Voepel talks with Michael Cooper

"But it was an immediate clicking."

Mechelle Voepel's lengthy piece today says the former LA Sparks coach has made a "seamless transition" to college coaching. His last two summers for the WNBA team, Cooper was criticized by fans for his stoicism on the sidelines, and for often sitting on the bench for long periods with his face in his hands. I guess that's not an issue at USC:

Cooper can indeed seem somewhat "mellow" when it comes to his bench demeanor. Not all the time, of course, but his general mode when coaching in the professional ranks was to do most of his talking in practices. He wanted his teams to be prepared enough that come game time, they were executing and not still trying to figure out what he wanted.

But with the move to college, he knew he'd need to make some sideline-demeanor adjustments.

"It's still pretty much the same, although here I'm a little more animated because I want to show them encouragement," Cooper said during the team's recent trip to Durham, N.C. "In the WNBA and other professional levels, I would sit back a little more because the players know the information. You don't want to muddy up the water by being up a lot yelling at them.

It'll still be a few more weeks before I can go see the Trojans, but I'm looking forward to it.