On Sunday there was a flurry of posting activity in the pcbb1917 Discord channel titled “the-portal-committee” where our community discusses potential players that could be a fit at Providence and just general portal activity. While a flurry of portal-committee posts on March 22nd isn’t necessarily noteworthy, there were a couple of reasons why it felt like it was worth mentioning. The first is that there were several posters who were engaging there that had been quiet in Discord for awhile. Second, they were posting a deep dive of players that could be connected to Providence’s new coaching staff. As I read through the messages, I posted “isn’t it fun to have hope again?”
Providence fans are used to being disappointed, at least Providence fans that have been around a little while. When I was a student at Providence it always felt like we were waiting for the other shoe to drop whenever something good happened. Ricky Ledo stays home and will be a Friar! Ineligible to play, per the NCAA. Kris Dunn is an amazing freshman! Shoulder injury and out for the year. Injuries and other off court issues were often that other shoe and sometimes even worse things like two of Keno Davis’ players committing felony assault on a fellow student. Those were the real dark times in Friartown. Ed Cooley came along and, with some grit, luck and a lot of flex offense Providence was on an upward trajectory for the first time in awhile. LaDontae Henton and Bryce Cotton definitely helped, as did the formation of the current Big East conference heading into the 2013-14 season. That year Providence, led by Cotton’s absurd 41.9 minutes/game in league play and Henton’s big time shot making against Creighton at MSG led to Providence’s second ever Big East Tournament title coming 18 years after the first one when Eric Williams, Michael Smith, Dickey Simpkins and freshman Austin Croshere, under the tutelage of Rick Barnes, beat Villanova, UConn and Georgetown for the school’s first Big East Tournament win 15 years after Dave Gavitt founded the Big East while Providence’s Athletic Director.
There is a proud basketball history at Providence College and you can play six degrees of Kevin Bacon-like games that ultimately connect someone in basketball back to little old PC. Providence has won the NIT (in 1961 and 1963 when that was THE tournament), made two trips to the Final 4, four Elite 8’s and five Sweet 16’s. Before English arrived, Providence had been the NCAA Tournament 7 of 9 seasons (and would have been 8 if the 2020 tournament didn’t get canceled due to COVID-19). This is a basketball program that can be so much better than it’s been the last couple seasons. Since Ed Cooley unceremoniously left for rosier pastures at Georgetown things haven’t felt the same in Friartown. Providence fans were scorned by someone they thought would be the coach for his lifetime, a man they were literally leaving room for a statue next to Gavitt and Joe Mullaney outside the newly minted Ruane Friar Development Center. I get the feeling and I get the anger. But it’s time to flush it, as Kim English used to say after bad losses — and there were plenty of bad losses the last two years.
The hiring of Bryan Hodgson denotes a new era at Providence. A chance for a fresh start and one that can go back to harnessing the purpose and passion of Friar fans into rooting like hell for their team and less rooting like hell against people like Cooley or Bryce Hopkins. Hopkins won’t be playing college basketball next season — will be fun to see where his entire family moves along with him wherever is paying him — and Cooley has been dismal on the Hilltop. My favorite thing about Providence as an alumnus is the people, the community. I think sometimes people take for granted just how powerful that community of Friars can be when you get a random “Go Friars!” at an airport thousands of miles from Rhode Island, or when you run into other Providence at work. For a small Catholic college in the smallest state in the country the people that make up Friartown are special.
It’s time to get back to focusing on Providence and rooting for the Friars. The hiring of Hodgson when he had interest from the likes of Syracuse is validation that Providence is a great job in the college basketball world. The need to defend PC against the Jeff Goodman’s of the world who made it seem like it was a no brainer that Georgetown was a better job than little old Providence is no longer something that is necessary. Let Goodman and his ilk continue to embarrass themselves with their shamelessness.
As we embark on the 100th season of men’s basketball at Providence, flush seasons 98 and 99 and put all your energy into year 1 of Hodgson. Friartown is special. Let’s remind everyone why.
Want to continue the conversation about Providence’s new head coach, join the pcbb1917 portal committee and use the cool bots to look up players or just join a community of Friar fans? Subscribe to the pcbb1917 Discord today!