Providence coach Cooley praises Kansas Jayhawks’ first-team All-American, Ochai Agbaji
Providence College men’s basketball coach Ed Cooley has been impressed with consensus first-team All-American Ochai Agbaji during film study sessions this week in Rhode Island.
“What stood out? Everything stood out. He is talented. He can score at every level. He can drive it, shoot it, post. We have to keep him out of transition,” Cooley said Tuesday.
The 52-year-old, 11th-year Providence College coach held his first news conference of the week in advance of Friday’s NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional Sweet 16 game between the No. 4 seed Friars (27-5) and No. 1 seed Jayhawks (30-6). Tipoff is 6:29 p.m. at Chicago’s United Center.
“He’s having a year … when you look at his gradual progression, he reminds me of a progression of a Bryce Cotton where he was his freshman year, sophomore year, junior year, senior year,” Cooley said, comparing 6-foot-5 senior Agbaji to former Friars standout Cotton, a 29-year-old 6-foot guard who plays pro ball in Australia.
Cotton averaged 4.0 points a game his freshman year at Providence (2010-11), then upped his scoring mark to 14.3 points his sophomore season, 19.7 points per game as a junior and 21.8 as a senior.
Agbaji averages 19.3 points per game as a senior after averaging 8.5 points as a freshman (2018-19), 10.0 as a sophomore and 14.1 as a junior.
“He’s one of the elite players in all of college basketball,” Cooley added. “He’ll be a tough task for us.”
Cooley’s early scouting report on KU indicates, “the task in front of us is a very experienced, older, athletic (team). Coach (Bill) Self has more counters than you can counter. We’ve got to be prepared when something breaks down, what is their ‘it?’ They are very physical, make it hard for you to run your offense. The enormity of it is great, but it’s 40 minutes. I’ve got to get my guys ready for it.”
Six of Providence’s top seven players are seniors. KU, meanwhile, starts seniors in Agbaji and David McCormack, a junior in Christian Braun and a pair of third-year sophomores in Jalen Wilson and Dajuan Harris. Seniors Remy Martin, Mitch Lightfoot and Jalen Coleman-Lands come off the bench, as does third-year sophomore Joseph Yesufu. Freshmen Zach Clemence and KJ Adams have been used off the bench, as well.
“I feel great about my team,” Cooley said. “We are older, experienced, have some athleticism. It should be a really great game. It comes down to little things. You get in the tournament, the littlest things mean a lot. We’ve done a great job preparing for that. We’ve gotten our doors blown off in a couple games (88-56 loss at Marquette, 85-58 loss to Creighton in Big East tournament).
“We have to stay in the moment, be very transparent with the team, (say), ‘This is the task we have.’ Make it clear to them we’ll keep the focus in the present and the moment.”
Providence, which defeated Texas Tech 72-68 in Providence and won 63-58 at Wisconsin in the nonconference portion of the 2021-22 season, is 11-2 in games decided by five points or less, 3-0 in overtime games and 16-2 in games decided by single digits.
Cooley has led the Friars to six NCAA tournaments in his 11 seasons. Their best performance so far in his tenure was his 24-11 squad’s appearance in the Round of 32 in 2015-16. Before coaching at Providence, he coached at Fairfield for five seasons.
The winner of the KU-Providence game Friday will meet Iowa State or Miami on Sunday for a spot in the Final Four.
This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 1:54 PM.
