So, first, let me say, Cooley has, protestations to the contrary, handled his negotiation brilliantly. In my humble opinion, Georgetown is spending $6 million a year “not to suck”. That is what Ed Cooley brings.
But Slick Rick Pitino is no slouch at self promotion either. On one hand, he can take the Saint Johns job and get back to being a “high major” program without having to move. He saw that PC was prepared to pay Cooley $5 million. That’s likely to be more money (as in at least a couple of million more) than he would get at Saint Johns. He knows PC is stunned by Cooley’s departure and is scrambling to save face. He can hop in grab at least 5 million, and perhaps more, and look like a hero while he does it. Plus, he’s at an institution we’re even a moderate level of success allows him to Coach for as long as he wants.
This whole drama is shaping up to be really interesting. The problem is Georgetown and Providence College’s reckless spending has, de facto, raise the bar for coaches salaries in the conference. That’s a bad thing for Connecticut. Depending on how far Hurley goes in the tournament, we will probably have to deal with this new reality over the next few months.