The Friars proved the haters across the country wrong. 71% of those who filled out Brackets for ESPN, picked South Dakota State to upset Providence. PC won, 66-57. It was a rock fight. Both teams shot under 40%. SDSU was held 30 points under their scoring average.
Check out the postgame press conference with Ed Cooley and some of the players. Good stuff.
Here is why Ed Cooley is the man. In the mid 90's, I was starting out as the URI play by play guy and Al Skinner was the head coach. Al is probably the nicest person I have ever met in over 3 decades of working in college basketball. Al gave a young Ed Cooley a spot on his URI staff. Ed followed Al to Boston College, learned a lot, and got his first head coaching job at Fairfield, then on to Providence College.
A few years back when PC and Ed won The Big East Tournament Title, in the on-court TV interview minutes after the win, Ed took time to thank Al Skinner. Cool. Yesterday after beating SDSU in the NCAA's, Ed did it again.
The spotlight was on Ed, both on the court and in the postgame press conference. He could've talked about his success. What he did right. Instead, in both cases, he remembered Al Skinner, the guy who gave him a chance when few people knew who Ed was.
Very cool. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Friars play Richmond on Saturday. The Spiders upset Iowa on Thursday. PC vs Richmond.....2 very old teams with lots of grad players on both teams because of the extra Covid year. Richmond offense is fun to watch - elements of the Princeton Offense played at a faster pace.