Providence is in the Damn Building, and Despite History -- and What the Rest of the Country Believes -- They are in Chicago Ready for a Fight with Kansas
Providence is in the Damn Building, and Despite History -- and What the Rest of the Country Believes -- They are in Chicago Ready for a Fight with Kansas
Providence very nearly met Bill Self and Kansas in the NCAA Tournament once before.
The Friars entered the 2004 NCAA Tournament as the fifth seed, and PC fans couldn’t help but look ahead toward a potential second round matchup with the Jayhawks.
That was Self’s first year at Kansas after building a powerhouse at Illinois — the core of which made the national championship game in 2005.
Providence’s fifth seed was the highest in program history since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in the mid-80s. And it remained so until this current group of Friars earned a four seed this March.
A dream matchup was not to be for Providence, however. Tim Welsh’s group was upset by Pacific in the first round, in a region that really opened up in the first weekend of the tournament. Top seeded Kentucky lost in the second round to UAB, while second seeded Gonzaga fell to the 10th seed — Nevada — in the round of 32 as well.
Self’s Kansas group rolled past Pacific and UAB by a combined 41 points, before falling to Georgia Tech in the regional finals.
That Tech team bounced Boston College in the second round — a BC team with Ed Cooley on the sidelines as an assistant coach.
Eighteen years later, Providence and Kansas will meet in the Sweet 16.
While PC’s four seed marks the best in school history, the Jayhawks have been seeded a four or better in 22 straight NCAA Tournaments.
They have won 20 games in every season since 1989-90, and with a win over Providence on Friday night, Kansas will surpass Kentucky for the most wins all-time for a Division 1 program.
Jayhawk star Ochai Abjaji is one of four finalists for the Naismith National Player of the Year, and the only one remaining in the tournament.
Kansas is ranked third in the country, with a 30-6 overall record, and they rolled through the Big 12 Tournament to take home the conference title.
Most of the country will expect Kansas to cruise at the United Center in Chicago on Friday night. Providence head coach Ed Cooley seems just fine with that.
“I've been doubted my whole life,” Cooley said when he met with the media on Thursday. “So doubt is just something that I live with and embrace.”
From almost the moment the Friars cracked the top 25 in December (a place they have remained since) questions have surrounded this team. Now that they were in the Sweet 16, there aren’t many questioning their legitimacy. The questions now surround if they can hang with mighty Kansas.
“Doubt is for people who don't know. Doubt is for individuals who think they know. Doubt is for motivation for the team that is being doubted. Doubt got us here. Doubt got me here. Doubt will continue to send our school in a way that nobody ever anticipated,” Cooley said.
Make no mistake, this Providence team fully believes they belong on the court with Kansas, and they believe they have what it takes to beat them.
And why not? The 13th ranked Friars boast an impressive resume of their own: 27-5 overall, and a Big East best 14-3 record in conference play. Veterans AJ Reeves and Nate Watson have been through the Big East wars, Al Durham spent four years taking on the best of the Big 10, ditto Justin Minaya in the SEC.
Regardless of what happens on Friday night, this team has cemented itself as one that will be forever beloved in Friartown. But let’s be honest, none of us are ready for this to end.
“I love those kids. Honestly, I tear up thinking about them. I appreciate them,” Cooley said of his group on Thursday. “Their willingness to be unselfish has been something that not many coaches have. The reason we're here, it's not because we have a first-round pick or a lottery pick, it's their belief in one another, their unselfishness in one another.”
“We all experienced different things,” Durham said on Thursday. “We took all those experiences and brought it here to Providence and that's helped us a lot, helped us in close games, helped us keep our composure and never be rattled because we've seen a lot. We've all seen different scenarios and different games. That's been the key to us winning a lot of these games is having veteran approaches and veteran experiences.”
When Providence and Kansas meet on Friday they will be looking at mirror images of one another — at least that’s how Cooley and Self both described the pairing when they met with the media in Chicago.
Agbaji is the headliner, and his matchup with Minaya will be the most intriguing subplot of this game. He is a four year starter who didn’t come to Kansas with the fanfare of many of their recruits, but he turned himself into a 19 point per game scorer, who shoots 47% from the field and 40% from deep.
Kansas will keep Minaya busy by running all sorts of action to free Agbaji. He does a ton of damage outside, but Kansas throws in an occasional backdoor lob to him to keep defenses honest — and deflated.
Agbaji is one of four Jayhawks averaging in double figures this season. 6’6 junior Christian Braun is a sniper averaging 14.6 points and 6.4 rebounds, while making 39.7% of his threes. Braun lit up St. John’s to the tune of 31 points in December.
Jalen Wilson is a 6’8 forward who does his damage inside the arc, while 6’10, 250 pound David McCormack will likely cover Nate Watson without much help. Keeping McCormack off of the offensive glass will be essential for Providence.
Much has been made of Providence’s experience, but Kansas isn’t far behind them. McCormack is a senior, while role players Jalen Coleman-Lands and Mitch Lightfoot have both played more than five years of college basketball.
Coleman-Lands is the type of shooter who can kill you in a tournament game, while Lightfoot is an uber-efficient post scorer.
The X-factor for Kansas may be Remy Martin, the Arizona State transfer who put up over 19 points a night in his last two seasons at ASU. Martin has been hobbled for most of this season (bruised knee), but has come alive in the postseason. Without his 20 points, seven rebounds, and four assists off of the bench, Kansas likely doesn’t hold off Creighton in the second round last Saturday.
“In practice, he looks quick,” Braun said. “He's making moves that we haven't seen him make in a while. And just you can see it in games. His energy translates from practice to games for us and everybody feeds off his energy. Everybody feeds off his shot-making.”
As mentioned here earlier this week, the key to this game will likely be keeping Kansas out of transition. They are a terrific fastbreak offense, while transition D has been PC’s biggest pain point on that side of the ball.
“(Defense) is a big focus of ours, focus on defense, because we know when we get out and we get stops, we get out in transition, we can run. And that's when we're at our best,” Braun shared.
Transition defense was a focal point highlighted by PC point guard Jared Bynum, “I think transition defense is going to be one thing that we kind of have to hone in on because they're athletic and they play good defense. So for them to get out in transition in the open court, they can find shooters and get to the rim and finish and make plays. So that's going to be a strong task at hand.”
Self knows that in order for his team to slow Providence, they will have to keep PC from beating them from deep like they did against Richmond last weekend. Self has likely seen the numbers that show the Friars are a drastically different team when shooting threes off of the catch versus the bounce.
“They’re going to make threes,” Self said. “But you would rather get them off the bounce, force them to get them off the bounce than off the catch. Be there on the catch where there's very, very short close outs, if any.”
Self is not buying into the luck narrative, and he’s likely been hammering home to his team all week — a team that probably has very little familiarity with Providence — that the Friars are indeed dangerous.
“They’re not a team, from our perspective or I think anyone else's perspective now, that gets no respect. They have gotten respect and they've earned it all.”
“I had one guy tell me that there's some deal out there, a lucky team or something. Whatever, the media has pegged them as that because they won so many close games. And luck doesn't win close games; toughness and skill and execution does. And so they've got a lot to be proud of. And I know they're going into this game believing that if they play well, they can handle us. And we know that we're going to have to play well to do that to them.”
For all of the credentials and history Kansas is bringing into this game, Providence doesn’t sound like a team ready to take a back seat: “It's a Sweet 16 tournament game. And we feel like we've got a group that can go far in the tournament, make the Final Four. So we're taking this game very personal, very serious, because it's one-and-done at this point,” Bynum said on Thursday.
“So yeah, they're a blue blood and it's great to play a blue blood. But at the end of the day you've got to play 40 minutes in order to advance. It's a big opportunity for us and the program.”
Minaya looked inward when asked what this game meant to him, “We are trying to do everything we can to advance because we don't want it to end. We want to keep playing with each other. We’re having so much fun this season, so we want to keep it going as long as we can.”
“I've been a head coach for 16 years,” Cooley said when reflecting on his team. “I've been coaching for 28 years. I've never had a group that has been this connected. I've never had a group that we haven't had one issue off the floor, one issue in the locker room, one issue on the bus, in the hotel.”
“Our players are hungry. Our players are eager. Our players are really, really inspired. And we're 40 minutes away from another opportunity.”
It’s an opportunity Kansas has on an annual basis — and this very well could end up being a special year in Lawrence — but for Providence this is the type of opportunity that simply doesn’t come around all that often.
It’s been 25 years since Providence has been on this stage, yet its players and head coach are in Chicago confident, with something to prove.
“Our program is about gratitude and appreciation. If you don't have that, you'll never play for me. The moment is not about you, it's about us collectively together having a mission that not a lot of people believe in. Not a lot of people believe that we should be here,” Cooley said as he closed out his media session.
“Guess what, doubters? Providence is in the damn building, and I'm proud of those kids.”