NEW YORK – Providence head coach Ed Cooley talked a lot about his program making progress but still having work to do. Whether or not more of that work will come this season in another game will have to wait a few days, as Providence bowed out of the Big East Tournament on Wednesday with a 61-44 loss to Cincinnati in which they didn’t play well, especially at the offensive end.
At this point, it’s a given that Providence won’t be in the NCAA Tournament. The Friars needed to make a run in New York for any chance, especially since a win on Wednesday would have given them a great opportunity for a quality win as Georgetown would be next. Instead, the Friars’ difficulties winning in New York continued as Wednesday’s loss was their fifth straight in the Big East Tournament. For that matter, their last win broke another five-game losing streak in the tournament.
While a bid to the NCAA Tournament is not in the cards, the NIT is a question mark. Several regular season champions of one-bid conferences have already lost in their conference tournaments, so they will grab NIT bids. Providence might have been on the bubble with another win or two, so in theory an NIT bid is possible, but many other teams are also on the bubble and presumably would be in the NIT. If the NIT doesn’t come calling, there is also the CBI, but Cooley made their postseason future clear when asked about it.
“If we don’t play in the NIT, our season is done,” said the Providence head coach. “I didn’t come to Providence College to play in another basketball tournament.”
Cincinnati took Providence out of the game almost from the outset, building up a 13-2 lead with a lot of defensive pressure and later going up 26-8. Providence finished the first half on a 15-5 run, then got within four before Cincinnati pulled away for good as the Friars struggled all day.
Providence wasn’t any better defensively, and Cincinnati played like a team with a sense of urgency for the NCAA Tournament. The Friars shot 28.1 percent from the field, including 1-16 on three-pointers.
“We weren’t really expecting the ball pressure,” said forward Kadeem Batts, who led the Friars with 14 points on 6-17 shooting. “They sped us up a little bit.”
While Providence has progressed, especially since the beginning of the season when injury and eligibility issues took their toll, there is still a ways to go. Cooley told the team they have to be ready for this moment, pointing to Cincinnati’s better record at Madison Square Garden of late (six wins in the last three years) in contrast to the Friars not winning since 2009.
“I mean, I have to grow as a head coach in this league,” Cooley said. “Our players have to grow. Our program has to grow. I thought we did this year. I thought our players did a tremendous job. I didn’t realize we started 0-3 to get to where we were to position ourselves to probably have success.”
Providence is in a position to do that in the new Big East. They will miss Vincent Council, but they will have most of the team back, and if Ricky Ledo hangs around, he will be a big addition to the team. They also have Carson Desrosiers sitting out after transferring from Wake Forest. They had the leading scorer in the conference in Bryce Cotton and arguably the most improved player in Batts, who will both return.
Besides personnel, this team should feel more confident next year. They went 9-9 in the Big East, rebounding from the 0-3 start Cooley mentioned and from being 2-7 at one point. They first beat up on a lot of bad teams in non-conference play and lost to the best ones they took on while also battling a host of injury and eligibility issues. Early in Big East play it was the same thing. Then they started to break through and beat better teams, though they also let a few get away, notably games against Pittsburgh and both games against Connecticut.
“Right now, our program just isn’t there right now,” said Cooley. “Hopefully, in the future, we can get there.”
