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College Basketball Roundup: Ed Cooley Loses His Cool, Duke Blows Big Lead, What a Shame

Nick-Roush-headshotby: Nick Roush12/21/25RoushKSR

Temper tantrums are not hard to find during the holiday season. Children get out of routines, they’re overstimulated, and tired. It happens. There isn’t such an easy explanation for college basketball coaches who can’t keep their cool.

Contrary to his name, Ed Cooley is one of the many maniacs on a sideline during this time of year. An average coach at Providence has been average at Georgetown. The Hoyas had a chance to secure an early league win on the road in an average conference, but couldn’t do the basics to leave the Cintas Center with a win.

Georgetown had four free throw attempts in the final five seconds that could have given them a win over Xavier. They missed every single free throw. This intentional miss was the funniest.

Despite the failures at the free throw line, Georgetown still got a look to tie the game and send it into overtime. After Malik Mack missed his three-point attempt, Cooley missed the mark. He launched a water bottle into the stands and hit a toddler.

Take a closer look.

The child who was sitting in his mother’s lap is actually related to a Georgetown player, center Vince Iwuchukwu. Cooley opened his postgame press conference by apologizing.

“First and foremost, I have to apologize to the Iwuchukwu family,” Cooley said. “Really frustrated realized I threw my water bottle, and it hit [him] and his mom. Definitely out of character to be so frustrated, but really that’s not called for. I’ll call them and make amends to that. Just totally out of character, frustration. So I apologize to the fans, our players, the university. Totally, totally out of character for me to be that way.”

That “totally out of character moment” happened a year after Cooley lectured a Xavier fan following a loss at the Cintas Center. Yup, totally out of character.

UPDATE: Georgetown announced on Sunday that Cooley has been suspended for the upcoming game against Coppin State.

Duke Blew a 17-Point Lead

Madison Square Garden was the host for No. 3 Duke vs. No. 19 Texas Tech, and for about 30 minutes, the Blue Devils looked like the best team in college basketball. Duke turned a 10-point halftime lead into a 17-point advantage by the first media timeout of the second half. Even after Texas Tech responded, Duke took the body blows and returned the favor. They led by 11 points with six minutes to play. There’s no possible way they could lose, right? Wrong.

Texas Tech’s Christian Anderson took over, scoring 10 straight points and 21 of the last 31 for the Red Raiders. In a tie ballgame with seconds on the clock, Anderson was sent to the free throw line where he hit the game-winning shot. He finished the night with 27 points in an improbable 82-81 win over Duke. It’s the first loss of the season for the Blue Devils, who have played with fire before, blowing double-digit leads to Florida and Arkansas, but on Saturday, they finally got burned.

Purdue Blows Out Auburn

Purdue had no problem dispatching Steven Pearl’s squad. Trey Kaufman-Renn scored 18 points, while Braden Smith dished out a season-high 14 assists against the Tigers. The Boilers led by 14 at half before cruising to an 88-60 win. Pearl loved what he saw in the 28-point loss.

“We’ve battle-tested our guys,” said Pearl. “At this point, I don’t think we’re going to play anyone better the rest of the year than what we’ve already seen. I’m encouraged. I know fans may not want to hear that right now, and I don’t really care. But I’m encouraged and I’m bought in. Everything this team is setting out to do is still attainable.”

Houston Handles Arkansas

An old Southwest Conference rivalry was renewed in a neutral-site game in Newark, where John Calipari’s squad was out-gunned. Houston jumped out to an early lead and never relented, thanks to an 11-25 shooting performance from behind the three-point line. Darius Acuff had 27 points, but Trevon Brazile only tallied five points in 21 minutes as Arkansas’ four-game winning streak was snapped in a 94-85 Houston win.

Ugly College Basketball Sweaters

Tom Izzo and Greg Kampe are pals. Each year, Michigan State and Oakland play around the holiday season, and the two coaches recently started an ugly sweater tradition on the sideline. They elevated their ugly sweater game with personalized matching attire.

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2026-01-06