Ryan Sabol is a 6-3 guard and comes from a program familiar to Bryan Hodgson. Sabol has started 89 games over the past three seasons for the University of Buffalo, where Hodgson spent four years as an assistant under Nate Oats. Through his three seasons at Buffalo Sabol has only gotten better. The Gonzaga College High product earned third team all-MAC averaging 18.8 PPG.
Sabol was rumored to be on campus earlier this week for a visit to Friartown. We break down his game and fit with Providence.
College Stats Overview
Sabol is a lethal shooter from deep, connecting on 122 three pointers this past season. That is good for 7th nationally. For what is worth, Joseph Pinion with 16th nationally at 111, and Wes Enis was 23rd at 107. Per game he was 4th nationally at 3 pointers made at 3.81 per game. Pinion 14, Enis 21. He shot 39.9% from three on close to 10 attempts per game.
Playstyle Overview
His movement around the perimeter really stands out, and his ability to up-fake, dribble in, and connect on threes gets him plenty of clean looks. He does get some production in the paint where he can be a crafty finisher, but the bulk of his offense comes from his ability to take and make threes.
As a distributor Sabol is still growing in that area. He saw his assists improve from 2 APG to 3.2 this past season and based on his ability to improve season over season, I can see it improve; however, he is so deadly on the perimeter where that may be his main usage if he were to come to PC.
Fit With Hodgson
Certainly his floor spacing should fit in well in Coach Hodgson’s system. As mentioned earlier he just seems to know how to move along the perimeter. There should be an adjustment for Sabol if he were to get up to the Big East level. He isn’t the most athletic guard, albeit he’s a bit of an iron man, so the upgrade in physicality from the MAC to the Big East could hamper him. However he can really shoot the ball and that can make up for a lot of things. Coach Hodgson took Joseph Pinion, who put up similar stats to Sabol at Arkansas State and he had a very successful season at USF.
Hodgson had a team built around two elite shooters in Wes Enis and Joseph Pinion last year, on top of the stellar frontcourt work done by Izaiyah Nelson. If Sabol were to come to Providence, this would be the best shooter he landed this year from the transfer portal and the type of player I was presuming he would target.
Fit with 2026-2027 Providence Roster
I’m not sure if Sabol will be a starter at Providence given the additions of Byrd, Pate, Vanderpool and retainment of Mela, but he’s probably an offensive sparkplug off the bench that will get 4-6 looks from deep a game. Hodgson wants to launch the three ball, and this guy would be a perfect fit in the offense. Let him figure out the starting rotation in the summer. Get this guy on the roster and see what happens.
We will continue to monitor his recruitment to see if he ultimately ends up a Friar.