PC head coach Tim Welsh, with assistant Vince Cautero, right, at yesterday’s game.

The Journal / John Freidah

The first time Vince Cautero laid eyes on Tim Welsh, he knew something was a bit different about him.

Maybe it was his clothes, all well-pressed and brand-named. Maybe it was his pedigree, as the son of an elite coach. Maybe it was his cocksure attitude, a requisite trait for any basketball coach.

When Florida State was making a switch from Joe Williams to new coach Pat Kennedy in 1986, Cautero was a student manager for the team with a thirst for coaching. Rolling into Tallahassee as part of Kennedy’s New York posse from Iona College was Welsh, a young coach with stars in his eyes.

“We both learned so much from Pat Kennedy,” said Cautero. “I remember Pat said to me, ‘Vinny, I’m going to tell you that, five years from now, I’ll have you smoking cigars and these people won’t remember Bobby Bowden. Neither one of those things ever happened, but Pat was great to us.”

What did take place is that Cautero and Welsh became lifelong friends in the two years they were together at FSU. Cautero says he latched on to a coach who clearly knew the game. “Tim would always be drawing up plays at his desk, and I know Pat respected his opinion, and probably more than the other veteran coaches on that staff,” he said.

In between learning the game from Kennedy and enjoying their time in Seminole country, the two coached big-time talents like George McCloud and Tony Dawson and played tough Metro Conference foes like Louisville, Memphis State and Virginia Tech. They also dreamt big dreams.

“Tim and I always talked about working together and running our own program,” said Cautero. “A few years later we were at the Brick Alley Pub in Newport and laughing. We were in the Big East.”

That was 10 years ago. When Welsh left to join Jim Boeheim at Syracuse in 1988, Cautero took his job at FSU. The coaching trail then took Welsh back to Iona and led Cautero to Florida International. But when Providence hired Welsh in 1998, he called Cautero. He and Steve DeMeo, now PC’s associate head coach, have worked at Alumni Hall for every one of Welsh’s seasons.

“Other than my immediate family, I’ve known Tim Welsh longer than anyone in my life,” said Cautero. “That all goes back to Pat Kennedy and Florida State.”

Cautero and DeMeo have helped Welsh every step of the way. Most of the time Cautero was an operations coach, worrying about players’ academics, scheduling, team travel, scouting and the other hundred duties associated with running a program. Two years ago, he joined DeMeo as a full-time coach and added recruiting to his list of duties. The two long-time assistants have Welsh’s back, during the good and the bad times. Cautero knows that his future in coaching is tied to Welsh’s. This is a critical year for the entire staff, not just the head coach, and when times get tough, the two men who are now well into their 40s think back to some of the lessons learned more than 20 years ago.

“There is more Jim Boeheim in Tim than Pat Kennedy, but when Tim was at FSU, Pat clearly relied on him for basketball issues. He was always an X-and-O guy, even then,” said Cautero. “Tim gets his zone defensive principles from Syracuse and Boeheim, but from an offensive standpoint there is some of Pat Kennedy in Tim and in what we do now.”

Yesterday Cautero welcomed the scouting responsibilities in PC’s game against his alma mater but conceded that “it’s weird to see the scouting report with a Seminole logo and the PC Friar logo on the same page. I’m even more fired up for this game because of that.” As the game took all sorts of twists and turns, with PC looking strong one moment and FSU threatening the next, Cautero was grinding on every play. Welsh sat in the very next chair, peppering his friend for answers.

In the end, the Friars secured a very big win, one they absolutely had to get. Just like the two young coaches always dreamed way back in Tallahassee.

kmcnamar@projo.com