Projo College Hoops

Providence College scored 106 points Tuesday night against Seton Hall and lost by three.

Notre Dame scored 68 points Wednesday night against Seton Hall and won by 12.

Against the Friars, Seton Hall had 55 points at halftime, and 76 with 13:36 remaining.

Against the Irish, Seton Hall didn't score its 30th point until only 11:12 remained in the game.

Part of the reason for that is that Notre Dame plays a much -- much! -- more deliberate style offensively than the Friars, slowing the game down and reducing the number of possessions.

While PC is reminscent of run-and-gun Loyola Marymount when Paul Westhead was coaching, ND, since all-American big man Luke Harangody was injured, has been reminiscent of Princeton when Pete Carrill was coaching.

But the biggest reason for the massive point disparity -- as well the significantly different final result -- is that, unlike the Friars, the Irish actually try to guard people.

OK, so he doesn't play any defense.

And, as Joe Hassett pointed out during last night's radio broadcast, once you pass "Greedy" Peterson the ball, you're not likely to get it back, which leads to his teammates standing around and watching.

But, after watching him score 38 points -- a school record in Big East tournament play -- and pull down 16 rebounds (10 of them on the offensive end) against Seton Hall, is there really anyone who doesn't think he should have been selected at least third-team, all-conference?

No way there are 16 players -- the number selected ahead of him -- in the Big East who are better.

Here's the release from Brown:

Providence, Rhode Island - Brown senior center Matt Mullery (Millstone, NJ), Brown's 16th all-time career leading scorer, has earned All-Ivy honors for the second consecutive season, being selected second team All-Ivy in a vote of the eight Ancient Eight head basketball coaches.

Mullery finished his Brown career as the 16th top scorer in Brown basketball history with 1,134 career points. In 2009-2010, he led Brown in scoring (15.2 ppg.- 6th in Ivy League), rebounding (6.2 rpg. -3rd in the Ivy League), assists (86 - 8th in the Ivy League), blocked shots (48 - 3rd in the Ivy League), and field goal percentage (.545 - 3rd in the Ivy League).

Mullery's 163 career blocked shots are a Brown record and rank eighth in the Ivy League record book. His 48 blocked shots this season rank second all-time at Brown. He also tied his own school record with six blocked shots against St. Francis (NY) in Brown's season opening game. Mullery set a single season Brown record with 59 blocked shots a year ago.

Mullery, a first team All-Ivy selection last season, scored a career high 31 points against Sacred Heart earlier this season. He registered double-doubles against Rhode Island, Kean, Cornell and Penn. His 22 points and 11 rebounds against Penn helped the Bears to a road sweep of Penn and Princeton for the second time in Brown basketball history.

All-Ivy Men's Basketball 2009-10

First Team
Louis Dale, Cornell (Sr., G, Birmingham, Ala.) *Jeff Foote, Cornell (Sr., C, Lockwood, N.Y.) *Ryan Wittman, Cornell (Sr., G/F, Eden Prairie, Minn.) *Jeremy Lin, Harvard (Sr., G, Palo Alto, Calif.) *Zack Rosen, Penn (So., G, Colonia, N.J.)

Second Team
Matt Mullery, Brown (Sr., F, Millstone, N.J.) Noruwa Agho, Columbia (So., G, New City, N.Y.) Jack Eggleston, Penn (Jr., F, Noblesville, Ind.) Douglas Davis, Princeton (So., G, Philadelphia, Pa.) Dan Mavraides, Princeton (Jr., G, San Mateo, Calif.) Alex Zampier, Yale (Sr., G, East Greenbush, N.Y.)

Honorable Mention
Chris Wroblewski, Cornell (So., G, Highland Park, Ill.) Kyle Casey, Harvard (Fr., F, Medway, Mass.) Michael Sands, Yale (Jr., F, Franklin Square, N.Y.)

Player of the Year
*Ryan Wittman, Cornell

Rookie of the Year
Kyle Casey, Harvard

Defensive Player of the Year
Jeff Foote, Cornell

You are a URI fan, and you live in the world of long memory.

You have to have a long memory to recall the last time your Rams -- once regular participants in the NCAA tournament -- have been invited to the Big Dance.

It was in 1999, when Jim Harrick -- a coach who, in many ways, is better off forgotten -- won the A-10 tournament, courtesy of buzzer-beating shot by Lamar Odom (great player, not-so-great student, despite the four paragraphs he wrote that dazzled the Nutty Professor), then lost in overtime in the opening round of the NCAA tourney, to Charlotte.

The previous year, with players he'd inherited from Al Skinner, Harrick brought the Rams within seconds of the Final Four, losing to Stanford in St. Louis.

You are a URI fan, and, because you live in the world of long memory, you remember Skinner.

He said he wanted to be "the black Frank Keaney" and spend his career coaching in Kingston. But, even though he'd taken the Rams to the NCAA tournament twice in his final five seasons, Skinner was lowballed by "Revenue Ron" Petro in contract negotiations, wound up getting a much better deal from Boston College, and headed north to Chestnut Hill, where he's been ever since, coaching in, first, the Big East, and, now the ACC.

You are a URI fan and, because you live in the world of long memory, you remember Tommy Penders taking the Rams to the Sweet 16 in 1988, where they lost to Duke, which went on to reach the Final Four, 73-72.

You are a URI fan and, if you live in the world of really long memory, you'll recall another devastating loss to Duke -- in the first round of the 1978 NCAA tournament, in Charlotte, 63-62. That Duke team, featuring Jim Spanarkel, Eugene Banks, and Mike Gminski, wound up in the championship game, where it lost to Kentucky.

Speaking of Kentucky, it was the legendary Adolph Rupp's WIldcats who edged the also-legendary Keaney's original "Runnin' Rams," 46-45, in 1946 in the finals of the NIT, which then was considered to be the national championship game.

Beginning with Penders' team in '88, URI played in the NCAA tournament five times in 12 seasons.

It's now been 10 seasons, and counting, since you've been back to The Dance.

But you're a URI fan, and you'll remember that some people tell you that the NCAA tournament isn't a realistic expectation for you, that you ought to be thrilled to go to the NIT, even when you start the season 19-3 -- for the second time in three years -- and only have to beat the likes of St. Bonaventure and UMass to secure a bid to the NCAAs.

People with short memories forget that, when Penders, Skinner, and Harrick regularly went dancing, their teams didn't have the advantage of using the Ryan Center as a recruiting tool, but still managed to be successful.

You are a URI fan and, because you live in the world of long memory, you wonder how the Rams managed to win the key games then, but can't seem to win them now.

You wonder why, because you were predicted in the preseason to finish eighth, you should be delighted to finish fifth.

You wonder why, with a coach in his ninth season, you were predicted to finish eighth in the first place.

You wonder why, since your coach is being paid upwards of $600,000 annually, he shouldn't be expected to take you to The Tournament at least once a decade.

You are a URI fan, and you still have hopes that this will be the year.

The Rams play St. Louis in the A-10 tourney quarterfinals Friday in Atlantic City. The Billikens are the youngest team in Division I, a bunch of kids coached by Rick Majerus. Get past them, and the Rams may be back on the NCAA bubble.

You are URI fan, and because you live in the world of long memory, you recall how wonderful it was to play in the NCAA tournament.

I'm not one of those guys who thinks teams should be commended for playing hard.

That's what they're supposed to do.

That said, I've seen countless teams quit, pack it in, fold their proverbial tents, show no pride, no fire, and allow themselves to be blown out, embarrassed, humiliated -- not so much because of a lack of talent, but because of a lack of effort.

Especially when they found themselves as far behind as PC was last night in what would be its final game of a season many Friar fans are eager to put behind them.

With 13:47 to play last night in Madison Square Garden, the Friars had scored 47 points and trailed by 29.

When the final horn sounded, the never-say-die (but also never-play-defense) Friars had 106 points and had come within a missed, NBA-range trey of what would have been one of the most remarkable comebacks in PC history.

The first 26 minutes of PC's opening-round, Big East tournament game with Seton Hall couldn't have been much worse.

Throughout a first half in which the Pirates scored at will -- they made their last 10 shots -- ESPN analyst, and former Duke star, Jay Bilas ridiculed the Friars' horrendous defense, saying it was hard to not giggle when you were playing against Providence, because, when you got the ball, you could do whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted.

It was hard -- no, impossible -- to dispute that.

Joe Hassett, one of PC's all-time greats, was similarly -- and accurately -- harsh, describing his alma mater's obvious lack of effort on the defensive end as "atrocious" during halftime of the local radio broadcast.

Meanwhile, coach Keno Davis clearly was not channelling Knute Rockne during his halftime speech in the PC locker room.

The Friars looked even worse at the outset of the second half than they did in the first.

It already was ugly. How it could have ended defies description.

But here's where a season that ended with 11 consecutive losses, and 13 in the last 14 games, should have PC fans looking forward to next year.

Scoring 56 points in the final 13:36, the Friars showed a spark that, hopefully, Davis can use to light a fire under his team in the offseason -- to instill in them a work ethic, on and off the court, that next year will lift the team well above their 15th-place finish this season.

That's the way Davis was thinking when he spoke to the Journal's Kevin McNamara after the game:

"The way we've been able to score," Keno said, "we know we're always in games. If we can shore up some of the things on the defensive end, we can be a very competitive team."

It had to work almost to the end, but the University of Rhode Island won and advanced Tuesday night in the Atlantic 10 tournament.

The Rams held off Saint Joseph's, 87-76, in a game that was close all the way. The 11-point final was one point less than the largest margin of the game. That came at 84-72.

URI led virtually all the way, but could never break it open. The Hawks were within 68-64 with four minutes left.

Rhody won it with balance as all 10 players who took part scored at least five points. Keith Cothran and Lamonte Ulmer led the way with 15 apiece. Ullmer's tally included the 1,000th of his career.

Saint Joseph's came out playing zone. URI had some problems, but did well enough to hit 10 of 25 3-pointers.

URI, 22-8, advances to the quarterfinals where it will meet Saint Louis Friday in Atlantic City.

NEW YORK - What a way to finish what was a bizarre season for the Providence Friars.

The Friars were ousted from the Big East Tournament Tuesday night by Seton Hall, 109-106, in one of the wilder games of the season.

The Pirates (19-11) rolled to a 55-39 halftime lead and built a lead of as high as 29 points (76-47) in the second half. PC rallied late, however. Down 100-83 with 4:12 left, the Friars put together a 16-4 run highlighted by a slew of Pirate turnovers. That sliced the deficit to 104-99 with 1:10 left. The Friars closed to 109-106 with seven ticks left but a wild Duke Mondy 3-ball missed and the Pirates survived.

It was a win they badly needed to stay in the hunt for the NCAA Tournament. The Hall will face Notre Dame in a second-round game Wednesday night.

PC received a huge effort from Greedy Peterson. He poured home 38 points, breaking Billy Donovan's school tourney record of 34 points set against St. John's back in 1987. He also grabbed 16 rebounds. Bilal Dixon and Marshon Brooks added 15 points apiece for the Friars who finish the season with a 12-19 record.