It’s not an exaggeration when Providence College basketball fans say the upcoming season may rise and fall on the foot of one player. Sharaud Curry is that important.

With Curry nursing a stress fracture of his right foot last season, the Friars were more than competitive most nights but lacked direction in the backcourt, among other things, and finished 15-16 and in 12th place in the Big East. After nearly getting Curry back for the season’s stretch run, the Atlanta native re-injured the foot in March and needed surgery. He wore a stabilizing boot for the last few months while still putting in strength and cardio work as often as possible.

New PC coach Keno Davis is taking a cautious approach with Curry. “We don’t start (practice) until October, so that’s when I’d want everyone healthy,” Davis said earlier this week.

In fact, Curry could be cleared to start playing basketball in about a month. He’d then be able to participate in both individual and team workouts with the new coaching staff in September. That’s all best-case scenario, of course.

“All indications are that everyone will be able to go by the time that we can do individual workouts,” said Davis. “On the first day of school we can have four players out there at once. On Sept. 15, the whole staff can be out there with the whole team. Those will be very important shortened practices for our team.”

With the loss of Dwain Williams, the Friars lack any veteran who has played much point guard besides Curry. There is hope that sophomore Marshon Brooks will step forward this year, and Davis says he’s keeping the door open for a late addition to the roster for the start of school next month. He’d prefer to add a point guard, but one player PC has checked out is scoring guard Gerardo Suero, a native of the Dominican Republic who played on Long Island last winter.

“The door’s open. We’re actively looking at several young men,” said Davis. “There are different options out there, but it has to be something that we know will work for us.”

New partnership

The Big East has always considered New York its spiritual home, and a new partnership announced Wednesday will strengthen those ties.

The conference announced a new contract with SNY, a dominant New York cable-sports network that will feature more than 800 hours of Big East programming, including more than 125 football and men’s and women’s basketball games.

SNY will be tabbed as “the official television home of the Big East Conference” in the New York region.

SNY will air a minimum of 16 football games per season, including the Saturday afternoon “Game of the Week.”

For basketball, SNY will air more than 100 men’s and women’s games and also produce pregame and postgame shows. The SNY package is in addition to the league’s existing TV deals with ESPN and CBS.

While the Big Ten has created its own cable TV network, the Big East has chosen to go the other way and sell as many of its games as possible to existing cable entities.

Big payday for Gators

Want further evidence that there are Haves and Have-nots in college sports? Last week the University of Florida announced a 10-year deal in which the athletic department will receive $10 million per year from SunSports, a statewide sports cable company.

That figure is for the local rights to Gator games and features all sorts of sports besides football and men’s hoops.

Florida also sees a huge chunk of cash from the Southeastern Conference for its national TV appearances.

Also, Louisville is set to begin construction on its new 22,500-seat downtown arena that will replace Freedom Hall.

The building, which carries a $250-million price tag, will have more than 70 suites, plus numerous bar and club areas that would have views of the court.

The Cardinals have negotiated to pay the arena authority just $1.5 million from its take on premium seating areas and rent of just $10,000 per game, which is roughly half of what PC pays at The Dunk.

kmcnamar@projo.com