PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Ed Cooley dreamed of this moment.
But even growing up down the street, from Sackett Street Elementary School to Central High School – just a mile away from the Dunkin’ Donuts Center – he could never have imagined the scene he found himself in the middle on Saturday night.
A sea of Providence College students had engulfed him at the center of the court, and there standing on the Friars logo, Cooley was living a reality that he could never have drawn up as a boy in South Providence. The scene that surrounded him was wild enough, but there had never even been a blueprint for the 11th-year Providence coach to follow.
For the first time ever, the Friars were Big East regular season champions, a euphoric feeling that hadn’t quite settled in the moments after their clinching 72-51 victory over Creighton. Not after he had addressed the crowd, or even after he stepped atop the ladder to begin the ceremonial net cutting.
“I never thought in a million years coming from Providence that I would be on that floor with what I just went through,” Cooley said. “Being a kid from Central High School and Roger Williams Middle School and Sackett Elementary School, some one, two, three miles away. That’s just an unbelievable dream that I still think I’m dreaming.”
One of the most memorable nights in PC basketball history, Saturday night presented a perfect storm of sorts for the Friars. It was Senior Night, and after Wednesday night’s thrilling triple-overtime win over Xavier, they knew a victory meant history.
It couldn’t have been scripted more perfectly, with a delirious, starving sellout crowd willing Providence to a storybook regular-season finish to its magical campaign. There’s certainly still plenty of season left – with the Big East and NCAA Tournaments ahead in March – but this was special, unlike anything ever seen in the program’s history, a night and accomplishment never to be forgotten.
“I said I wanted to come back to win a Big East championship and I knew it was going to be hard work, but I stayed with it,” said senior Nate Watson. “It was very emotional for me. I shed some tears. All this hard work, it finally paid off.”
There was almost no chance Saturday could have unfolded any other way. The Friars trailed just once – 2-0 in the opening minutes – but quickly gained control and never let it go. And when they went up 21 with six minutes to play, the party had already started. A championship was all but assured.
“This game was won when the ball went up,” Cooley said. “The emotion, the energy in the building. … This isn’t a win for our program, this is a win for our city, a win for our state. There’s still a lot to play for, but we’re going to enjoy this today.”
Picked to finish seventh in the Big East preseason poll, the Friars have played with a chip on their shoulder all season. They have no surefire NBA prospects, but a collection of transfers and homegrown talent that Cooley fit into a perfect puzzle this season, which should earn him National Coach of the Year consideration.
They’ve been called lucky – they rank first in the country in KenPom’s luck metric, a product of all their close wins. It’s a narrative that Cooley has embraced, but this is a veteran group that knew what it had and wanted to prove it. They left Madison Square Garden after their season ended in the Big East tournament with a sour taste in their mouths, and they came back better.
“We just wanted to come out and complete the mission,” said senior A.J. Reeves, who hit seven 3-pointers in Saturday’s win. “This was a goal of ours from the very beginning, when everybody assembled in the summertime. We knew we had something special and we just knew that if we came to play and fought hard the whole time, we could really do something.”
They’ve shown all season that they did. On Saturday night, it was etched in history.
“We felt like we were doubted a lot,” Reeves said. “We won a game and everybody was like, ‘Oh they were missing a player.’ It’s still hard to win a basketball game. And we won how many of them? 23 of them or something like that?”
“Twenty-four,” Watson quickly corrected.
And perhaps, more to come.