Friars' fold means end of Welsh

Thank god that's over.
Not the Providence College basketball season. That was finished a long time before the Friars' 58-53 loss against West Virginia in the Big East Tournament on Wednesday.
I'm talking about the disappointing tenure of head coach Tim Welsh. If there is a God, and Friar fans, followers of a school founded by Dominican Friars that offers mandatory religion classes, certainly believe there is, the door will hit Welsh in the ass before the weekend is over and he will be fired with one year remaining on his contract.
Welsh's 10 years in Providence have been marked by maddening inconsistency, postseason misery and constant player turnover. Welsh has struggled to keep Providence from falling into irrelevancy against a Big East conference that has gained power by absorbing high-profile programs like Louisville and Marquette from Conference-USA. The resurgence of traditional powers like Georgetown, Villanova and Pittsburgh to go with the new guard schools like Connecticut have made the conference a true eastern beast, and the Friars show little ability to keep up with Welsh at the helm.
Consider Welsh's 160-142 career record at Providence. His supporters will point to his winning 11 Big East games in two different seasons, the most in school history, and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament twice as his strong points. Both of those seasons ended in first-round losses for the Friars, embarrassingly so in 2004 when a fifth-seeded team led by 1st-Team All-America Ryan Gomes was bounced by a 12th seed, Pacific, in shocking fashion.
What about the other eight years? The Friars have finished at or below .500 in each of those seasons, missing the conference tournament entirely in 2006. Twelve teams out of 16 qualify. The Friars, charter members when the Big East was founded in 1979, were relegated to the outside with the dregs like South Florida and Rutgers. Providence needed a St. John's loss to the Mountaineers on the season's final day just to qualify this season.
People sympathetic to Welsh's cause point out how tough a job he has in Providence attempting to recruit players to a school with little diversity, antiquated facilities and no on-campus arena. The facts make convenient excuses when you are losing games. Connecticut was on par with the University of Rhode Island in the old Yankee Conference when Jim Calhoun came from Northeastern and transformed the Huskies into a national power. He didn't cry about where his teams played games or how cramped the weight room was. Calhoun turned overachievers like Tate George into deep runs in the NCAA Tournament and blue-chip recruits like Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, Ben Gordon, Emeka Okafor and Caron Butler.
What has Welsh done with his success stories? He hasn't had many. Gomes is the only player he has produced that has stuck in the NBA, and Welsh almost redshirted Gomes during his freshman season before injuries forced Gomes into the line-up. He averaged 15 points and eight rebounds that season -- not bad for a kid who was going to be in street clothes if Welsh had his way. Coaches like Rick Barnes and Pete Gillen, Welsh's predecessors, produced talent like Michael Smith, Austin Croshere, Eric Williams, Eric Murdock and Dickie Simpkins during their combined decade in Providence -- why couldn't Welsh do the same?
Which brings us to Welsh's spotty recruiting record. Remember Jeff Parmer? JaJuan Robinson? Anthony Ivory? Neither do Providence fans, because they were all busts. Welsh's supporters instantly argue that Providence has no home state base to pick from, like St. John's should have in New York, but several area products have made names for themselves on the national stage during Welsh's tenure. Tony Robertson (East Providence) was a 1,000-point scorer at Connecticut and killed Providence whenever he played back at home. Joe Mazzulla (Johnston) is currently in West Virginia's rotation. Jeff Xavier (Pawtucket) went to Manhattan for two years and dropped 31 points on Maryland in an NIT game before coach Bobby Gonzalez left to take the Seton Hall job. Only then did the Friars take Xavier in. They wanted him to go to prep school after his scholastic career and never recruited him seriously. Mike Marra (Smithfield) and Erik Murphy (South Kingstown) will enroll at Louisville and Florida, respectively, over the next two seasons. Providence never had a sniff at either one of them until they went to prep school and the bigger programs were already involved.
Talent alone wasn't enough for Welsh to succeed anyway. His pathetic postseason record suggests that he was simply out of his depth against teams equal to his Friars. A 1-9 record in the Big East Tournament, 0-2 mark in the NCAA Tournament and 2-3 record in the NIT adds up to 3-14 in the biggest games of the season -- hardly the stuff of legend. Providence, at the very least, deserves the chance to find out if there is something better out there for its basketball future. There might not be. All the naysayers might be right. But Friars' fans can't be afraid to move on.