With the Friars in search of their 17th head coach in program history we at The Providence Crier will take a look at the candidates who have been linked to the job.
Eric Olen is a name that many Providence fans may not be familiar with. That’s because he has been coaching out west for the past 22-years. Olen, after completing a collegiate playing career for Spring Hill College (DII), became an assistant for UC San Diego in 2004. He served in that role until 2013 when he was promoted to head coach. At the time the Tritons were in D2 and Olen led the program to four tournaments in a seven season span that included 3 regular season conference championships, and four conference tournament championships. The Tritons reached the D2 Sweet 16 twice under Olen.
Then when UC San Diego made the jump to D1 Olen had to deal with adversity. A three year span saw the Tritons go a combined 30-46 and towards the bottom of the Big West each year. Then in his last two years in San Diego he responded, leading the program to 51-17 record. This included their 30-5 campaign in 2024-2025 that saw them win the Big West regular season, conference tournament, and then give Michigan all they could handle but ultimately fell in the 5/12 matchup 68-65.
When PC alumn Richard Pitino took the job at Xavier it was Eric Olen who backfilled his spot at the University of New Mexico. In his first season with the Lobos he took a young squad and had a successful year. UNM went 23-10 and were on the bubble until the end, not hearing their name called on Selection Sunday after 64-62 loss to San Diego St in the Mountain West semis.
In terms of the playbook Olen runs a concept based 5-out “flow” offense with sets reserved for ATOs and specific situations. The offense gives players freedom to make decisions within a structure. In an interview with the Albuquerque Journal Olen said “I believe very much that players win games, coaches lose them so, we want to put our players in situations where they have a lot of freedom, but we also want to create enough structure where they’re confident in what their jobs are. And that’s, that’s a delicate balance to strike at times.”
On the defensive side of the ball Olen runs a mix of matchup zone and a switching man-to-man defense. His teams are described as being disruptive on defense, forcing teams into turnovers and poor shots.
Olen definitely has a lot to offer as a coach. He’s someone who has stayed with a program in UC San Diego for 21 years, thirteen as a head coach. He was very successful at the D2 level and when they made the jump he led them through a few tough seasons before having them in the NCAA Tournament in DI. He has won at every level, then took a step up to the Mountain West and had a great first season with a young roster. He’s known as an excellent offensive mind yet his teams still get after it on defense. He would bring an exciting brand of basketball to PC.
The one draw back with Olen for the PC job would be that he’s a bit of an outsider. He’s been out west for his entire coaching career and doesn’t appear to have any ties to the area. However that may not necessarily be a bad thing. There’s no question that this guy can flat out coach and if he were to land at PC it could be an outside the box hire that could be a home run.