In Fairness, We Can Dream, Can’t We? Kevin Stacom

In Fairness, We Can Dream, Can’t We? Kevin Stacom

Phew… what was that all about!?

           

On Wednesday, March 11, at 4 pm at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the Providence College men’s basketball team will face off against Butler. A pairing of the 9th-seeded team, Providence, versus the 8th-ranked team, Butler        

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As Arthur Parks, the Sports Information Director at PC, informed the media at the post game press conference after the last time these two teams played at the AMP back on February 4th- a game Providence won on double overtime, 97-87, that it was the first time in the history of the Big East that two teams played each other to two double overtime games in the same season.  

Just another quirky fact in a very quirky season.          

So what are the main factors that set the stage for this Providence team to be in this position, with the only hope of salvaging the season and grabbing from the jaws of chaos, an automatic NCAA bid by winning the Conference Championship Game this Saturday night?          

There’s probably no need at this point to go over too many gory details of individual games and what could have or almost did happen with so many close games decided with under a minute to go.

I’m sure Coach Kim English and his staff weren’t planning, going into this season, having to play small forwards and wings at the key point guard position heading into crunch time in so many close games, when sound decision-making is everything.          

Daquan Davis, never being fully healthy- the 6’1” 180 lb guard transfer from Florida State- playing in only 3 games with limited minutes, turned into a major disappointment. The frustrating thing, I'm sure, for Coach English was that the team didn’t even need a star-type talent at that position. PC didn’t need an Ernie D, Billy Donovan, God Shamgod, or Eric Murdock. Just A fundamentally sound guard with a decent feel for distributing the ball and also being able to guard that position was all that would have been necessary to have a dramatic positive effect on this ballclub.

The fact that Davis started as a freshman at Florida State, led them in assists, and had, like a lot of Baltimore kids, the mental toughness not to shy away from a defensive assignment, were the reasons that there was optimism about him being a key piece on this year’s team.       

Imagine the impact of a heads up, pass first point guard pushing the ball up the floor after an Oswin blocked shot, with Jaylin Sellers and Stefan Vaaks tearing down opposite wings on the break, and Jason Edwards filling in the trailer spot ready to pull up with a wide open three in rhythm on the opposite side, and Jamier Jones timing a back door slam as the defense is forced to pick its poison.

The degree of difficulty on all their shots would have been greatly reduced -and this on a team that was still, despite their obvious shortcomings, able to produce the number one scoring offense in the league (85.5 points/game) with 3 players who finished individually in the top 8 in the league in scoring:

 

#1- Jaylin Sellers, 18.1 points/game

#4- Jason Edwards, 16.5 points/game

#8- Stefan Vaaks, 15.2 points/game

 

In addition, Oswin Erhunmwunse led the league in Blocked Shots (2.2) and was 3rd in rebounds with 8.6 per game.

Also, Stefan Vaaks and Jamier Jones proved to be one of the best freshman combos in the country.  

There were a few games that we all saw as fans, where they seemed a bit overmatched, like early in the season vs Wisconsin and Florida with their size across the board. And we can even admit that there were a couple of games when they just laid an egg, and the energy just didn’t seem to be there, like the 1st Xavier game on the road back on January 10th, and the last home game vs Marquette on March 4th. 

But, bottom line, I counted at least 8 games where having anything close to a legitimate point guard would have resulted in a real chance for a win rather than a loss.

Conservatively at least 6 Big East games were near giveaways- beginning with 2 of the most painful, the home game vs UConn (January 7th), ranked # 4 at the time, which reached a crescendo when Ryan Mela pulled off a highlight spin move at full speed on a break finishing with his left hand on the opposite side of the basket resulting in the fans rising to their feet, a double digit lead with about 10 minutes to go, and forcing Dan Hurley to call a timeout to break the crowd noise and PC’s momentum. 

Even Hurley admitted during the post-game press conference, “We stole that one.”         

The other tough loss that could have been easily averted with just decent guard play down the stretch was obviously later on January 24th vs Georgetown, as a meltdown led to Providence dissipating a 21-point lead.      

It very well could have been a very different season with about 20 wins overall and a better than 500 record in Big East play.    

But back to the present task at hand.

Nothing, of course, will be easy, but for my money, Providence was slotted in the best bracket possible. As mentioned, they have the first game on Wednesday vs Butler. Obviously, given the fact that both of their two games previously this year resulted in two double overtimes, it should be another very competitive game going down to the wire.   

The winner of this game, however, plays St. John’s technically on their home court. Will they be tough? Of course, but Providence has shown last year and this they don’t shy away from competing against them. They already beat them earlier this year at MSG (Jan 3rd) and before the game at Providence on Jan. 14th, morphed into a WWF event. PC had weathered a lot of their pressure and had taken a 1-point lead with about 8 minutes left, just as the ill-advised take down took place by Duncan Powell.  

Stranger things have happened, and as just about every opposing coach has stated - from both Rick Pitino senior and junior, Greg McDermott, Dan Hurley, and Shaka Smart- this team overall is a very talented group.      

And if they can somehow dig in and get by St John’s they would on Friday(5:30 pm) play the winner of game #5 which would either be Creighton or Seton Hall Again, nothing is easy but I would much rather have PC face either of those two teams than either Villanova or Marquette which, because they are slotted in different brackets, they would not have to face them, if they were to advance, until the Finals Both those teams present together matchups

Villanova has shown excellent ball and player movement vs PC, putting them in very difficult defensive mismatches, and graduate student  Devin Askew, a 6’5” 195lb G transfer from Long Beach State has killed Providence in both games this year, scoring 20 points in each contest, on over 50% shooting from 3’s and making great reads and plays in crunch time. Marquette’s newfound high-pressure schemes and freshman point guard sensation Nigel James Jr (38 points and 20 points) have combined to make PC’s life miserable, especially in the beatdown at the last home game of the season.          

As we continue to all (Coaches, players, administrators, fans) seem to be hurdling and accelerating whitewater rafting down through the new treacherous rapids of the uncharted waters of College athletics, it's hard to catch a breath and to evaluate what is happening in real time.                 

I mention that as a backdrop to what I recently came across in the 2025-2026 Providence Men’s Basketball Media Guide.        

“On March 23, 2023, Kim English became the 16th head coach at Providence College...English became the first head coach to win 20 games in his first season at PC.”          

That 20-win season was only two years ago, later this month.            

I agree with Rick Pitino’s comments after that first year that both St.John’s and Providence got shortchanged out of an NCAA bid. After perusing the geographical makeup of the committee that year, it was obvious what happened. Its naive to think politics might not enter the decision-making

For instance, this midwestern and west coast-dominated committee put a record six Mountain West teams in the NCAA tournament- a joke. The Big East received only two bids.

As comedian George Carlin was famous for saying...”I really like people, but when 2 or more of them get together for any particular purpose.. I start to get nervous.”

How might everyone’s attitude right now be a little different if we were all just a little more than one year removed from an NCAA appearance?        

Last year, as we remember, was the year dealing with the return/non-return of the best player, Bryce Hopkins, and this year… was this year.

And so there is another reason I’ll be rooting very hard for this group of coaches and players- I think I owe it to them. I know the total wins and losses are not what we were looking for, but selfishly, I’ve enjoyed watching them play all through their ups and downs very much.  

I know that some of my appreciation comes from being trained for so many years to view their capabilities as individuals. Of course, I wanted them to win as a group, but I thought for the most part they all gave great effort, and a good number of them brought some very unique talents, skills, and a very high degree of athleticism.    

Billy Reynolds would write once in a while about the “basketball gods” and how they would intervene at times on behalf of some individual player or to transform some team's good fortune.            

The time is now!

Looking forward to Wednesday’s game vs Butler and a magical run at MSG!

Go Friars!