Real college hoops passion on full display this week at the AMP in Providence

Thinking out loud … while wondering if Santa actually has the right idea, visiting people just once a year.

• The United Nations declared Dec. 21 as “World Basketball Day,” which is what we have around here about once a week from November through March.

The AMP/Dunk/Civic Center. For 51 seasons, since the days of Marvin and Ernie — it’s where ranked teams go to die. Always loved that descriptive tag — and it’s a rep Friar fans should be very proud to hold.

The next step is to be a consistently ranked program yourself. But no matter, it’s one of the great things about college basketball in Providence. The fans create an atmosphere that makes it tough on opponents.

To wit: 40 home wins over the last three seasons in downtown Providence; 45 home wins in the last 48 games played. No one — no team, anywhere in the country — has more than that. No matter the coach. The players can change as often as you change your socks.

How’s that for getting bang for your buck?

More: Here's how Providence basketball opened its Big East season in style vs. No. 6 Marquette

• Culture is everything. New England has a passion for pro teams, sure. But Rhode Island also has unbridled affection for big-time college basketball. It was on full display this week.

There were students in the student seating areas on Tuesday night (with tall boys in hand) for the PC game against sixth-ranked Marquette, which is certainly to their credit since the fall semester has ended and the winter break has begun. But there was an intensity to the evening that showed itself very early when the Friars and Golden Eagles took the floor.

That intensity ratcheted up several notches once Providence’s nationally-eighth-rated defensive efficiency began to take its toll on Marquette’s offense. Cumberland’s Tyler Kolek, the reigning Big East Player of the Year, played a great game. He also had several choice words after some of his play, flying by the bench and the program that failed to recruit him.

The boos wafting from the seats toward the Rhode Islander-gone-astray were odd. Hey, Kim English wanted him. Had him for two weeks at George Mason before Kolek decided to leave and "play up."

It was a good decision for Kolek and for Marquette. Head coach Shaka Smart has a good team and program that can play great at times. But not this week in the AMP. No, the Friar defense was stifling, crushing. And the fans, sans a bunch of the college kids, were still bringing noise. Intensity. Nastiness. Culture was on full display. And another ranked team found defeat.

• You wonder why PC struggles to book home-and-home games against other power conference programs? Funny. You’re the reason why.

• We mentioned a couple of weeks back that the NET rankings and KenPom metrics really mean very little early in a season. But now that conference play has begun across the country, those metrics will mean more every day.

• Are these Friars underrated? Time will tell on that one. So will the caliber of future opponents. PC has now beaten a ranked Marquette team at home three straight seasons. And the return match in Milwaukee might be a date to pin on the calendar — Feb. 28.

• The metric that should matter the most? Head-to-head competition. The round robin that the Big East (and Ivy League) still plays can be a true measure of success. Guard the yard at home, grab whatever you can on the road.

• Road wins are very tough to earn — see Providence at the AMP as a prime example. Am I right, Marquette? Rhody? Brown?

• URI’s last couple of weeks have been a struggle. But the Rams have also seen the emergence of Cam Estevez at guard, with his being named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week.

• Always wondered — so help me out here. Do Ram fans sit and sulk when the Friars have it rolling, hoping they’ll lose? Love me a good rivalry, full of angst and attitude.

• Bryant’s Earl Timberlake was named as the America East Player of the Week following the Bulldogs’ win over Towson.

• Running it back: Former Friar Jamel Thomas will gear up his “Mentoring Through Sports” program inside a Providence middle school on Dec. 29. Find out more and hit up his website, Jamelny.com.

• Need backup on that "road wins are tough" thing? Go ask UConn. The defending national champs were thumped, hard, at Seton Hall in their Big East opener on Wednesday. And those same Pirates will travel to Providence to face the Friars next weekend.

• The three Big East preseason favorites — Marquette, UConn and Creighton — are all 0-1 to open conference play. And the Bluejays lost at home in overtime to Villanova.

• Here’s one that stopped me right in my tracks this week — former North Carolina All-American and Celtics first-round draft pick Eric Montross passed away at age 52 after battling cancer.

• The Celtics’ current four-game road swing was in danger of an oh-fer until crowning the Kings on Wednesday night. An OT loss to the Warriors on Tuesday began with an astounding 41 missed 3-point attempts — 41!

• The NBA execs say they already want to make changes to their in-season tournament? How about having the Lakers not hanging a meaningless banner? Reminds me of the Colts’ “2014 AFC Finalist” beauty.

• Who follows wrestling? Yeah, yeah, WWE. But you might be interested to know that the Ivy League will launch a postseason wrestling tournament in 2024-25 for the six schools sponsoring the sport, including Brown. The Ivies had three individual national champs last year.

• Rhode Island FC is anxiously awaiting its inaugural season in the USL Championship Division, which will be played at Bryant’s Beirne Stadium in Smithfield. With former Revolution star Khano Smith as the head coach, RIFC’s first match will be against New Mexico United on March 16.

• Speaking of the Revs: They named a new head coach this week to officially replace Bruce Arena following his resignation in September. Caleb Porter is a two-time MLS Cup-winning coach, having won at Portland and Columbus.

But you gotta wonder, if he won at both places previously, why isn’t he still there? The Revs will only go as far as management will let them go, especially when it comes to signing players.

• Sound familiar, Red Sox? Just sayin’.

• Oh, and the Revs’ schedule is out which says the great Lionel Messi is scheduled to make his trek to Foxboro with Inter Miami at the end of April. But the alleged “world’s greatest footballer” doesn’t (or won’t) play on artificial turf. Hey, fella. You’re here in the U.S. and the MLS, making megabucks for one reason — to draw American fans to your sport. Suck it up, do your thing or take a hike.

Signed, an Ugly American.

• My buddy “Big E” says there are three stages of men celebrating Christmas: 1. He believes in Santa Claus; 2. He doesn’t believe in Santa Claus; 3. He is Santa Claus.

• Forbes’ annual NFL team valuation once again has Dallas as the richest team in the league, worth $9 billion. That’s a 13% increase over this time last year.

• No. 2 on the list? Your New England Patriots — worth $7 billion and up 9% over a year ago on $684 million in revenue and $206 million in operating income.

Maybe someone could send a copy of the current NFL standings to the editors at Forbes so they’re up to date? Actually, those numbers should tell you, unequivocally, that whatever the organization does about the current malaise, it should always be about the Benjamins. — the Lincolns, Jeffersons, Grants and plenty of Jacksons, too.

But since the Cowboys beat the Patriots, 38-3, back in October, which team is actually getting better bang for the megabucks?

• First-half Bailey Zappe is a player who's probably worth keeping around on the roster beyond this year. The problem, however, is that second-half Bailey Zappe keeps coming out of the locker room.

• A great line, with a lot of truth, from the one-and-only Donnie Wahlberg writing an opinion piece in the Boston Herald this week: “Did we get so used to winning that we are punishing Bill Belichick for our own unrealistic expectations?”

• You’ll undoubtedly notice the NFL’s Holiday Takeover this weekend. Nearly half of the league will be playing in a national broadcast window, with seven games getting standalone audiences on Prime Video, Peacock, NFL Network (Patriots, hello!) and the traditional ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox networks.

Front Office Sports reports that that’s record exposure even for the NFL, which is likely to break this record in 2026 with Christmas falling on a Friday. There could be as many as nine national TV games that holiday week. Too much football for your Yuletide celebration?

• You’ve noticed, maybe, the Detroit Lions can win their first division title in 30 years with a win at Minnesota on Sunday. Welcome to “winning comes at a cost.” The team announced this week season ticket prices for next year will see at least a 30% bump, and some seats at Ford Field will go up by 85%.

Not for nothin’, but what happens if the Lions win the Super Bowl, which they’ve never done? Sixty-thousand second mortgages on housing around Greater Detroit?

• Compare and contrast the price hike in Michigan to the current ticket status in Carolina, where Panthers fans could get into their game last week for five bucks.

• It was former UCLA football coach Red Sanders (not Vince Lombardi) who first famously said “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” back in the 1930s. And the phrase remains (fiscally) accurate today — nearly 100 years later.

• That NFL game in Brazil next season? You might see it in Week 1, and it might be the Miami Dolphins leading the conga line in Sao Paolo. Welcome to the Rest of the World, NFL.

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: Real college hoops passion was on full display this week at the AMP in Providence