Providence Nearly Had A March Moment For the Ages In An Electric United Center
The moment was never too big for Providence on Friday night.
As much as we try our best to dissect these matchups, in all honesty, we never truly know what it’s going to look like until the ball goes up.
We didn’t know how Providence would handle the length and defensive prowess of Texas Tech, or the sheer madhouse that came with hosting Villanova as PC entered that game with a 21-2 record.
We didn’t know just how dangerous South Dakota State’s offense truly was, or if the Friars just might have caught a red-hot Richmond team at the worst possible time.
And as much as we tried to dissect the matchups and comb through the numbers, it was anyone’s guess as to how Providence would match up with top-seeded Kansas.
How would they react on this stage, against the team currently favored to win this whole thing?
Picked seventh in the Big East to start the season, the Friars certainly weren’t expected to be here back in October. Even as they finished with a 24-4 record in the regular season, they weren’t seen as Final Four contenders by anyone that didn’t have some sort of ties to the program. A majority foresaw a first round exit this March.
Yet somehow, Friday night in the Sweet 16 in Chicago didn’t feel like house money. This Providence team belonged here.
The first half was ugly. Both teams scouted each other to a tee, and with Kansas’ length and athleticism, when they switched everything they made life hell for the likes of AJ Reeves and Noah Horchler as they came off of screens to try to find looks.
PC shot 7-35 from the field, and 1-13 from 3-point range in the first half. They had just two assists and 17 points at the break. Seven of PC’s first 26 shots were blocked.
That would seemingly be a recipe for disaster, but Providence’s defense was nearly as stingy as the Jayhawks’. Kansas, sporting one of the top five offenses in the country this season, shot 12-34 from the field and 2-10 from long distance.
Really, the only thing differentiating these two teams at the break was that Kansas had Remy Martin.
Martin transferred from Arizona State prior to this year, and was expected to fight for Big 12 Player of the Year honors, but he had little to no impact for much of the season while playing through a knee injury.
Martin entered the game when it was a slog early. Neither team could muster any offense, and it was tied 4-4, but then Martin came in and scored seven points on the first three offensive possessions he took part in. Just like that, Kansas jumped out to an 11-4 lead and proceeded to control the first half.
Martin shot 6-9 from the field in the first half against PC. The rest of the Jayhawks were 6-25. First Team All American Ochai Agbaji was just 1-6.
The Friars seemed fortunate to be down just nine at the break considering their offensive struggles, and when Kansas twice pulled ahead by 13 in the early going of the second half, it felt like we got our answer about how Providence measured up with the size, talent, and athleticism of the Jayhawks.
Five minutes into the second half my notes read “Everything is hard, and I don’t know if I see that changing.”
Guess I was just another doubter.
Then, with around 13 minutes left, and the season on the line, it happened.
The United Center, despite a decent-sized Kansas contingent, morphed into the Dunkin Donuts Center. And it did so in a hurry.
I’m not sure if Ed Cooley sensed his team needed a lift, if he was reacting to the energy that Ed Croswell brought, or if he was going on sheer emotion, but Cooley furiously motioned to the crowd — and as we have seen so many times at the Dunk — the Providence faithful erupted in turn. That energy seemed to spill over onto the court.
That’s when the Friars took off.
That’s when the night seemed like it might be special.
Unless you were in the building, there’s probably no way to accurately describe what the United Center felt like over the next eight minutes, other than to say it just felt like we were back in Providence.
And just as he had done so many times this season, Croswell injected life into PC when they needed it most.
After AJ Reeves hit a pair of free throws to pull PC to within 12 at 36-24 with 13:54 remaining, Croswell went to work. He scored three times over the next two minutes, with the last two buckets sending the United Center into a frenzy. The third basket was an and-1 that somehow made it a five-point game with 11 and a half minutes left.
The next six minutes were simply two great teams matching each other play for play. There was Al Durham going into attack mode, Noah Horchler getting on track and knocking down a pair of threes around a David McCormack bucket, Remy Martin putting Kansas up four, and Durham countering.
We saw Reeves tie the game on a pair of free throws, Jalen Wilson power home a layup 13 seconds later to grab the lead back before Durham evened the score at 46 with 6:35 to play.
After McCormack made one out of two at the free throw line, Providence drew up a perfect play, as a suddenly hot Horchler slipped to the basket for a layup to push PC ahead, 48-47.
They were six minutes from glory.
It was bedlam in the United Center.
That will forever be my lasting memory of this game. It won’t be the slow offensive start, or the 28 second half free throws the Jayhawks took. Those things won’t be forgotten, nor will the questionable charge on Durham 30 feet from the basket with the Friars suddenly up a point.
I’ll certainly watch replays of the ensuing possession when Jalen Wilson scored on Horchler and was granted a free throw on a 50-50 call (at best). As great teams do, Kansas went on a 6-0 spurt after Wilson’s big moment. They would never trail again.
This loss will sting forever. It will hurt in the same way losing stung in 2014, when PC held a three point lead over North Carolina with 70 seconds to play before seeing it slip away.
That one hurt because that team helped put Providence back on the map. Bryce Cotton was heroic, LaDontae Henton brought a toughness we hadn’t seen in forever, and Kadeem Batts had persevered. PC hadn’t seen the NCAA Tournament in ten years before the ‘14 group won the Big East Tournament and then had Carolina on the ropes.
The 2022 team made its mark in another way. While the 2014 team brought us back to the dance, the ‘22 team was simply great from the beginning of the season until its final second. Their level of play matched the energy of a fanbase that was eager to show them how much the Friars and the Dunk were missed last season.
Providence belonged on that stage with the number one seed. Kansas became the all-time winningest program in college basketball history tonight, but when they hit the Friars in the mouth, PC eventually returned in kind.
And when Providence did, it was the Friar faithful who inexplicably, and shockingly, drowned out Kansas’ crowd in a Midwestern regional.
The Jayhawks had the last laugh, of course. We’ll spend all sorts of time this weekend breaking this game down (I’m hopping on a plane in about six hours, so bear with me), but Providence’s second half comeback was an exhilarating rush in front of a massive Friartown contingent that fell in love with the resiliency they showed all season — the resiliency that nearly led them past Kansas and onto the doorstep of the Final Four.
Justin Minaya said on Thursday that he simply didn’t want this ride to end (and he might have been Providence’s best player in this game for the work he did on Agbaji, who managed just five points on 2-8 shooting). Yet, while we’ll never see this team take to the floor together again, they provided one final moment — one final run — and one final reminder that they were ready for the moment, despite the opponent, venue, or skeptics.
It felt like this team deserved to have that moment, the opportunity to truly put a stamp on an unbelievable season by knocking off Kansas and playing for the Final Four on Sunday.
But, as we learned the last time Providence reached the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, sometimes the dream falls just a little short.
But the moments last forever.
If you had told me at the beginning of the season in November that PC would win 27 games, win it's first ever regular season BE championship, get to the Sweet 16 for the first time in a quarter century, and lose by only 5 points to one of the bluest of the blue blood college basketball programs in a game that would have taken the team to the Elite 8, I, and probably many of my fellow alumni, fans, etc, would have signed up for that in a heartbeat! This was a ride no knowledgeable Friar fan could ever have expected. My hope is that this is a turning point for the program and that seasons like this one won't be considered outliers.
I was amazed and proud of the energy and numbers representing Friartown inside the UC last night.
Thank you for your coverage of the team this year Kevin!