Providence Heads to New York with a Sizable Chip On Its Shoulder

“Are they chippy? Are they edgy? Absolutely. 100%.”

When Providence steps on the Madison Square Garden floor at noon tomorrow they’ll be doing so with something to prove. At least, that was certainly the vibe when Ed Cooley and three of his Friars met with the media prior to heading to New York earlier this week.

On Wednesday, Cooley was named Big East Coach of the Year, making him the first Friar head coach ever to win that award.

Just days earlier, Jared Bynum became the first representative of PC to be named the league’s Sixth Man of the Year.

Bynum also joined fifth year senior Nate Watson as a 2nd Team All Big East selection.

Still, the Friars feel as though they are being overlooked.

“It’s like every year,” Watson said to the Providence media. “Providence is looked over every single year. I don’t get it.”

“We definitely have something to prove. At the beginning of the season, they picked us seventh, and we finished number one — and people are still looking down on us.”

It’s been well-documented throughout this season, and Cooley has gone to the “We’re the luckiest team in America” well quite frequently over the last two months, but this week’s media session felt different. Disrespect felt more like a theme than a passing thought.

Cooley spoke of how surprised he was that Watson and Bynum weren’t selected First Team All Big East.

Cooley answered a question with a question when asked about his team’s New York state of mind: “Are they chippy? Are they edgy? Absolutely. 100%.”

AJ Reeves concurred, “I’m happy that my guys are getting recognized, but the season that Jared Bynum had, Nate Watson, for them to get second team, it hurts. Not just for them, for us too.”

Reeves didn’t stop there: “We feel like our teammates got cheated. Now that’s not to say that nobody on the First Team isn’t deserving of it — they had some great picks on the First Team too, but I feel like we got overlooked,” he added before noting that he thought Noah Horchler was deserving of All Conference honors, while plugging Justin Minaya for the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

“That comes with that chip we have — small school, everybody overlooks us,” Reeves said before issuing a slight warning. “Sometimes if you overlook us, it’s bad (for you).”

Watson added, “It kind of adds fuel to me. I’ve got to go to this Big East Tournament and prove myself — prove that I’m a First Team All Conference player. I think Coach (Cooley) told me this is the first year ever there’s been a first place team without a First Team All Conference player, which is kind of crazy. I think Jared Bynum should have definitely gotten it. This guy, out of nowhere, turned into Curry.”

Part of the disrespect may be that Bynum, like his team, really has come out of nowhere this year. Predicted to finish seventh in the Big East by the league’s coaches, the Friars have lost to just three teams this season. They head into the 2022 Big East Tournament 24-4 overall and 14-3 in the Big East.

For the first time in a long time, PC heads to MSG playing for seeding and not their NCAA Tournament hopes.

As has been the case all season, there is an element of unfinished business in regard to the Friars’ trip to New York. They dismissed any notion of overlooking the Big East Tournament and focusing on next week’s NCAAs.

Providence was eliminated in the first round of this tournament in front of an empty Garden a season ago. Cooley promised changes immediately afterward.

They’ll look to not only wipe away any memory of that performance, but to compensate for the 2020 tournament that was cancelled due to the pandemic.

“Our team was playing as well as any team in America at that point in time,” Cooley said of his Friars of 2020, who had won eight of their final ten games to close that season.

The Friars will look to improve to 3-0 on the season against Butler tomorrow afternoon after the Bulldogs knocked off Xavier in overtime on Wednesday night. LaVall Jordan’s club may have dashed Xavier’s NCAA Tournament hopes with that win, and they’ll once again hope to play spoiler Thursday against PC.

Providence has had great success against Butler, sporting a 15-5 all-time record against them. They have also knocked the Bulldogs out of the Big East Tournament twice in two opportunities. In 2016, Ben Bentil went off for 38 points in a 74-60 victory. Three years later, it was Maliek White catching fire to lead Providence to an 80-57 win.

Butler played the Friars tough this season. PC took a 69-62 win at the Dunkin Donuts Center in the Friars’ second game back from a Covid pause. Nate Watson led the way with 18 points and seven rebounds on that night — a win that pushed PC to 6-1 in conference play. Providence was without AJ Reeves in that game.

On February 20, the two played in an outstanding game. Without the services of Al Durham, Providence rallied from 19 points down to take a 71-70 overtime victory in Indianapolis. Watson, once again, led PC with 22 points on 10-15 shooting from the field, while Jared Bynum had 18 points. Horchler finished with a 15 point, 11 rebound triple double, and made the two biggest plays of the afternoon — tying the game with under 30 seconds to go on a midrange jumper, then blocking Aaron Thompson at the rim in the closing seconds of regulation.

Thursday will mark the end of a nine-day layoff for a Providence team that — from the sounds of it — will be raring to go. This week is just the latest opportunity for this group of Friars to make another statement.