Takeaways as Providence's Season Ends in the Big East Quarterfinals Versus St. John's

Photo courtesy of Providence Athletics

Providence’s season ended with an 85-72 loss to St. John’s in the Big East Quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon. It was a defeat that dropped PC to 15-18 on the season and very likely marked the final game of the Kim English era after three seasons.

This was a classic case of a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. St. John’s led, 48-27, at halftime and the Friars closed the game on a 13-2 run to make it more respectable late.

PC had no answers for Zuby Ejiofor inside (21 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists), while Bryce Hopkins put together his best performance against his former team with 14 points and 13 rebounds on 6-10 shooting from the field.

Here are takeaways from the game…

Jaylin Sellers left it all out there.

Let’s start with the positive because let’s face it, every last shortcoming of this team has been broken down throughout a trying year.

While late-game collapses against rivals or a flagrant foul may be the lasting memories of this season years down the line, it will be hard not to think of Sellers sobbing as he left the floor as a Friar for the final time.

Sellers was simply outstanding in his lone season at Providence, and for as much talk as there has been about one-year portal players being mercenaries, Sellers has been just the opposite. He fought endlessly this season, and did so in a year filled with an overwhelming amount of negativity. He fought to the very end, even after countless reports broke of his coach being let go at the end of the season.

Sellers wasn’t at his most efficient on Thursday (6-17 shooting, 21 points) but he gave everything to PC this year and took massive steps forward over the final weeks of the year.

He missed most of last season with a back injury while at UCF and certainly made the most of his final year of college eligibility.

“None of this would be possible without God. I’m thankful that I got hurt (because) I wouldn’t have met these guys. I thank God for my coaches, I thank God for my teammates, I thank God for my ability to play. It was tough last year not being able to play ball — it did a lot to me mentally — and I’m just happy I was able to finish out the season,” he said.

Here are extended highlights from Sellers’ 2025-26 season that we pulled together:

Providence’s roster shortcomings were on display.

In the portal era, it’s going to be very hard to win when your most highly-paid players aren’t productive. There is so much vitriol towards Hopkins because he sat last year, and the Friars fell apart in the process, while this year ended with Jason Edwards and Duncan Powell watching from the sidelines.

Both were crushing portal misses. Edwards left Sellers to do the heavy lifting expected of the veteran guards, and Powell gave next to nothing to a frontcourt that simply didn’t have enough to compete against the better front lines in the league.

Yes, Oswin Erhunmwunse’s numbers took a step forward during his sophomore campaign, but neither he nor Cole Hargrove had any shot of slowing Ejiofor. St. John’s annihilated PC on the glass, out-rebounding the Friars 50-31 overall and 18-4 on the offensive end. Erhunmwunse finished with two points and two rebounds in 19 minutes, while Hargrove finished with two points and six boards in 21 minutes.

Injuries certainly didn’t help the cause this season. It would have been great to see freshman Jaylen Harrell play extended minutes, but he went down for the season, as did Florida State transfer Daquan Davis. Meanwhile, junior Rich Barron never played a game.

For all of the talk of shortcomings at point guard (more than fair), this was the second consecutive season in which Providence didn’t have the right combination at center.

Last year, they went huge, but the raw Erhunmwunse was left on an island as a freshman when Christ Essandoko showed up out of shape and provided nothing, while Anton Bonke proved too green.

This year Hargrove started slow and never recovered, while Peteris Pinnis wasn’t athletic enough to be effective.

Notable Quotes:

Kim English on St. John’s playing a big lineup: “Since our game here January 3rd, they really doubled down on defense and rebounding in the paint, playing the three bigs. They’re playing three bigs. They’re dominating the possession game. This looks like a trend around college basketball. If you look at the best teams, the Arizonas, the Floridas, the Houstons, they’re doubling down on playing big.”

English on the rebounding differential: “We talk about first-possession box-outs, and I think they got four shots the first possession of the game. And if you’re not going to defensive rebound, you don’t have a chance. It’s what they do. They force you to turn it over and they offensive rebound. And it’s, truthfully, a very simple game plan if you can just do it.

When we went on the run here (in January), it’s the only thing we did. We defensive rebounded and we scored in transition.”

English’s pride in coaching this team: “I never have been more proud standing in the locker room than I was after this season because I look at Jaylin Sellers and his improvement and growth throughout the season, Stefan Vaaks’ growth and improvement throughout the season.

Being able to coach them hard. Ryan Mela and Jamier (Jones) and Oswin, and I’ll go down the entire roster thinking about guys. I couldn’t be more proud to be their coach.”

Rick Pitino on Sellers: “I think Sellers is a lock NBA player. A lock. He can score against anyone, he has a pro-type game, he has a James Harden-type game. He goes to the basket great, he uses his body, he has step-back shots, he has great range, he has a great burst, he gets above the rim, he has a great vertical.

So he’s a tremendous basketball player. He’s not on a lot of first-round draft boards, but we’ll look back, I guarantee you he plays 12 years in the league.”