Big East Basketball: Each team’s worst performance of the last decade

Providence

February 10, 2018 (DePaul 80, at Providence 63) (GS: 9)

Providence is another one of those programs that has had some great seasons (a Final Four in 1987 under Rick Pitino), but they’ve also had some hard times. The Friars have made the last five NCAA Tournaments but they had a ten-year drought before that. The new Big East is tighter and Ed Cooley has this program humming, though it hasn’t all been good under his tutelage.

His first experience with Big East play back in December 2011 was a really tough introduction, losing back-to-back games to a rough St. John’s squad 91-67 and then at Georgetown 49-40. By the end of the season, things hadn’t gotten any better, as Providence dropped a 79-47 contest in the Big East Tournament to Seton Hall. However, one of the worst fates that could befall a Big East team is to give DePaul one of their rare conference wins.

It’s hard to pick between these two games, but Providence only scuffled in the closing minutes of their 64-63 loss at DePaul in January 2017. This was a game that they led throughout before blowing it late, but at least they were in the game. When they hosted DePaul this past February, things started to go south ten minutes into the game and Providence completely fell apart, trailing by 15 at the half and by as many as 31 points. While DePaul shot extremely well (60%, and 44% from 3), they also committed 19 turnovers, but Providence was never in a position to take advantage. Instead, they were upset for the second straight year by a weak Blue Demons team.

Again, it’s important to stress that Providence has been heading in the right direction in recent years. In a very deep Big East, they’ve emerged a Tournament team each of the last five years, even if they haven’t turned those appearances into anything impressive. As long as this team can avoid the yearly letdown against DePaul, this could be a team going places in the near future.