Providence Basketball: Friars excelling in the new Big East

Providence Basketball was an also-ran in the old Big East, but in the new and improved conference, the Friars have risen to new heights.

When the Big East began to splinter earlier in the decade, a conference centered around the ‘Catholic 7’ created plenty of uncertainty.

Flash forward to the summer of 2018, and the Big East has outperformed even its own wildest expectations. Villanova has put together one of the great five-year runs of all-time, new additions Butler, Creighton, and Xavier have buoyed the conference, and some of the schools that left the Big East have not performed up to their pre-realignment standards.

Obviously, Villanova is the big winner of the new Big East, but Providence has also used the new platform to elevate its program.

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From 2005-06, when the Big East added five new schools, through 2012-13, the final year of the “old” Big East, the Friars were just 125-126 overall and 50-90 in conference play. They churned through 2 coaches in 4 years before landing on Ed Cooley and never finished above 8th place in the 16-team Big East. For a program with a proud history dating back to the 1920’s, Providence was suddenly lost amidst the college basketball shuffle.

Luckily, realignment came calling, and the Friars quickly managed to lift their heads above water. In 2014, the first year of the revamped conference, Providence charged through Madison Square Garden to capture the program’s second conference tournament title and qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade. And that was only the tip of the iceberg.

The Friars are now 110-62 (51-39 Big East) since 2013-14, and have made five straight NCAA Tournament appearances, a program record. In 2015 and 2016, former point guard Kris Dunn won back-to-back Big East Player of the Year awards and Defensive Player of the Year awards before jetting off to the NBA. Providence is yet to finish worse than fourth in the new Big East. Ed Cooley has also brought 3 different top-25 recruiting classes to campus, according to 247 Sports.

Postseason success is the next step for Providence as it continues its climb into the national limelight. Yes, the Friars have qualified for the NCAA Tournament in five straight seasons, but they have only advanced past their first game once (in 2016, and Providence ultimately lost in the second round).

Winning tournament games can be a bit of a crapshoot year-to-year, especially since Providence has only been the better seed one time since 2014. Still, a 1-5 tourney record in that span is underachieving when you consider Cooley’s sterling reputation and the quality guards Providence typically puts on the floor. Fair or not, Providence needs to string together some tournament wins to mark this as the best era in program history.

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2018-19 will be an exciting year for the Big East as the conference resets itself following a mass exodus of top talent. With another excellent recruiting class coming in and a roster already filled with quality talent, Providence should field another Big East contender. Now let’s see if Cooley and co. can finally turn it into a deep March run.

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