By BRENDAN MCGAIR

Sports writer

As he prepared to shuttle back to campus, Providence coach Keno Davis was asked what the itinerary would include in the days leading up to college basketball’s holy hour, Selection Sunday.
Would the downtime, a creation of Louisville overwhelming PC, 73-55, Thursday in the Big East Tournament, turn Davis and his players into college hoop junkies, watching as scores from across the country filter in like returns on Election Night? Do you then flip through the networks and perk up as analysts debate your case? Is practice held with the assumption good news will grace the laps of the coaches and players shortly after 6 o’clock Sunday night?


 

One thing Davis affirmed was that Providence would be playing when postseason play opens up next week. Before walking out of Madison Square Garden, the first-year Friar left the door open for two possible scenarios for his team.
“If it’s the NCAA Tournament, it wouldn’t surprise me to see us to knock off a team or two. If the NIT (is PC’s landing spot), I’d like to get back (to the Garden) and see how far we can go,” said Davis. “We’ll take a little time off as players rest their legs and give them a day or two off before coming back. We’ll get some practice in before the selection show so we’re ready to go.
“You don’t know when you could play. If it’s the NCAA you could go as soon as Thursday. If it’s the NIT, I remember in some years you play Tuesday. You’ve got to be ready to go,” added Davis. “I really would be surprised from what we’ve seen in this team over the last month if regardless if they’re in the NCAA or NIT that we didn’t have a great effort from them.”
Speculation has been chasing Providence around for quite some time. Prognosticators opined the Friars, at minimum, had to win twice in New York in order to avoid sweating out the selection process.
One victory over lowly DePaul and an 18-point thumping by Louisville later, those same “experts” are now decreeing PC is in a perilous position. They scoff at the 19-13 record (10-8 in the Big East), saying there’s just too many holes in the Friars’ resume.
While the ears of PC fans might be ringing based on what’s coming out of the mouths of the talking heads, the truth is that none of what is said, or how the bracketologists map out the field of 65, truly matters.
Providence’s body of work was not handed over for Dick Vitale, Seth Davis, Digger Phelps or Doug Gottlieb to pass sentence. And it certainly isn’t Joe Lunardi’s call to move the Friars from “Last Four In” to “Next Four Out.”
The ruling of Providence’s postseason fate strictly comes from a group of appointed jurors who probably won’t see too much sunlight over the next 36 hours.
The NCAA selection process is truly shrouded under supreme secrecy; not even the TV networks who announce and breakdown the field are allowed to get a sneak peek.
Davis knows that the folks sequestered in a room are the only opinions worth lending credence to. “I’ve heard like everyone else the predictions and the one thing that those people that predict have in common is that they’re not sitting in that committee room,” he said. “I know we’re going to be a team discussed at length in there and I think when you talk about finishing in the top half of the Big East, is that enough?”
Clearly that’s a solid launching point, but the Friars are heading for a world of hurt if it’s cold-hard facts the committee wishes to hold up to the light. Going 2-8 against RPI’s top-50 and 6-13 against the top 100 are pieces of evidence Davis hopes gets passed over. So too are lop-sided losses to Connecticut (33 points), West Virginia (27), Villanova (17), Baylor (16) and a combined 36 points in two games against Louisville.
Speaking of the Cardinals, Rick Pitino believes the positives far outweigh the negatives regarding PC’s NCAA outlook. Even Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun pumped up the Friars shortly after his team was outlasted in six overtimes by Syracuse, his message to the decision makers coming shortly before 2 a.m. on Friday.
“I keep hearing that the Big East is not as powerful as everyone thinks it is because we don’t have Notre Dame or possibly Providence going to the tournament,” said Calhoun. “Someone has to get to the people to just inform them that they are playing top-five, four teams. Someone is going to lose. Therefore if you don’t think Notre Dame, Georgetown or Providence are good teams, they have to lose in order for (the upper crust) to win.”
Echoed Pitino: “In my mind if someone is over .500 in the Big East, they deserve to be in the tournament.”
While the kind words from two of the Big East’s most respected coaches are appreciated, what Calhoun and Pitino stated is sure to fall on deaf ears. All that matters now is concrete figures such as wins and losses, which will ultimately serve as Providence’s dealbreaker.