Carlton Screen ’90 feels a major reason why Providence College’s men’s basketball team advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 1987 was because each Friar had a “PHD.”
“Coach (Rick) Pitino instilled in us a PHD attitude—poor, hungry, driven,” said Screen, who, with other members of the 1987 team, will attend a 20th anniversary gala on May 12 at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence. “We were hard-working, driven every day, and didn’t rest on our laurels. We felt we had as good a chance as anybody on any given night.
“Did we have McDonald’s All-Americans? No. But we knew with our 15 guys and the coaching staff we were ready to go to war every night.”
Screen was a freshman guard on the Final Four team and averaged 5.2 points while dishing out 59 assists and collecting 24 steals.
Nicknamed “Paco,” he was a tri-captain as a senior and averaged 15.2 points that year. Three of his four Friar teams played in the NCAA Tournament.
Since graduating from PC, Screen has served as an assistant basketball coach at Concordia College, Long Island University, and Florida Atlantic University.
Screen also was the director of the Flatbush Youth Association in Brooklyn, N.Y., and later coached basketball at Wadleigh High in Harlem.
Currently, he’s teaching physical education at W.E.B. Dubois High in Brooklyn and operating a personal basketball training program, “Drills for Skills,” that “covers the gamut from training NBA hopefuls to college players to high school players to youth players.”
“Coach Pitino has had a direct, positive impact on my career as a player and a coach,” said Screen, who scored 1,076 career points. “The things he taught me were life skills that I acquired through basketball, like hard work, persistence, and giving it all you have every day.”
All proceeds from the May 12 gala will benefit the Friar Athletic Fund. Sponsorship packages, tables of 10, or individual tickets for the event can be purchased by contacting Steve Napolillo ’98, associate director for the Friar Athletic Fund, at (401) 865-2677 or at snapolil@providence.edu. To order tickets online, click here.