“The dream,” Jeff Van Gundy said, laughing, “is that you figure something out and nobody else figures it out until it’s too late. That almost never happens. But I saw it happen.” 

This was a few weeks ago, before St. John’s ill-fated trip to Providence, and Van Gundy was ruminating about the year he spent on Rick Pitino’s staff with the Providence Friars in 1986-87. In that year, the Providence coaches offices were home to a mad scientist named Rick Pitino — and his fascination with the newly adopted 3-point shot. 

Pitino hadn’t invented the rule, of course; it was an integral part of the old ABA. And in 1979, the NBA adopted the rule, too; on Oct. 12, 1979, an hour north of Providence’s Alumni Hall at old Boston Garden, Chris Ford made the first 3 in NBA history. Yet as that ’86-’87 season progressed, an interesting thing happened. The Providence coaches started to wonder if they’d been the only team that got the memo. 

The first game of that season, against American University, the Friars scored the season’s first points on a 3. Then they stole the inbounds, made another 3. Then they made another steal, this time on their end of the court, and this one led to a fast break. And in the previous 96 years of the sport’s existence, that would’ve meant a 3-on-2 or a 2-on-1 to the basket. Instead, two Providence players peeled off behind the 3-point line. Billy Donovan found one of them, Pop Lewis.