News and Notes on Providence and the Big East Tournament as the Friars Prepare for Their Opener Against Georgetown
Plus, the latest Friar Podcast and the best of Devin Carter's 1st Team All Big East campaign.
Providence kicks off play in the Big East Tournament on Wednesday night (6:30pm) against a Georgetown club they swept during the regular season. We’ve already broken down the Providence and Georgetown matchups every which way earlier this season, and there’s not much to add to the Ed Cooley subplot at this point, so instead we’ll start with news and notes on the morning of the tournament.
Under Ed Cooley, Providence went 9-10 in the Big East Tournament, with two truly memorable runs: taking home the title in the first year of realignment in 2014, and then falling in overtime to the eventual national champions in Villanova in the 2018 finals. The 2018 club played three overtime games in the Big East Tournament.
Villanova eliminated Cooley-led teams in four out of five seasons from 2015 through 2019. The only year during that stretch that Nova didn’t knock out PC came in 2017, when the Friars fell, 70-58, to Creighton.
Cooley’s first two Big East Tournament appearances didn’t end well, with PC falling, 79-47, to Seton Hall in 2012 before losing to Cincinnati, 61-44, a year later. The 2013 club made a late push at an NCAA Tournament berth once they returned to full strength in February, but an overtime loss at UConn to close out the regular season and the loss to the Bearcats did them in.
In Cooley’s third year, Providence won the tournament for the first time in 20 years, and just the second time in program history. That group knocked off St. John’s in a tight opener (in what felt like a play-in game at the time), caught a break when Villanova was upset in the quarterfinals by Seton Hall (who PC defeated in the semis behind a monster game from LaDontae Henton), and then upset Doug McDermott and Creighton in the title game behind tournament MVP Bryce Cotton.
Friar fans would rather forget the 2015 Big East Tournament, in which they convincingly beat St. John’s in the opener behind Kris Dunn and freshman Ben Bentil, before losing to Nova on a questionable foul call in the closing seconds. Villanova was 30-2 heading into this game, which turned into a thriller.
Since reaching the finals in 2018, Providence has only beaten one program in the Big East Tournament: Butler. They drilled the Bulldogs, 80-57, in their opener in 2019 behind a red-hot Maliek White, and they beat Butler, 65-61, in 2022.
Following the run to the finals in 2018, PC is 2-4 in the Big East Tournament. They played Villanova relatively tough in 2019 (73-62), then a scorching hot Friar team didn’t have the opportunity to play in 2020 when the tourney was canceled. PC fell to DePaul (70-62) in 2021, got blitzed by Creighton in the semifinals a year later (85-58), and made a run before losing to UConn in the quarterfinals last season (73-66).
According to the Providence Athletic Department, PC and Georgetown haven’t played in the Big East Tournament since 2002. Long-time Friar fans will remember that game as John Linehan’s last in a Friar uniform. The Providence great missed a last-second prayer at the buzzer after Georgetown went ahead on a dunk with three seconds left. Abdul Mills had given PC a lead with under ten seconds to go on a drive of his own. The Friars’ leading scorer in that game was a freshman — Ryan Gomes had 20 points. Linehan and Mills combined for nine steals, as Linehan finished his career as college basketball’s all-time leader in steals.
The last time Providence defeated Georgetown in the Big East Tournament came in 1994, in the championship of the tournament. Michael Smith was named tournament MVP after going for 16 points and 16 rebounds in the title game. Providence was an 8 seed in the 1994 NCAA Tournament and fell to Alabama in the first round, while Georgetown was a 9 and beat Illinois before falling to national champion Arkansas in the second round.
Georgetown has won the Big East Tournament a record eight times. Six of those titles came in the 1980s (1980, ’82, ’84, ’85, ’87, ’89) before winning again in 2007, and on a miracle run in 2021.
Looking for an in-depth Big East Tournament preview? Bill Ricci and I recorded a podcast previewing the week ahead, and took a look back at the Friars’ regular season. We hope you give it a listen!
We also have regular season highlights of Devin Carter from his 1st Team All Big East campaign.