John Cooper leaves Tennessee State for Miami-Ohio

Apr 7, 2012 - 1:51 AM Oxford, OH (Sports Network) - John Cooper was named the head men's basketball coach at Miami-Ohio on Friday.

Cooper was the head coach at Tennessee State University for the past three seasons. This past year he led the Tigers to a 20-13 record, the school's first winning season since 1995-96, and an 11-5 mark in Ohio Valley Conference play. Cooper almost led his team to the NCAA Tournament, but they lost to Murray State in the OVC Tournament title game.

The RedHawks were in need of a head coach after Charlie Coles announced his retirement last month.

Prior to his stint at Tennessee State, Cooper was an assistant coach at Fayetteville State (1993-95), South Carolina (1995-2001), Oregon (2002-2004) and Auburn (2004-2009).

Cooper played collegiately at Wichita State from 1987-1991.

"John Cooper symbolizes the extraordinary future of Miami Basketball that we all envision," Miami-Ohio director of athletics Brad Bates said. "He excelled as a student-athlete, as team captain, leading scorer and rebounder, and a Rhodes Scholar candidate. John has been mentored by some extraordinary leaders in the sport and has coached in the Southeastern Conference and the PAC 12 Conference. He has annually increased three critical variables during his time in Nashville: competitiveness, Academic Performance Rating and attendance. Most importantly, John genuinely cares about his players as high school prospects, students and alums. We are excited to welcome John, Melissa, Kennedy and Kameron to Oxford and look forward to a great future of Miami Basketball."

The RedHawks went 9-21 this past year and lost in the first round of the Mid- American Conference Tournament.

Cooper will be introduced on April 9.