In the spring of 1985, Providence was about to hire a new coach. Joe Mullaney (a 2025 Basketball Hall of Fame nominee)had resigned after a year which would charitably be described as depressing. The Friars started the year winning the inaugural Maui Classic with wins over Chaminade and Virginia. After that it went quickly downhill, as the Friars finished 13-20 and 3-13 in the Big East for 8th place in the 9-team conference. In addition, the Friars had only one recruit of note coming in and were losing three of their top 4 scorers. Part of the problem was their top scorer, my classmate Donnie Brown only averaged 9.5 points per game, and the only other player who averaged over 5 points per game was Friar legend Harold Starks. As someone who grew up on the Friars, I had reconciled myself to the fact that my senior year was going to be another year of misery at the Civic Center where the enjoyment came from seeing the elite players on opposing teams.
On the day the Friars were introducing the 32-year-old Rick Pitino as the new coach, I happened to run into him and wished him luck. He proceeded to ask me if I went to the games, and I told him I grew up on the Friars. We had a two- or three-minuteconversation and by the end of it I was ready to run through a brick wall for him. He convinced me that he would turn the team around and the Mullaney (I) and Gavitt years were about to return. I couldn’t wait to tell my brother that the Friars were back.
While everyone rightly praises the brilliance of the way Pitino led the 1987 Friars to the Final Four, I’ve always believed that the job he did with the 1985-86 team was even better. Of the returning players, Brown and Starks were the only two who seemed to belong on a Big East roster. After an opening game loss to Richmond, we appeared destined to another bottom-dwelling season. The Friars then won six in a row and showed that this was a different team. The offense went from scoring 65 points per game the previous year to nearly 80. In addition to the well-known exploits of Billy Donovan, Dave Kipfer, Steve Wright, Al Roth, and Pop Lewis all went from the end of the bench to legitimate Big East players and at least doubled their scoring output from the previous year. The Big East that year had 10 forwards that played in the NBA plus a bunch more that were quality players, yet the 6’5” Al Roth and 6’6” Dave Kipfer battled each of them well. Brown and Starks willingly adjusted to the emergence of Billy Donovan without issue, and Steve Wright made great strides from his freshman year. (In a totally Rhode Island aside, I saw Al Roth for the first time in years this summer as my niece married his nephew.) The Friars ended the year at 17-14 (including a best ever to that point 7-9 in conference play) and made it to the NIT quarterfinals, where they lost by one to Louisiana Tech. The crowd gave the team a standing ovation at the end of that game, and the Friar faithful had hope at the end of the season for the first time since they joined the Big East.
The reality is that none of this happens without Rick Pitino on the PC bench. In one year he completely changed the course of Providence basketball, and who knows what happened if the school brought in another unsuccessful coach. We all know what happened after this: the Final Four, the contract extension for Pitino, the move to the Knicks, etc. Through it all Pitino has maintained his affection for the school, which is also the alma mater of his son Richard. There were rumors that Pitino would possibly return to Friartown, both in 2008 and 2023, but it wasn’t meant to be.
When the Friars take the AMP court tomorrow evening at 8:00 p.m. in a network televised game on Fox, Pitino will be bringing a St. John’s team that is falling right into a patternestablished by Pitino for as long as he’s been coaching. In his first year he changes the program culture, then in year two there is another significant leap in production. At Boston University, Providence, Kentucky, Louisville, Iona, and St. John’s, Pitino’s teams have a combined 127-41 record. Despite the names of some high-level programs there, every team he inherited was at a low point, and these schools had a combined 76-105 record the year before he was hired. Kentucky narrowly avoided the death penalty and suffered recruiting, practice, and roster penalties. Louisville also had issues at the end of Denny Crum’s career, and St. John’s fired Mike Anderson for cause after losing control of the program (the sides reached a settlement recently).
One of the hallmarks of Pitino’s career has been his ability to adapt to changing times and styles. His teams always take pride in being among the hardest working teams in the country. He was the first coach to embrace the three-point shot in 1986-87 at Providence. An interesting not is that when the Friars played an exhibition game against the Russian National Team before that season, Pitino believed the Friars should take 10-15 three-pointers per game. After the Russian team hoisted over thirty from deep against PC, he upped the target to 20 per game, which they did at a remarkable 42% rate as a team. Even here he was flexible, as in the Georgetown game to get to the Final Four, he was facing the Hoyas for the fourth time of the season. Knowing that Friar alum John Thompson would be prepared for a barrage from outside, Pitino flipped the script, using Billy Donovan and Delray Brooks as decoys, only shooting 9 threes for the game, hitting 5. Steve Wright, Darryl Wright, Carlton Screen, and Marty Conlon combined for 48 points off the bench, and the team hit 33 free throws to win comfortably. There’s a reason I always say if both teams have the exact same players and I have Rick Pitino as my coach, I believe my team will win no matter who is on the opposing bench.
This St. John’s team is another example of how Pitino’s coaching is based on his players. This group is not a good shooting team, and only ranks 240th in threes made in the country. Instead, they press full court as always with Pitino, run as much as possible, and constantly look to drive or dump it intoZuby Ejiofor. The result is 85 points per game and a roster with six different players going off on any given night. He shows that there is more than one way to put points on the board.
I see some similarities in the two rosters in tomorrow’s game and would love to see Coach English steal from Coach Pitino’s playbook. As the true student of the game that Coach English is, it makes sense to learn from the best. With the next three games for the Friars against the league’s iron (St. John’s, Marquette, and at Connecticut), a great opportunity presents itself. These opponents all have Final Four potential, but the games are winnable if the Friars maximize their resources. First things first, as a win tomorrow against the Johnnies would make for a more enjoyable Christmas for the team, staff, and fans alike.
Go Friars.
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