On June 18th, Brendan McGair of the Pawtucket Times tweeted that he was hearing PC would play Stonehill for one of the exhibition games this upcoming season. I was able to confirm that report and have added them to the 2014-15 schedule page that is linked at the top of the site.
Hearing that one of PC's exhibition games will take place against Stonehill. Makes sense since Ed Cooley is an alum.
The non-conference schedule looks pretty challenging overall and features a few interesting opponents at interesting venues like Kentucky at Rupp Arena, Miami at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Tipoff at Mohegan Sun. I’ll be doing an in-depth preview of each and every non-conference opponent as the season draws closer so keep an eye open for those previews which will most likely be done weekly beginning in the middle of August.
On Sunday night, the Providence Journal’s Kevin McNamara reported that Ed Cooley is “putting the finishing touches on a schedule “that may be too hard” and features home games against Rhode Island and Massachusetts, a trip to preseason No. 1-ranked Kentucky, a return to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for a game against Miami, and games against Florida State and Notre Dame in the Hall of Fame Tip-off at Mohegan Sun casino.”
This morning Jon Rothstein tweeted that the Miami game will be part of a doubleheader with Manhattan vs. Fordham and will be played on 12/22/14. This confirms a previous report from John Rooke who hinted at this last week.
Providence will play Miami and Manhattan will face Fordham in a doubleheader at the Barclays Center on 12/22/14, source told @CBSSports.
ESPN’s Jeff Goodman came out with “a detailed look ahead at the nation’s top programs and how they’re positioning themselves for the 2014-15 campaign … and beyond.” Providence didn’t make Goodman’s cut of top 50 teams (cue the conspiracy theorists) while teams like UTEP, Stephen F. Austin, Toledo and Louisiana Tech do make the cut ahead of the Friars. There are 3 Big East teams mentioned and it could be argued that PC will be better than #40 Xavier next season. Click here to see the full top 50 (ESPN Insider). Below are the 3 Big East teams:
It’s officially the offseason now. March Madness has come and gone. Connecticut is the national champion.
The focus for fans now turns heavily to recruiting, discussing potential starters/lineups for their team next season, how many minutes and points per game and rebounds per game, etc. a kid they have never seen play before will have and, finally, who they will be playing out of conference (OOC). For Providence, recruiting means filling out their remaining 2 spots for the 2014 class with a focus on 5th year transfers and junior college players who can contribute immediately next season. Potential starters/lineups likely can’t be determined for the Friars until they have another guard in hand for 2014 and at some point in the coming weeks, I’ll enter the fray on that discussion with my own thoughts on that topic. For now though, my focus is on the OOC schedule that PC has lined up for next season.
As I mentioned in my piece reviewing the Big East’s first season with the current configuration, one of the big keys for maintaining the strength of this updated version of the Big East is for teams to play a strong OOC schedule. The reality is that most years won’t provide the opportunity to play a top 25 ranked opponent every week like the prior version of this conference did many years. My guess is that most years there will be about 2-3 teams in the top 25 with the potential for a great year having 50% of the league ranked. The 2013-2014 season saw the Big East have an OOC strength of schedule ranked 7th in the country. They likely need to be top 5 every year in that category. Things are off to a solid start with Creighton reportedly having agreed to a home and home series with Oklahoma beginning in Omaha next season. Also, it was reported over the weekend that St. John’s and Duke will restart their series on January 31, 2015 at Madison Square Garden after a two year hiatus. The Johnnies also will head to the Carrier Dome this season to take on former conference rival Syracuse in December 2014.
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