After an exciting week in New York, the Friars head into Selection Sunday facing uncertainty

Billy Ricci writes about his experience at the Big East Tournament, and Providence's NCAA Tournament chances

Friar Family,

What can I say about my time in New York? As many know, I had the pleasure to work at MSG for a little over three years and coming back to the World’s Most Famous Arena for me is a crossroads of so many emotions. This week had it all, but above all it showed that the Providence community is as strong as I have seen in my 25+ years watching Providence Basketball.

Our support at the Georgetown game really set the tone. You barely saw a Hoya fan in the stands or even the concourse, and this isn’t even a diss at them – Friar fans truly took over. Speaking of taking over, Josh Oduro showcased his ability to create within the free throw line and at the free throw line going 9-9 from the stripe.

It’s great to finally reference Devin Carter as the “Big East Player of the Year” and he certainly played like it with nine rebounds and six assists to accompany his usual 19 points. As special as Tristan Newton was for UConn this year, Carter’s stat line on the season was just simply better. More points, more rebounds, better shooting percentage from the field and better from 3 – not even mentioning blocks and steals, but you get the point.

For the first time since his departure, it felt more like a game between two basketball teams going in opposite directions rather than Ed Cooley versus the Friars. Sure there were boos and Ed Cooley chants, but being at the Garden diluted that narrative to a level I personally enjoyed. Cooley has certainly got a lot of work to do at Georgetown, and I’m honestly not sure he’s got the energy at this stage of his coaching career to accomplish what he’s looking to do. Really curious to see if Georgetown is at all a better defensive team next year. 

Round 2 vs. Creighton. There is something about playing Creighton this year that just didn’t scare me nor the Friars. Yes, they have perennial All-Big East talents in Ryan Kalklbrenner, Trey Alexander and Baylor Scheierman, but going into the second round game it felt like the Friars weren’t going to be afraid to take it into the paint against the Big East Defensive Player of the Year. And that was exactly what we witnessed, coupled with some great defensive intensity that held the Jays to 37% from the field and an unimpressive 23% from 3. If you told me Kalkbrenner, Alexander, Scheierman and Ashworth would score 19, 19, 16 and 16 respectively and we would come away with a win holding them to 23% from 3 I am not sure if I would believe it.

Oduro and Carter shared much of the same stats they did against Georgetown, but it was Rich Barron, Jayden Pierre, Corey Floyd and Garwey Dual who really stepped up to make this a full team win. The efficiency we saw from Barron and Dual, the toughness from Floyd Jr., and Pierre’s seven assists were good enough for a great win for the Friars towards improving their chances of making the NCAA Tourney. 

Round 3 versus Marquette we knew would be a challenge, with or without Tyler Kolek, because of Marquette’s depth and their role players shooting better from three as we saw in our second matchup. Marquette last night took half as many threes as PC did and shot over 50% from behind the three point line, 14 assists to PC’s eight, 8 steals and 10 more points in the paint, and somehow Providence kept it close. The Friars’ sluggish start almost all seemed to be related to the emotion and grind from the night before, seeing Carter come out for breaks in the first half, which we later learned was at least in part due to a calf injury,  felt like Providence needed to take timeouts just to catch its breath.

Ultimately, PC ran out of time in the place where the minute is just a little bit faster, New York City. To their credit, the Friars made a run to keep it close, but 22% from 3, the turnovers that came from doubling Oduro in the post, and the quick hands of the Marquette defense were the difference. 

Ultimately I think PC showed they are a tournament team this week. How you could leave a team with six Quad 1 wins and no true “bad losses” out is a little baffling to me. Providence had three or four quad 1 wins, or some really bad losses I would get it, but neither of those grades show on the Friar report card heading into Sunday.

Do I think PC gets in? I somehow think it happens because of the Quad 1 wins, and if they don’t I think it just proves teams are clearly gaming the NET rankings and there needs to be some changes. Whether Providence is playing in the NCAA tourney or not come next week, the fight and the resolve of this team was awesome. I, like you, will be waiting in anticipation to hear the Providence Friars name called on Selection Sunday, but until then thank you all for some great times in NYC – it’s monumental the Big East Tournament is now guaranteed to be played at MSG until 2032!