100 Years of PC Basketball

by The Cowl Editor on October 4, 2020


Friar Sports


A Look Back at Some of the Team’s Most Memorable Moment’s

by Joseph Quirk ’23

Sports Staff

Providence College is known for many things: great academics, a friendly overall student atmosphere, and of course, its famed white-robed Dominican Friars who run the institution. Indeed, what makes Friartown so special is the pride that students have for the College, and one of the biggest sources of that school pride is PC basketball. A tradition in its own right, the men’s basketball team is a central part of life at the College, and has certainly provided PC with a fair share of memorable moments. Oct. 1, 2020 marks 100 years of PC men’s hoops, so let us take a look back at PC basketball’s storied history.

 

The Al McClellan Era:

Despite basketball being played for the first time at PC in 1920, the Friars’ first official varsity basketball season began in 1926. This upstart team was headed by Archie Golembeski, who at the time was also the College’s football coach. Golembeski left the following year to devote more time to football, so in came Al “The General” McClellan.

McClellan gave the program a much-needed boost in its early years: he helped lead the Friars to four New England Championships in 1929, 1930, 1932, and 1935. The Friars also finished in second place four times under McClellan. Vitally, he made the Friars one of the only New England colleges at the time willing to leave the New England area to play eastern basketball powers such as Seton Hall University, St. John’s University, Villanova University, and City College of New York.

McClellan also made the program one of only two New England schools to compete in the 1936 U.S. Olympic playoffs. Without McClellan’s willingness to push the boundaries, the PC basketball program may have died out much like Golembeski’s football program.

 

The Joe Mullaney Era:

A lot happened in the period between the initial success of McClellan and the hiring of Joe Mullaney. After McClellan left the team, the Friars were put into a “small school” conference, taking away their ability to play teams like St. John’s and Villanova. World War II shut the program down temporarily as well. Things started to change, however, when the sixth president of PC, Reverend Robert Joseph Slavin, O.P., recognized that the team could compete at the highest level of college basketball. A movement began to raise money to build a new gym on campus.

Then in 1955, the Friars took a gamble and hired Mullaney. Prior to joining PC, he had just one year of head coaching experience at Norwich University. Before that, Mullaney worked for the FBI. The young and unproven head coach would quickly prove the doubters wrong, as the Friars took off running under his coaching. They quickly notched a huge win over Notre Dame University, and the team climbed higher and higher from there.

Photo Courtesy of the Providence Journal

In 1959, Mullaney coached the team to a quadruple-overtime win over perennial powerhouse Villanova, leading to their first National Invitational Tournament (NIT) bid. The Friars soon followed that up with an NIT championship game appearance in 1960 and then finally an NIT championship in 1961. In the 1960s the Friars were consistently a top-20 team and even had a streak of nine consecutive 20-win seasons.

In 1963, the Friars won the NIT again before reaching the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament for the first time ever in 1965. They came into the tournament as the No. 4 team in the country. Jimmy Walker, one of Mullaney’s recruits and the leader of these mid-60s Friars, became PC’s first 2000-point scorer ever. Walker led the nation in scoring in 1967 and was soon drafted with the first pick in the NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons.

Mullaney spent 14 years with the Friars, leading them to a 271-94 record (.742) and two NIT championships. The only schools to post higher win percentages than Mullaney’s Friars in the 1960s were the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Kentucky. Mullaney would leave the Friars in 1969, riding his Friartown success to the head coaching job for the Los Angeles Lakers.

 

The Dave Gavitt Era:

Dave Gavitt was an assistant on Joe Mullaney’s staff in the early ’60s before moving on to coach at Dartmouth College. After Mullaney’s departure to Los Angeles, Gavitt was hired back as his replacement, which ensured PC’s continued success. Gavitt, much like his predecessor, led the Friars to eight consecutive 20-win seasons and posted a 209-84 (.713) record. His teams featured six All-Americans, as well as a Sweet Sixteen appearance and a Final Four appearance during his 10-year tenure as coach of the Friars.

However, perhaps his biggest contribution to the program was directing national attention toward PC basketball. Gavitt recognized that the 3000-seat arena in Alumni Hall was too small for the Friars if they wanted to become a perennial competitor on the national stage. So, he negotiated a deal to play in the Providence Civic Center (renamed the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in 2001), which allowed the team to play big-time opponents in front of sellout crowds.

Photo Courtesy of Providence College

In 1976, Gavitt and PC set up their own holiday tournament, the InBank Classic, where they upset the University of Michigan in double overtime. In 1979, Gavitt stepped down as the coach of PC to become the first commissioner of the newly founded Big East Conference, in addition to his responsibilities as the College’s athletic director. 

 

The 1987 Final Four:

PC was in a lull. Coach Gavitt had left the team right when its competition became tougher, as the creation of the Big East meant more games against teams such as Villanova, St. John’s, and Seton Hall. It also meant PC’s schedule was now filled with other basketball powerhouses from other big conferences such as the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big 10.

With this major increase in competition, it became clear that the Friars lacked the talent to contend with the best teams. That is, until they hired Rick Pitino, an assistant coach from the New York Knicks. Pitino would field a winning team in his first season as coach before completely revamping the team in 1987. Led by point guard Billy Donovan, a future head coach himself, Pitino’s Friars roared to a 25-9 record and their first top-20 appearance in years.

Photo Courtesy of Getty Images

The team would dance all the way to their second Final Four ever. Although they lost to Syracuse University, the Friars were back on the map. Unfortunately, 1987 would be Pitino’s second and final season at PC, as he accepted an offer to return to New York to become the Knicks’ head coach.

 

The Ed Cooley Era:

After the Final Four run with Pitino in 1987, the Friars continued to have success, but to a lesser extent. The late 2000s featured a major lull in PC basketball history. However, the 2011 hiring of Providence, Rhode Island native Ed Cooley changed that.

Photo Courtesy of PC Athletics

Cooley has led Providence to some very successful seasons in recent years. This includes the College’s second-ever Big East title in 2014 and a string of five consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. He also led the team to big upset victories such as a win over third-ranked Villanova in 2018 and a historic run of consecutive wins against top-25 opponents in the 2019-2020 season. Additionally, Cooley produced top NBA talent such as Kris Dunn, and he continues to make the Friars a force in the Big East.

Cooley is now looking to build on the Friars’ 100 years of success as the team enters its second century of play.

Editor’s Corner

by The Cowl Editor on November 15, 2018


Friar Sports


Remembering Rick Pitino at PC

By Jack Belanger ’21

Sports Co-Editor

In the early 1980s, the Providence College men’s basketball program found itself in a much different state than what fans have witnessed this decade. Legendary head coach Dave Gavitt left his position at PC to help form the Big East Conference while becoming the league’s first commissioner.

Unfortunately for the Friars, they suffered through one of their worst stretches in the program’s history from 1979-1985. In this time PC only managed one season with an overall winning record.

Then, before the start of the 1985-86 season, something happened that would change the trajectory of Friars basketball history. Longtime head coach Joe Mullaney retired, which meant former athletic director Lou Lamoriello ’63 had to find a new successor.

Lamoriello found the right man for the job in 32-year-old New York Knicks Assistant Coach Rick Pitino.

Now most sports fans know Pitino for his coaching tenures at the University of Louisville or his disastorous tenure with Boston Celtics, but at the time he was best known for taking Boston University to the NCAA Tournament.

Pitino brought immediate changes to the team which had immediate results. Practices occurred three times a day, players were punished for being late to class, and film sessions became common.

With Pitino at the helm, the Friars had their best season since the inception of the Big East, finishing 7-9 in league play and 17-14 overall, and were fifth in the conference. While the team did not make it to the NCAA tournament, they did make it to  the National Invitational Tournament. No doubt things were changing, and the next season got even better.

In 1986-87 Pitino emphasized shooting the long-ball and told his team to shoot at least 23-25 threes a game. The change in style lead the team to have an even more successful season than the year before.

That season the Friars, lead by Billy Donovan ’87, who scored 20.6 points per game, managed to make it to the NCAA tournament for the first time in nine years. For the tournament, the team was given a six-seed and made headlines around the country by making a Cinderella run all the way to the Final Four for the second time in school history.

Even though he bolted back to the NBA to coach for the Knicks after the season, Pitino will always have a soft-spot for the Friars. “Because of that Cinderella team, I believed for the rest of my coaching career that anything was possible,” he says. “Any comeback is possible, and any team can accomplish great things. Providence kept that alive for me.”

Despite such a short stint at PC, Pitino turned the Friars from one of the bottom teams in the Big East to a team that would always be in the mix for first. For a moment, leave out the rest of his career and appreciate what he did for basketball at PC.

No coach at PC has orchestrated such a quick turnaround, turning a team that finished eighth just two years before into one that would realize its full potential and make it to the Final Four.

Even after he left the College, Pitino’s influence remained. His son, Richard Pitino ’05, served as a team manager for two seasons while he attended PC. He also donated towards the construction of the St. Dominic Chapel. PC may have been one his shortest coaching jobs, but it may be where he had his greatest impact.