Providence has had a great regular season, but the Friars need to win an NCAA tournament game.
The chatter and the momentum have been building all season at Providence as the Friars put together their best season since Rick Pitino put together a Final Four team 35 seasons ago and turned the Friars into the Cinderella story of the college basketball season.
It culminated a week ago when Providence clinched its first regular season championship in school history with a Big East win over Creighton..
Not bad for a team predicted to finish 7th in the conference in the pre-season.
"We played an NCAA tournament team team (Creighton) and they caught us on a good night,'' said PC coach Ed Cooley who has been the architect of the revival in a program which has a rich tradition of success, dating back to Pitino, Joe Mullaney and Dave Gavitt."There's a lot of emotion, but I don't know if there is a better college basketball environment.''
It has been a magical year for the Friars (24-4, 14-3) despite being swept by the perennial Big East leader, Villanova, which won a pair of hold-your-breath encounters with PC.
This year, the Friars have won most of their close encounters–11-2 in games decided by 56 points or less.
Cooley who is lock for Big East Coach of the Year and legitimate contender for National Coach of Year honors, deserves all the praise he is getting.
He's one of of the good guys in a sport which often shows its sleazier side, coming out of a stable of assistants nurtured by former Boston College coach Al Skinner.
That's the good news for Providence and Cooley.
The other part of the story still needs resolution and is much darker and will not disappear, even if the Friars sweep into the NCAA tournament as Big East TOURNAMENT champions.
PC's NCAA tournament history has been abysmal for the past 25 years–a 1`-8 record, with only one first round victory.
Forget the excuses about lower seeds and bad match ups or unfair sites. Those are part of the luck of the draw of March Madness.
PC's main New England d Big East rival UConn came out of the Big East tournament winning five games in five nights and then won the 2011 national championship.
The reality is that nothing that PC does over the next two weeks means anything in how their season will be judged.
The Friars should be no worse than a No. 4 or No. 5 seed and could climb as high as No. 2, which means a loss in the opening round game will be regarded as a major upset.
There is no wiggle room here for the Friars, or Cooley, who may draw interest from other schools with openings or potential openings such as Maryland, Louisville and perhaps Georgetown.
Cooley is not looking to leave Providence, which is his home town, where he has become almost an iconic figure. t
But he also knows that all the praise he and his team have received this season will be nothing but dust in the wind if the NCAA tournament turns into a one and done event.
