The Next Phase of Our Coverage: Introducing The Big East Film Room

After 17 years of telling Providence’s story, we’re expanding to the entire Big East — and welcoming an outstanding new voice to our staff.

For someone who has written thousands of articles over the past two decades, it’s impossible to adequately express how much I’ve loved covering the Providence Friars.

I’ve loved all aspects of it — the relationships, the recruiting, digging into the numbers, and becoming a voice that many of you have trusted throughout a tenure that has now spanned four coaching staffs.

I hope this comes through in our content, but my favorite aspects have been the challenge of reinventing how we do things and the opportunity to amplify new voices.

Reinvention has kept me going over the past 17 years — from the early days of digging into the New England recruiting scene, to introducing video content and highlight reels, dipping our toes into podcasting a decade ago and later returning with Billy at The Friar Podcast, and more recently transitioning to Substack.

The move to Substack couldn’t have been timed any better. The Friars won the Big East regular season title and reached the Sweet 16 in the first year after the move, then Ed Cooley left a year later, and there has been no shortage of stories ever since.

But even with all that, I often found myself thinking about what was next. How could I offer something new and different in this space?

Today, I’m excited to share that we are expanding our coverage beyond Providence to include the entire Big East. ​​Later this month, this space will transition from Friarbasketball.com to The Big East Film Room — as we continue to evolve what we’ve been building since 2009.

What won’t change?

For starters, we’ll still be at the AMP covering games live, and The Friar Podcast and partnership with Billy aren’t going anywhere. If you’ve been with us on this journey from the early days, I’m confident you’ll love what’s next: in-depth coverage of all eleven Big East programs.

There will still be great Friar coverage — and it will continue to be year-round. Any subscriptions to Friarbasketball.com will carry over to this new site and if you’re on our current email list you’ll remain on the new one. We’re just broadening our scope.

Our Big East content will include recruiting and transfer portal breakdowns, offseason storylines, interviews, a podcast, and deep-dives throughout the season. It will be a natural progression and expansion of what we do.

Why now?

This idea isn’t a new one. As far back as 2014, I talked with Craig Leighton and Craig Belhumeur about expanding to cover the entire league. We even had a logo and URL ready to go.

But timing matters, and it just felt like such a massive undertaking at the time.

As an independent writer, I’ve always felt a responsibility to evolve, to push myself, and to avoid being not just another voice, but a different one. We’ve built a great community here, and it’s time to see if this content can translate across the league.

Candidly, I want to further challenge myself. We’ve built such a loyal following and there’s a big part of me that wants to see if that can carry over across the league. I’m dying to see what interesting stories and angles we can uncover when writing about all eleven teams.

The turning point came over the past two years, sitting next to Tom Harkness on press row. I realized that expanding to the full conference was possible, but only with the right person. I couldn’t do this alone and maintain the standard you’ve come to expect. And I certainly couldn’t do it with someone who wasn’t as invested as I am.

Tom is measured, deeply knowledgeable, tireless, and passionate about this space. He just “gets” it, and I feel very fortunate to partner with him on what’s next. Tom has been a fixture at PC, URI, Bryant, and Brown games over the past few seasons writing for The Rhody Vault, and his insight into the college hoops scene expands well beyond Rhode Island or even the Big East. He’s going to absolutely crush it.

Tom’s already written some great pieces for us:

Providence Grabs Knicks G-Leaguer Dink Pate in a Shocking Thursday Night Move

Friar Coaching Candidates: Bryan Hodgson

As for what you can expect? The same mentality that has made this site successful over the past decade and a half will continue.

We won’t take shortcuts or hunt clicks, and we won’t be combative or inflammatory. We’ll be straightforward, fact‑based, and fully committed to telling the story of the league from that perspective. It’s the league I grew up on and I can’t wait to get after this new venture.

I’m beyond grateful to everyone who has supported us along the way. I am confident you’ll enjoy the next iteration of the site. We will continue to push to bring you something new and unique moving forward — something with depth, insight, and heart.

Thanks for supporting us along the way.

Here’s to the next chapter.