Offseason in Review
Recapping the craziest offseason in Providence College history
In case you’ve been under a rock the last 6 months, it’s been quite the offseason for the Providence College men’s basketball program. There’s been coaching changes, court dates, commitments turned decommits in the blink of an eye and pretty much everything else you can think of. As we hit the 40 day mark until the season opener, let’s recap the craziest offseason in Friartown history.
March
March 17th: The offseason officially started with a 61-53 loss to Kentucky in the first round of the 2023 NCAA tournament. It was a script the friar faithful had seen many times. Anemic offense costing the team a very winnable game in a vital game for the national recognition of the Program. At this point rumors of Cooley’s departure were getting noticeably louder. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
March 19th: If their were whispers of Cooley’s departure prior to this date, they turned into screams after Cooley sat down for one of the strangest interviews I have ever seen with local reporter Morey Hershgordon. I like Morey. I knew his now wife growing up and am still friendly with her. He is a professional. He asked the obvious questions and for 10 minutes Cooley danced around the answers and talked about ‘emotional well-being’ and ‘finding peace’. Dude. You’re a basketball coach. Relax. This led many to speculate about how Cooley’s personal life may affect his decision on whether or not to accept the Georgetown job. I’ll leave that be for now but if you want my unfiltered thoughts buy me a beer at the Wisconsin game and we’ll get into it……
March 20th: Less than 24 hours after that bizarre interview, Cooley officially left Providence for Georgetown. This story has been spoken about ad nauseam so I’ll keep my thoughts short; Cooley was a world class ambassador for the school and an above average coach. In the biggest games he was not good enough. He has a massive rebuild on his hands at Georgetown and from what I hear, the early returns are that he is surprised at just how much work it’s going to take to get that program back to a respectable level. The fact that he listed his house for sale 3 weeks before the 2022-23 season ended is unforgivable. Providence will be just fine.
March 21st: The post-Cooley era got off to a hot start with AD Steve Napolillo holding court for the local media and absolutely tearing into Georgetown AD Lee Reed. I like Nap, he’s a Friar through and through and he’s a fighter. He also had the money quote of the offseason in my opinion in this interview when he said “This decision [to hire a new coach] will define my career… If i mike the right hire I’ll be a rockstar. If I don’t everyone will want me fired.”
Listen, you gotta hand it to the guy, he ain’t a bullshiter.
Late March: Two names quickly emerged as the lead contenders for the Providence job, Kim English and Rick Pitino. Obviously, English ended up getting the job but believe me when I tell you, the possibility of bringing in Rick Pitino was seriously discussed and considered at the highest levels of Providence College. Time will tell how that decision will age but we’ll get to see Pitino up close twice a season as he patrols the sidelines for Father Shanley at St. John’s.
March 23rd: The Pitino vs. English chatter didn’t last long, a mere 72 hours after Cooley departed, Kim English was announced as the next head coach of the Program. English, 34, is a rising star in the game and an elite recruiter, he also inherited the most talented Providence roster in nearly a decade. How he fares in terms of in-game X’s and O’s will be a long way in determining the success of the 2023-24.
March 29th: Kim English and new Providence women’s basketball head coach Erin Batth were introduced in front of a full gym full of boosters, fans, state and local politicians, and the most rabid fan base in the country.
More important than a press conference full of hoorays and applause lines, was the fact that March 29th was also the day the first two players in the Program announced that they would not be entering the transfer portal despite the coaching change. These players were Corey Floyd Jr. and Alyn Breed (more on him later).
March 31: Both Bryce Hopkins and Devin Carter announced their intentions to return to Providence. Most important development of the offseason, not a whole lot more to say besides that. Bryce is the most talented Providence Friar since Kris Dunn, and Carter is a potential all conference player. Kim English was off to a hot start.
April
April 2nd: Unfortunately, not everybody planned to stay. Sophomore guard Jayden Pierre entered his name in the transfer portal upon English being announced as head coach, to the dismay of many in Friartown. Pierre showed flashes of brilliance last season, and it appeared he’d be next in a long line of great Providence point guards.
However Pierre’s name wasn’t in the transfer portal long. A few days after throwing his name in the hat, video emerged on social media of English playing Pierre 1-on-1, the bet was that if Pierre lost, he had to take his name out of the portal. I don’t know the final score but I do know Pierre will be suiting up for the Friars this year, so you do the math. This was the point in the offseason that most of Friartown realized Kim English had the potential to be a superstar head coach. Unique. Outside the box. Genuine connection with players. Understands and embraces social media. All that. (I grant you whether he can actually coach at this level is still TBD).
April 3: The good times came to an abrupt end when Alyn Breed was suspended from the program after his arrest following his alleged involvement in an off campus domestic incident with a gun. This was a sobering come down for Friartown, no two ways about it.
Mid April: A trio of George Mason transfers, Josh Oduro, Ticket Gaines and Justyn Fernandez all announced that they would be following their former head coach up the east coast to Providence. Oduro figured to slide into the starting line, while Gaines and Fernandez profiled as nice rotational pieces.
April 14: With the exception of Bryce returning to Friartown, the most important development of the offseason occurred on April 14th. After courting Garwey Dual for 3 weeks post hire, Kim English finally got Garwey Dual to (re)commit to Providence.
With a little help in the form of a 6 figure NIL payday, Providence secured their highest ranked recruit since David Duke Jr. I’ve gushed about Dual’s potential all offseason, and think you’d have to be blind to not see the comparison in his game to Kris Dunn. All that for another time but the moral of the story is, recruits do not commit to a school where the coach that recruited them has just left for another job. Simply does not happen. Except this time, it did.
May
I have no idea what happened in May. Recruiting, talking shit to UConn and Georgetown fans on the internet. I don’t even remember. It’s late. Let’s move on.
June
June 7: Providence rounded out it’s 2023-24 roster with the committment of Will McNair Jr, a 6’11 5th year senior from Mississippi State. McNair profiled as a 12-15 minute per game backup big man, competing for playing time with sophomore Rafael Castro behind Josh Oduro.
June 13: During an offseason scrimmage, incoming sophomore Justyn Fernandez suffered a torn ACL. Fernandez profiled to be a 7th or 8th man on the roster, but the loss is still relatively significant. The good news is that there is proper depth in the backcourt (CFJ, Pierre, Dual, Carter). There has been some speculation that Fernandez could return for the second half of the season, but I’ll believe that when I see it. Medical redshirt makes a lot of sense here.
July
July 5: Against the backdrop of a pending court case, it was announced that Alyn Breed would be entering the transfer portal. Given the off the court situation, it felt like this was unfortunately inevitable. As of this writing, Breed still has not committed anywhere.
July 30th: The strangest story of the offseason closed out the month of July. Marcus Scott, a division 2 player from Central State university in Ohio had been linked to the Friars for a few weeks following Breed’s departure. In the span of 15 minutes (literally) he committed to the Program via Instagram…
…and then moments later deleted the post, and is know definitely not a part of the Friars plans for 2023-24 (or ever). I covered this story in detail when it happened and called it the most bizarre recruiting development I’d ever seen. I think that’s still the case. Bizarre. Anyway, onto August.
August
August 16: The Friars released their non-conference schedule, highlighted by a November home game against Wisconsin, and a pre-Thanksgiving trip to the Baha Mar Invitational alongside Kansas State, Miami and Georgia. The Friars do not have a difficult non conference schedule. Any more than 1 loss before Big East play kicks off would be a massive disappointment, more than 2… unacceptable.
Late August: Providence wrapped up their summer with a two-week team bonding trip to Spain. The trip across the pond was highlighted by 3 scrimmages against local all star teams and while the level of competition is questionable, a few on court themes did emerge from the trip. Namely, the performance of Jayden Pierre will go a long way in determining the ceiling for this team. Expectations are high, and with good reason. He showed out in Spain, let’s hope that momentum continues when the season officially kicks off.
September
September 5: Speaking of the Spain trip, it was noted that Rafael Castro and Will McNair were battling for the backup center position throughout the offseason and into the Spain trip. It appears that competition was won by Castro. Less than a week after the Friars returned back to the United States, Will McNair’s name shockingly ended up in the transfer portal. Less than 3 months with the Program and just like that, gone. Much has been made of McNair’s departure, but I don’t think it’s as big a loss as most. This was a 15 minute per game player at most. If McNair was making a stink about playing time you simply can’t sacrifice that culture that Kim English has been trying to establish for a marginal rotation player. If we were depending on Will McNair to win us games we were probably fucked anyway.
Do I love the front court depth? No!
Do I have concerns about Josh Oduro + Rafael Castro matching up against Donovan Clingan, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Joel Soriano and Oso Ighodaro? Yes! Realistically was Will McNair going to assuage those concerns? No!
Did that early season matchup against Kansas State just get a lot more interesting? Yes!
September 6: If the rest of Friartown was caught off guard by McNair’s entrance into the transfer portal, Kim English was not. Within 24 hours he had received a committment from Eli Delaurier, a 6’10 center from Virginia. Delaurier was originally a class of 2024 recruit but reclassified late to join the Program for this upcoming season. I don’t think any reasonable fan can expect Delaurier to have a massive impact this season, but his upside is obvious and he should be a foundational piece beginning next season.
September 13: About two weeks ago news broke that the DA in the Alyn Breed case was dropping all charges against him due to ‘insufficient evidence’. To say this is a messy one would be an understatement. Hoping Breed lands on his feet and can finish out his college career making an impact on and off the court.
Phew. I think I covered it all (probably not). Hell of an offseason in Friartown. New Coach, 4 new rotational pieces (1 starter). Same Bryce. Same crazed fanbase. Biggest season for the long term momentum of the Program since I started following the team a decade ago. 40 days out. Should be a fun one.