🏀 Avery Johnson hires Providence Asst Bob Simon

[planomateo]

http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150419/SPORTS/150419240/13936/SPORTS

PC loses associate head coach Bob Simon to Alabama

Posted Apr. 19, 2015 at 4:35 PM

PROVIDENCE - The big football money circulating through college sports has cost Providence College a valued basketball coach.

Bob Simon, the Friars’ associate head coach and a valued recruiter, has been hired by new Alabama coach Avery Johnson. Simon has been friendly with Johnson since he coached with the New Jersey Nets and the Crimson Tide coach took note of Simon’s reputation as a national recruiter.

“Avery knew Bob could nationally recruit and that was enough to really interest him,” said PC head coach Ed Cooley. “Bob went down there and felt really wanted and I know he’ll be getting a nice raise. It’s something he felt he couldn’t say no to.”

Asked how much of a hit Simon’s loss is to his staff, Cooley said “I’m happy for him. He’s been with me for nine years. He’s ground out a lot of recruiting battles. We’ll miss him.”

That said, Cooley said he expects all of his assistants to move on at some point. “I was hoping he’d become a head coach from here. He deserves that chance,” Cooley said. “All of our guys can definitely become head coaches from here.”

Simon is a Michigan native who spent six years at the University of Toledo before joining Cooley at Fairfield. Once at Providence, Simon made an instant impact. He secured Michigan native LaDontae Henton - Cooley’s first recruit – and put in heavy legwork on several other current Friars, including Top 100 recruits Paschal Chukwu, Ben Bentil and Jalen Lindsey, a Tennessee native.

Simon has continued to pound the South in recent months and had the Friars involved with several big-name prospects in the 2016 class, including Braxton Blackwell (Tennessee), Kobi Simmons (Georgia), Josh Langford (Alabama) and Trent Forrest (Florida). The Friars will certainly try to remain in the mix for as many of those players as possible.

 

[TerryP]

As if this is breaking news... :sarc:

Noticed that there are readers and fans who keep track of things more closely than the media...

 

[alabama mike]

Hopefully, this hire will lead to some big recruits from the Jersey/NY area.

 

[psychojoe]

As I said in another post, we need to add another recuit for next season, since we are sitting on ten scholarship players. Perhaps the new guy can get us in on someone from out of state, since the most desirable in state players for 2015 in state are already obligated.