It’s MTE season, and the Providence Friars are heading west this year for the Rady Children’s Invitational in sunny San Diego, CA. It’s a four team field with Wisconsin, TCU, and Florida as the competition. As discussed on the most recent episode of the Providence Crier Podcast, it will be pivotal for the Friars to get at least one game in their two days in “America’s Finest City”.
Obviously the Friars won’t face all of these three teams this week but it’s best to be prepared so we take a look at each one.
Wisconsin Badgers (4-1)
KenPom Metrics: 23rd ORtg 14th DRtg 58th
Player Watch: Nick Boyd, G, 19.2 ppg 2.4 apg
The Wisconsin Badgers enter their 10th season with head coach Greg Gard at the helm, after taking over for legend Bo Ryan back in the 2015-2016 season. Throughout his tenure the Badgers have been a similar outfit, methodical slow offense with a suffocating disciplined defense. However, Gard changed his stripes a tad over the past few season opting for a faster offense and while they aren’t as suffocating of a defensive unit as in years past, they are still disciplined on the defensive end. With that change in play style Gard has had a high volume scoring guard lead his offense. The new wave started with Johnny Davis in 21-22 (remember he didn’t play vs PC?), Chucky Hepburn in 22-23, followed by former SJ Red Storm guard AJ Storr in 23-24 followed by John Tonje last season. This season enter Nick Boyd. The 5th year senior guard, who started all but one game for the Cinderella 22-23 FAU Owls, has blossomed into a big time scorer for the Badgers after spending last season at San Diego St.
Outside of Boyd the Badgers have a capable guard next to him in John Blackwell (18.4 ppg). They will also throw out several big men led by center Nolan Winter. The have size but don’t always utilize it. The Friars have beaten this iteration of the Badgers in 2021 and 2023 by out toughing them. In Wisconsin’s last game against BYU the Cougars out toughed them in every facet leading to a 98-70 victory. PC will need to try and replicate that if they want to open the MTE with a win.
TCU Horned Frogs (3-2)
KenPom Metrics: 83rd ORtg 114th DRtg 45th
Player Watch: David Punch, F, 10.6 ppg
In a similar vein to Greg Gard, Jamie Dixon brings a similar Horned Frog team each season he has been at the helm of his alma mater. TCU has been a scrappy bunch with capable guards and always seems to have a mismatch hybrid forward in the rotation, this season is no different. They have however lost their opener to New Orleans and took a tight loss to top-10 ranked Michigan prior to blowing out Kansas City as a final tune up for the MTE.
The obvious angle to look at here would be the Jayden Pierre. The former Friar guard transferred into TCU this past offseason and is leading the Horned Frogs in scoring at 12.2 ppg, and I’m sure if given a chance he’d like to stick it to his former team. However I’m looking at TCU’s hybrid forwards because they got two of them in sophomores Micah Robinson and David Punch. Punch is the one who truly stands out to me. He does everything for TCU leading them in rebounds, assists, blocks and is second on the team in assists. Expect to see a heavy dose of Corey Floyd Jr and Duncan Powell (if available) on Punch if these squads two square off. If they do end up playing it will likely be because the Friars lost to Wisconsin but it wouldn’t totally stun me if the Horned Frogs picked off Florida.
#10 Florida Gators (4-1)
KenPom Metrics: 6th ORtg 20th DRtg 5th
Player Watch: Thomas Haugh, F, 17.8 ppg
The defending champ Florida Gators headline the 2025 Rady Children’s invitational. The Gators opened their title defense season with a loss to Arizona in Vegas, nothing to be too concerned about considering the Cats are looking like the best team in the nation early on in the season. However, the two results against their two instate rivals FSU and Miami caught our eye. It took a second half comeback to squeak by FSU by 2 points and they only beat Miami by 12 points. Both of those teams are under first year head coaches and one would assume it’s a rebuild season for each of them. This Gator team appears gettable.
While that could be the case early this season they present a pretty horrible matchup for the Friars. The Gators have four bigs they deploy that each provide their own unique set of skills. Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon provide big time scoring punch. Rueben Chinyelu and Micah Handlogten provide rebounding and defense. They basically returned everyone in the front court of a national champion, but the backcourt is a different story. After losing their super hero Walter Clayton Jr and Alijah Martin to the NBA and reserve guard Denzel Aberdeen to SEC foe Kentucky, Todd Golden went to the portal. He brought in prized portal additions in Arkansas’ Boogie Fland and Princeton’s Xaivian Lee but so far they’ve been shaky. Fland is shooting only 38% from the floor and Lee an abysmal 22%. Perhaps that’s where the Friars could trip the Gators up but their bigs pose major problems for PC’s thin frontcourt.
This year’s Rady Children’s Invitational should provide the Friars with good tests and opportunities to boost their resume. PC hasn’t won a MTE since the 2017 2K Classic where they beat St. Louis in the final at MSG. Ever since then MTEs probably have done more harm than good to PC’s resumes. Hopefully they can change that during their trip to San Diego.