One must have the memory of a goldfish in the Big East. Days after a crippling overtime loss to Connecticut, Providence must put that in the rearview mirror and look to secure a road victory against the Xavier Musketeers. You can’t let losses linger in the Big East or you enter into a freefall quickly. Providence needs to make sure Connecticut doesn’t beat them twice today.
At 8-7, Providence has woefully underachieved relative to preseason expectations, but they have played noticeably better basketball in the last two games against the top two talented teams in the Big East in St. John’s and Connecticut. They will look to carry over an uptick in performance with a road game in Cincinnati as they play a struggling Xavier team.
Xavier is 9-7 and currently 1-4 in the Big East. As of this writing, Xavier is 106 in KenPom (Providence is 63) and 122 in the NET (Providence 88). If Providence is able to secure the victory on the road, this would classify as a Q2 victory and would ironically help bolster the resume of Providence.
I break down the keys to the game below and detail why I feel good about the Friars in this one.
It was a game that we all knew would be tough to get however for the first 37 minutes of gameplay it appeared to be one they would get. PC held a 11-point lead with three minutes to play against the 4th ranked Huskies Wednesday night but couldn’t close it out and fell in overtime. As I texted in our Big East Fantasy Hoops group message it was just a cavalcade of errors and whacky shit in the final 3 minutes of regulation. PC now is 0-3 in overtime games and either a play here or there would’ve been the difference in not only them winning but perhaps avoiding OT all together.
The Friars are looking to start 2026 with a bang. After taking down the St. John’s Red Storm at Madison Square Garden, Providence is looking to carry that momentum into a match-up with Danny Hurley and the #4 ranked Connecticut Huskies. Connecticut is looking like they are a title contender and are the clear favorites for the Big East crown.
If Providence wants to insert itself back into NCAA bubble talks, this is a game they have to have. Upset the Huskies, and you can now start talking about the Friars as a legitimate tourney team.
We preview the game and what the Friars need to do to start the calendar year 2-0.
It was quite the start to the new year for your Providence Friars. Heading on the road at 7-6 with a match-up against preseason Top 5 St. John’s, you’d forgive fans for not having much optimism heading into MSG. Kim English and the Friars had other plans, as they start 2026 at 1-0 with one of the best road wins in this early Big East conference play.
It was a completely balanced effort from the Friars, with five players scoring in double figures. Contrast that to St. John’s who only had one player in double figures in Zuby Ejifor.
Providence brought the intensity and edge that the game called for and required. Ejifor may be the best big man in the country and truly unstoppable, but PC made him earn everything. There was a dust-up in the first half between Ejifor and Powell, and I loved to see Providence not back down from the scuffle. It is those type of plays where a team comes together as one. I was proud to see the backbone and toughness of Jamier and Powell in that sequence.
In the first match-up since Bryce Hopkins unceremoniously departed Friartown for a bigger payday at St. John’s, it was the freshman Jamier Jones who got the better of Hopkins, with a highlight that will long be remembered in Friar lore. Jamier continues to put together an All-Big East freshman year campaign.
St. John’s was leading for most of the game, and, much like the Seton Hall game, I had my concerns that Providence could get over the hump as the lead hovered around 5-10 points for most of the second half. With approximately 6 or so minutes left, I turned to my father who attended the game with me and said, “If PC is going to steal this one, they need #7 to get red hot”. And sure enough, Stefan Vaaks did just that. It was the 4 point play, multiple 3’s in the second half, and breaking the ankles of Bryce Hopkins on a game winning dish to Oswin that sealed the deal for the Friars.
For the Friars, they needed this one and the home game against Connecticut on Wednesday to insert themselves back into NCAA bubble talk. Step 1 is complete with this road victory, and Providence has some momentum heading into the home tilt against Danny Hurley and the Boys.
We at the Providence Crier will revisit the keys to the game below, do a deep dive, and highlight some other aspects of the game that caught our eye.
Before getting into the weeds of the game, I do want to shout out the Friar fanbase who made the trip. This fanbase, through all the ups and downs, continues to consistently show up, and I hope everybody within the athletic department and within the basketball program appreciate that. The season hasn’t gone as planned, clearly, but the Friar faithful showed up in waves and made MSG feel like a home game for the Friars. This isn’t Providence bias, as Pitino made mention in the postgame how disappointed be was to hear all the Providence fans. PC fans should be rightfully patting themselves on the back today as they made an away game feel like the AMP.
Leadership is apparently hard to come by in college sports, and the head coaches and prominent AD’s of universities are looking for somebody to step up and provide some guardrails around college sports. Well, here I am!
As a fun thought exercise, I provided ideas to create some stability within college basketball and fix the sport that I so love. The college basketball I grew up with is dead and gone, but I’m not willing to just accept that. I’m a traditionalist at heart and know a lot of what I’m proposing below is fantasy, but I do think the intent is that each of these changes would be best for the long term future of the sport. These are rule changes that can be made that preserve some of the history of college basketball while ushering in the new era of player empowerment and modern college sports.
Without further ado, if I was named the fearless leader of college basketball, here are some rules I would implement Day 1:
Schools acquiring a transfer portal player have to pay a “finder’s fee” to the school the player is departing from: Not only would this lead to less player departures year over year, schools would stop poaching players in the middle of the season (it’s tampering, let’s call it what it is). This would also give some financial stability to these smaller schools who develop players only for them to depart for more “prestigious” schools once they find some modicum of success. I hate seeing these smaller schools do a terrific job of evaluating prep talent out of high school only for that player to leave after one outstanding year. These schools are essentially being punished for out-scouting and out-evaluating the bigger schools, and this rule change hopefully would alleviate some of the pain of losing those players. I’m not sure exactly what this fee would/should be, but it’d be a percentage of what the player is making that upcoming year from the new school. Schools pay buy-outs when hiring coaches. Why not the same for players?
There is a strict salary cap in college basketball – let’s call it $5 million – and every team has the ability to pay their roster up to that $5m pool: This will even the playing field and disallow a team like a Kentucky or St. John’s from spending 3-5x more than the rest of their counterparts. It would create more parity in college basketball. Additionally, it still allows the players to get paid, but not at an egregious amount like we are currently seeing. The pendulum has swung too far in the direction of player empowerment, and I’m hopeful this rule appeases both the administration in providing roster stability while also allowing players to still make money off their name, image, and likeness.
Players have to sit out a year if they transfer, unless they have graduated and received their degree. If they have their degree, they can then transfer without sitting a year, rewarding players who get their degrees. The only exception would be if a coach leaves for another program or is fired: The current ability to play for 4 schools in 4 years needs to end. How are these players staying eligible? What happened to the premise of a student-athlete? This will incentivize the athletes to work towards what the whole point of going to college is for: to get your degree. It also incentivizes players to get their degree so they have more college flexibility post degree. The coaches and schools would love this as they don’t have to re-recruit every player on their roster every offseason. Having to recruit all 13 scholarship players every offseason is forcing college coaching legends to retire or look towards the pros, as it’s just too exhausting re-recruiting every player every season. It’s not sustainable for the long term and creates burnout too quickly.
There is a Commissioner for college basketball: Similar to Roger Goodell in the NFL or Adam Silver in the NBA, this person oversees the entire sport. He has no conference affiliations and makes decisions based off what is in the best interest of the sport. The NCAA is a bureaucratic glut currently that doesn’t have the bandwidth to properly oversee college basketball.
No transferring within the same conference allowed: This rule would likely never get passed, but it would build camaraderie within the conference and with the coaches in each conference. Right now you can’t even trust your coaching colleagues in the same conference. It’s a sad state of affairs.
Implement the 5 for 5 Rule: The days of 25 year old college athletes would be gone. I don’t need to see anymore late 20 year olds playing their seventh year of college at their fourth school. Every player has 5 years of eligibility after high school with no exceptions. There will be no more medical redshirts to preserve a year if a player gets hurt or situations where a school withholds a player from playing a certain amount of games to preserve eligibility for said year. This leads to less ambiguity and subjective decision making on player eligibility that we’ve come to know all too well with the NCAA.
NCAA Selection Sunday has objective metrics so all teams know what they have to do to qualify for the NCAA Tournament: The NCAA Tournament Selection process is an absolute mess and open to subjectivity and backroom shady dealings. See North Carolina two years ago. The remedy is to provide a transparent methodology that all teams can leverage to put themselves in the best position to attain an NCAA tournament bid. An example would be something like a points system where the teams with the most NCAA “points” qualify over others. For example, 25% of the points are based on metrics (KenPom, Haslametrics, etc.), 25% are based on number of Q1-Q2 wins, 25% are based on number of Q3-Q4 losses, and 25% can be determined by a committee of humans not associated with any conferences. By doing this, you have a blended quantitative and qualitative approach to picking teams that clearly lay out why a team secured a bid in the NCAA tournament and why a team was left out. No more confusion.
Any player that enters the NBA draft is ineligible to return to college basketball: There is a risk to entering the NBA draft. If a player still has eligibility, there needs to be a well thought decision on deciding to enter the professionals or stay in college further. Players should lean towards staying in college unless they are a locked in first round pick, especially with NIL readily accepted. This rule would provide roster stability in college basketball, which I think everybody is a proponent of.
Any international players that play in professional leagues, semi-pro leagues, etc. are ineligible to play college basketball: This eliminates the 25 year old international player who has never played in the NBA and is now eligible to play college basketball. It’s absurd and needs to be remedied. International players have to choose at 18 just like the domestic high school kids on whether they want to play college basketball or not. There’s a window of opportunity that closes once a player reaches a certain age.
Players can enter the NBA right out of high school. If they don’t go this route, they must wait 3 years until being eligible again for the NBA: This is probably my archaic thinking, but it should mimic college football where you have to wait 3 years before declaring. This allows the student-athlete to attain their degree in 3 years, which is feasible when you consider taking classes over summer and winter break. This also eliminates drastic roster turnover as well, which I’m sure you can sense is a theme of my rule changes.
Let me know what you think. A lot of these rules would never be passed because I think there is a subset of leadership in college sports that want to “Professionalize” College Sports.
You can’t put toothpaste back in the tube, but I do think a lot of these changes would be best for the sport as a whole.
With the calendar turning to a new year, all Friar fans are optimistic that the two week break following their last game against Seton Hall, along with the team stepping away from campus to spend time with family during the holidays, is the reset the Friars so needed to salvage the 2025-2026 basketball season.
As much as Providence is struggling, St. John’s and the Red Storm have to be considered one of the more disappointing teams in all of college basketball as of this writing. Rick Pitino went “all-in” on building a team through the portal, and the results have been underwhelming. A consensus preseason Top 10 nationally ranked team, the Johnnies are 9-4 and unranked.
While I am by no means an apologist for St. John’s, you take a deeper dive into their schedule and realize this is still an NCAA caliber team with their losses at the hands of Alabama, Iowa State, Auburn, and Kentucky. They are battle tested, for better or worse.
It would appear the strategy of building through the portal is leading to players struggling early to figure out how to play together and what their roles are. Sound familiar?
If Providence has any hopes of turning this season around, they need to win on the road against Madison Square Garden with Danny Hurley and the Top 3 nationally ranked Connecticut Huskies looming next. From the St. John’s perspective, Pitino can spin like a seasoned politician that the early losses were all to high caliber NCAA teams, and their tough non-conference schedule will pay dividends in 2026. A loss at home to a limping Providence, however, has the potential to derail their season. This is all to say that both teams need this win badly.
Oh, and did I mention that former Providence Friar Bryce Hopkins will be facing his previous team for the first time since transferring? As you all remember, Hopkins left amicably with no ill will or bad blood between the player, his circle of confidants, and the Friar program.
This juicy plotline will lead to some heated discussions between Friar and St. John’s fans in Madison Square Garden on Saturday. I’m sure the St. John’s fanbase will take kindly to the friendly words of encouragement lobbed Bryce Hopkin’s way by the Friar faithful on Saturday.
I’ll have boots on the ground Saturday in the World’s Most Famous Arena (come say hello!) and cannot wait to see my Friars ring in the New Year with hopefully a new playstyle, new attitude, and new end result.
We preview the game below and what the Friars need to do to pull off a road victory.
The sense around the PC basketball program after a disappointing 7-4 non-conference slate would be for them to get at least one of their first two games of the Big East schedule to save their season. After a heartbreaking loss to Butler in double overtime, 113-110, the Friars still had an opportunity with the 10-1 Seton Hall Pirates coming to town to get one.
Instead, another frustrating close game loss that now has the Friars at 7-6 on the season and a 0-2 start to league play. PC opened the game making only two of their first twelve shots from the floor. They would settle in offensively but let the defense slip, and Hall entered halftime with a 7-point lead.
After a timeout early in the second half, Providence finally made their push, even taking a 46-45 lead. Seton Hall behind their stout defense punched back and got their lead to the halftime margin of 7 with 5 minutes to go. Providence then made one final push taking a 67-66 lead after two Jaylin Sellers free throws with 1:16 remaining. That would be the last point PC would score as Seton Hall closed the final 76 seconds on a 6-0 run.
While Oswin Erhunmwunse is only a sophomore, the hunt for his successor is already on. Theo Edema, a 6’11 big man in the 2027 class, may be the recruit who could potentially fill that role for the Friars. Edema is taking an official visit this upcoming weekend from December 19 – 21st, and Providence will get a feel for where they stand in this recruitment post visit.
Edema is a bona-fide blue chip recruit and would be another feather in the cap of Providence head coach Kim English, who has shown himself to be one of the best recruiters in Providence in quite some time. Edema is considered a consensus Top 50 recruit in the 2027 class. The 247Composite ranking has him 42 overall in the 2027 class, the #6 overall Center, and #1 player in Massachusetts.
If you recall, I was particularly bullish on Providence pushing for Ryan Moesch, a 2026 4 star point guard who ultimately signed with Siena over the Friars, and him being teammates with Edema was a big reason for that. I was thinking the long game here, but regardless, Edema has to see the fit, immediate playing time, and learning under a veteran in Oswin as huge selling points.
There are rumors of potential reclassification with Edema, and I think Providence would absolutely be open to taking Edema in the 2026 or 2027 class. You don’t pass up on talent like Edema, so if he is able to enroll early, you welcome that.
Providence after this year does have depth with Oswin and Peteris Pinnis in the frontcourt, but as we saw this past offseason with the departures of Bonke and Essandoko, a roster can rapidly turn over. I also would like another body at the 5 position, as going into the 2026 season with just Pinnis as your one alternate to Oswin is a potential recipe for disaster. He’s still such an unknown despite showing spurts of quality play in limited minutes this season. It is in the best interest of coaching staffs these days to recruit like there won’t be continuity, and you worry about playing time and rotations after signing these recruits.
Below we breakdown Edema’s game and how he would fit with the Providence Friars.
Providence absolutely needs this one to keep the season afloat. At 7-5 and 0-1 in conference, this is a Quad 2 game at home that should realistically remain a Quad 2 game the entirety of the season unless Seton Hall completely falls off. With a road game against St. John’s immediately after followed by a home game against the Huskies, Providence needs this win badly or the vultures will start circling. It’s a got to have game, and I hope English is reiterating that all week after the Butler loss.
In a game that Providence needed to have to turn the tide on the season, the Friars metaphorically and literally let the game slip out of their grasp on the road against Butler. Providence ultimately fell to Butler in double overtime 113-110 in a game where offense was easy to come by and defense was entirely optional. A missed open three by Stefan Vaaks would have tied the game with seconds remaining, but rimmed out. The Bulldogs go to 8-2 on the season and 1-0 in conference while Providence slips to 7-5 and 0-1 in Big East play.
Providence’s offense continues to be a borderline elite national unit (12th nationally at 91.7 points per game), with its star transfers Jason Edwards and Jaylin Sellers combining for 58 points, with double digit efforts by Vaaks, Floyd Jr., Jones, and Powell complementing them.
If you were to tell me that six Providence players scored in double figures, the dynamic duo above totaled 58 points, and Providence’s bench outscored Butler’s bench 53 – 22, I would have assumed a rather comfortable margin of victory for the Friars. Not so fast, my friend.
Unfortunately, it was the defensive efforts and rebounding woes that did the Friars in, just like it has all season. At some point, the shift has to come from the coaching staff and players that winning games by trying to outscore an opponent is not a viable long term plan. Defense needs to come first. Until that happens, we’ll be seeing more outcomes like this.
Butler had to have about 7 or 8 lay-ups off back-door cuts, and it is like the Friars have never defended that offensive set before. I understand trying to defend the 3, but you cannot be so aggressive as to leave the back-door wide open. The defender was too busy ball-watching instead of putting themselves between their man and the rim. Basketball 101.
Providence was only outrebounded by 5 boards, but this is a case where the stats don’t tell the true story. It was the 2nd half and overtime segments that really highlighted the weaknesses of the Friars that have plagued them all season long. Even when Providence was able to string together a defensive stop, which was a tall task in and of itself, Butler was able to secure an offensive rebound for a second chance opportunity. If a clean rebound by the Bulldogs didn’t transpire, a 50/50 loose ball would occur, and Butler seemingly ended up with the ball every time. You are watching the game ready to pull your hair out as every loose ball slipped through the hands of the Friars and ended up with the Bulldogs. Squeeze the basketball!
There was no play that more encapsulated this issue than the Edwards offense rebound in the second overtime where he somehow lost the ball trying to draw a foul. I admire the savvy attempt by the veteran to bait the ref into calling a foul (I don’t think it was a foul, for what it’s worth), but I cannot for the life of me understand how he lost the ball to Ajayi with Edwards initially having possession and two other Friars close by. How does Ajayi get that ball?! It defies logic.
If you rewatch the play, Ajayi pounces on the fumble by Edwards. Watch a bit closer. Hargrove and Vaaks are standing over Ajayi ball-watching while he lunges to the floor for the ball. They stand there like a deer in headlights as he gathers the ball and finds an open man. It ultimately found a Bulldog for an open 3 that ended up being the game winner. There weren’t enough plays in the 2nd half of this game where Providence was getting floor burns, diving on the court, and digging out the ball like Ajayi did on this one.
Providence is used to winning these close games under the prior regime, but it seems the tides have turned, and Providence has been on the losing end of these 1 possession games too frequently.
Devastating loss for Providence.
As well as they played on offense, they lost almost every single 50/50 ball, with Butler corralling seemingly every board. It almost defies logic.
Providence needs to regroup quickly with game against Seton Hall at home.
Providence has to bounce back quickly against a defensive juggernaut in the Seton Hall Pirates. The Friars need to protect home court if it looks to make a miraculous turn around in Big East play.
We revisit the keys to the game below and where the Friars go from here.
The coaching staff at Providence has forgotten more about basketball than I know, but I do think it is a fun exercise to dissect what improvements the 7-4 Friars can make as they head into the meat grinder of the Big East schedule. No team is without flaws, and clearly this season hasn’t gone as expected.
I put together something similar after the Colorado game (see tweet thread below). After 11 games, I have a few thoughts and recommendations that could help this team incrementally improve and make the push into the NCAA Tournament.
I’d also love to hear the thoughts of the readers on this topic too.
Monday Morning Thoughts: If I’m going to be critical of the Friar squad, I at least should offer some recommendations on what I would fix. That’s only fair.
This staff has forgotten more about basketball than I know, but here is what I would tweak
Providence at 7-4 is about to dive headfirst into the deep-end with the start of Big East conference play. Providence has left itself with little to no margin for error the rest of the season. If PC wants to make the NCAA tournament, they need to, at a minimum, win 13 games in conference to get on the likely right side of the bubble. As we saw with Seton Hall two years back, even 13 wins doesn’t lock you in, so you are likely looking at needing 14 conference wins to feel extremely confident at landing an NCAA tournament bid as an at-large even if there are a plethora of bid stealers. A tall task, no doubt, but this is the path the Friars have charted for themselves.
The resume of the Friars in the non-conference is pretty binary at this point. They are 0-4 in Quad 1 and 2 games, but 7-0 in Quad 3 and 4 games. They’ve beaten the teams they should beat, but have lost to the teams ahead of them in the NET. No bad losses, which is a silver lining, but no resume boosting wins either. Thus, the Friars need to be both consistent in conference play, especially at home, and get a few quality road wins.
You wouldn’t have thought it at the start of the season, but Butler and Seton Hall ironically provide Providence with two resume building opportunities. Both schools have drastically outperformed their preseason expectations, and that is great for those two programs, Providence, and the Big East as a whole.
Butler on the road is a potential Q1 win for Providence, while Seton Hall at home will be a Q2 opportunity. With St. John’s on the road to start 2026 (Q1 opportunity) with Connecticut at home shortly thereafter (Q1 opportunity), Providence really can change the ENTIRE trajectory of its season in a four game stretch. Providence couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to erase the memory of the non-conference and put itself in a prime position for an at-large bid. Get to 3-1 in those 4 games, and I’ll begin discussing playing in the Tourney.
Below, we’ll provide an overview of the Butler program, who to watch for, and what Providence needs to do to secure a road victory to kick off Big East play.
