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Two Paths of Providence and BC

jim-christian Boston Globe

Boston College made a mistake.

Okay, they probably made two.

Maybe even three.

BC fired Al Skinner in March of 2010 after a 15-16 season that marked the end of a 10 year run in which Skinner led the Eagles to seven NCAA Tournament appearances. BC reached the NCAAs in five of the six seasons prior to 2010, and during the Skinner years their basketball program was as good as it has ever been.

It started with a 27-5 season in 2001.

They opened 2004 with a record of 20-0, reached #3 in the AP Poll. They were a legitimate Final Four team in 2005-06 — losing at the buzzer in overtime to Villanova in the Sweet 16.

Friartown’s animosity toward Boston College was never higher than at that time, for 2005-06 was BC’s first in the ACC after leaving the Big East.

And what a season it was.

The Sweet 16 appearance followed a run to the ACC Tournament Finals against Duke. The Eagles got there by defeating Maryland and North Carolina along the way and they went toe to toe with the Blue Devils before falling by a bucket.

Boston College was flourishing since announcing their departure from the Big East, while Providence was floundering.

The Tim Welsh era had gone stale following the departure of Ryan Gomes and the hiring of Keno Davis proved disastrous.

Then everything changed with two coaching decisions.

BC said goodbye to Skinner and hired Cornell’s Steve Donahue. Donahue was fresh off of a Sweet 16 appearance of his own in 2010 and was going to bring a more exciting brand of basketball to the Heights.

The Eagles won 19 games behind star Reggie Jackson in Donahue’s first season — a season that ended in the NIT. Without Jackson, Donahue’s Eagles finished 9-22, 16-17, and 8-24 the next three seasons. Donahue was dismissed after four years, leaving Jim Christian to pick up the pieces.

It’s been a slow rebuild for Christian, who has gone 13-19 and 7-25 in his first two seasons at BC. They didn’t win a game in ACC play last year.

In hindsight, the firing of Skinner was mistake one.

As the ACC continued to add college basketball mega-powers the league swallowed the Eagles in the process.

The ACC that BC joined in 2005 was one they proved they could compete in — winning 20 or more games in four of their first six seasons. And despite recent on-court troubles, the move to the ACC has been a financial windfall for the Eagles.

Two questions come to mind as Providence prepares to visit BC on Friday:

Can BC compete in the reconfigured ACC?

Where would Boston College be today had they hired Ed Cooley instead of Donahue in 2010?

Cooley, an assistant coach under Skinner before taking over at Fairfield, was one of three finalists for the BC job — a job he call a “dream” at the time.

The rest is history we’re all very familiar with.

Providence hired Cooley a year later and the Friars have made three straight NCAA Tournaments, while BC is in the midst of five consecutive losing seasons — the longest sub-.500 stretch in program history.

Cooley’s affinity for BC was apparent after Providence’s win over Maine on Tuesday night. He spent nearly a decade at Chestnut Hill and spoke of how much he appreciated that opportunity and the relationships he still has from his time there.

On Friday, Cooley will be looking for his first win as Providence head coach in Conte Forum.

In 2012, he brought an 8-2 PC team to the Heights and fell by three on an afternoon in which Bryce Cotton went off for 33 points and a freshman named Kris Dunn tried to shake the rust off in his second career game (fun facts: PC started Lee Goldsbrough and Sidiki Johnson made one of his few appearances in black and white).

Two years later the Friars looked shell-shocked coming off of a trip to Kentucky. BC pummeled Providence on the glass in an eight point BC victory. Cooley called his team “listless” afterwards.

Focus and energy haven’t been a problem for the 2016-17 Friars. Cooley has lauded this group’s attention to detail, especially on the defensive end, in their 10-2 start. A win over BC (6-6) would be an early Christmas gift for a Friar fanbase still leery of the Conte Forum after slip-ups there in recent years.

Key for Providence will be slowing rising sophomore Jerome Robinson, the reigning ACC Player of the Week. Robinson was an under-the-radar recruit out of North Carolina who is blossoming into a star in his second season at BC.

Robinson already has eight games in which he’s scored 20 or more points this season, highlighted by a pair of three game stretches in which he scored 27-27-25 and 23-32-21. The 6’5 guard will hit the glass as well, which he proved in a 23 point, 11 rebound night in a win over Auburn.

AJ Turner and Jordan Chatman are a pair of solid sophomores. Chatman is a shooter who transferred in from BYU, while Turner was a New Hampton product that Providence expressed a level of interest.

The fourth player to watch for is point guard Ky Bowman. He shouldn’t be hard to find with his dyed red hair. Bowman is fresh off of a 33 point, eight rebound, five assist game against Fairfield.

Christian has some young pieces in place, but the Eagles have suffered losses to Nicholls, Hartford, and Fairfield already.

The Eagles are a long way from the Skinner days, but with PC’s recent Conte Forum struggles not many in Providence see this one as a given.

Twitter: @Kevin_Farrahar

Email: kevin.farrahar@friarbasketball.com

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