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The Providence Crier 2026 Portal Primer

It’s that time of year again, it’s Portal SZN! Like it or not the transfer portal has changed the game with 2,030 student athletes entering last season and if anything, that number probably goes higher this year.

This year the rules have changed quite a bit. Last season the spring transfer window ran from March 24th to May 1st. This year the portal will open the day after the National Championship game, April 7th, and run until April 21st. It’s important to note that this is the window players have to enter, not when they have to pick a school.

Bryan Hodgson Introduced as Friars Basketball Head Coach

It’s been a whirlwind of a few weeks for both Providence College athletic director Steve Napolillo and Bryan Hodgson. On Tuesday afternoon in front of a full crowd at Alumni Hall Steve introduced Coach Hodgson as the 17th head coach in program history. Bryan, his wife Jordan, and son Jett entered Alumni Hall and received a loud ovation.

Friars Coaching Candidate Profile: Eric Olen

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.

Friars Coaching Candidate Profile: Jay Larrañaga

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.

Jay Larrañaga should be a familiar name in Friartown. He is the son of Friar alumn Jim Larrañaga and those PC fans who also root for the Boston Celtics will also know he was an assistant with the NBA franchise from 2012-2021.

Friars Travel to DC for Season Finale

It’s amazing how a few days can drastically change a season for a college basketball team. The Friars entered Wednesday with a chance to win out and get a 5-seed and a first round bye in the Big East. Instead they got blown out at the hands of Marquette and then it gets reported that head coach Kim English will be fired at season’s end.

Now the Friars will finish a trying regular season against a Georgetown squad that has also had their share of failures. The Hoyas have lost KJ Lewis to injury, dropped seven straight games, and can do no better than 10th in the final league standings. If the reports are true that Kim English is fired, we can look back at the first meeting with the Hoyas earlier this year as the straw that broke the camel’s back. The Friars blew a 21-point lead and saw Ed Cooley get his first win at the AMP as an opposing coach. From there, it seemed the Kim English departure was a matter of when, not if.

For the Friar fanbase, this is an interesting watch. There isn’t anything to play for besides seeding, but Friar fans will inevitably tune in to see how English coaches this team with his fate already sealed. Will the team sleepwalk through this one like they did Marquette or will the firing galvanize the Friars to rally around their coach? That’s what we’re most looking forward to seeing.

We preview the game in more detail below.

They’re Letting the Friars Get Hot: Sellers Helps Lead Friars to 79-76 Victory over Creighton

It’s been a trying season for the Friars with so many close losses but they’re starting to turn a corner during the most important stretch of the season. PC went to Omaha and defeated the Creighton Blue Jays for the first time since January 20th, 2021. With the victory the Friars have won 3 in a row for the first time since defeating Brown back in December and it’s their first 3-game win streak in the Big East since February of 2024. The Friars are also now winners of five of seven and are in 7th in the Big East with a chance to climb as high as 4th. Jaylin Sellers once again led the way for the Friars with his second consecutive game of 27 points and scored a critical hoop late that put PC up 3 with 15 seconds left.

We break down the game in more detail below.

Sellers, Edwards Shine as Providence Defeats Xavier 94-84

They may have been missing five players but that didn’t stop the Friars from enacting some revenge on the Xavier Musketeers Wednesday night at the AMP.

After the game was pushed back an extra day due to the Blizzard of 2026, the Friars came out from the jump and blasted the Musketeers building a 23-point lead during the first half. The scrappy Xavier bunch under their first-year coach Richard Pitino punched back and only found themselves down 13 at half and cut it to as many 7 points, but the Friars offense led by transfers Jason Edwards and Jaylin Sellers were too much for them to handle. The Friars got contributions up and down the limited roster as Jamier Jones also poured in 19 points, Oswin had a double-double and even Nilivan Daniels hit a three in his first career start.

Their offensive attack beat Xavier off the bounce throughout leading them to shoot 54% from the floor and it opened up the long ball as PC went 9/18 on threes in this one. PC also brought the defensive intensity early albeit they let go of the rope in that department with Xavier going for 50 points in the second half. In the end, PC made enough stops to win.

We recap the game in more detail below.

Friars Battle Travel Delays and Late Game Demons to Defeat DePaul 71-68

The Friars faced adversity before even stepping onto the Wintrust Arena court on Saturday night. The Friars’ flight to Chicago Friday night had them stuck on the tarmac for 6 hours before being sent home for the night. An additional 4 hour delay Saturday morning followed. PC eventually did make it to Chicago and their flight home should be much more enjoyable than their travel there. PC rallied in the second half to build a lead and then survived late game errors they seem to consistently make all season before hanging on for a 71-68 victory. With the win the Friars improve to 12-15 and 5-11 in the Big East conference.

Friars Let Poor Seton Hall Offense Get Hot in Second Half, Fall 87-80

The Friars entered Wednesday night’s game against Seton Hall with a chance to have their first three-game winning streak since December 9th and their first streak of three wins in the Big East since February 21st, 2024. The Friars got off to a great start with sizzling three-point shooting and found themselves leading for the majority of the game’s first 28 minutes of play. That, however, would change as Seton Hall grabbed their first lead of the game with 12:15 left to play and didn’t look back as they defeated the Friars 87-80 in Newark.

For the Pirates it was the most points they’ve scored all season long. For the Friars it was the same story all season, allowing an opponent to score at will with no defensive resistance.

With the loss the Friars fall to 11-14 on the season and 4-10 in the Big East, tied with Marquette for last place in the conference. While the Friars offense put up 80 points in this one, they also did their defense no favors by committing 18 turnovers, which led to 17 easy points for the Pirates. It has been the same story all season.

It doesn’t matter how potent your offense is.

You aren’t going to win many games when you turn the ball over 19 times and can’t make any stops on defense.

Bad basketball. Losing basketball.
— BOC Friars (@BOCallday) February 12, 2026

Jaylin Sellers Wills Friars to 2OT Victory Over Butler

History was made at Amica Mutual Pavilion on Wednesday night, and no it wasn’t the Friars allowing an opposing player to get their career high. Well, Finley Bizjack did actually tie his career high but that’s beside the point…

It was the first time in the history of the Big East that two games between conference foes went to double overtime in one season. This time it was the Friars getting revenge for their 110-113 loss in 2OT at Hinkle Fieldhouse back on December 13th with a 97-87 2OT in at the AMP. It was truly a gritty performance for the Friars, who were missing five players going into the game, had Stefan Vaaks leave the game with injury, and had Oswin and Jamier Jones foul out. In a season full of close loses, including four in overtime, the Friars executed down the stretch and made the plays to win the game.

How about that Nilavan Daniels three ball?!

DEALIN’ DUCKS

What a hard fought and gritty win by the Friars!! Down five guys to injury going in, another gets hurt in the game, two more guys foul out and you got Nil playing crucial minutes. It doesn’t change the disappointment of the season but tonight you feel proud to be a Friar!
— TheProvidenceCrier (@ProvidenceCrier) February 5, 2026

The Bottom Has Fallen Out: A Connected Villanova Wildcats Best Friars 87-73

So the Crier is back on the mountain, this time in Vermont with pals from high school. BOC was so disgusted with the performance he called it quits early, turned the game off with about 8 minutes remaining, and asked for the Crier to create a skeleton version of a postgame recap.

The Friars made my job easy because they played like a bag of bones against Villanova on Friday night at the Finn. We all thought the “bottom drops out game” would come on the road against Connecticut. To the Friar’s credit they played well in Storrs but saved their stinker for Villanova.

PC got blitzed from the jump and showed all their weaknesses against Nova in the first half. A team that has shown all year they can’t defend the 3, have poor transition defense and too often individualized play was on full display Friday night.

PC getting its doors blown off against Nova

The most frustrating thing with this Friar team is they do the same terrible things OVER & OVER

-Lazy three point defense ✅
-Turnovers galore ✅
-Reliance on ineffective 3 point offense ✅

Is there any self scouting done at all?
— BOC Friars (@BOCallday) January 31, 2026

The Friars poor play found themselves in a 45-28 hole at halftime. PC did make a run cutting it to as low as 7 points, but as soon as they did the Wildcats exposed the Friars for all the issues they have and pushed it back to 18 points rather quickly.

Turning off the game

We make a mini-run and then do the following:

-1 on 3 fast break leading to an ill-advised shot
-Fall asleep on D leading to Nova 3
-Half court heave with 20 seconds remaining on the shot clock

PC’s not serious team or program right now. Better days ahead
— BOC Friars (@BOCallday) January 31, 2026

We’ve reached the point of the season where we are just hoping to see the Friars show signs of life for a potential Big East Tournament run. Instead, PC gave us plenty of reasons to believe that the 2025-2026 season is a lost cause.

OK BOC I gave you your skeleton, and I’ll leave it to you to discuss the reasons the Friars had an uninspiring effort against Villanova.

Alright, Crier. I’ll take it from here. Enjoy your weekend of debauchery and tomfoolery in the mountains while I change diapers for the next 48 hours. Remember to not eat the yellow snow…

Friars Compete but Fall at UConn 87-81

After blowing a 21-point second half home lead to Georgetown, it would be expected that the Friars would get blasted in a trip to Storrs, CT to take on the #2 UConn Huskies. We at The Providence Crier didn’t think the team would be able to pick themselves off the mat and both of us predicted a loss that flirted with the 15.5 point spread. Instead the Friars came out, competed, and made UConn earn a 6-point victory for their 16th consecutive win.

Providence was led by strong games from Oswin Erhunmwunse, Jamier Jones and Jaylin Sellers but down the stretch PC turned it over and couldn’t get key stops or rebounds for what might’ve been the most shocking upset of the college basketball season.

Kim English’s opening statement pic.twitter.com/eg6bUnfDLd
— Brendan McGair (@BWMcGair03) January 28, 2026