Ed Cooley and his Friars are responding with a resounding answer to a down year a season ago

On two occasions last season Ed Cooley was so disgusted with what he saw from his team that he walked off of the court before the final buzzer went off.

The first instance came after Providence surrendered 92 points to St. John’s in early February, in what was their fourth loss in five games. His other early exit came as the Friars’ season came to an end after a shockingly lifeless effort in the first round of the Big East Tournament against DePaul. The Blue Demons finished the season with a 2-13 mark in league play, yet they outscored Providence 35-26 in the second half.

Was walking off the floor early a big deal? To some maybe not, and perhaps it wasn’t “wrong,” but it certainly wasn’t Ed Cooley-like.

Over the past decade we’d seen Cooley jovial, emotional, introspective, measured, frustrated, and edgy, but we had never seen the Ed Cooley who took to the podium after the DePaul loss.

Cooley looked exhausted.

“It’s sad. I’m hurt for our players. I’m hurt for our program. To have your last game like that,” Cooley paused. “It’s been a trying year all over the place for everyone in the country.”

It’s hard to feel sorry for a millionaire basketball coach in the midst of a global pandemic, and it feels wrong to question what could have been for Providence two seasons ago, but still…

The Friars went from being one of the hottest teams in the country in March of 2020, from becoming the first Providence team to win 12 conference games, to seeing it all come to an end so suddenly.

Cooley could never state it publicly, but it had to have been crushing to have his best shot at a deep NCAA Tournament run taken away so quickly.

Then everything was disjointed when they came back. The Friars had no summer, no one in the stands, no clue if the season would even take place or finish.

And they played like strangers for much of the year. From the beginning when they were blown out by Indiana and Alabama in two of their first four games, to a 6-10 close to the end of the season. It was a Providence bunch that showed no signs of connectedness, and failed to compete for the most part, despite having two of the best players in the Big East.

After the DePaul loss Cooley used the phrase “soul searching” six times in his seven-minute press conference. He was hard on himself and his entire operation: “It just wasn’t the year that I thought we’d have. I know there’s a lot of disappointed people, no one more disappointed than myself at all. We expect a lot. Our expectations for our program remain high. Our standards remain high.”

He continued, “It wasn’t a season I’m proud of, and hopefully we can get better as we move forward.”

Cooley said that PC President Father Sicard and Athletic Director Bob Driscoll hired him to win and shared, “I don’t think I’ve done a very good job of delivering for them.”

He closed his presser with a message for everyone involved with the program: “They have to understand that there will be some changes coming.”

Eleven games into the new season, the job is far from done, but an important part of it is. No, it’s not just Providence’s 10-1 record to date — more significantly, Cooley, his staff, and his players have managed to wipe away the disappointment of the 2020-21 season with how they have gone about their business this year.

Picked to finish seventh in the Big East by the league’s coaches following a down season and the departure of David Duke, Cooley found a pair of veteran transfers who fit in perfectly, and he has built a roster that has been selfless to date.

Nate Watson and Al Durham were the stars through five games (a 5-0 start), with Watson overwhelming the frontcourts of a pair of Big 10 teams in Wisconsin and Northwestern, while Durham played with an edge and made clutch plays all over the place.

The Friars ripped off another five-game win streak to close the non-conference portion of the schedule. During this stretch it was AJ Reeves shrugging off criticism and showing a more well-rounded game, Noah Horchler stretching the floor and hitting the glass, and Ed Croswell willing PC back into games with sheer force and energy.

Big East play starts next week, and we’ll spend countless hours dissecting NET rankings, Ken Pomeroy’s efficiency numbers, and stressing over inevitable bad stretches in the coming weeks, and that’s all part of being invested.

After Providence’s hot start, there is a reason to really care about every game remaining on this schedule.

I’ve always been rather stoic — both in life and as a follower of the program. I never get too down on kids when they have bad stretches, or particularly low during a losing streak, but seeing Cooley more despondent than upset in his final press conference last year was worrisome.

That concern turned more into intrigue as we got some separation from last season, and the new one approached. Cooley has been resilient — both as a coach and in life — but I genuinely wondered how he and his program would bounce back.

They’ve answered in a rather resounding fashion.

In a season that has been filled with highlights through eleven games, maybe the most special for me came during the national anthem before Providence hosted URI. The Friars were looking to improve to 8-1, undergrads were overflowing the student sections an hour before the game, the Dunk was filled to the rafters, and an amazing rendition of the anthem sent chills up my arms — and provided a quick reminder of how much our lives had changed over the past two years.

The energy was more than back in the Dunkin Donuts Center, and any fears about where this entire operation was headed have been alleviated over the past two months.

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