"This guy is a rising rocket. He’s just ready to take off." Kim English has arrived in Providence
When Ed Cooley left Providence for Georgetown this week, the old, familiar narratives about the Friars found their way back into our lives.
As pundits like Jeff Goodman and John Fanta pieced together reasons why the hometown hero would jump ship to a conference rival, we started hearing about how Cooley maxed out at PC after last year’s Sweet 16 run.
Providence Athletic Director Steve Napolillo certainly didn’t enter this week in an enviable position. The face of the program had made an unprecedented move, and a Big East that features three teams in this year’s Sweet 16 was only getting deeper with Cooley’s move to Georgetown and Rick Pitino taking over at St. John’s.
With seemingly no obvious replacement available, Napolillo has taken a big swing at an upside play with the 34-year-old Kim English.
English, a Baltimore native who worked his way from a relatively unheralded high school prospect to a Detroit Pistons draft pick following a very good career at Missouri, spent the past two season as the head coach at George Mason, following stints as an assistant at Tulsa (2015-17), Colorado (2017-19), and at Tennessee (2019-21) under former PC coach Rick Barnes.
English was introduced to the local media via a zoom conference after being hired on Thursday (his official press conference will take place on Wednesday), and much like the coach who preceded him 12 years prior, he spoke of not sustaining Providence’s recent run of success, but elevating the program further.
“Providence is a great job, and it’s in great shape. The foundation is laid, there is an incredibly high standard that we will continue to meet,” English said on Thursday. “Our challenge is that we want to elevate it — and we will.”
“The Providence College that Rick Barnes coached at, it’s not the Providence College of today. I think it’s the best fanbase in the Big East, the best home court advantage in the Big East, and the Ruane Development Center, I believe, is the best basketball facility in the country. I’ve been to all 30 NBA teams’ facilities… and ours is better”
English certainly knows his way around an NBA building. He was a two-time All-Big 12 Player at Missouri (2010, 2012), and during his senior year the Tigers had the top offense in the country. They finished that year 30-5 overall, ranked third in the final AP poll. Then it was off to the league.
English made the decision to cut his playing career short in his mid-20s (he’s been quoted as saying he could still be playing somewhere today), and as he told the Solving Basketball podcast, he had a decision to make between joining an NBA franchise’s coaching staff or front office, or going the college route.
During his NBA pre-draft process, he impressed former Sixers GM Sam Hinkie, who was with the Houston Rockets at the time working under Daryl Morey. English later did a deep-dive for Hinkie prior to the 2015 NBA Draft on point guard prospects D’Angelo Russell and Emmanuel Mudiay in which he said he leaned so heavily toward Russell that he was “almost defiant” in making the case for him (Russell went #2 before the 76ers drafted at 3).
English believed in Hinkie, saying he “would have followed him off a bridge”, but believed the Sixers and the NBA would not allow “The Process” to go on much longer, so he chose to learn under former Missouri coach Frank Haith at Tulsa. His instincts were sound. Hinkie was fired a year later.
His relatively brief time in the NBA helped shape who English is as a coach. He prefers to play “four out, one in” on offense. Ideally, his offense will look to get shots in the first 7-8 seconds of the shot clock. If nothing is there, English would rather rely on the “shared cognition” of the players on the floor, leaning more on their instincts in a motion-based offense than running a lot of sets.
English told Solving Basketball that in practice he has a point system designed to award made baskets on different spots of the floor — corner 3-pointers are worth four, above-the-break 3s are worth three, layups are two, and mid-range jumpers are one. There will be segments of practices in which his teams will only take 3-pointers or layups. His first George Mason team broke a school record for 3-pointers made, and did so in a Covid-compressed season.
It’s a philosophy that differs from Barnes, who sees value in taking open mid-range jump shots at a time in which other coaches are so focused on taking away layups and threes.
English describes himself as “brutally honest” with his players, has shared that in his coaching career he has only seen one player transfer that his staffs wanted to retain, and he’s against “coachspeak.”
“I very rarely say the word ‘culture.’ I say ‘structure,'” English said on the Solving Basketball pod.
He tells players’ families, “If you want to come watch your kid practice, come watch them practice. You’ll see in practice why our top 8 or 9 are our top 8 or 9.”
English’s biggest challenge over the coming weeks will be building a roster from the existing group of Friars and some combination of players from the transfer portal, or incoming freshmen who have come available this spring.
The George Mason team he took over two years ago had a pair of future stars on it in Tyler Kolek and Jordan Miller. Kolek went on to become the Big East Player of the Year at Marquette, while Miller is the second leading scorer on a Miami team that will be playing for the chance to go to the Final Four this weekend.
The new Friar coach spent Friday getting to know Providence’s current players, and told the local press on Thursday that keeping Bryce Hopkins in black and white is a “top priority.” English did not recruit Hopkins coming out of high school, but did help sign his AAU teammate Kennedy Chandler (a McDonald’s All American guard) at Tennessee.
While the early returns in retaining talent and on the recruiting trail will be important for the near term, Napollilo believes he found the person who can continue to grow the program in the years to come. And neither the coach, or the AD, was shying away from expectations.
“This guy is a rising rocket. He’s just ready to take off,” Napolillo said on Thursday. “There’s no bigger superstar that’s ready to pop than Kim English. I know that Coach Kim English is going to take us to heights that we’ve never seen.”
The feeling is certainly mutual for English, who coached much of last year without an athletic director. “I’ve been looking for that partner, and I’ve wanted that partner, and I’ve found it, without a shadow of a doubt.”
While the critics think Providence has maxed out, English essentially said there is nothing holding this program back from continuing to ascend.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the future of NIL at PC could have potentially been a factor in Cooley looking elsewhere, but English sounded anything but worried, “Providence has adapted and continues to adapt and be competitive at the highest levels — and I know. I know what it’s like at the highest level — at Tennessee” he said.
“I know exactly what our guys got… If we lose a kid, we lose a kid. It’s not going to be because of lack of resources.”
He circled back to Providence’s facilities on a number of occasions (“I didn’t say top ten, I didn’t say top five, it’s the best. It’s one-of-one in America”), as well as his relationship with Napolillo and PC President, Father Ken Sicard.
Napolillo said English checked every box he was looking for in his next coach — a hiring Napolillo said would define his career.
“This city, this state, this community, the school, is hurt,” Napolillo shared toward the end of Thursday’s presser. “We needed a shining star to come in and lift them back up — and that’s today.”
Cooley did great things @ PC and I wish him well personally (professionally he will soon find out that G'Town's greatness is a thing of the past like a VCR). I am very impressed how PC turned the page so quickly and effectively with the English hire. I love how quickly he has engaged with the program. Keeping Hopkins, Carter, Floyd, Pierre, with the two GM transfers will be critical to next year's success. Looking forward to a new style of play that Coach English will bring. Let's turn the page Friar fans and race forward!
I don't feel like Ed thought PC was maxed out. I truly feel like he just wanted a change and thought it was now or never. Sucks that change is at a conference rival, but for me it just makes everything more exciting. I'm all for story lines and drama.