An unexpectedly good season helped present an impassable offer for Auburn assistant John Cooper.
Cooper, an assistant coach in some fashion since 1993, was named head coach at Tennessee State University on Friday.
“It is a lifelong dream and a lifelong journey,” Cooper said in a university release. “I am so grateful for one, having the opportunity to come to Auburn and having been allowed to grow as a coach and given the opportunity by Jeff. Two, when I informed the team I told them that without them, without the year they had and what they did, I wouldn’t have been given this opportunity.”
Cooper, 40, has been around as associate head coach since Jeff Lebo was named head coach in 2004. A standout forward at Wichita State under Eddie Fogler, Cooper got his coaching start at Div. II Fayetteville (N.C.) State before joining Fogler at South Carolina in 1995. Cooper spent three years coaching alongside Lebo in Columbia, S.C. Before coming to Auburn, Cooper spent two years as an assistant at Oregon.
Cooper served as Lebo’s associate head coach, and even filled in for the five-year coach on two occasions. The Tigers went 1-1 under Cooper’s watch.
“I am real excited for John to get this first opportunity to be a head basketball coach at Tennessee State, “ Lebo said. “He certainly has been an integral part of our program for the last five years. Tennessee State is getting a class act, and we all will miss him and wish him nothing but the best.”
Cooper replaces Cy Alexander at Tennessee State, a historically black college in Nashville, Tenn. In six seasons, Alexander, who was fired, went 67-107 overall and 48-56 in the Ohio Valley Conference.
“Friends never say goodbye. Friends say until we meet again, and we leave a lot of friends here,” Cooper said. “I am really enthusiastic and excited about the opportunity. My goal is to obviously be successful, but also to put a product on the court that Tennessee State University is proud of, and one that is successful both on and off the court.”
“In the future, we want to be able to say that we competed for championships in the OVC and hopefully say that we have won championships.”
agribble@oanow.com | 737-2561
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