Old Rivals PC and BC to Meet in NIT - Will the Fans Show Up? Will the Players Show Up?

Old Rivals PC and BC to Meet in NIT - Will the Fans Show Up? Will the Players Show Up?

Thousands of Providence College hoop fans tuned in to the NCAA Sunday Selection Show on CBS knowing that the Friars’ chances of selection were slim to none, but hoped nevertheless for a miracle.  PC, of course, was not selected—too many losses in games they should have won, and too many “bid stealers” winning conference tournaments.

 

But it didn’t take long for the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) to come knocking on PC’s door Sunday evening with an invite to this year’s NIT.  The NCAA didn’t do any teams and fans any favors by scheduling many first-round games this Tuesday and Wednesday.  The folks at the NCAA didn’t want NIT games competing on television on Thursday or Friday with the Big Dance.  CBS emptied the bank a while ago to have NCAA tournament games exclusively without any competing NIT games.

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Will Tuesday’s PC-BC games draw fans on such short notice?  Don’t expect the usual 12,000+ Friar fans.  Even with reduced ticket prices, PC will have a hard time on such short notice to fill seats.  The matchup with long-time PC rival Boston College Eagles was a smart move, however, by the NIT schedulers, even if BC bailed out of the Big East a long time ago in 2005 to join the lucrative Atlantic Coast Conference for big time football and bigger conference payouts.

 

The players on each team are coming into this game from different mindsets.

 

The 21-13 Friars, up until this weekend, had NCAA hopes.  Now they are joining a bunch of other NCAA major conference bubble teams and assorted basketball wannabe schools in the NIT, the “runner-up tournament.”  Can Coach Kim English motivate his players who know nothing about the past rivalry between PC and BC?  And to make matters more complicated, Coach English on Monday intimated Big East player of the year, Devin Carter, was “banged up” and may not see action.  And that another starter, freshman Rich Barron is injured and won’t play. Yikes!  Can the remaining PC players be competitive without these players?

 

The BC Eagles, on the other hand, with a 19-15 overall record, played their best ball of the season in the recent ACC tournament, beating Miami and Clemson, and losing to Virginia in overtime. BC features big man senior Quinten Post, a likely second-round NBA draft pick, who averages 17.0 pts/game and 8.2 rebounds/game. They have two solid guards, Claudell Harris and Jaeden Zackery, who both average in double figures in scoring with minimum turnovers.

 

For the BC hoopsters, this NIT game is an opportunity and a building block for next season, as they have traditionally been in the lower tier of the 15 team ACC. The Eagles have not been to the NCAA’s since 2009 and their last invite to the NIT was in the 2017-18 season when they were clobbered 79-62 by Western Kentucky.

 

Providence and Boston College last competed in basketball against each other in 2018 with PC emerging a 100-95 victor in overtime at BC’s home court at Conte Forum.

 

Do BC fans ever have second thoughts about leaving the Big East almost 20 years ago to join the ACC?  Despite the struggles and the lack of success by their two major sports teams in the ACC—football and basketball—BC fans, at least the ones that I talk to, remain adamant that it was a great financial move for the Chestnut Hill college.  BC’s annual payouts from the ACC are probably four or five times that of Big East schools.

 

Ya gotta think, however, that diehard BC fans miss the glory days of their football and basketball programs.  Since joining the ACC, Boston College’s football and basketball recruiting has never met their initial expectations.  And both the BC football and basketball programs have consistently wallowed in the bottom half of the ACC.

 

All of that additional sports money has also not improved their football stadium or basketball arena. BC’s Alumni Stadium ranks 12th of the 14 ACC football teams in capacity.  Conte Forum used by both the BC hockey and basketball programs seats only 8,600 fans and ranks 14th in capacity of the 15 ACC basketball teams.  Despite its small size and the lure of big time ACC basketball, the Eagles hoopsters were only able to fill Conte twice this past season, and only average 5,457 fans per game for the season.

 

Despite several major college hoop teams, like St. John’s, Oklahoma, and Indiana, declining NIT bids, the PC-BC matchup should be fun for Friar fans.  The Dominicans versus the Jesuits.  That’s reason enough to make your way to the AMP.

 

If the Friars win, we won’t know their next opponent until the winners in their bracket are determined, and a re-seeding of teams takes place.