Reflections of a Lifelong Friar Fan: What just happened here?
It was late April of 1987 and the Friars were still riding high from their Final Four appearance just a month earlier.
With Rick Pitino at the helm at Providence it felt like the sky was the limit.
Then the rumors started.
The New York Knicks were looking for a new head coach, and Pitino was front and center on their radar.
When a press conference was scheduled on PC’s campus we all assumed our worst nightmare was coming true: Pitino was headed to the Knicks. All Friar fans breathed a huge sigh of relief when it was instead announced that Providence Athletic Director Lou Lamorillo was going to take over the front office of the New Jersey Devils.
Then Pitino announced that he was not going anywhere, and things were back on track in Friar Nation. Well, not quite.
Fast forward to July and the Knicks still hadn’t hired a new coach.
Another press conference was scheduled, and this time it was official: Rick Pitino was going to be the new head coach of the New York Knicks. There was no Lamorillo in place to try and talk him out of it either.
Losing Pitino was devastating, but seeing him go in July made it virtually impossible to find a viable replacement. In an effort to keep the house in order, Providence promoted assistant coach Gordy Chiesa to take over for Pitino. Chiesa had the reputation as a very witty and personable coach and many thought that he could be the right fit.
Prior to coming to PC, Chiesa was the head coach at Manhattan, so he did have prior head coaching experience at the DI level. Another plus was that the returning players seemed to be on board with the hire. Furthermore, two highly-regarded high school guards, Eric Murdock and Chris Watts, were on board and still enrolling in the fall.
The first inkling I had that something was wrong was during the preseason. During the previous preseason Pitino took his team on the road to local high schools to practice and promote the team. I was at East Greenwich High School where Pitino pulled out all the stops and fans were almost in a frenzy waiting for the season to start. Chiesa decided to carry on the tradition, so there I was once again watching a PC preseason practice, this time at Hendricken High School.
Friar fans were out in abundance to get a first look at the new coach. Chiesa couldn’t have been more different than Pitino. When he addressed the crowd he read off of index cards. He was somewhat stiff and awkward – not the witty, personable coach the fans were expecting. As it turns out, Chiesa was one of those guys whose perfect fit was to be an assistant coach.
PC took a few giant steps back that season, finishing with an 11-17 overall record (5-11 in the Big East). Seniors Delray Brooks and Steve Wright led the Friars in scoring, both averaging 13 points a game for a team that finished 3-13 over its final 17 games.
What was worse than the won-loss record was the unrest on the team. Several players had problems playing for Chiesa. Future NBA forward Marty Conlon left the team during the season, but stayed enrolled in school. There were widespread rumors that there were to be several more defections if Chiesa remained as the head coach.
Chiesa was let go at the end of the season, and after riding so high a year earlier, it was vitally important for Providence to find a new coach to turn the program around by bringing in top recruits and making sure that Conlon rejoined the team.
If not, the Friars would return to the cellar of the Big East once again…