Friar Basketball Newsletter: A Historic Season Ends in the Sweet 16, and What's To Come In The Offseason

Providence’s season came to an end with a 66-61 loss to Kansas in the Sweet 16 in Chicago on Friday night, but what a season it was. The Friars finished 27-6 overall, reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in 25 years, and won the program’s first-ever Big East regular season title. 

In the process, this Providence team received an outpouring of support unlike anything seen around the program in decades. The Dunkin Donuts Center was electric all year, and that carried over to Chicago, where Friar fans took over the United Center on Friday night.

The Friars surged back from a 13 point deficit to take the lead over top-seeded Kansas with under six minutes to go, but they ultimately came up just short in the end. Friar Basketball was in the building on Friday, and here you can read about what it was like when PC started surging and their supporters nearly blew the roof off of the United Center. 

Subscribers can read a breakdown of the game, including thoughts from both head coaches, and the players who shined in this one. The article examines Providence’s first half struggles, how Ed Croswell, Al Durham, and Noah Horchler led the comeback, and a critical play call Kansas made late to help pull this one out in the end. 

We also have highlights for you to enjoy. Here is a ten minute look back at all three of Providence’s NCAA Tournament games from this March, while this five minute video shows all of the best plays and crazy crowd reactions during PC’s run against Kansas. 

Our Starting Five article from this weekend recaps the Sweet 16 with a variety of articles, press conferences, highlights, and Twitter reaction following the Providence and Kansas game. 

We also detailed how Providence entered their game against Kansas confident that they would pull off the upset. 

While Friday marked the end of the Friars’ season, we plan on writing year-round here at Friar Basketball. Over the next couple of weeks we will have all sorts of statistical deep dives from this season, reflections on the roster, looks ahead at how next year’s team will shape up, fan surveys, and news from both high school and transfer market recruiting. As we have done in year’s past, we plan to attend spring and summer recruiting events and will provide in-depth features on what we’ve seen.

We will also have podcasts and interviews throughout the offseason. Look for a podcast with 2022 commit Quante Berry coming soon. 

In other words, a lot more to come! 

This was an amazing season to cover, and we can’t wait to see how Providence builds momentum off of it. We appreciate each of you for reading our work, and look forward to continuing to tell the story of Ed Cooley and his Friars.