The Stakes Were Enormous. The Learning Curve Was Steep. Now It's the End of the Kim English Era.

Photo courtesy of Providence Athletics

In the end, Kim English’s timing couldn’t have been any worse.

Here he was, a 34-year old with just two years of head coaching experience at George Mason, joining a Big East that included surging Connecticut under Dan Hurley, Creighton at its program’s peak, rising Marquette, and a St. John’s team undergoing a dramatic facelift after hiring Rick Pitino the same spring that PC bet on English’s upside.

English took over at a time when the raw emotion at Providence — the angst, the anger, the desperation, the determination, the bitterness, and the visceral reaction that came with any mention of Ed Cooley, Georgetown, and the Friars — teetered on overwhelming.

Friar fans felt burned by Cooley, who departed for Georgetown in March 2023 just when it looked like he’d turned the corner from a very good tenure at PC to a great one. Providence took home the Big East regular season title and reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in 25 years in 2022, and looked primed to make another second weekend push a year later before the season fell apart.

Perhaps the most gutting part of Cooley’s departure wasn’t just that he left for Georgetown, but the message it sent to outsiders: the hometown product left for a Big East rival — and perhaps not coincidentally, his closest media allies reiterated that he left Friartown because he thought he needed to in order to reach the Final Four.

Weeks of hearing about how Georgetown was the superior program (and of the shortcomings at Providence) ensued, and with each comment the ire in Rhode Island grew… and grew… and grew.

That’s what Kim English walked into.

The stakes couldn’t have been higher — and he couldn’t have had any idea just how intense the feelings in Providence were.

How could he have? No one outside of Providence truly understood.

Then the college basketball landscape changed so dramatically and so quickly over the next three years, between changes to the transfer portal and the increasingly expensive roster builds that came with Name, Image, and Likeness.

The absolute fervor of the fanbase, the rebuilding of rosters every spring, taking on the likes of Pitino, Hurley, Greg McDermott, Shaka Smart, Sean Miller, and so on — it would have been a tall task for the most veteran coach.

English wasn’t just learning on the fly — he jumped feet-first out of the plane.

Regardless, his first season at Providence was a success. PC won 21 times. They reached the Big East Tournament semis. English helped unlock Devin Carter’s game, Josh Oduro transferred in from George Mason and was outstanding, and the Friars enjoyed six Quad 1 victories.

In most years, it would have been more than enough to reach the NCAA Tournament, but bubbles burst left and right that March, and PC was likely the third best Big East team left out behind Seton Hall and St. John’s.

Still, after losing Bryce Hopkins following an 11-2 start, Friartown felt good about the future under English.

Then the bottom fell out.

Hopkins missed virtually all of English’s second season, a miserable year in which PC’s defense went from top 20 nationally to non-existent. They finished with a 12-20 record.

Injuries plagued English in his third season at PC as well, a year that ended with a 15-18 record.

While English faced an enormous learning curve and tried playing catch-up under extraordinary circumstances, there were mistakes along the way that fell squarely on him.

He believed he could win with the young duo of Jayden Pierre and Garwey Dual at point guard in his first year. The staff also struggled to find a competent backup behind Josh Oduro, and the center they finally landed on left before the season started in September.

Inexperience at point guard and no size outside of Oduro were likely the differences between a 21-win season and 23 or 24.

Year two was filled with roster mismanagement. Pierre and Bensley Joseph were both solid players, but not suited to play alongside one another. Shooting guard Wesley Cardet was counted on to play a big role, but struggled playing as more of a 3/4 after running with the ball in his hands extensively at Chicago State.

The center position killed them. Oswin Erhunmwunse was talented, but very raw. Anton Bonke was new to the game. Christ Essandoko was the biggest miss of the English era.

Year three felt make-or-break for English. He was equipped with a healthy $10M NIL budget to build a roster.

The staff hit an absolute home run with Jaylin Sellers, did the same in landing Jamier Jones from the high school ranks, and they uncovered a very good piece in Stefan Vaaks.

But the misses were too much to overcome. Jason Edwards wanted to come to Providence to become more of a facilitator, but had too much of a scorer’s DNA to ever evolve into one. He also didn’t defend and looked sour when asked to play a bench role in the fall.

Friartown rejoiced when Duncan Powell flipped from Georgetown to Providence after a strong year at Georgia Tech, but he got injured early and PC never seemed to find a way to incorporate him into the offense.

Both were big-money additions, and despite Edwards’ numbers, the impact wasn’t there for either.

English was also hounded by an ever-changing identity during his time at Providence. PC went from a lockdown defensive club two years ago to one that wanted to model itself after the Indiana Pacers this season.

The blistering pace the coaching staff wanted to play at seemed to send a subliminal message that they would simply outscore teams. The results were disastrous on the defensive end. They couldn’t get a stop when they needed to, and when the game slowed down late, they couldn’t execute offensively against good teams.

As English struggled through a difficult second season, a reader sent a mailbag question asking if I still believed in him. I wrote that I did.

I was willing to bet on a guy who built strong relationships with players (Carter called him the best coach he’s ever played under, Sellers said the same about this staff, while Oduro named English his son’s godfather).

English is bright, wildly competitive, and I believed if he could ever last long enough to reach the point where his high school recruiting classes could serve as the backbone of the program as juniors and seniors, he’d find success.

Candidly, English and his staff were great to work with, and I appreciated his straightforward approach. Unlike with some other coaching staffs at this level, there was no media pecking order. If you were passionate about the game and informed, that was the only thing that mattered.

Attend one of his practices, and both English and his staff members would sit with you for a while, ask what you saw, and share insights into the group. At the end of each of those practices every single player stopped and shook hands with every fan or media member in attendance.

I really liked Kim English as a person and wanted to see it work out for him here.

Ultimately, a change was in the best interest of all parties involved. Much of the fanbase was out on English following a rough November, and when collapses against UConn and Georgetown were followed by the meltdown versus St. John’s, it felt like the countdown to this day was on. Each of the past two seasons felt over by January.

The stakes were impossibly high when English was hired. The landscape changed at a ridiculous rate. But as the bottom continued to drop this season, the end of the Kim English era felt increasingly inevitable.

In the end, Providence needed stability, English needed time. Neither ever got what they needed.