Breaking Down Providence's 2022-23 Schedule
1. I haven’t seen any hand-wringing coming from the Connecticut press about UConn not scheduling Yale, Fairfield, Hartford, or anyone else from in-state. Ditto Indianapolis, where no one is complaining about Butler not playing any teams from Indiana as part of their non-conference schedule this season.
Yet, seemingly every year former Providence Journal writer Jim Donaldson takes the Providence coaching staff and administration to task for not scheduling Brown and Bryant when the schedule is released.
Donaldson’s tweets typically start by touching on the memories he had of seeing the Friars take on Brown when he was a child, and he’s been around long enough to know he will draw a few eyeballs by calling Providence “chickenshit” and copying the athletic director and head coach in his tweets.
Obviously, a case could be made for playing these two teams. Both Brown and Bryant were better last year than any of the non-conference opponents coming to the AMP per the numbers. Brown has also given Providence some problems in the Ed Cooley era. He is 5-2 overall against them as PC’s head coach, the Friars narrowly pulled out a win in 2013, and they went to overtime against them in 2017 (albeit with an injured Kyron Cartwright).
PC also beat them by 21 points in 2015, and 38 in 2016, so there’s that.
Ultimately, Providence is 73-8 all-time against Brown, it’s not a game that is a draw at the gate (just over 6,000 attended the last time these two met), and Cooley has consistently said that his job is to get his team to the NCAA Tournament, regardless of how it makes anyone else feel.
Bryant is more intriguing after their strong 2021-22 campaign, and this year’s roster features former PC recruit Earl Timberlake, one-time URI big man Antwan Walker, Pawtucket native Erickson Bans, and Doug Edert, who shined during St. Peter’s run to the Elite Eight in March.
That Bryant group would have been more interesting than perhaps any of the non-conference teams coming to the AMP this winter, but the absence of either opponent from the schedule isn’t something that matters to a majority of Providence fans, specifically those who reside outside of Rhode Island. What matters more to Friar fans is a strength of schedule that is consistently good enough so that they can reach the NCAA Tournament by taking care of their own business.
2. PC’s home non-conference slate consists of seven teams Providence should handle. Stonehill will be in its first year of Division I basketball, and here are last year’s KenPom rankings and records for the other six:
Rider: 224 (14-19 overall, 8-12 in the MAAC last year)
Northeastern: 255 (9-22, 2-16 in the CAA)
Manhattan: 257 (15-15, 8-12 in the MAAC)
Albany: 286 (13-18, 9-9 in the America East)
Merrimack: 299 (14-16, 9-8 in the Northeast Conference)
Columbia: 351 (4-22, 1-13 in the Ivy)
When first looking at the schedule, it’s hard not to be disappointed by having to wait until Dec. 20 to see a genuinely intriguing home matchup (when Marquette comes to town), but there aren’t many holes in this schedule with 20 Big East games, traveling to a top 15-20 caliber team in TCU, the always difficult game at the Ryan Center, and some combination of Miami, St. Louis, and Maryland at Mohegan Sun in November. All three of those teams at Mohegan could be top 50 teams by season’s end.
Providence faced significant roster turnover this offseason, and could use a handful of home games to build some cohesion.
3. Here are some other quick-hit thoughts on the schedule…
Last year, Providence played in Hartford the weekend before Christmas in what turned out to be a terrific trip for any Friar fan in attendance. This season, PC opens Big East play the weekend before the holiday as well, this time at Seton Hall in a 12:30 start at the Prudential Center in Newark. That game will mark Shaheen Holloway’s Big East debut as a head coach.
Seemingly every season, PC takes a Midwestern trip around New Year’s. Last season they ran past DePaul in Chicago on New Year’s Day before making the short trek to Marquette a few days later. They’ll play Butler on Dec. 29 in Indianapolis, and once again play at DePaul on New Year’s Day this season.
Kind of a bummer that neither UConn game is on a weekend, and PC’s home game against the Huskies comes while the students are on break. What a missed opportunity for a Friar student section that caught fire last year.
Providence will be well-traveled by mid-January. Two weeks after playing at DePaul on Jan. 1 they’ll head back out West to take on Creighton on Jan. 14 and Marquette Jan. 18.
Mid-February brings quite the stretch — Feb. 14 against a Final Four contender in Creighton, Feb. 18 versus Villanova, and then Feb. 22 at UConn.
The Friars open conference play with Seton Hall, and close with them at home on March 4.