Category Archives: #pcbb

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Cooley Preaching Patience for 2016-17 Friars

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With six games under their belt so far this season, a 4-2 record isn’t so bad for the Providence Friars. While two losses in November hasn’t been the norm for Providence during Ed Cooley’s tenure as the leader in Friartown, those two losses haven’t sent Friar fans into a depression. In fact, if you check some online college basketball odds you’ll find Providence still getting plenty of respect from the oddsmakers for their matchup against New Hampshire on Wednesday night.

There is no mistaking the difficult task Cooley has in keeping the momentum rolling of three straight NCAA Tournament trips and four straight postseason tournament appearances, overall. But on Tuesday night during his radio show hosted by John Rooke, Cooley mentioned patience a few times.

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Providence Season Preview: The Dunn Era Closes, a New Era Begins

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When Kris Dunn graduated in May of 2016, he didn’t leave alone. Ben Bentil also declared for the NBA Draft, eventually becoming the Boston Celtic’s 51st overall pick. The departure of Dunn and Bentil has left a void that will impact Providence’s immediate future. Evidence of how different the 2016-17 season is expected to be for Providence can be seen in college basketball odds where Providence is +28000, or 280/1 to win the national championship. Last season the Friars were as high in some places as +6000, or 60/1.

Dunn, a two-time Big East Player of the Year, was the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 5th overall pick. The end of the Kris Dunn Era isn’t the end of the Friars, though; they have plenty of talent and a deep roster to keep the momentum of three straight NCAA Tournament appearances going. The Friars can avoid the pitfalls that have befallen many other teams that have lost major stars if they get the right level of development and improvement from players like Kyron Cartwright, Rodney Bullock, and Jalen Lindsey.

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Building a Program: Providence Should Emulate Conference Leaders

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The Big East currently has two teams sitting atop the league’s standings, two teams toiling away in the cellar and the other six teams beating each other to death in the middle. This has been the recipe each of the first three seasons of this configuration of the Big East. Villanova remains the most consistent. Jay Wright’s program has been among those two at the top all three seasons. The other program on high this season — Xavier — also appears to be in a position to stay there. That leaves teams like Butler, Creighton, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence and Seton Hall to bloody each other’s win/loss records in hopes of snagging the other three spots that make up the top half of the league.

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Providence’s Final Six Big East Games and Their Impact on the NCAA Tournament

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Providence is now two-thirds of the way through their 18 game Big East schedule and they are sitting at 6-6 and are in a tie for 6th with Butler. The Friars have certainly been up and down in league play. They started 4-2 in the first third of the schedule and followed that up with a 2-4 record in the second third — though 1 of their 2 wins in the second third came on the road at Villanova.

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Fixing Providence’s Slow Starts: Here’s What I Would Change

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Providence has been starting more than just the last few games. It happened during the non-conference too. The Friars were able to overcome teams with their superior talent and ability, but Big East play is a different animal. The narrative after the home loss against Marquette on January 5th was: “They didn’t play well, but they played bad and still almost won!” That’s cute. It certainly isn’t the way Ed Cooley is thinking. The slow starts have been exacerbated lately by a lack of offensive firepower that has prevented Providence from making the big comeback that sealed wins earlier in the season. In their last 3 games, Providence is shooting a combined 32% from the field. That won’t cut it against Big East teams most nights. Here’s what I would do to attempt to fix Providence’s slow starts:

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Merry Christmas from pcbb1917

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As another calendar year comes to a close, the 2015-16 basketball season is about to heat up and I wanted to take an opportunity to wish all my loyal readers and rabid Friar fans a Merry Christmas. This has been a banner year for pcbb1917.com. Overall site views are up over 70% from 2014’s total and December 2015 is already the most-viewed month in the site’s history — the first time the site has been viewed over 50,000 times in a month! Over 127,000 unique visitors have made their way to pcbb1917.com in 2015. That’s pretty awesome.

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Happy Festivus: pcbb1917 Edition

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December 23rd means it’s Festivus and — as is tradition — Festivus begins with the Airing of Grievances. I got some good responses on Twitter that I’ll share below but also will give you my list of grievances. As Frank Costanza says “I got a lotta problems with you people, and you’re going to hear about it!” I’ll also give you my Feats of Strength from the non-conference schedule and maybe there will be a Festivus miracle to finish things off.

“It’s a Festivus, for the rest of us!”

Airing of Grievances

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