Ryan Mela was one of the few bright spots in a lackluster season last year. A relatively unknown recruit from New England, Kim English spotted something in him that other high major coaches overlooked and offered him a chance to play at the Big East level. All Mela did was produce as a true freshman, earning All Big East Freshman honors.
Now comes his sophomore season, and Mela won’t catch anybody by surprise. In some ways, this will be a more challenging year for him than his freshman year. In his true freshman year, nobody had any expectations for Mela to be a rotational figure, let alone a consistent starter.
Now, Mela has expectations to build off that stellar freshman year. The ironic thing is that he has arguably a harder path to playing time this year than last year despite the successes he had last year. With the portal additions of Jaylin Sellers, Jason Edwards, and (to a lesser extent) Duncan Powell, the wing minutes will be tough to come by. Couple that with returnees Corey Floyd Jr. and Rich Barron alongside blue chip freshmen Jamier Jones and Jaylen Harrell and you see that there may be a time crunch for all of these players, particularly Mela.
Below, we’ll recap his freshman year and what Mela needs to do to make a sophomore leap and build upon a successful freshman season.
2024-2025 Recap
Mela played in 29 games, averaging 20 minutes a game. If you were to ask Friar fans heading into last year the minute projections for Mela, the vast majority would have said 5 minutes or less or a redshirt. Nobody truthfully saw an All-Freshman season coming preseason besides maybe Ryan Mela himself. Kudos to Mela for coming into college game ready.
In those 29 games, he showcased his basketball versatility, averaging 6.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.9 assists.
Mela was 45.8% from the floor, the highest field goal percentage for a non-frontcourt player. To further illustrate his effectiveness, the only rotational pieces above him who averaged a higher field goal percentage were Bonke, Oswin, and Essandoko.
Herein lies the conundrum with Mr. Mela.
Despite seemingly being ultra efficient from the floor, his three point field goal percentage was not great, going 30% from 3. That ranked him 10th on the team, and it’s not like the 2024-2025 Friars were world beaters on the offensive end last year. He was also 9th on the team in free throw percentage at 57.4%. Yuck.
If Mela wants to make the jump to being an All-Conference player (and he’s not far off), all he needs to do is improve his shooting. I’m praying that the offseason evaluation by English and staff singularly focused on improving his shot from the perimeter. If he becomes even a remote threat from three and fixes his free throw shooting, he’ll be an All-Conference player before his Friar career concludes. It’s rare to be able to so easily point to one thing that a player needs to work on, but with Mela it is simple. Improve your shot.
If the same issues plague him, he’ll get buried in the rotation and struggle to find time. It really is as binary as that for Mela.
Keys to a successful season
- More of the same from last year – Avoid a sophomore slump as well as not taking a step back even with the portal talent that came through the doors. Mela was one of the brightest spots on the roster in an abysmal year. I hope he carries over a lot of what he did last year. There was one massive gap to his game (perimeter shooting), but besides that, he vastly exceeded expectations.
- Be that box score filler again – Similar to bullet point number 1, get the rebounds, facilitate offense as a point forward, move without the basketball, etc. He could legitimately threaten to average close to a double double this year if he plays enough minutes.
- Improve the deep ball – This is the main area of improvement for him. If he can be a 33-35% three point shooter, it opens up the entire offensive game for him. If he averages somewhere around that percentage this year, opponents cannot sag off him like they did last year, and it will help him get a step on his defender to effectively finish around the rim. More important than improving the three point percentage is him not being hesitant to pull the trigger and shoot it. He needs to have the confidence to fire away. If a defender sees him even slightly hesitate, it makes him a much easier defensive assignment.
- Improve from the charity stripe – You just cannot be that bad again. I think it was a mental issue with Mela, and that’ll be remedied this year. He has a knack for drawing fouls so he needs to make the opponents pay with these easy points.
- Continue to be a calming presence on the court – It was both refreshing and frustrating to see true freshman Ryan Mela be one of the most composed Friars on the court last year. He has a steadiness to his game that benefits the rest of his team. He can be that lead guy with the second unit for Providence.
Estimated minutes per game – 15-20 minutes
Summary
With all of the new pieces added, it is human nature to overlook what you have returning. Ryan Mela is a foundational piece for this program both as a player and as a culture builder.
It seems Providence fans are overlooking Mela’s potential contributions again this year despite his stellar freshman campaign, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we look up in January, and Mela is the starting 3 for Providence. He does too many good things on the court to not be a key cog in the rotation, portal additions be damned. Whether he is starting or the lead man of the second unit for PC, Mela will continue to have his fingerprints all over the game.
If he has fixed his shot and is a threat from the perimeter, we’ll see an enhanced Sophomore Ryan Mela that could be a double digit scorer. I’m excited to see the progression of Mela in his second year as a Friar.
Providence Recruiting Articles
Crier Recruiting Corner – Introducing 2026 Shooting Guard Caleb Holt – https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/09/16/crier-recruiting-corner-introducing-5-star-2026-shooting-guard-caleb-holt/
2027 High School Recruiting Primer, Version 2 – https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/06/17/2027-high-school-recruiting-primer-version-1-0/
Crier Recruiting Corner – Introducing 2026 F Alex Egbuonu – https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/06/25/crier-recruiting-corner-26-f-alex-egbuonu/
Peteris Pinnis Commits to Providence: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/05/13/friars-add-latvian-big-pinnis-to-2024-2025/
Duncan Powell Flips to Providence: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/04/21/duncan-powell-flips-commitment-from-georgetown-to-providence/
Jaylin Sellers Commits to Providence: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/04/05/friars-end-historic-day-by-landing-ucf-guard-jaylin-sellers/
Jason Edwards Commits to Providence: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/04/04/friars-land-talented-vanderbilt-guard-jason-edwards/
Stefan Vaaks Commits to Providence: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/04/04/friars-recruiting-overseas-best-kept-international-secret-stefan-vaaks-joins-the-friars-for-2025-season/
Crier Recruiting Corner: Jason Edwards:https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/04/04/crier-recruiting-corner-introducing-vanderbilt-guard-jason-edwards/
Daquan Davis Commits to Providence:https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/04/02/second-time-is-the-charm-one-time-friar-commit-daquan-davis-transfers-to-providence/
Crier Recruiting Corner – Introducing Cole Hargrove: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/04/01/crier-recruiting-corner-introducing-drexel-forward-cole-hargrove/
Retention Attention: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/03/22/retention-attention-whos-in-whos-out-in-providence/
What Went Wrong 2024-2025 Season: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/03/12/what-went-wrong-this-season/
Crier Recruiting Corner: Abdou Toure: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/03/03/crier-recruiting-corner-introducing-2026-connecticut-wing-abdou-toure/