Photo - KWC Athletics
The Kentucky Wesleyan College Panthers apparently have their new head basketball coach. Drew Cooper will serve as the 23rd Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Kentucky Wesleyan College as announced by Director of Athletic Rob Mallory on Friday morning. Cooper will be introduced to the community at a press conference at 2 pm on Monday afternoon.
Cooper is an experienced hand within the region as he just completed a successful five year run as the Head Coach at Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Kentucky. The Saints have gone 94-46 in Cooper’s tenure with a 66-20 mark in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC), including two straight championships and NCAA Tournament appearances. Cooper was named by his peers as the 2016-17 and 2017-18 PAC Coach of the Year. Over the past two seasons the Saints posted a 45-13 record.
Prior to his stint at Thomas More, Cooper spent six seasons at Bellarmine University, where he was the assistant men’s basketball coach from 2007 to 2013. During his six seasons as lead assistant at Bellarmine, he helped the Knights to a record of 152-41. Four out of his final five seasons at Bellarmine entailed an appearance in the NCAA Division II Sweet Sixteen, including a Final Four appearance in 2012, and Bellarmine’s first National Championship in school history in 2011.
While at Bellarmine, Cooper coached under Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Scott Davenport. There, Cooper was an integral part of the recruiting process of eight members of the All-Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Team, including seven first team members. Three of these eight were at one point during their career named GLVC Player of the Year and subsequently received NCAA Division II All-American accolades.
Cooper started his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at Bellarmine followed by a season as a Graduate Assistant at Northern Kentucky University in the 2002-03 season. He then headed to the northeast as an assistant coach at Babson College (MA). In 2006 he was named the first head coach in school history at Wheelock College (MA).
As a player, Cooper was a standout at NCAA Division II Assumption College. Cooper played for four years at Assumption under legendary coach Serge DeBari. DeBari is a member of the Assumption College, New England Basketball, and Sons of Italy Hall of Fames. While at Assumption, Cooper scored 2,001 points and was a two-time NABC Honorable Mention All-American. While Cooper was a junior at Assumption, they won the 1998 Northeast-10 Conference Tournament Championship and advanced in the NCAA Division II tournament to become Northeast Regional semifinalists. This highlighted a remarkable turnaround within the program as Assumption went a combined 1-52 during the two seasons prior to Cooper’s (and DeBari’s) arrival at Assumption.
A three-time First Team All-Northeast-10 conference selection, Cooper was inducted into the Assumption Athletic Hall of Fame on Oct. 23, 2010. Cooper went on to play professionally after his college graduation in the International Basketball Association in Ireland and Germany.
(Courtesy KWC Athletics)
