2024-25 Season Preview: The Backcourt

Can Jayden Pierre, Bensley Joseph, Justyn Fernandez and Corey Floyd Jr provide the Friars with enough experience and leadership to bring Providence back to the NCAA Tournament?

The dog days of summer and coming to a close, and the college basketball season is just 70 days away. Soon enough we’ll be surrounded once again by the chaos of the Amica Mutual Pavilion, the place to be in the world of college basketball twice a week for 4 glorious months a year.

The college basketball offseason is long. But fear not friends, the end is almost here. To get you primed and ready for the upcoming season I’ll be kicking off a player preview series this week with the backcourt (Aka the guards). We’ll examine the wings and the big men in the near future, but I think the guards have a very unique role on this roster. This is by far the most experienced group under Kim English, with both Corey Floyd Jr and Jayden Pierre entering their second season under the Friars head coach, and Justyn Fernandez entering his third. They know exactly what this coaching staff is looking for on both ends of the court, and all 3 will play a vital role in getting the newcomers to the program up to speed. Bensley Joseph, the 4th guard of this group, may not have ever played for Kim English but has logged 105 games (29 starts) to this point in his collegiate career, including two separate runs to the Elite 8 (21-22) and Final 4 (‘22-23) with Miami in his first two seasons in Coral Gables. Experience. Leadership. Even-Keeled. Unflappable.

This quadrumvirate of guards may not have an outsized impact on the ceiling of this roster (I think that’s the big men, we’ll get to that next week) but there is no doubt that this group will significantly raise the floor of this Program from some of the performances we saw last season. Let’s break it down player by player.

Jayden Pierre:

2022-23 Season Stats: 32 games (31 starts), 30.4 minutes, 9.5 points (40.2% FG, 36.6% 3PT, 77.8% FT), 3.2 assists, 2.5 rebounds, 0.8 steals, 2.2 turnovers per game

Pierre comes into his third season with the Friars with heightened expectations. His freshman year we saw promising flashes in limited minutes (not his fault). His sophomore campaign he adjusted fairly well to life under a new head coach, and by the second half of the season had overcome many of the growing pains of learning an entirely new system. Still, there were ups and down. For every game-changing 3 that brought his team back from the brink, there was seemingly an ill timed turnover or questionable decision made in crunch time.

The highs were through the ceiling last season, which made some of the lows all the more infuriating. Pierre’s talent is evident to anyone with eyes, but the bottom line is that nearly 2.5 turnovers per game while averaging just over 3 assists per game is simply not good enough for a Big East starting point guard. However, I am of the belief that the addition is Bensley Joseph will alleviate much of the ball handling pressure that Pierre faced, and allow him to focus more on the plus areas of his game.

Jayden Pierre’s season will be a success if ______ : He cuts down on the turnovers and improves his finishing ability at the rim. At 6’2 Pierre isn’t the biggest guard to ever take the floor for the Friars, so his ability to convert around the rim isn’t as simple as just dunking over people. 54.3% on layups last season is pretty grim, and if Pierre can get that up to just the D1 average (~62%) he could be in store for a special season. For what it’s worth Joseph is about the same size as Pierre, and I think he’ll have a plethora to teach the junior guard in terms of finishing moves, finding teammates, and effectively breaking opponents’ press looks. The other thing I want to see out of Pierre is more aggression. There were too many wide open looks last season that Pierre passed up, forgoing good opportunities in search of great ones.

This technically goes down as a turnover from Carter, but Pierre has a wide open step in 3 that he passes up. This season he has to pull the trigger on that look, he’s one of the better shooters on this roster and I’d be shocked if the coaching staff wasn’t letting him know every single day this offseason that his time is now.

Justyn Fernandez:

2022-23 Season Stats: N/A, missed previous season due to knee injury

Fernandez suffered a knee injury last offseason (nearly 15 months to the day) and didn’t see any floor action in the 2022-23 season. Given that reality all we have to go by is his freshman season at George Mason where he averaged 4.1 points (37% FG, 33.8% 3PT, 56.3% FT) and 1.9 rebounds in just a shade over 14 minutes per game. Modest production for sure, but that was nearly two years ago, and Fernandez’s body and game have certainly transformed since that time. His highlight videos (I know, I know, they’re highlights but bear with me) show a player with freakish athleticism who can guard multiple positions, and with the length to effectively attack the rim on offense and defend the perimeter on defense.

If you look close enough there’s a little Justin Minaya in Justyn Fernandez’s game, which is about the highest praise I can give to a player who hasn’t played in a meaningful college basketball game since March 9th, 2023. Crucially, this will be the former top 100 recruit’s 3rd season in Kim English’s system, making him the most experienced player under the current regime. Think about your own job, and how much better you were in year 3 than when you first started. It’s not all that different here. Fernandez knows exactly what this coaching staff wants to run on offense, how they want to defend specific looks on defense, and after spending a season as a de-facto assistant coach on the sidelines, may be looked to as even more of an on-court leader than was expected by most of the fanbase.

Justyn Fernandez’s season will be a success if ______ : He can replicate Ticket Gaines’ production from last season. Gaines averaged 8.5 points (39.5% FG, 30.4% 3PT, 73.5% FT), 4.2 rebounds and 1.1 assists in nearly 33 minutes per game last season. I would be absolutely shocked if Fernandez didn’t shoot the ball better than that, but we do have to remember that Gaines played above average defense on everyone from Jayden Epps (6’3) to Joel Soriano (6’10) last season. Fernandez is one of the swing guys for the Friars this year. Assuming good health, if he can step in to the void that Gaines left that will put Providence on pace to compete at the top of the Big East. If he can’t, the coaching staff may have to look to the next guy on this list.

Corey Floyd Jr: