{"id":182651,"date":"2026-03-24T08:42:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=182651"},"modified":"2026-03-24T08:42:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:42:26","slug":"why-providence-hired-bryan-hodgson-can-he-bring-the-friars-back-to-prominence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/03\/24\/why-providence-hired-bryan-hodgson-can-he-bring-the-friars-back-to-prominence\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Providence Hired Bryan Hodgson And Can He Bring The Friars Back To Prominence"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Providence Friars have their next coach in Bryan Hodgson<\/a>.\u00a0 The Friars, who reached the Sweet 16 in 2021-22, have missed the NCAA Tournamen<\/a>t in each of the last three seasons.<\/p>\n

“We are thrilled to have Bryan Hodgson join Providence College as the leader of our men’s basketball program,” Providence College<\/a> President Fr. Kenneth Sicard, O.P., said in a statement on Sunday<\/a>. “Bryan brings a strong track record of leadership and a deep commitment to developing student-athletes both on and off the court. His dedication to integrity, hard work, and competitive excellence aligns closely with the values of Providence College. I am confident that the future is bright for Friar men’s basketball, and I eagerly anticipate seeing the team reach new milestones under their new leader’s guidance.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Providence Hired Bryan Hodgson And Can He Bring The Friars Back To Prominence?<\/h2>\n

Hodgeson, who reportedly turned down Syracuse early last week<\/a>, is leaving USF to take the Providence<\/a> job. His decision comes three days after the Bulls lost to Louisville in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. It was the program’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2011-12.<\/p>\n

Hodgeson did a fantastic job in his first season in Tampa. The Bulls tied a program record with 25 wins and claimed their second American Conference<\/a> regular-season title in three years. The Bulls also won the American Conference Tournament for the first time, marking the first time in school history that they doubled up on championships.<\/p>\n

USF finished the season ranked in the top-60 in the nation in both offensive (43rd) and defensive (55th) efficiency. The Bulls were the ninth-highest scoring team in the nation at 87.5 points per game, setting a program record with 2,974 points (12th most in 2025-26). They also set program records in 3-pointers made (323), free throws made (679), and road wins (9).<\/p>\n

Hodgson becomes the 17th coach in Friars history. Hodgson replaces Kim English, who went 48-52 in his three seasons with the Friars and 23-37 in Big East play. The Friars went 15-18 this past season and 7-13 in Big East play.<\/p>\n

“Let\u2019s get this out of the way: Providence College had to\u00a0<\/span>let go of men’s head basketball coach Kim English,” John Rooke of The Providence Journal said<\/a>. “Based on precedent, even if the landscape has changed wildly over the past 15 to 20 years, when you compete in the conference that Dave Gavitt built, you compete to win. And that didn\u2019t happen here, not to anyone\u2019s satisfaction.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Mark Konezny, Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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Who Is Bryan Hodgson?<\/h3>\n

Hodgson grew up in a small town in Western New York, Olean — which is home to St. Bonaventure. Hodgson played collegiately at Jamestown (NY) Community College for two seasons. After graduating from Fredonia State, Hodgson began his college coaching career at Jamestown CC before moving to Midland College (TX) as an assistant coach. He then joined Nate Oats’<\/a> Staff at Buffalo before moving to Alabama with Oats.<\/p>\n

Hodgson got his first head coaching job in 2023 with the Arkansas State Red Wolves. Hodgson went 45-28 in two seasons with the Red Wolves, winning the 2025 Sun Belt Conference title and leading them to two postseason berths (NIT and CBI). He is 70-37 overall, including 3-4 in the postseason.<\/p>\n

Hodgson has developed a reputation as a high-tempo coach who excels at recruiting and developing programs. The 38-year-old, who garnered American Conference Coach of the Year honors, preaches pace and operating in space. He is also very good at developing players.<\/p>\n

Offensively, Hodgson preaches relentless pace, whether after making or missing. Since Hodgson encourages lots of shots, his teams prioritize sets over specific styles, using four- or five-out alignments. His goal is to get the ball into the paint and then kick it out to shooters.<\/p>\n

With an emphasis on uptempo, Hodgson focuses on creating chaos defensively. As a result, his defense focuses on creating turnovers and switching everything. In terms of other defensive minutiae, his teams use a committee approach with rebounding and his bigs “wall-up” rather than chasing blocks.<\/p>\n

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What Does Hodgson’s Hiring Mean For Friars?<\/h3>\n

Hodgson has a lot of work ahead of him. He has to assemble a coaching staff and rebuild the Friars’ roster, as the program lost six seniors from this past season, including its top two scorers, Jaylin Sellers<\/a> and Jason Edwards<\/a>. Additionally, Stefan Vaaks<\/a> (15.8 points, 3.2 assists) and sophomore Daquan Davis<\/a> have entered the transfer portal.<\/p>\n

On the positive side, Providence plans on operating with a $10 million NIL budget. Therefore, expect the Friars to be a major player when the transfer portal opens on April 7. The Friars also don’t have any high school commitments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a program with a proud tradition, passionate fan base, and a city that truly embraces its team,\u201d Hodgson said upon joining Providence<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re going to build something that reflects that pride. We will be tough, disciplined, and relentless in our pursuit of excellence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Providence is known as a basketball school. The Friars have over 1,300 victories with a winning percentage of .607. The Friars have won 20 or more games 31 times and made 22 trips to the NCAA Tournament. They have reached the Final Four twice but have won only three conference titles.<\/p>\n

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The Providence Friars have their next coach in Bryan Hodgson.\u00a0 The Friars, who reached the Sweet 16 in 2021-22, have missed the NCAA Tournament in each of the last three seasons. “We are thrilled to have Bryan Hodgson join Providence College as the leader of our men’s basketball program,” Providence College President Fr. Kenneth Sicard, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":182844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,2,3],"tags":[3247,4447,481,1480],"class_list":["post-182651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-featured","category-news","tag-american-athletic-conference","tag-big-east-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-providence-friars"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182651"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182880,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182651\/revisions\/182880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}