Despite how annoying it has been at times to have 1917 in the name of this site that began in 2014 because I’d have to explain what that meant, a relevant milestone is now upon us with the 100th season of men’s basketball at Providence College, though it doesn’t really clear things up on my end. 1917 refers to the year that Providence College began as a school. It wasn’t until 1926 that the Friars fielded a varsity men’s basketball team and it would be nearly another 50 years before PC had their first female four-year graduates in 1975. The first attempts at forming a team in 1921 and 1922 failed due to some minor details like no coach, no facilities and a general lack of interest. In fact, the first ever game was December 4, 1920 when Providence lost, 64-13, in an exhibition game against East Greenwich Academy which took place at EGA because Providence didn’t have a gym on campus at the time.
The 2026-27 season kicks off both the 100th season of Providence men’s basketball and the Bryan Hodgson era tipping off on November 2nd at the Amica Mutual Pavilion against Maine. Hodgson has already made quite an impression since he was hired by Athletic Director Steve Napolillo more than 7 months ago following three seasons with Kim English at the helm at Providence. Hodgson made a splash right away at his introductory press conference when he made a viral quip about his recruiting prowess by offering proof being his wife, Jordan.
Hodgson seems to have a good grasp of modern media and how to say the right things to make a splash. He has a gravelly voice and speaks pretty plainly as far as college basketball coaches go 100 years after then Providence football coach Archie Golembeski became the first men’s basketball coach that led the Friars to an 8-8 record including an upset over St. John’s on February 25, 1927, 36-33. Like Golembeski, Hodgson will look to beat current powers like the Rick Pitino-led Red Storm and Danny Hurley-led UConn, among other Big East foes. There was a sentiment in college basketball circles during #SearchSZN as Napolillo was zeroing in on Hodgson being the guy for the Friars that Hodgson’s ability to bring grit and toughness to the head coaching position and being fearless to go against the likes of Pitino and Hurley was a factor for the Friar AD.
Another facet of Hodgson’s comfort with the modern landscape of college basketball is his use of social media where he leans into the pcbc frenzy with this Shark GIFs when landing recruits and mixing it up in the comments with burners and media alike. On the coaching front, he and his staff heavily use analytics and data to both evaluate players to add to their roster via the transfer portal and traditional HS recruiting and also the day-to-day operation of the existing team. They track pretty much everything that is trackable in practice and games and the data creates some clear output reporting that they can go to players with and show them why they aren’t playing as much as the player might like or areas they can improve to earn more time on the floor.
A quick plug for a new offseason project that is now live: pcbb1917 Labs. Labs will have all kinds of information including data, stats and analytics about Providence, the Big East and all of Division 1 college basketball. I encourage you to head over there and explore. I’d love to hear feedback, suggestions or feature requests. There are simple thing like seeing Providence’s schedule with Add to Calendar buttons, the pcbb1917 Consensus Ratings with a prediction for each and every game, After each game, there will be Game At A Glance which will have an Efficiency & Shooting Audit, show game flow, Shooting by location, Speciality scoring and some stat-based takeaways. There will also be Shot Charts for each team broken down by Dunks, Rim 2’s, Mid 2’s and 3-Pointers broken down by share of shots and what percentage of each was assisted. The game pages also have a Score Game Flow that shows the point differential throughout the game and probably my favorite new feature of Labs is the Player Stints chart which details whether a player had a positive or negative impact on point differential during their time on the court. This is in addition to the traditional team stats and box score. Please check it out and let me know what you think.
After beating Boston College in a closed scrimmage and then handling two other ACC opponents in Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech in exhibitions at the AMP, there is renewed excitement about this Providence team among the fanbase who has been a little more muted than usual likely due to all of the roster uncertainty around Dink Pate — who is back in the G-League with the Westchester Knicks — and Derek Simpson and Joe Pinion who are expected to have a hearing next week on their lawsuits against the NCAA.
But now the games are here for real. Providence should handle Maine with ease — the pcbb1917 consensus rating has these teams nearly 300 spots apart and a projected Friar win by 24.5 points — but a tough neutral site test awaits over the weekend against Nebraska at Mohegan Sun. As Friar basketball enters a new era with their 100th season, the Hodgson era is also officially underway.
Check out pcbb1917 Labs and, if you want to join a great community of Friar fans that is like a friend group chat, consider signing up for the pcbb1917 Discord.
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