There was a little nervousness, to be sure, right at the end of the bracket reveal during the NCAA’s Selection Sunday show.
But as the tournament reveal focused on the final region (East), and the final quadrant of the final region, Providence’s Friars (21-11) remained hopeful.
“You know, I was sitting on the edge of my seat,” said Providence sophomore forward Bryce Hopkins, who just finished his first season with the Friars after transferring from Kentucky. “Once the names popped up, well, God works in mysterious ways. I can’t wait, there’s going to be a lot of emotion in that game.”
PC, as an 11-seed, will face 6th-seeded Kentucky (21-11) Friday night in a primetime matchup (7:10p ET CBS) in Greensboro, NC. It’s a dream matchup for a one-time Wildcat in Hopkins, sure, but also an opportunity for Providence to play one of college basketball’s true blue-blood programs.
“We didn’t finish the way we wanted, but I think our body of work showed throughout the season,” Friar coach Ed Cooley explained Sunday. “It’s like Divine Providence, being able to go down to Greensboro and play a blueblood like Kentucky. There will be a lot of fireworks around that game, given what’s happened around here.”
Kentucky charged hard at the end of the year to finish 5th in the SEC after winning five of their last six. But the Wildcats dropped a first-round SEC Tournament game to Vanderbilt. This tournament marks a record 60 appearances for their program in the national championship event.
In addition to most appearances, Kentucky holds the NCAA Tournament records for most games played (182), while it ranks second all-time in NCAA Tournament wins with 129. The Cats own a 129-53 all-time record in NCAA action, with their .709 winning percentage the fourth-best in NCAA history (min. 20 games).
Providence is reaching the NCAAs for a seventh time in 11 seasons under Ed Cooley, following last season’s Big East regular-season championship and run to the Sweet 16. The Friars ended this regular season with three straight losses, six in their last 10 games overall after a 17-5 start to the year and reaching 17th in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
The Big East Tournament defeat to UConn Thursday saw the Friars manage a season-low 19 points in the first half, before a comeback from 22 points down brought them to within two possessions in that game’s final minutes.
Is it enough to sustain momentum through this week, getting ready for the challenge Kentucky presents?
“I’m happy for us. It is so hard, so hard, to make the NCAA Tournament,” Cooley said. “You can’t win it unless you’re in it. It’s just an incredible opportunity for us, it’s the most excited I’ve ever been for an NCAA team. We’ve got a couple of days to prepare, we’ve haven’t had the best of weeks, we’ve lost three in a row, but at this stage everybody is 0-and-0. It’s survive and advance.”
It is possible there could be some familiarity of the Wildcats within the PC locker room, not just with Hopkins having played for John Calipari’s Wildcats a year ago but also with sophomore guard Devin Carter, who faced Kentucky himself last season as a freshman at South Carolina.
“I’ve never been so excited to see a Friar logo pop up (on the selection show),” Carter said. “They really like to rebound and get out on the break, we’ll need to do whatever we can to slow them up.”
“This is great for us and great for the program, the community and the city,” said Friar senior forward Ed Croswell, who is one of three players on the roster that played on the NCAA Sweet 16 team a year ago. “Seeing Hop get the chance to go back and play against his old school, that’s a good story that’s yet to be written.”
Rest assured Ed, that’s a story that will be written – maybe as soon as this week?