- Barstool founder Dave Portnoy joked that ‘people will die’
- Georgetown coach Ed Cooley is returning to the school he rejected last spring
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
Providence College students were embroiled in ugly scenes before Saturday’s grudge match against Georgetown, with fans trampling each other as they rushed to enter the Amica Mutual Pavilion.
Footage showed students falling under the weight of their peers before one of the most highly anticipated college basketball games of the season.
Security appeared to have difficulty maintaining order after students lined up in the early morning hours to “welcome” former PC head coach Ed Cooley and the Georgetown Hoyas.
Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports and a New England native, tweeted the video, saying, “People are dying at the Dunk today” — referring to the location’s former name, the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
Providence fans continue to feel scorned by Cooley, a man who led the school for more than a decade before becoming the first head coach in Big East Conference history to leave one school for another.
Providence College students were seen falling over each other before a basketball game
Anticipation for this match has been increasing all season, with tickets for this match reaching as high as four figures.
Cooley arrived in Providence in 2011 and led PC to both its first Sweet 16 since the 1990s and its only Big East regular-season title in 2022.
But a little more than a year after those achievements, Cooley, a Providence native, left school for Georgetown.
That has sparked anger among rowdy Friars fans all season – leading to the packing of Amica Mutual Pavilion early this afternoon and turning the atmosphere hostile hours before the game even started.