Rick Pitino Returns To Providence For NCAA Tournament, Bringing Back 1987 Final Four Memories

Jacek Duda remembers the days just going on and on and on. It was quite the change for Duda and his teammates on the Providence College men’s basketball team. During Duda’s first two years at PC under coach Joe Mullaney, things were much more relaxed, which didn’t exactly lead to success. When Mullaney stepped down in 1985, the Friars hired Rick Pitino, a 32-year-old who was an assistant with the New York Knicks.

Suddenly, the Friars had practices at 5 a.m., skill development workouts between classes and then another practice in the afternoon that could last three, four hours, however long it took for Pitino to feel somewhat satisfied. And then, after dinner, the players had a mandatory study session to make sure they were keeping up with their academics.

All of that effort paid off. The Friars made it to the NCAA tournament’s Final Four in 1987, an unlikely outcome considering they had finished last or second-to-last in the Big East each year before Pitino arrived. That season put Pitino on the national basketball radar. And now, 38 years later, he is still going strong and coaching St. John’s to its best season in decades.

On Thursday, Pitino will be back in Providence when No. 2 seed St. John’s faces No. 15 seed Omaha in an NCAA tournament West Regional first round game at the Amica Mutual Pavilion. The Red Storm (30-4) won their first Big East regular season title since 1985 and their first conference tournament championship since 2000, which is also the last time they won an NCAA tournament game. Pitino, 72, has rejuvenated St. John’s in his second season, just like he did at PC, a school with a proud basketball tradition that was struggling to compete in the Big East until Pitino took the helm.

During Mullaney’s first stint as Providence’s coach, the Friars won 20 games for nine consecutive seasons from 1959 through 1967, including making the NCAAs three times and winning the 1961 and 1963 National Invitation Tournament when that was a prestigious event. When Mullaney left to coach the Los Angeles Lakers in 1969, PC hired Dave Gavitt, a 31-year-old who had previously coached at Dartmouth, his alma mater.

Gavitt took the Friars to an even higher level, leading them to five NCAA tournaments in 10 seasons, including an appearance in the 1973 Final Four. But after Gavitt resigned to form the Big East in 1979, PC’s fortunes changed. Gary Walters, Gavitt’s replacement, lasted just two seasons, while Mullaney returned but only coached for four seasons before retiring. Over that six-year stretch post-Gavitt, the Friars finished last in the Big East twice and second-to-last four times.

In March 1985, Providence hired Pitino, a New York native who was familiar with New England college basketball from his time as Boston University’s head coach from 1979 through 1983 before leaving to become a Knicks assistant. At BU, Pitino won 64.1% of his games, captured two regular season conference titles and made the 1983 NCAA tournament.

“He had a way with discipline and fear and if you want to be the best team you’re going to do it my way,’” said Glenn Consor, who was BU’s starting point guard during Pitino’s first two seasons. “He essentially was saying you’ve got to buy into this. If you don’t buy into it, you can’t play here.”

Consor added: “We didn’t have the greatest athletes in New England at the time, but he completely changed the way we played. He’s a savant when it comes to player development and working on your deficiencies.”

Still, there were some doubts whether Pitino’s methods would work at Providence, especially because the Friars played in such a loaded conference. Shortly after Pitino was hired, three Big East programs (Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova) made the 1985 Final Four, with Villanova upsetting Georgetown to win the national title. Of the eight non-Providence coaches in the Big East that season, five are in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

“It was just so tough and daunting to have to face those teams on a nightly basis,” said Stu Jackson, an assistant under Pitino at PC.

Pitino Pushes And Motivates Players At Providence

That didn’t deter Pitino and his staff, though. They implemented a disciplined approach soon after arriving on campus. Duda, who grew up in Poland and enrolled at PC in 1983, said Mullaney treated the Friars as a professional team, giving them more leeway. That wasn’t the case with Pitino.

Back then, there were no NCAA-mandated restrictions on how long teams could practice, so Pitino took full advantage. The staff emphasized skill development, working individually with each player every day, and also grueling practices that would make the games seem easy. Players would have their practice gear next to their beds so they didn’t have to spend too much time dressing for the 5 a.m. sessions.

“Right now when we look at it, it’s kind of funny, but at the time, it was a very serious thing,” Duda said. “You come in late and you’re running wind sprints, you’re doing all kind of crazy things. It was a big change. Did it go through people’s heads, did they want to go through it or not? Probably, I would imagine. But we were lucky we had a group of people who stuck with it and then managed to get something done with it.”

During Pitino’s first season, the Friars went 17-14, finished fifth in the Big East and made it to the NIT quarterfinals with basically the same roster that was 11-20 and eighth in the league the previous season. Pitino and his staff had instilled in the players a confidence they had lacked before and helped them improve their skills, conditioning and stamina.

“I’m not prone to hyperbole,” said Jackson, who is now the West Coast Conference commissioner. “Rick is the best motivational person I’ve ever been around. And I didn’t say coach. Person. I think that he could motivate anyone to buy sand from the beach. He’s that good.”

That summer, Pitino pushed his players even more, particularly to improve their outside shooting because the NCAA for the first time would be instituting a 3-point shot during the upcoming 1986-87 season. Pitino was familiar with the 3, having been an assistant in the NBA, which instituted the shot seven years earlier.

“He was really a pioneer when it came to using the 3-point shot in college basketball,” said Santa Clara coach Herb Sendek, who was an assistant under Pitino at PC. “He understood its value, whereas many coaches were somewhat reticent about using it. He also understood the importance of defending it, and so it became a staple in our program immediately.”

Sendek said the Friars wanted to shoot 25 3’s per game. While they didn’t always achieve that goal, PC led the nation in the 1986-87 season with 19.6 3-point attempts per game, more than double the NCAA average of 9.2 attempts per game. The Friars made 42.1% of their 3’s, well above the 38.4% national average. More than 30% of PC’s field goal attempts were from the 3-point line, nearly double the 15.7% national average.

The Friars were led by four senior starters in guard Billy Donovan, forwards Pop Lewis and Dave Kipfer and Duda, a 6-foot-11 center, all of whom arrived together as freshmen. The other starter was guard Delray Brooks, a transfer who spent the previous two seasons at Indiana. In all, 11 players averaged more than 10 minutes a game. Pitino needed a deep bench to employ his preferred full-court pressure defense.

“I don’t think any of us had a private life outside of basketball,” Duda said. “You didn’t have any time to go to the movies or go grab a beer. Forget grabbing the beer. I mean, I don’t think that was allowed to begin with. The life revolved around basketball.”

Providence Fans Embrace 1987 Final Four Run

PC finished the regular season with a 20-7 record, including 10-6 in Big East games, good for fourth in the league behind Georgetown, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, which finished in a tie for first at 12-4. The Friars’ success and fun style of play resonated with the locals.

An average of 9,792 fans attended PC’s home games, a 28.9% increase from the previous season when the Friars had an average attendance of 7,595 per game. That was the highest average since the 1972-73 season, which was the Providence Civic Center’s inaugural season when the Friars drew 10,348 fans per home game, went 16-0 in the building and made the Final Four.

“The fans were incredible,” Sendek said. “We had great support. Our home games had a lot of energy.”

After losing by 18 points to Georgetown in the Big East tournament semifinals, PC secured the No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament’s Southeast Regional. The Friars defeated No. 11 seed Alabama-Birmingham in the first round on UAB’s home floor, then rallied from a 10-point deficit with five minutes left to defeat No. 14 seed Austin Peay in the second round.

The next weekend, PC upset No. 2 seed Alabama, 103-82, as Donovan had 26 points and Brooks added 23 and the Friars shot 68.8% from the field, including 14-of-20 (70%) on 3’s. That set up a rematch with Georgetown, the No. 1 seed. This time, the Friars were up to the challenge, defeating the Hoyas, 88-73, in front of a stunned crowd in Louisville to advance to the Final Four.

PC’s dream season ended with a 77-63 loss to Syracuse in the national semifinals. The Friars had an uncharacteristically poor shooting night, making just 36.4% of their field goal attempts, including 5-of-19 (26.3%) of their 3’s. It was also the last game Pitino coached at Providence. After initially turning down the New York Knicks, he signed a contract with the franchise in July 1987. He lasted two seasons with the Knicks before taking the Kentucky job.

Since then, Pitino has gone on to make six more Final Fours, including winning national titles at Kentucky in 1996 and Louisville in 2013. He is now coaching a record sixth team in the NCAA tournament and has a legitimate shot at leading St. John’s to another Final Four. The journey starts Thursday in Providence.

In December, when St. John’s traveled to play Providence, Duda had dinner with his old coach. Duda said Pitino has “seriously mellowed down” from his days coaching at PC, but he still has the energy and basketball and emotional intelligence to succeed at the highest level of college basketball. Duda, who lives in Providence, isn’t sure if he’ll be going to Thursday’s game, but he is hoping to catch up with Pitino at some point. The two still have a strong relationship, just like Pitino has with most of his former players, even those from decades ago.

“At the time when we played for him, he could tell us that the grass is blue, and we’d believe him probably,” Duda said. “He’s very convincing and able to motivate people and get the most out of his players. We were a whole bunch of people who didn’t really play much, didn’t win many games before he got there….He got us to the level that nobody, to be honest, really expected. It was a wonderful ride.”