PROVIDENCE - Game by game, week by week, Providence College is continuing to progress at a pace that's exciting Ed Cooley, his players and Friars fans.
Cooley reminds his team, almost daily, that they're picked to finish ninth in the Big East. That's serving as motivation and keeping everyone dialed in during a nonconference schedule where the Friars are learning from stiff challenges and piling up wins. The latest was a 75-69 victory on Saturday over a University of Massachusetts team that will be a factor in the Atlantic 10 this season. PC had trouble controlling UMass' size and athleticism for long stretches of the game and watched a 16-point second-half lead melt to only three with two minutes to go.