Key Questions Facing Providence Heading Into the 2024-25 Campaign
Providence is set to kick off the 2024-25 season on Monday night at home against Central Connecticut State. After playing without much of their core in an exhibition victory over Massachusetts last weekend, the Friars’ health is starting to trend in the right direction. Friar head coach Kim English hopes increased depth will help PC improve on last season’s 21-win season that ended in the NIT.
The biggest storylines to come out of last season were the emergence of Devin Carter into Big East Player of the Year and an NBA lottery pick, and the crushing ACL injury that cost Bryce Hopkins his season — and most likely an NCAA Tournament berth for a PC team that was 11-2 overall and 2-0 in the Big East at the time of his injury.
English has spoken repeatedly of building a roster that can sustain an injury or two, and his staff sought out greater depth across the board.
On the eve of the season, here is a look at the biggest questions facing Providence this year.
Can Providence catch a break on the injury front?
Whenever it looks as though Providence is set to have depth across the board — after we’ve spent an entire offseason speculating who will play and who will watch — a deep roster seemingly never comes to fruition.
Last season, George Mason transfer Justyn Fernandez tore his ACL just as English was accepting the Providence gig. The Friars were in position to sustain that injury, but later center Will McNair Jr. transferred to Kansas State in September, starting point guard Jayden Pierre missed time in the first semester, and then Hopkins went down in early January.
Fast forward to October, and the Friars were expectedly without Hopkins in the exhibition game versus UMass, and they were also down sophomore Rich Barron (offseason surgery on a torn labrum), Pierre, and potential starters in transfers Jabri Abdur-Rahim (who had missed time this offseason, but was also home after losing his uncle), and center Christ Essandoko. In other words, PC was without four fifths of its potential starting lineup.
English told John Rooke on his coach’s show on Oct. 29 that Essandoko, Abdur-Rahim, and Barron had returned to the practice floor last week.
Of course, the biggest question surrounds the return of Hopkins, a player so talented that he was averaging around 15 points and eight rebounds per game last year, while still trying to find himself offensively. When healthy, Hopkins is an easy 1st Team All-Big East talent — one of two players unanimously named to the first team in 2023.
Can Providence take a leap offensively?
Despite the greatness of Carter and Josh Oduro, there were so many areas in which PC fell short offensively a year ago.
They ranked 212th in the country in turnover percentage, 255th in offensive rebounding efficiency, in the 18th percentile on open jump shots, and finished 125th in the country in overall offensive efficiency.
The offensive efficiency number was the program’s worst since 2019, when an 18-16 Friar club ranked 164th in the nation — the worst of a three-year stretch in which Providence finished outside of the top 100 offensively in each season.