Providence Seeks Tone‑Setting Win Over Wisconsin on Thanksgiving Night
Opportunity awaits Providence in San Diego. After Kim English’s Friars picked up a crucial 77-65 victory over Penn State last weekend, they’ll face another Big Ten opponent in Wisconsin on Thanksgiving night.
The Penn State victory marked the best defensive effort of the season for Providence — a game in which they slowed the tempo down just a bit from earlier in the year.
PC was averaging 77 possessions per 40 minutes through the season’s first four games, but finished at 68.5 in consecutive wins over New Hampshire and the Nittany Lions last week. Perhaps not coincidentally, each of those games marked their best defensive efforts of the season — with a Defensive Rating of 96.3 versus UNH and 94.9 against Penn State. Their previous best came in the season opener against Holy Cross (103.1), while both Virginia Tech and Colorado posted Offensive Ratings above 120 against them.
Sure, Penn State was predicted to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten, but there’s reason for optimism coming out of that one. The Friars couldn’t buy a shot and were down a few regulars from their opening night rotation, yet they closed on a 12-3 run with the game in the balance.
Providence is getting what is expected from transfer guards Jason Edwards (19.3 PPG) and Jaylin Sellers (16.0 PPG), while Estonia freshman Stefan Vaaks has been a revelation in the early going (14.8 PPG, 38% shooting from three on seven attempts per game).
The rotational depth the coaching staff focused on in the offseason is coming to fruition, with the top three scorers flanked by the steady hand of sophomore Ryan Mela (10.0 PPG, 7.2 RPG), a nightly lift from freshman Jamier Jones (9.7 PPG), veteran Corey Floyd Jr. (11.4 PPG) and center Oswin Erhunmwunse (7.3 PPG, 8.5 RPG, 4.0 BPG).
There are still levels of offense this to unlock.
For all of the depth Providence possesses, they are thin in the frontcourt. Drexel transfer Cole Hargrove has struggled to produce as a backup center, while Georgia Tech transfer Duncan Powell was quiet in three games — then missed the past two after taking a shot to the head in practice.
Getting Powell back, and getting him productive, would raise the ceiling of this team further. Powell could allow Providence to go small by playing at the five at times, while he also provides the physicality, shooting range, and experience that PC’s frontcourt could really benefit from.
Providence is averaging 93.2 points per game, despite shooting just 30.6% from three so far this season. They’ve benefitted from keeping turnovers low (38th nationally in Turnover Percentage) and making the most of their free throw attempts (78.9% — 31st in the country).
PC has also scored a ton in the paint, as their 45.0 points interior points a night is the 10th best average in the country.
That they’ve been able to score at such a high level while having not yet incorporating Powell and struggling to make shots from beyond the arc is actually encouraging in a sense.
We’ll find out on Thanksgiving just how legitimate their defensive step forward is when English’s bunch takes on Wisconsin in the Rady Children’s Invitational in San Diego.
The Badgers took a humbling 98-70 loss to BYU last weekend, and the Friars have beaten them twice in the past four years. Still, Greg Gard’s team is dangerous. The Badgers have reached the NCAA Tournament in eight of ten seasons under Gard and are traditionally tough in November tournaments.
They rank 16th in Offensive Efficiency and 59th on the defensive end, according to Ken Pomeroy, and they are coming off a season in which they made the most threes of any team in Big Ten play.
This year has been much of the same. Wisconsin has knocked down 56 three-pointers in five games — a program record. They take 33 shots from beyond the arc per game (9th most in the nation) and are shooting 80% at the free throw line. The Badgers continue to excel from there for the second consecutive season.
Offensively, they present problems where Providence has struggled: in the pick and roll and on the offensive glass. Center Nolan Winter is averaging 14 points and 10 rebounds a game, and they rank in the top 30 in the country in second chance points as a team.
The terrific backcourt duo of John Blackwell (18.4 PPG, 5.6 RPG) and Nick Boyd (19.2 PPG) lead an attack that gets as much done from its pick‑and‑roll ball handlers as almost any high‑major program.
Boyd has deep NCAA Tournament experience after playing at Florida Atlantic and San Diego State. He actually played against Jason Edwards on three occasions two seasons ago, with Edwards scoring 26, 32, and 14 points against FAU when Edwards was with North Texas.
In addition to Boyd, Gard added UVA transfer Andrew Rhode — a 6’6 guard and native of Wisconsin — and another shooter in Austin Rapp (9.8 PPG). Rapp stands 6’10 and hit 83 three-pointers on 35% shooting a year ago.
Senior guard Braeden Carrington is in his first season with the Badgers after spending his first two years with Minnesota and a year at Tulsa.
Wisconsin was ranked in the AP top 25 before they fell to BYU, a loss that dropped their record to 4-1. They’ve been particularly tough in November, winning seven holiday tournaments over the past two decades, and sporting a healthy 9-1 mark in these tournaments since 2021.
Providence will have to contend with the Badgers’ length, as they have the seventh tallest roster in the country.
There should be some terrific matchups in this one, with Edwards and Boyd getting reacquainted, Sellers and Blackwell providing big-time scoring at the off-guard spot, and Erhunmwunse and Winter battling inside.
Neither team has been stellar defensively this year, and unlike Penn State last weekend, Wisconsin plays very little zone defense (3 possessions this season, 7 last year, and 0 two years ago).
This has the makings of a terrific matchup. This is a Quad 1 opportunity for the Friars, and with a win they’d most likely get a shot to take on defending national champion Florida on Friday.
Beyond the metrics, a victory on Thursday would feel like a tone-setter for the remainder of the season.
Be it metrics or momentum, this will be the biggest game PC has played since the 2024 Big East Tournament.