Welcome to the latest edition of the Providence Journal's college basketball podcast. This is Bill Koch, sports writer for the Journal. I'm joined as always by Nick Coit, the sports director at ABC6 and weekend co-host of Cordischi and Coit on WEEI Providence.

Providence pulled out a thriller over Georgetown in Ed Cooley's homecoming and fell at Connecticut (4:00). The Friars face a key weekend trip to Villanova as they reach the Big East midpoint.

Bryant fell to Vermont in a clash atop America East and bounced back against UMBC (35:00). The Bulldogs remain among the league contenders but have work to do at Maine this weekend.

URI snapped its four-game losing streak and surpassed its 2022-23 win total with a victory over La Salle (45:10). The Rams have a chance to be over .500 at the Atlantic 10 midpoint.

Brown's men and women face opposite realities this weekend. The Bears men (52:15) are desperate and the Bears women (58:30) can afford to be greedy while battling Penn and Princeton.

URI's women have won three straight and might finally be ready to sprint for the conference tournament (64:45). No league opponent would be comfortable facing the Rams at that event if they're firing on all cylinders.

Providence's women made some history this week with Grace Efosa (71:15). She's the program's first league Player of the Week since February 2019, and the Friars have exceeded their conference win total from 2022-23.

History repeating itself against UMBC wasn't good for the Bryant women (78:40). The Bulldogs lost on a last-second putback and missed a chance to pull even at .500 in America East play.

Thanks as always for listening.