Selection Sunday is here for a Providence team that has experienced wild swings of emotion in 2022-23
Following the 2022-23 Providence College Friars has been an experience unlike any other during Ed Cooley’s 12 years leading this program.
Fresh off of a Sweet 16 appearance in 2022, Providence showed they had a long way to go in November. A 5-3 month included a near catastrophic loss on opening night to Rider (66-65), an empty run through Mohegan Sun in the Hall of Fame Tipoff (getting badly outplayed by Miami and blowing a 13-point second-half lead to St. Louis), and a virtual no show at TCU.
Cooley questioned his team’s connectedness, defensive shortcomings, and communication during more than one November postgame press conference.
Then came December.
The Friars ripped through URI at the Ryan Center, and gained confidence by blowing out overwhelmed Manhattan and Albany clubs. Providence seemed to find something in those contests — a three game set in which they outscored their opponents by a combined 92 points.
If PC began turning a corner to close out the non-conference schedule, they laid on the gas in kicking off Big East play. They roared back in the second half at Seton Hall in the opener by physically punishing the Pirates behind Bryce Hopkins and Ed Croswell.
In one of the best games college basketball saw this season, they knocked off Marquette, 103-98, in double overtime behind an all-time performance from Hopkins (29 points, 23 rebounds).
Providence won its next four Big East games to start 6-0 in league play for the first time. They were 9-0 since the calendar flipped to December, including a 13-point victory over #4 Connecticut in front of prized recruit Kayvaun Mulready.
The Friars closed January at 9-2 in the league with a victory at Villanova. They were 12-2 in the 14 games they played between December and January, and in the meantime they picked up a commitment from Mulready, a top 2024 target, while 2023 commits Garwey Dual and Drew Fielder continued to put up big numbers out in Southern California. Their only two losses between December and January were more than understandable — at Marquette and at Creighton. PC made spirited second half comebacks in both games.
Life was about as good as it gets in Friartown as the schedule flipped to February.
The cracks in this team’s foundation really didn’t show up until later that month. An 85-83 overtime loss at Xavier stung in the moment, but wasn’t a sign that anything was amiss. They were flat in a Feb. 11 loss at St. John’s — but that’s bound to happen over the course of the season, plus the Johnnies were capable of playing with any team in the Big East this season.
Providence won another double overtime thriller against a Big East power in Creighton on Feb. 14, then completed its first sweep of Villanova in a decade four days later. Ed Croswell scored his 1,000th point that day, highlighting his amazing improvement over the past three years. Superstar recruit Kur Teng visited during the win versus Nova and said the crowd gave him “chills” throughout the afternoon.
Aside from when they beat Creighton to win the Big East regular season title last year, it was hard to find a more gleeful press conference than the one following the Nova win. Laughs, smiles, reflection on the amazing growth and turnaround of this team — this one had it all. The Friars were 20-7 overall, 15-4 since their slow November start, and 12-4 in Big East play heading into a matchup with Connecticut in Storrs.
They lost four of five since then.
First came an 87-69 loss at Connecticut against a talented team clicking on all cylinders. The final score was ugly, but this was a one possession game approaching the midway point of the second half.
Cooley promised there would be hell to pay following the UConn loss, and his team responded by blowing out a Georgetown team that has gone 2-37 in league play the past two seasons. The Hoyas have reached the NCAA Tournament twice since the Big East realigned in 2013 — a second round exit against Utah in 2015 and a 96-73 loss to Colorado in the opener of the 2021 tourney following a miracle run through the Big East Tournament.
Providence was playing for second place in the final week of the season, but fell behind by as many as 22-points in a 94-89 home loss to Xavier on March 1, and then came a shocking no-show on Senior Day against Seton Hall (82-58).
The highlight of the season’s final five-game stretch may have come in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament, when Providence cut a 26-point UConn lead to five with under four minutes to play. More optimistic Friar fans saw a furious comeback that served as a statement about how this team wasn’t quite ready to go quietly this season. But, any frustration felt about this team digging themselves another early hole was certainly well-founded.
The 2022-23 Friars came somewhat full circle this season, with Cooley challenging his team after the regular season losses to UConn, Xavier, and Seton Hall to play with more energy and find its defensive identity.
It was a season with plenty of highs. Hopkins and Devin Carter both earned all league honors, Ed Croswell would have been named Big East Most Improved Player in most other years, and entering Selection Sunday with hope is always cause for celebration.
Yet, those celebratory feelings are mixed with a healthy dose of doubt as we await the revealing of the NCAA Tournament bracket.
A Providence team that looked to be playing for seeding as recently as early March has dropped four of its final five games and is now hoping its résumé is strong enough to avoid a play-in game in Dayton.
There are also now questions about the future of their head coach. These are not simple Twitter rumors either — not when long-time media members like Pete Thamel and Jeff Goodman are reporting that Georgetown will make Cooley their primary target. Georgetown has pursued Cooley previously, but Thamel went as far as to hint that Cooley could be frustrated with Providence’s “inability to develop a competitive NIL.”
Goodman, a Massachusetts native with obvious New England ties, said he would be surprised if Cooley left Providence for a conference rival.
Kevin McNamara noted how no head coach has ever left one Big East school for another. McNamara also wrote that Cooley was not available for comment. McNamara spoke with Providence Athletic Director Steve Napolillo who shared, “The Big East Conference has always been built on respect and integrity… We’ve always operated that if another institution is going to contact or speak with a coach within the conference that there would be open communication between schools. Father Sicard and I have not received any communication from Georgetown.”
John Fanta reported that Georgetown’s head coaching search has been a done deal for some time now:
Providence heads into Selection Sunday facing questions that no one would have imagined as recently as the beginning of March. Questions about their immediate future (Did this team find something in the second half against UConn in MSG? How do they match up with their first, and potential, second round opponents? How bad did their non-conference schedule hurt their seeding?) to questions with long term, far-reaching implications.
It will make for a totally unique, and telling, Selection Sunday in Providence.