After losing Ed Cooley to Georgetown in the off-season, the Providence Friars' men's basketball program appeared to be left for dead.
But first-year head coach Kim English came over from George Mason, and his energy and exuberance has helped lead the Friars to the precipice of making the NCAA Tournament in a tough Big East Conference.
Providence was just getting accustomed to regular success under Cooley, whose sudden departure left a lot of raw feelings in Rhode Island.
As Georgetown has floundered mightily this season, a big showing at the Big East Tournament in New York City this week that results in an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament could be the perfect balm for Friar fans.
English is a fast-riser in the coaching ranks, and though his two years at George Mason didn't prove much in terms of his ability to win a ton of games, the culture he built there and is building at Providence suggest the best is yet to come.
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NCAA Tournament Resume: Providence Friars
KenPom Ranking: 62
NET Ranking: 63
Record vs. Quads: 5-8 vs. Q1, 2-4 vs. Q2, 2-0 vs. Q3, 10-0 vs. Q4
Things are looking fairly bleak for Providence right now, as the Friars have seen their standing slip with a home loss to Villanova in a massive bubble showdown and a blowout loss to top-ranked UConn.
The read of the resume here is fairly straightforward; the KenPom and NET rankings don't suggest a tournament team. The record vs. quad one does, but it's easy to see where Providence has gone wrong everywhere else.
Going just 2-4 in quad two opportunities really limits the team's quality wins, and while they avoided any losses to quads 3 and 4, only two quad 3 games compared to 10 quad 4 games is a NET killer.
Further, only two of Providence's five quad 1 wins came away from their home court, meaning Providence has done very little to show the committee their ability to win away from home.
Road wins over Xavier and Seton Hall mean both of those wins came against teams ranked outside the top 50, too.
But hope springs eternal in the Big East, where the conference tournament gives any bubble team another shot or two at signature wins.
Providence gets another emotionally-charged game against their former coach and Georgetown to start things off, with two-seed Creighton awaiting on Thursday assuming they take care of the Hoyas.
Providence would likely need to upset Creighton and then go on to beat either Villanova or Marquette in the semifinal to feel good about where they stand going into Selection Sunday.
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