Rock Bottom in Friartown: Why Kim English Has to Be Fired

The Kim English era is officially over in Providence, as Ed Cooley and the Georgetown Hoyas put a nail in it Saturday afternoon at the Amica Mutual Pavilion.

It is truly sad that this program has gotten to a point where our Super Bowl is now playing Cooley once a year at home when neither side has won the divorce. This program was in a Sweet 16 just a few years ago, and has now reached its lowest point in decades all thanks to Athletic Director Steve Napolillo making the wrong hire in English.

Whether it's been the atrocious defense, no consistent rotations, or the inability to win games within a few possessions, that's been the story of this season and the English era in a vacuum.

From what once seemed like the next young rising and prominent head coach in the sport with the ability to connect with his players and an innovative offensive mind and elite recruiter has led to English holding a 42-45 record as Providence's head coach who has lost the locker room while recruiting at a high level and his team ranking 11th in the country in points per game.

If there's one word to describe the Kim English era for me, it's frustration. It feels like one of those cycles you look at with one of your favorite teams with the "we are here" annotation and arrows on it if you know what I'm referring to.

Diving deeper into the cycle, I would say the first part or step of it is English's recruitment. Whether it's been Vaaks, Jones, Oswin you name it these recruits bring real excitement to the fanbase as they should as Providence is not necessarily known as a program who is able to land these commitments.

However, that leads me to step two of the cycle which is the inability to put a proper and complete team together which has obviously been the most evident this season. Furthermore, English is able to acquire the talent, there's no question about that he just can't put all the puzzle pieces together.

Which leads me to the next part of this: Rotations. I think it is pretty clear by now who are best players are and who are not. The five for me being Vaaks, Jones, Sellers, Oswin, and Mela. If I can identify that from my couch, I sure as hell wish English would be able to as well as it's literally his job to.

It just baffles me as it is so clear and evident to see who the best players on this team are and who should be deserving of and getting the most minutes on the team only for our own head coach to not be able to do the same and not have a concrete seven-to-eight-man rotation 20 games into the season.

I think that's what this really boils down to is decision making. Obviously, English's best strength as a coach is his recruiting, but that's something that takes place and happens off the court and decisions that are out of his control at the end of the day. Sure, he can recruit all he wants to but at the end of the day the decision is up to the player on where he wants to pursue playing college basketball.

Everything else involved in coaching whether it's leadership, game management, adjustments, etc can be deemed a weakness for English. The only thing he does well is recruit as he can't put a complete team together, a team that can defend, and a team that can play a full 40 minutes. No matter the talent we have, when you can't defend and consistently close out games within a few possessions you are most if not all of the time going to lose which has been the story of this season and the English era as a whole.

If we are going to talk about adjustments and defense, there is no better or prime example of this than English taking Jones out of the game against Georgetown. Jones only played 1:37 of the final minutes which led to a 20 point second half collapse due to mistakes, including not following the scouting report on a drive by Georgetown's Jeremiah Williams and a subsequent turnover. Meanwhile when he was in the game, Jones was able to score 14 points with 10 of those coming in 14 minutes of first half play. Jones is one of, if not the best player on the team! If anything let him learn from his mistakes and growing pains through more experience, the season is lost anyways and has been for quite some time now. Again...frustrating.

The bottom line is that Steve Napolillo was in over his head when he made the hire of English, hoping he was the next great young offensive mind in the sport of college basketball. He panicked and made a decision that has set this program back reaching a point they have not been in decades.

To be fair, English has been over his head as well as while his recruiting and offensive philosophy has worked especially this season, his overall record speaks for itself (42-45) and only gets worse after that:

• 26-45 (.366) in non-buy games
• 18-31 (.367) in Big East games (including 3-17 in his last 20)
• 11-30 (.268) in games away from Providence

Napolillo needed to hire a stabilizer with a proven track record of winning before instead of taking a gamble on an Atlantic 10 head coach who is now only in his fifth season of coaching as a head coach. Not to mention Napolillo being still somewhat new to his job as well as he is only in his fourth year as an athletic director.

If Providence wants to return to relevancy and where they once were only a few years ago, they must hire a stabilizer head coach. With only 11 games left in the season and the Big East tournament, Kim English's days in Friartown are numbered.

It sure will be an interesting off season in Providence as Napolillo must learn from his mistake and get the next hire right if he wants to keep his job if he is not let go with English as well.

Time will tell, but the Friars have officially hit rock bottom.