The Season in Review: The Postseason Run/A Final Look Back
"We’re sitting here. We’re still here, and it’s a testament to their emotional maturity, and their physical talent that was doubted.”
“Are they chippy and edgy? Absolutely, 100%”
That was Ed Cooley when meeting with the local media heading into the Big East Tournament last March. The Friars closed the regular season with a 24-4 overall record and they went 14-3 in conference games, yet what should have been one of the feel-good stories of the 2021-22 season felt anything but as the postseason approached.
Regardless of finishing atop the Big East for the first time in program history, the Friars were hounded by questions of their legitimacy — questions about a trio of games that were canceled in January, early season contests in which the likes of UConn’s Adama Sanogo and Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis were out, and how they seemingly pulled out improbable win after improbable win in the closing seconds.
The tenor shifted in Providence once the postseason rolled around. The Friars seemed to shrug off questions of being “lucky” earlier in the year, then made light of it late, with their student section dressed in green for the regular season home finale. Cooley bellowed “We’re still LUCKY” when he addressed the Dunkin Donuts Center crowd after clinching the league title against Creighton.
Yet, the media session prior to the Big East Tournament felt different.
“I feel like, even though we’re the number one seed, people still view us like we’re lucky or shouldn’t be there, so we still have a lot to prove to everybody, and ourselves,” AJ Reeves told the press.
“Everybody overlooks us. Sometimes when you overlook us, it’s bad.”
“Providence is looked over every single year, I don’t get it,” Nate Watson added.
After Butler upset Xavier in the first round of the Big East Tournament, Providence and the Bulldogs played down to the wire for the second time in a month.
Watson was dominant inside with 26 points, but the Friars were on upset alert throughout, trailing 59-56 with two minutes to play. Then PC did what it had done all season.
Watson scored inside to pull Providence to within one, then Al Durham made a corner 3-pointer with 41 seconds remaining to put PC ahead for the first time since the 13:06 mark of the second half.
Justin Minaya then made one of the great defensive plays of the season, coming from out of nowhere to block a potentially game-tying layup by freshman Simas Lukosius to essentially seal the victory. Providence survived, 65-61.
“We didn't do a lot of things great, but we did enough to win," Cooley said after the victory. “Today was a microcosm of the type of season we're having.”
If Providence was looking to erase any lingering doubt in the Big East Tournament, however, they fell short of that goal.
In the conference semis, the same Creighton team they put a hurting on at the Dunk returned the favor in an 85-58 upset. The Jays closed the first half on a 17-2 run, then blew it open with a 14-0 spurt out of halftime.
After struggling against 9th seeded Butler and getting blown out by Creighton, the questions about their NCAA Tournament chances only amplified.
Those questions grew even louder once they drew a South Dakota State team that seemed to be everyone’s upset darling in the first round.
Led by the outstanding sophomore Baylor Scheierman, the Jackrabbits finished their season with a perfect 18-0 record in the Summit League and went 30-5 on the year. They were an explosive offensive club that hadn’t lost since mid-December.
A year earlier, Oral Roberts represented the Summit League in the Tournament and knocked off both Ohio State and Florida.
All of those reasons were enough to make Providence the trendy upset pick in the first round.
Providence had a right to feel disrespected, and although no one was looking for silver linings in the Creighton loss, PC quietly found a big one.
As outstanding as Al Durham was all season for PC, he was hobbled throughout much of it. The Friar staff made the decision to sit him out during the regular season finale at Villanova, and the extended rest agreed with him. Durham scored a team high 21 points against Creighton, after knocking down the biggest shot of the game versus Butler.
That momentum carried over for Durham. He buried a three on PC’s first possession and finished the first half with nine points, five rebounds, and three assists — a half in which South Dakota State was held to 23 points.
Providence led 31-23 at halftime, and pushed that advantage to 43-29 after a Noah Horchler three. The teams traded runs over the ensuing 15 minutes.
Durham came up with a big and-1 with just over five minutes left, Bynum buried a pull-up 16 footer with just over a minute to play to push the lead to five, and then Bynum was fouled on a 3-point attempt in a one possession game on the next possession. He made all three and PC moved on with a 66-57 victory.
Prior to the start of the postseason, Reeves said that this Providence team still hadn’t had a game in which everyone was clicking at the same time.
That came in the second round against Richmond.
The Spiders upset fifth seed Iowa in the first round and were simply no match for a Providence team playing its best basketball of the season.
Horchler was outstanding with 16 points and 14 rebounds, but this was ultimately as complete of a team win as the Friars could have hoped for on the game’s biggest stage.
In the 79-51 victory, PC shot 12-22 from distance, limited the Spiders to 1-22 from deep, didn’t give up a fast break point, and saw five players score in double figures.
With the first round jitters gone and Providence playing with an edge, Richmond simply had no chance from the jump.
“That was as well as we’ve played all year, and we picked the right time to do it,” Cooley said after his team reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1997. “I think we clicked on every level.”
“I’m just kind of speechless. I really am. To be sitting here with these gentlemen and the sacrifice and the road where the doubt just continues to flow through the veins of those who don’t trust or believe, we’re sitting here. We’re still here, and it’s a testament to their emotional maturity, and their physical talent that was doubted.”
The Richmond victory not only meant the school’s first Sweet 16 appearance in 25 years, but their 27th win marked the most at PC since 1974.
In winning by 28 points against Richmond, Providence also set a record for the largest margin of victory ever by a Friar team in the NCAA Tournament.
The lucky narrative had finally been vanquished. Now it was all about the game, not storylines — with the winningest program in college basketball history awaiting Providence in Chicago.
Kansas was the top seed in Providence’s bracket. They survived a scare in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Creighton, and as we all know by now, Bill Self’s club went on to win the 2022 national title.
They had to survive a big second half surge from Providence before doing so.
After a disastrous first half in which PC shot just 7-35 from the field, they were only down just 26-17 heading into the break.
Still, it felt as though they would never get over the hump with Kansas smothering their outside shooters and switching on virtually everything.
Enter Ed Croswell. The Friars trailed by as many as 13 in the second half, and were down 11 when Croswell brought the Friars back on sheer toughness — and turned the United Center into the Dunkin Donuts Center West in the process.
He scored the game’s next three baskets to bring PC to within two possessions. Durham and Horchler took over the next five minutes, helping to bring PC all the way back to take the lead with just over five minutes to play.
It was nothing short of chill-inducing to be in the United Center during that spurt. The fans of tiny Providence College took over one of the game’s great arenas after Croswell’s flurry and with Ed Cooley, as he has done so often at the Dunk, imploring the crowd to get on their feet.
Here’s what I wrote at the time:
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…
Only, glory alluded Providence on that Friday night in Chicago.
Honor did not, however.
The loss was devastating, not only because of how close the Friars truly were to reaching their first Final Four for the first time since 1987, but when the harsh reality set in that we would never see this group play together again.
In the Fall of 2022, we are only a year removed from returning to watching these games in-person once again. There was an energy in Providence early last season due to the sheer excitement of being back at the Dunk. It was a momentum and joy that built upon itself with each passing victory.
When it was finally over, your heart broke for them — for a group that gave us everything we could have asked for out of a Providence College basketball team.
“I couldn't be more proud,” Cooley said following the Kansas game. “I have an enormous amount of gratitude for the year that we've had."