It’s hard being David in a sport dominated by Goliath.

For the second time in three years one of college basketball’s true giants, North Carolina, ended the season for Providence College — a school with a mere 4,000 undergrads, but a rich tradition and a passionately proud fan base.

Two years ago Bryce Cotton led a Friar resurgence, one that resulted in an opening round matchup with many of the same Tar Heels we saw tonight in Raleigh — Marcus Paige, Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks — and Providence had Roy Williams’ team on the ropes on that Friday night in San Antonio.

Williams’ team has never lost its first game of the NCAA Tournament, but he was powerless to stop Cotton, the sub-six foot scoring guard who hung 36 points, eight assists, five rebounds, and two steals on Carolina in 40 minutes of heart, soul, showmanship, and guts.

PC trailed by seven with 11 minutes to play on that night, surged ahead by six points with under five minutes remaining, and led by three with just over a minute to go before falling in the final seconds.

Cotton was the story of the first weekend nationally. He scored in every way imaginable and came up with a leaping, left-handed jumping steal that required every bit of his 40+ inch vertical.

In Rhode Island, it was heartbreak for Friartown, but ultimately a signifiant step forward. This was a program that had not been to the NCAA Tournament in over ten years, and in Ed Cooley’s third season at the helm they were battling basketball royalty on the game’s biggest stage.

The game had it all — small school against blue blood, clutch shots coming from both sides, and a dramatic finish.

What the game didn’t have was Kris Dunn.

And that’s where a lost opportunity meets irony.

Cotton was amazing throughout his senior season. He led Providence to a Big East crown, closed his career with one of the best games in PC history, and willed that team to late season victories, most memorably a double overtime thriller against Marquette in March.

Providence fans were so thrilled to return to the tournament that few played the “what if” game at season’s end. What if Providence could have paired Cotton with Dunn?

Dunn was a sophomore then, one who played in just a handful of games that season after re-injuring a shoulder that kept him out for nearly half of his freshman year.

Two years later it was Dunn’s turn to take a swing at Goliath — and Goliath was once again North Carolina.

He had it going early. As Dunn’s teammates struggled to find their footing in the opening minutes against a top seeded Tar Heel group playing 20 minutes from their campus, Dunn made four of his first five shots and had ten points eight minutes into the game.

Then foul trouble — his season-long bugaboo — struck once again. Dunn picked up his second foul eight minutes into the game and wouldn’t return until the second half.

His teammates held strong, most notably fellow point guard Kyron Cartwright, and they trailed by just four at the break.

The Friars exploded out of the locker room to take an early lead, but Dunn picked up two more fouls in the first ten minutes of the second half, and Ben Bentil fouled out 13 minutes in on a pair of questionable calls.

Without Bentil there would be no repeat of the second half surge the Friars threw at Carolina in 2014.

PC just didn’t have the firepower to come back, but Dunn provided one final reminder to Friar fans of just how fortunate they were to have had him for the past four years.

Dunn scored 19 points in the second half, and finished with 29 for the game — doing it all in just 26 minutes on the court.

We’ve seen a number of upsets throughout the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, but we are most likely headed back to another regional final that will include some combination of traditional college basketball powers. North Carolina and Kansas look primed for Final Four runs, Virginia had too much size inside for Butler earlier on Saturday, and even in “down” seasons Duke is in the Sweet 16 and Syracuse will be headed there with a win over Middle Tennessee State.

It’s good to be Goliath in an era of football money and ESPN kowtowing.

Kris Dunn could have sided with Goliath. He was the second highest rated point guard in the country in high school — one spot behind tonight’s opponent, Carolina’s Marcus Paige, and one ahead of Yogi Ferrell, who led Indiana past Kentucky earlier in the day.

After Providence defeated USC on Thursday night Cooley said that he wouldn’t be at the podium without Dunn and all he’s done for his program.

After Dunn’s final game two short days later, Cooley sat at that same podium with Dunn by his side and said “I can’t tell you how much I love this kid” before explaining how Dunn has been the foundational player for what he’s trying to build at Providence.

Maybe if Dunn went to a basketball giant he’d be playing next weekend. After all, outside of fellow All Big East performer Ben Bentil, PC’s other starters combined for just four points, but Dunn believed in Cooley and reiterated throughout the season how happy he was not only that he decided to return to college, but how much he loved his college — Providence College.

Dunn committed to Cooley before he ever coached a game at PC. He waited patiently through injuries, grabbed the baton from Cotton two years ago, and the results were back-to-back Big East Player of the Year awards, an All American senior season, two consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament, and the first NCAA win at PC since 1997.

He could have been just another giant, but decided instead to help Cooley rebuild a program that had fallen so far.

It would have been fitting for him to knock off Goliath in his own backyard, but Dunn’s college career was a success before the ball went up tonight.

He’s set to earn his degree in two months; then it’s off to the NBA where he will be PC’s first lottery pick in almost 20 years.

Locally, Dunn will be remembered as not only one of the greatest players in school history, but the one who took a chance on a coach and a program in a way that so few others would.

Providence is in a vastly better place than it was five years ago and Dunn has been at the heart of this Friar revival.

That will be his legacy at Providence College.

Twitter: @Kevin_Farrahar

Email: kevin.farrahar@friarbasketball.com