PROVIDENCE — Ready or not, Big East basketball is back.
We will begin to find out just how ready the Providence College Friars are when Georgetown pays its annual visit to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center on Tuesday night (5:30 tip). PC barely survived its nonleague schedule with a winning record and now Ed Cooley’s team is wading into an 18-game gauntlet against what is a vastly improved set of Big East foes.
That collective strength is what could keep the Friars from blossoming into an upper-level team over the next two months. While the league doesn’t appear to have multiple Final Four contenders, it is blessed with depth that will send one strong team after another into The Dunk this winter.