History-making Providence eyes deep run in NCAA tourney

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With his team on the verge accomplishing something that had never been done in Providence basketball history last month, Ed Cooley allowed himself to get lost in the moment.

The Friars were comfortably in front of Creighton, and there was about a minute to play before they could officially celebrate the school’s first regular-season Big East Conference title. Cooley suddenly was a kid again.

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"I took a deep breath and then when the game was over, I took a step aside — I wasn’t Coach Cooley, I was Ed," the Providence native said. "Ed was the kid that used to sneak into the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. Ed was the kid that, whoever was a minority, would go in the back door, I would try to ask them if I can go in with them to be their nephew, their son, or somebody. It was a surreal moment with respect to me being the coach of Providence College. And I don’t say that in some corny way. It was a real emotion."

It’s that kind of reflection that Cooley, the Big East Coach of the Year, will carry with him as the No. 13 Friars (25-5) enter the NCAA Tournament as the Midwest Region’s No. 4 seed — the highest in program history — and prepare to take on 13th-seeded South Dakota State (30-4) on Thursday.

Providence is back in the tourney for the first time since 2018 and the Friars are a sleeper pick to make a deep March Madness run.

But for Cooley, now in his 11th season at Providence following five years at Fairfield, it’s simply an opportunity to add to what he says has always felt has been an improbable path here.

Providence head coach Ed Cooley claps for his players during the first half of an NCAA