Does PC's success in the Big East tourney mean a ticket to the Big Dance?

Thinking out loud … while wondering if today’s measure of true friendship is walking into someone’s house and your Wifi automatically connects.

The Madness is here. You caught it yet? And it’s not only about basketball these days, either.

Let’s start with Providence junior guard Devin Carter. By any stretch, he has had a season for the record books. He’s the only player in the country averaging better than 19 points, eight rebounds and three assists per game. But what he’s meant to this Friars team?

More: Is Providence basketball about to go dancing? Friars upset Creighton in Big East tourney

He’s been the difference between relevance and irrelevance this season. That’s not negative toward anyone — that’s a huge positive toward a young man who became a huge part of Friar basketball lore this year. Carter joins Kris Dunn as the only PC players to be named Player of the Year in the Big East.

Does this stamp the Friars’ March Madness ticket?

While Carter was named First Team All-Big East, he also became the eighth Friar all time to win the league scoring title. The other seven, in order from recent-to-first — Bentil, Henton, Cotton, Brooks, Hill, Gomes, Murdock. That’s some serious company.

Doesn’t hurt the program one bit that Josh Oduro (Honorable Mention) and Rich Barron (All-Freshman) both received postseason honors. If there was one guy on the team you wished could have an extra year (other than Carter, likely headed to the NBA), it’s Oduro.

∎Who got squeezed? A bit surprising that Marquette’s Kam Jones didn’t make the first or second team, or honorable mention. UConn’s Alex Karaban? The league coaches make the all-conference selections and they whiffed on that one. Jones’ teammate, Cumberland’s Tyler Kolek, was likely nudged as a repeat winner for Player of the Year (by UConn’s Tristen Newton) because he missed the last few games of the regular season.

∎The Big East needs to allow media who actually watch and cover the games to have a say-so with their coaches in these postseason awards. The coaches often pass the all-conference votes to their grad assistants because they simply can’t be bothered — truth.

∎Other Big East news, notes and headlines from Tournament Central in New York: Oklahoma’s Porter Moser to DePaul as their new head coach was all the rage, until he took to social media to crush that rumor.

∎Another name heard for DePaul — Mark Byington from James Madison — until ex-Butler and Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said yes to Chicago. Will Sean Miller move cross-state from Xavier to Ohio State? Greg McDermott signed an extension to stay in Omaha, which is good for the Big East, better for Creighton. Georgetown assistant and former Friars assistant Ivan Thomas is reportedly headed to Hampton for that head coaching spot.

∎Did you see where Hall of Famer Rick Pitino, back at the Big East Tournament for the first time in 10 years (since his Louisville days) got on the stump for PC’s Billy “The Kid” Donovan (who is now coaching at OKC in the NBA) to make the Hall of Fame? Pitino likely has some juice to make this happen at some point, don’t ya think?

∎Bryant’s Rafael Pinzon scored 35 points for the Bulldogs in the America East Quarterfinals against Maine — the top scoring postseason game in the school’s Division I history.

∎Earl Timberlake and Sherif Gross-Bullock were named first team All-America East; coach Phil Martelli finished fifth nationally among first year coaches in wins. That’s a solid season for a program that began the year with another coach, even if it ended in the AE semis.

∎Tammy Reiss got her URI women to the Atlantic-10 finals; PC’s ladies lost to UConn, but Olivia Olsen was named Second Team All-Big East and Grace Efosa made the All-Tourney team, the first PC player so-named in 31 years.

∎Rhody’s men fought to the finish in Brooklyn against Saint Louis — but again, came up short. Seems to me there needs to be a little soul-searching in Kingston for what kind of program they’d like to be — and are the right ingredients in place?

∎Brown’s Kino Lilly became the first repeat All-Ivy player for the Bears in 10 years, named to the first team. He led the Ivy in 3-pointers made and minutes played.

∎The PC-UMass Hockey East quarterfinal winner at Schneider Arena advances to TD Garden for the Hockey East semis. It's likely to take a good Friars showing there to reach the NCAA Tournament with just 16 teams advancing. The NCAA hockey selection show is March 24th, and the AMP is hosting a regional round March 28-31.

∎Not sure if you were aware or not but it was a big year for attendance at the AMP. Providence set its all-time attendance average since the building opened, with 11,368 fans per game, topping the previous record of 11,030 set in 1997. Current seating capacity is 12,400, give or take.

∎Don’t sit there and be shocked. No Greg Gumbel, no Jim Nantz this year for NCAA tournament TV coverage. Gumbel is away due to a family medical issue and Nantz is stepping aside (replaced by Ian Eagle) from the lead microphone for the first time since 1991.

∎But wait, there’s more. Get your track shoes ready, recruitniks. The transfer portal opens Monday the 18th, the day after Selection Sunday. Expect Rhody’s Jeremy Foumena and Rory Stewart to be early entries. Xavier’s Desmond Claude is also rumored to be eyeing a transfer.

∎Not for nothin’, but there will be an MTE (Multiple Team Event) tournament during non-conference play next fall in Las Vegas that will pay participating teams’ collectives or boosters $1 million in NIL money to compete — and award another $1 million NIL dollars to the winning team. Eight teams next year, expanding to 16 in 2025.

∎Let’s skip the pretense. Amateurism in college athletics is d-e-a-d. Or at the very least, r-e-d-e-f-i-n-e-d forever.

∎Told ya so. Did you see where a Temple men’s basketball game last week was flagged by security firms for betting discrepancies and potential game-fixing? It’s only the proverbial tip o’ the iceberg.

∎The state of North Carolina picked a fine time to open online betting, didn’t they? It started this week. Happy March Madness.

∎Swing … and a miss? No Calvin Ridley. No Tyron Smith? The two positions New England needs to bolster the most, outside of QB. Free agency for the Patriots is leaving an aftertaste — you know, like before you brush your teeth in the morning? Yuck.

∎Is it just me, or are the Patriots simply reloading the team with guys signed from last years’ 4-13 finish? Either a) Bill Belichick was right about the talent he had, or b) all armchair general managers reading this were wrong.

∎The answer is somewhere in the middle, of course. But I don’t see a team that can blow by the Bills, Dolphins or Jets — yet.

∎Tee Higgins? Yes, please. Make it happen, or else risk being compared to John Henry. Thanks.

∎Buh-bye, Mac. Does this mean there will be a run on Mac Jones “10” jerseys at the Salvation Army? Discount sale at the Patriots’ Pro Shop? His career may go down as one of the great failures in Patriots history, considering the promise Jones began with, his draft spot and how New England’s coaching staff completely stunted his NFL growth. It’ll go down as “what not to do” in the encyclopedia of coaching.

∎Fantastic that the Rhode Island Football Club has sold out its first-ever home soccer match for Saturday — albeit at Bryant University instead of at the still-to-be-built stadium at Tidewater Landing in Pawtucket. Cost overruns have boosted the price tag to $137 million and counting.

They’re gonna need a lot of future sellouts to help pay for this 10,500-seat place, aren’t they?

∎My buddy “Big E” says there’s a new trend in his office. Everyone is naming their food. He saw it this week while he was eating a sandwich named Kevin.

∎No matter how bad you have it, someone else always has it worse. Take the Yankees’ Gerritt Cole, for instance. An MRI on the right elbow for the defending American League Cy Young winner? If he’s out, that might be a smidge worse than the Sox losing Lucas Giolito and perhaps Vaughn Grissom. Just sayin’.

∎Uh-oh. With success comes — increased prices? Orioles’ TV on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (along with the Nationals, too) is going to cost more for fans with their move to an “Ultimate TV” tier. Bottom line? About $20 more per month. Take me out to the ballgame …

∎Hey, I thought the PGA and LIV Golf were headed for a merger, or a "partnership." Nothing to see here yet, except for that $3 billion in support from other U.S. sports franchise owners — including John Henry of Fenway Sports Group.

∎Those of a certain age will surely remember Ron St. Pierre on local radio and television for much of the past 40 years. Sadly, Ron passed away earlier this week at the all-too-young age of 69. He did the sports on Channel 12, he built the news-talk format at WPRO, injected life into WHJJ and launched 790 The Score, among his achievements in Rhode Island TV and Radio.

Ronzo, as he was called by many of his friends, was inducted into the Rhode Island Radio and TV Hall of Fame in 2010 and also inducted into the Pawtucket Hall of Fame. He and Mitch Dolan (former WPRO general manager and another Hall of Famer) hired me in early 1989 to team with Joe Hassett and become the radio Voice of the Friars — and there haven’t been many lucky enough to hold that job in the 97 years of school hoop history.

Ron wasn’t just a boss; he was a friend. A mentor. A confidant. We often reasoned away the unreasonable by quoting lines and bits from The Three Stooges. A “wise guy, eh?” in every sense of the word, as the late, great vaudeville comedians Moe and Curly Howard used to say. The cutthroat media business has lost a really good person. Did I mention a really good friend, too?

Interested in having your questions on Rhode Island sports (and yes, that includes the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins, and Celtics) answered in a somewhat timely fashion? Think out loud and send your questions, comments, and local stories to jrbroadcaster@gmail.com. We’ll share mailbag comments/Facebook posts/threads right here! Join me on Twitter/X, @JRbroadcaster…on Facebook, www.facebook.com/john.rooke, and on Instagram and Threads @JRbroadcaster.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Does PC's success in the Big East tourney mean a ticket to the Big Dance?