Who Is Your Schools Most Hated Rival In/Out of Conference?

[bmorex]

I don't know if it's most hated or not, but my favorite new rivalry is with Xavier. The game in the BET with them felt like old school BE basketball- more than anything we've seen just about.

Not sure if it's a rivalry if we've won 4 of the last 5 in the last two seasons.

[stever20]

I don't know if it's most hated or not, but my favorite new rivalry is with Xavier. The game in the BET with them felt like old school BE basketball- more than anything we've seen just about.

Not sure if it's a rivalry if we've won 4 of the last 5 in the last two seasons.

True. But if the games are like what the BET was, that'll develop into a rivalry no matter what.

[NJRedman]

I don't know if it's most hated or not, but my favorite new rivalry is with Xavier. The game in the BET with them felt like old school BE basketball- more than anything we've seen just about.

Not sure if it's a rivalry if we've won 4 of the last 5 in the last two seasons.

True. But if the games are like what the BET was, that'll develop into a rivalry no matter what.

F*** off Stever. Seriously, you're not a fan of the Big East and the amount of lies and hyperbole you spread is f****** ridiculous. Why don't you stay over at that other board with all your other BE hating friends.

[billyjack]

I just noticed that we haven't had a Friars perspective yet on this.

Non-Conference:

Rhode Island.
A loss to URI sends many Friar fans into meltdown mode, more than against any other opponent.
The game atmosphere at the Dunk or the Ryan Center is pretty intense and electric.
URI fans have a theory that the state government favors the Friars because the General Assembly is filled with PC alums.
Before the construction of the Ryan Center in Kingston, each game was played at the Dunk.
Pre-Big East, the Friars used to play the Rams (and Brown) twice a year.
The only time in my lifetime that both PC and URI made the NCAA's in the same year was 1978, when I was 10.
Currently, the personalities of Ed Cooley and Dan Hurley make this game even more entertaining.

also, heated rivalries in the past...
Big East years:
UConn.
Storrs and Providence are only 40 miles apart.
The UConn fans always traveled well, even when they sucked.
After their 4 national championships (which PC feels they would never have earned if Gavitt and PC hadn't laid the foundation), the dynamic has changed.
The Jim Calhoun rant about f***ing up on Ryan Gomes' recruitment is pretty classic. I recommend youtube-ing it.
Some classic games in the BET in the early-mid 90's, plus regular season classics.

Big East years:
Boston College.
Chestnut Hill and Providence are only 40 miles apart.
Was always a solid but half-hearted hoops rivalry, because BC fans are more hockey fans.

late 70's:
Holy Cross.
This is from when I first followed PC in around 1977, when Chris Potter hit a last second shot to win the New England tourney finals.
The Friars legendary coach Joe Mullaney, who put PC on the college hoops map, played on the Holy Cross national champion in 1947.
Worcester and Providence are only 30 miles apart.
Central Mass used to have a huge college hoops fanbase, and is a sleeping giant. )
Many graduates of The Cross and PC have stayed in the area.
My godfather is a Holy Cross alum.

thru the 70's:
St John's.
Used to be scheduled as the last game of the year. Both PC and St John's were perennial powers. Tailed off somewhat during the lean PC years in the 80's, and with St John's more pulled towards Georgetown, Villanova and Syracuse.

Current Big East rivals:
I like all of you guys, so I can't name any BE team right now.

[Xudash]

I just noticed that we haven't had a Friars perspective yet on this.

Non-Conference:

Rhode Island.
A loss to URI sends many Friar fans into meltdown mode, more than against any other opponent.
The game atmosphere at the Dunk or the Ryan Center is pretty intense and electric.
URI fans have a theory that the state government favors the Friars because the General Assembly is filled with PC alums.
Before the construction of the Ryan Center in Kingston, each game was played at the Dunk.
Pre-Big East, the Friars used to play the Rams (and Brown) twice a year.
The only time in my lifetime that both PC and URI made the NCAA's in the same year was 1978, when I was 10.
Currently, the personalities of Ed Cooley and Dan Hurley make this game even more entertaining.

also, heated rivalries in the past...
Big East years:
UConn.
Storrs and Providence are only 40 miles apart.
The UConn fans always traveled well, even when they sucked.
After their 4 national championships (which PC feels they would never have earned if Gavitt and PC hadn't laid the foundation), the dynamic has changed.
The Jim Calhoun rant about f***ing up on Ryan Gomes' recruitment is pretty classic. I recommend youtube-ing it.
Some classic games in the BET in the early-mid 90's, plus regular season classics.

Big East years:
Boston College.
Chestnut Hill and Providence are only 40 miles apart.
Was always a solid but half-hearted hoops rivalry, because BC fans are more hockey fans.

late 70's:
Holy Cross.
This is from when I first followed PC in around 1977, when Chris Potter hit a last second shot to win the New England tourney finals.
The Friars legendary coach Joe Mullaney, who put PC on the college hoops map, played on the Holy Cross national champion in 1947.
Worcester and Providence are only 30 miles apart.
Central Mass used to have a huge college hoops fanbase, and is a sleeping giant. )
Many graduates of The Cross and PC have stayed in the area.
My godfather is a Holy Cross alum.

thru the 70's:
St John's.
Used to be scheduled as the last game of the year. Both PC and St John's were perennial powers. Tailed off somewhat during the lean PC years in the 80's, and with St John's more pulled towards Georgetown, Villanova and Syracuse.

Current Big East rivals:
I like all of you guys, so I can't name any BE team right now.

Enjoyed reading this. Great historical look back on the subject for PC.

I can't help but come away from the reaction that, if I were a Holy Cross alumnus and avid hoops fan, I would be beside myself right now for what could have been.

[billyjack]

Enjoyed reading this. Great historical look back on the subject for PC.

I can't help but come away from the reaction that, if I were a Holy Cross alumnus and avid hoops fan, I would be beside myself right now for what could have been.

Thanks XUdash!

I could go into some more detail, but didn't want to get too long-winded.

But, what the hell, since it's a slow month, here's another significant PC-URI rivalry story that's been oft-repeated a bunch of times:

I have only vague knowledge of this entire story, but this is what I've pieced together. PC had gotten a verbal (not a LOI which Gavitt never wanted from any of his recruits) from the top HS player in New England in 1976, Sly Williams, a SF-PF from New Haven CT. Sly would've been a freshman in 1977, the senior year of Joey Hassett and Bob Cooper, top Friars of the mid-70's, which would have provided a nice smooth transition in players to continue the great Friars hoops tradition. Hassett and Cooper were freshman during the senior years of Marvin Barnes and Kevin Stacom, so these seamless transitions between eras were working great for the Friars. [note that the 79 Friars struggled, but that was in large part due to the non-arrival of Sly Williams for 77, and the tire-iron incident of 1978 New England Player of the Year Dwight Williams, an outstanding young PG].

Anyway, apparently, Williams got on the train from New Haven to Providence, to start school in late-August early-Sept of 1976. Ok, so he was literally traveling to school at PC. When it arrived at the Kingston station, in South County near URI, some Rhody boosters convinced Sly to get off the train and visit the URI campus. I'm pretty sure a juicy gift was involved like a Cadillac or something, and who knows what else. Anyway, the Friar contingent was waiting in Providence but Sly never arrived, and he committed to URI.

The URI coach back then was Jack Kraft, former Villanova coach who took them to the 1971 NCAA Finals, and who recently passed away and was honored last season with a "JK" patch on the Villanova uniforms.

Obviously, the Friars were livid with URI for tampering. Williams had a great career at URI and turned pro after his junior year, being drafted by the Knicks in the late 1st round (he played into the mid-80's with NY on those Bernard King era teams). In 1978, URI was great basically because of Williams, and made the NCAA's by beating Providence in the New England finals... they then lost their first round game vs Duke by 1 point, missing a last second shot. Duke that year had Mike Gminski and our FS1 friend Jim Spanarkel, and lost in the national final to Kentucky. In 1979, URI was great again in Sly's senior year, but lost in the New England Finals to UConn and freshman Corny Thompson (I was at the game as an 11-year old at the Dunk (Providence Civic Center)...!), and URI didn't get an at-large.

Anyway, not that the original Big East would've included two schools from the state of Rhode Island, but especially because of the Sly Williams tampering, there was no way in a million years that URI was going to be invited by Gavitt to the new conference. For some reason, URI fans (by the way, URI is my 2nd favorite team) laugh about the Sly Williams fiasco, yet scream about not getting a Big East invitation. I don't know why they have trouble connecting the two issues? They joined the Eastern-8 in 1981, coincidentally as the team that replaced Villanova who of course joined the Big East.

So, that's another background piece on the PC-URI rivalry. Bill Marsh could definitely provide more information on this, and I hope he's still around here!

[Xudash]

Holy crap! Bad form on URI's part! I would love to have a few URI fans trolling around here to see how they would worm their way out of this story.

Maybe I missed it, but would you care to elaborate on this: and the tire-iron incident of 1978 New England Player of the Year Dwight Williams.

It's still possible that the minute you New England guys decided to call milk shakes frappes, you all went batshit crazy.

In the meantime, all the relevant stuff - 3 miles from each other; small private versus huge public; a lot of familiarity and overlap; and just one episode a year - continue to make the Xavier / UC rivalry Xavier's biggest, period (since it's the summer, as you noted): http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2012/12/18/college-basketball-xavier-cincinnati-crosstown/1774975/

[billyjack]

Hey dash,
I found an old newspaper article from 1978... DW actually stabbed a member of the Friars baseball team with a paring knife in an argument over a pool bet. That's crazy!

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid= ... 4553&hl=en

[NJRedman]

When the Seton Hall dorm fire happened back in 2000 they had first suspected a St. John's student(s) since that night we lost to the Pirates in basketball. It turned out to be a Seton Hall student messing around and started the fire as a goof and it went out of control. We had cops showing up at campus asking questions and everything.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/20/nyreg ... -hurt.html

A little 6 degrees of separation, the kid who lit the fire graduated HS with one of my frat brothers.

[billyjack]

Holy crap! Bad form on URI's part! I would love to have a few URI fans trolling around here to see how they would worm their way out of this story.

Maybe I missed it, but would you care to elaborate on this: and the tire-iron incident of 1978 New England Player of the Year Dwight Williams.

It's still possible that the minute you New England guys decided to call milk shakes frappes, you all went batshit crazy.

In the meantime, all the relevant stuff - 3 miles from each other; small private versus huge public; a lot of familiarity and overlap; and just one episode a year - continue to make the Xavier / UC rivalry Xavier's biggest, period (since it's the summer, as you noted): http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2012/12/18/college-basketball-xavier-cincinnati-crosstown/1774975/

Yeah, XU and Cincy is a legit real rivalry. Anytime an out-of-control brawl and blood is involved, including a sucker punch by UC (the X guy didn't even drop!), then it's the real thing.

Right, milkshakes, frappes... believe it or not, Rhode Islanders call them "cabinets". And a submarine sandwich is a "grinder" (pronounced "grindah"). Soda is pronounced "soder"... we add an "r" to words that don't have them... a weird "idear"...

Oh yeah, and regional "Shaw's" supermarket and local "Shore's" supermarket are pronounced the same... "Shaws"... we have to say "I'm going down to Shore's, S-H-O-R-E-S, you want anythin'?"