The wait is finally over! After a long offseason, the 2024-2025 Providence Friars start their season at home against Central Connecticut State. Below, we detail what we are looking to see in the season opener.
Health of Roster
The theme over the past few weeks has been the abundance of injuries to Providence. Kim English has stated multiple times that Providence is quite banged up. As we know, Bryce Hopkins is probably the furthest away from playing time, and I personally think it’d be prudent to not work him into the rotation until Atlantis at the end of November. With the way this schedule is built, Providence should have no issues winning its first five games even with an injury-riddled roster. There’s no need to rush Bryce back.
The first set of games are cupcakes, and this looks to be fortuitous scheduling given the overall health of the roster.
I’m particularly interested to see if the players with “minor” injuries who sat out against St. Joes and UMass did in fact sit for precautionary measures or if their injuries may actually limit them to start the season.
My expectation is that all of Pierre, Barron, Jabri Abdur Rahim, and Essandoko play against CCSU, but we’ll learn a lot about the overall health of this roster come Monday night.
This is an optimal opportunity for some of the lesser talked about role players to carve out a niche in the rotation early. I’m specifically thinking about DeLaurier, Bonke, and Mela. The door is never going to be more open for them than at this juncture of the season, and I’ll be curious to see who seizes the moment and warrants English playing them more moving forward.
Defensive Efforts
I believe that even with all of the “offensive” additions this offseason that the calling card for the Providence Friars will be stingy defense. Joseph and Pierre are going to be a feisty backcourt who are going to get their hands on a lot of basketballs, and the wing is full of athletic guards that can defend with physicality like CFJr. Layer in the trio of bigs that have plus size (Essandoko and Bonke) and elite shot blocking ability (Oswin), and I truly believe this team will be one of the best defenses in the Big East.
There will probably be rotational breakdowns early as everybody finds their footing, but those setbacks will be offset with the physical gifts the Friars possess.
I think the backyard brawl type of Providence teams that we have come to know and love historically returns.
Three Point Shooting
Everybody is aware of how much Providence struggled from deep. With the additions of Joseph, JAR, and Fernandez to the rotation, Providence seemingly has a plethora of sharpshooters. Evan Miya even called out Providence as one of the elite three point shooting teams heading into the season.
Color me skeptical as of this writing. I want to see the Friars knock down shots consistently in a live game where the results matter. If Providence can live up to the hype from deep, they become a very dangerous team nationally.
As a lead-in to my next point, Corey Floyd Jr. struggled immensely from deep last year, but knocked the three ball down incredibly well against UMass. If he can do that consistently…
Corey Floyd Jr. – Breakout?
There has been a steady drumbeat of positive news around Floyd Jr. this offseason. He followed that up with a really strong performance against UMass. Corey has been somewhat of the forgotten man with new faces entering into the rotation, but he could be, at worst, the ultimate glue guy on this roster and, at best, a player who becomes a surprise starter for Providence. With the aforementioned injuries, Floyd Jr. may be a starter in the opener. If he carries forward his strong offseason, he may not let anybody take that starting spot from him. Something to monitor…
Transfers & Their Roles
Providence did a hefty roster overhaul this offseason, adding Bensley Joseph, Wesley Cardet Jr., Jabri Abdur Rahim, and Christ Essandoko. You can put Anton Bonke into that mix as well.
What roles do each of these folks play Game 1?
Bensley Joseph is the de-facto starting guard alongside Pierre in my opinion and will be the primary ball handler. This allows Pierre to play some off the ball and be a combo scoring guard. This is a completely uneducated guess, but I do think he becomes the on-court leader of this Friar squad throughout the season. He has the college pedigree and experience, and he won’t take his final year in college lightly.
Cardet Jr. is likely the starting 3 man, and Providence fans are hoping he can be the player to manufacture offense on his own after the departure of Devin Carter. I think it’ll take some time for him to acclimate to playing high level basketball and no longer being “the guy”. The Cardet we see in November is probably going to be drastically different the Cardet we see in Big East play, in my opinion.
Christ Essandoko is likely the starting 5, but he has blue chip freshman Oswin Erhunmwunse and 7 footer Anton Bonke nipping at his heels. I’m really excited to see Essandoko’s offensive game in the half court. I’m nervous about his workload and how many minutes he can play night in, night out, but that’s why you add two other bigs to the roster. Providence has a luxury here.
The last guy is Jabri Abdur Rahim. I did a poll asking about likely starters in the season opener, and JAR was the runaway choice, which surprised me. I’m not knocking the player and his talent, but I just haven’t heard a lot about him in the preseason. I’m not at practices, unfortunately for me and fortunately for the team, so my intel could be way off here. Couple the lack of buzz with an apparent injury, and I’m weary about his early season impact. My expectations are much lower than most Friar fans it appears, and I would love to look foolish for this take.
Kim English End of Game
Ah, the dreaded metrics. Providence is always an eyesore when it comes to metrics because when they win, it is rarely by blowout. In many games last year, that was by design where English would pull his roster with a 20 point lead and few minutes remaining. Providence would end up winning by 8-15 points, but their “metrics” suffered because English made the right basketball move.
I’m curious to see if English tries to blow teams out regardless of their lead and time remaining in the game, unwritten rules of basketball be damned. The NCAA created this problem, and English needs to do what is best for his team to be “metric darlings”. I hate it, but you have to play the hand you are dealt.
Prediction
BOC: Offense looks ugly early as everybody sorts through how to play alongside each other in their first real game together. A small-ish half time lead balloons in the second half, and Providence wins 82 – 61. The story of the game is the team effort on defense and Bensley Joseph exploding onto the scene with 12 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals.