CHICAGO — Analytics guru Ken Pomeroy provided Providence College’s men’s basketball team a rallying cry recently when his metrics deemed coach Ed Cooley’s Friars the “luckiest” of the NCAA’s 358 Division I programs.
“The luck narrative, that’s called divine providence,” 11th-year Friars coach Cooley said with a smile last week in Buffalo, New York using humor to answer those who considered his team a likely early out in the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
Buffalo was the site of Providence’s 66-57 first-round Midwest Regional victory over South Dakota State and 79-51 second-round rout of Richmond. Those two victories advanced the No. 4 seed Friars (27-5) into the Sweet 16, where they’ll meet No. 1 seed Kansas (30-6) in a regional semifinal contest at 6:29 p.m. Friday in the United Center.