PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Three steps out the door, he stopped to say hello. Two more and a police officer and his wife asked for a picture. A shuffle along and a fan came up with his boy wearing a Devin Carter jersey, asking whether he could say hello. Motoring finally back toward his locker room, he asked to pause and walked into the warm embrace of a friend who wrapped his hand around the back of his head, drawing him into his shoulder. And then one last stop, a security guard who’s been holding fort in the building for six years called his name, and Ed Cooley stopped and hugged him, too.
No one in Providence right now wants to hear about any of this. They want to bathe in the joy of their 84-76 win over Georgetown and the exorcism of the coach that betrayed them it delivers. Human Ed Cooley is not welcome in the town where fans turned “F— Ed Cooley” into a daylong chorus.
But this, of course, is the ironic twist in the whole thing: Fans at Providence wouldn’t hate him so much today if they didn’t love him so hard for so long. And they loved him because he was so very good at his job. No one, let’s face it, is angry at Keno Davis.
This game wasn’t just about Cooley; it was because of him. He built Providence back up by doing exactly what he said he would do at the…
