempo game.

[GP1]

@GP1, as good as that turnaround in season record was, Cooper was also pretty good at getting his team up for the big games:

True. The guy has paid his dues as an assistant. He was an assistant at two different schools in two different conferences that won their conference championship, Oregon and South Carolina. Lots of years on the grapes in the bottle. We still don't know if he is a $75 bottle of wine or $200. The bottle is open and the initial sip was good, but not great yet. A couple of years to open up and and we will know more.