Providence Friars

2023-24 Result: 21-14 (10-10 Big East), NIT Appearance

Key Additions

Wesley Cardet Jr. (Chicago State)

Jabri Abdur-Rahim (Georgia)

Bensley Joseph (Miami)

Christ Essandoko (St. Joseph’s)

Second year coach Kim English should be in for another solid season in Providence. While they saw their leading scorer in Devin Carter leave for the NBA, and Ticket Gaines and Josh Oduro depart the roster, English brought in some viable replacements to go along with returning players to compete in the Big East. Jayden Pierre should be heavily relied on with the departure of Carter, and he showed at the end of last season that he is capable of doing so, averaging over 17 per game over their last three games. The return of Bryce Hopkins from his torn ACL will prove to be the biggest addition as he averaged 15.5 points and nearly 9 rebounds in 14 games before going down last season.

Providence finished 81st in defensive points allowed per game last season at 68.8 points per game. Some of that has to do with their pace offensively, as they were 213th in the country in points per game. The Friars were 39th in the country in blocks per game at 4.6, but they lost 3 blocks with the departures of Oduro, Gaines and Carter. Kim English will be asking a lot of Christ Essandoko, new sophomore big man from St. Joseph’s. He played just 21.1 minutes per game last season and averaged over a block per game. He will need to hold down the frontcourt for their defense to repeat its effort from 2023-24 because even with Hopkins coming back, he is not a defensive force. Transfer guard, Bensley Joseph, should provide some stability to their defensive backcourt that they lost in Devin Carter. Joseph averaged 1.5 steals and nearly a block a game last season and will give the Friars some physicality at the guard position. It appears unlikely with the current roster and losses that Providence will be able to replicate their defense from a year ago, at least from an efficiency standpoint, but with their pace offensively, that should keep the total points per game down still.

Offensively, they will run through Jayden Pierre and Bryce Hopkins. Assuming Bryce Hopkins is back to full health, he will have a chance at being one of the top offensive players in the Big East conference. He has averaged over 15 points per game since he started playing regular minutes, but last year saw a significant reduction in efficiency over the 14 games that he played in. His three point percentage was half as much as it was in 2022-23. Expect Hopkins to see increases in efficiency to be more like his statistics in his sophomore season. Pierre will run the show offensively at the guard position. He showed the confidence to be able to put up points in bunches at the end of last season, so expect more of that. With the additions of Joseph and Abdur-Rahim, the Friars offense will have a couple of nice complementary pieces to their top two scorers. With 7 ‘0 Essandoko, the Friars will also have a nice rim presence on offense assuming he has developed his game from his freshman to sophomore season. 

Providence will be a competitive team, but certainly not a team that will wow you. It will need to be Pierre and Hopkins carrying this team on the offensive end and the others chipping in to get them wins. They did not return much for scoring outside of those two, so the depth is not a strength in FriarTown. Coach English will have his squad ready to go, but their ceiling likely isn’t higher than the 4 seed in the Big East and a first or second round tournament exit in March.