The Friars will leading offensive facilitator Stefan Vaaks. (Providence College Athetics)
This week, projected late first round picks Ebuke Okario (Stanford), Henri Veesaar (UNC) and Isaiah Evans (Duke) all said they plan to remain in the NBA draft; in the wake of the Duke-Amazon TV deal, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips has been supportive; and former Providence player Duncan Powell had one of the charges against him dismissed. Other college basketball stories we’re tracking include…
Friars Lose Top Distributor
Speaking of the Providence Friars, since winning 27 games and going to the regional semifinal in 2021-22, it’s been a tough slog. They got back to the tourney the following season, but have been shut out since, bottoming out with 20 losses in 2024-25.
Providence showed a bit of progress last season, winning 15 games, yet is expected to be a top 40 team in 2026-27 as it transitions into the post Kim English era.
New head coach Bryan Hodgson has overseen a massive roster overhaul, including the loss of leading assist man and No. 3 scorer Stefan Vaaks, who transferred to Illinois.
Vaaks definitely upped his value with a huge Big East tourney, scoring 28 points in the first round win and then helping the Friars hang around against No. 13 St. John’s before getting knocked out. In that game, he put up 23 points – 19 in the second half when the Friars tried to climb out of a big hole.
As a freshman guard last season, he played heavy minutes in a mostly starting role, showing a nice touch from deep and an ability to accumulate points at the stripe. Vaaks is a strong playmaker, so it’s going to be fun watching him run the Illini offense next season – something that could really help bump up his already strong stock for the 2027 NBA draft.
At 6’7” and gifted with a versatile offensive game, he has been called “Baby Luka,” and that has to whet the appetite for what he might bring to the NBA. Vaaks’ emergence last season might have caught more than a few people by surprise, but he won’t be sneaking up on anyone as he start thinking about next year’s draft.
ASU Enters New Era
Another team that took a step forward last season after a couple of tough years was the Arizona State Sun Devils. While ASU has now missed the NCAA tourney for three straight campaigns, at least it enjoyed its first winning record since the last time it made it to March Madness, in 2022-23.
The Sun Devils managed to make the second round of the Big 12 tourney before turnovers doomed them as No. 7 Iowa State crushed them, 91-42. Ouch.
That marked the end of the Bobby Hurley era, as the coach was fired after 11 years at Arizona State, five of which resulted in a winning record.
New head coach Randy Bennett has his work cut out for him with a team that has some pretty long odds to win the National Championship next season (+10000 as per FanDuel).
While the team added a whopping seven players through the portal, he’ll have to navigate that journey without big man Santiago Trouet, as the team’s leading rebounder from last season has opted to spend his senior season at Ole Miss.
A 6’11” native of Argentina, he finished 12th in offensive rebounds in the Big 12 last season and shook off a middling offensive season by scoring 13 points in both Big 12 tourney games, recording a double-double in the loss to Iowa St.
In his first season at ASU after spending two campaigns with San Diego, Trouet was used almost exclusively as a starter, but he didn’t get as many touches as he’d received with the Toreros. The good news is that he wasn’t nearly as turnover prone last season.
The PF/C isn’t considered much of an NBA prospect, although Trouet been compared to current Laker Jarred Vanderbilt, who has managed to carve out a decent 374-game career to date.
RotoRob Tune of the Day
Everyday People was a ’70s rock band from Canada who were led by Bruce Wheaton, who also worked with Mama Cass. The band released one album, an eponymous effort from 1971, and the lead single was “You Make Me Wonder.”