With the departure of Kim English and hiring of South Florida head coach Bryan Hodgson, Providence is expected to be heavily involved in the transfer portal. At The Providence Crier, we’re going to tackle more detailed articles on portal candidates who are seriously considering a transfer to Providence.
Even if Kim English were retained, Providence would have had to retool the roster in the portal as Sellers, Edwards, Powell, Hargrove, and Floyd Jr. are all out of eligibility. There was always going to be a wholesale roster change via the portal this offseason, as that is the unfortunate nature of modern college basketball.
Wes Enis has entered the transfer portal with a “Do Not Contact” tag which means he has likely already made his decision on his next college choice. While nothing is a certainty, I’ve been following college basketball long enough to make an educated guess that Enis is probably following Hodgson from South Florida to Providence.
We break down Enis, his game, and fit with Providence below.
Player Overview
Wes Enis is a scorer, plain and simple. Enis played his first two years of college basketball at Lincoln Memorial, the D-II school made famous by Josh Schertz coaching and having success there. Those two did not overlap there, but the success Enis had at Lincoln led to him transferring up to South Florida for his junior year. At Lincoln Memorial, Enis was a D-II All American. While that may seem like small potatoes, the success of Bennett Stirtz at Iowa after a flourishing career at the D-II level shows talent can translate at all levels.
At South Florida, he was an immediate success for the Bulls, averaging 16 points on 35% from 3. He was inefficient from the floor, only going 39% from the field, so I’d anticipate Enis to manufacture most of his production from the three point line at his next stop.
That is not to say he cannot score off the dribble, however. He is not an above the rim athletic player, but is crafty around the rim and finds creative ways to finish at 6’2. The southpaw and his playstyle offensively reminds me a bit of Marcus Paige at UNC from years ago in how they are both undersized and not overly athletic, but use crafty angles to finish at the rim while also bombing from deep.
We have to be honest in our evaluation, however. If we are going to critique Stefan Vaaks at times for his green light last year and chucking from deep, we also have to say that there are similar concerns for Enis. You can’t critique one without identifying similar patterns with the other.
He’s a volume scorer from deep. The hope is that Enis and his 35% from deep carry over to the Big East if he chooses to follow Hodgson to Providence. If you compare the offensive stats between Vaaks and Enis (points, rebounds, assists, field goal percentage, three point field goal percentage), they are remarkably similar, borderline identical.
Points Per Game: Enis 16.4, Vaaks 15.8
Field Goal Percentage: Enis 39.1%, Vaaks 40.3%
Three Point Field Goal Percentage: Enis 35.2%, Vaaks 35.0%
Field Goal Attempts Per Game: Enis 13.9, Vaaks 12.3
Three Point Field Goal Attempts: Enis 9.5, Vaaks 8.4
You want Enis to avoid the blow-up games that he had last year, but I do unfortunately think that is a necessary evil in the Hodgson offense where his shooters have a perpetual green light. There will be nights where he is ice cold, and Friar fans need to accept that.
Against Louisville in the first round of the NCAA tournament, he went 2-15 from the floor and 0-11 from deep. In the American conference championship, he was 7-21 from the floor and 3-11 from deep. The hope is that if Enis joins Providence, he doesn’t have to shoulder the scoring load as much and will be able to be a more efficient player in his senior year.
Hodgson preached defense at the opening presser, and Enis has shown a propensity to guard. In 8 games last year, Enis had 2 or more steals, with 3 games totaling 3 or more steals. He won’t be an offense only player, which is music to the Friar faithful’s ears. I wouldn’t expect him to be a defensive stopper, but he’s also not a traffic cone, which is an improvement over last year.
Fit With Providence Roster
Providence needs to find offensive replacements for 2026-2027, specifically in the backcourt. Jaylin Sellers led the Big East in scoring and is out of eligibility. Jason Edwards, when healthy, was a Top 10 scorer in the Big East. Stefan Vaaks rounds out the top 3 scorers in Providence, so the Friars will have to replace almost 51 points per game in the backcourt. Enis is hopefully one of those scoring guards to fill the void.
If the Friars are to land Enis, they still need to find a pure point guard to run the show. Hodgson cannot do what English did in his Providence tenure and try to force a combo guard or shooting guard to run point. Hodgson needs to pair an Enis with a true lead guard who can facilitate the offense and put Enis in a position to score and be at his best.
Summary
I think there will be some who are concerned with the jump for Enis from the American to Big East. It’s a leap in athlete and quality of play, no question. I am not as concerned for two reasons: he would be playing under the same coach in Hodgson so there is familiarity in the offensive system, and he made arguably a bigger leap in overall play from D-II to the American and still flourished.
I’d be pleasantly surprised if he averaged 16 points a game in Big East play, but I think you can probably pencil him in to average 12-13 points per game at the starting two guard, and I’d say that would be a success.
If Enis becomes a Friar, Hodgson has his 2 guard for 2026-2027 who can help teach his offensive philosophy, instill his winning culture, and fill the holes left in the backcourt from last year.
We’ll be monitoring this one closely. Go Friars.