Cohen Proving Grit Lives With Coaches

Boston and Pittsburgh are two major metropolitan cities separated by 600 miles. Driving between the two passes through four or five different states, through approximately 10 hours of drive time. It's a shorter ride from Boston to get to the Canadian border, and it's easier to get from Pittsburgh to the Central Time Zone.

The two cities have every reason to appear different, but the people make objects closer than they might appear to each other. Both have hard-working, blue-collar people with an intense passion for their sports teams. They have a hearty nature tinted with sarcasm, but they remain intensely loyal to their hometown. In many ways, they never leave, even if they move away.

In other words, Bostonians are just like yinzers. So for Boston College women's basketball assistant coach AJ Cohen, working for the Eagles is just like being home. He's the youngest member of the team's coaching staff, but he's already experienced a successful basketball odyssey. He tasted success at college basketball's highest level without playing a minute on the floor, but he fostered a passion for gritty hard work. He's been a part of Final Fours and NCAA Tournaments, but he remains a yinzer, intensely loyal to his roots, laying bare a pride that comes through the process.

"I'm not that far removed from being in college, so I know the grind that student-athletes go through," Cohen said. "I have a sense of what they have to do. I was a practice player, so I wasn't playing in games or working out at 7 a.m., but I wouldn't miss practices. I understood what went into an athlete's daily life, from schoolwork to family life to social life with their friends, that I can relate to that."

Cohen almost seemed destined for a career as a basketball coach. His father coached an AAU team in Pittsburgh, and his sister played, meaning he never knew a childhood without basketball. The sport became instinctual, so he naturally gravitated to the game as he got older and enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Louisville.

"I've always been around women's basketball," he said. "I was that little kid at the end of the bench, yelling at the refs, when I was growing up. When I went to Louisville as an undergraduate, one of my good friends was one of the practice players for the women's team. I went down (to practice) one day and just fell in love with it. I fell in love with the process."

Practice players are basketball's equivalent to a scout team. They never earn recognition or play a single second of a game, and their only job is to simulate opposing game situations. Their only payment is personal satisfaction and knowing how they possibly assisted preparing a team for a potential victory.

"People who do it understand why they're there," Cohen said. "I've been told that there are no practice player All-Americans, so it's all about understanding the process of what student-athletes go through. I worked around a high level program (at Louisville) every day. It was better than going to the (recreation center) because it was good basketball. I was playing against high level competition and got a good workout in, and I made some friends along the way."

He also did his job. Cohen was a practice player during the Cardinals' rise through the Big East and American Athletic Conference. In 2013, Louisville became one a certified Cinderella story as the No. 5 seed in the Oklahoma City Regional, beating three higher seeds en route to the Final Four. It included a Sweet Sixteen victory over No. 1 Baylor, a team that won its first two games by 42 and 38 points. The Cardinals ultimately made the National Championship Game, losing to Connecticut during the height of the Huskies' recent title runs.

"My last semester, (Louisville head coach) Jeff Walz let me do some things in the office as a volunteer video assistant, and I loved it. I spent all of my time outside of class (at the office), and that's when I knew I wanted to be a coach. I didn't want to sit behind a desk and get into the corporate world."

It sparked Cohen to apply for graduate positions, and a tip from assistant coach Sam Purcell led him to Walz' old Maryland colleague, Joanna Bernabei-McNamee. She was getting back into coaching at the University of Pikeville after four-year sabbatical, and she was looking for a graduate assistant.

"I applied to 50 or 60 graduate assistant positions," Cohen said. "One day, though, Sam Purcell sent me a text with a screen shot of a Twitter post to Pikeville. Coach Mac needed a graduate assistant, and he suggested that I apply. So I sent in my resume. One thing led to another, I interviewed, and I was a graduate assistant (for the Bears)."

It began a relationship that led him back to the NCAA Division I level three years later. The duo helped build Pikeville into an NAIA Division I Final Four team in 2015-2016, and Albany came calling that offseason. The next season, Cohen stood with McNamee on the sidelines as the Great Danes won the America East Tournament, drawing another personal matchup against UConn. The year after that, Albany went to the WNIT, and Boston College came calling.

"I tried to obtain a graduate degree, but when Coach Mac received the Albany job, I left a couple of classes short because I couldn't pass up the opportunity," Cohen said. "I always wanted to coach Division I basketball, and I was fortunate that it happened. Two years later, we had some success and came to BC. I was always fortunate to be at the right place at the right time."

It's exactly the story befitting a coach in McNamee's system. Cohen remains a trusted lieutenant because he coaches like he practiced at Louisville. His intensity is lined by a chip on his shoulder, built by a passion for the game. He is the kind of coach who would offer instruction at a broken rim in a muddy field in the middle of nowhere because he simply loves basketball, but he's been around champions. It creates an appreciation for the game and its athletes while respecting his position as a coach.

"I really get to know the players, for the good and the bad, and that really helps me," Cohen said. "Some of them let me in a little earlier, but you have to prove your trust (to others). I learned, first-hand, how Coach Walz and his assistants gained the trust of his players. You see the side conversations, and you pay attention to how coaches talk to their players. That helps me understand their lives being under a microscope as a Division I athlete in the social media world."

He is also a budding basketball mind, a student of the game even as he's teaching it to others. He's always looking for the next edge, the next step, and he's not afraid to remain pliable. It befits a system in which the head coach encourages that kind of input, even if it doesn't always make it to game day.

"I've been extremely loyal to (McNamee), and she's been loyal to me," Cohen said. "I'd do anything to help her program. We feed off each other. I can give her criticism, and she can feed me criticism. That's how our relationship works. We keep each other grounded, through the good and bad of a season. We remember the path that we've taken to get here. For me, it was quickly. For her, she got out of the sport and returned at a different time. We're fortunate to be where we're at."

Boston College Athletics

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