Providence basketball coach Kim English has a warning for teams attempting to lure his players away.
Kim English spoke the calm portion aloud. His heated social media statement late Tuesday night seems like a suitable conclusion to the latest round of transfer portal mystery.
That window was set to close Wednesday, with no more basketball players eligible to compete before the 2024-25 season.
Providence College’s men’s coach made some not-so-subtle comments to alleged tampering with members of his projected squad for next season. The Friars completed their job early in this current cycle, securing four commitments that were expected to be completed with additions and subtractions well ahead of schedule. It appears that there were some late attempts to entice at least one of their players to further assess his value on the open market.
“Just call me and [let me know] if you want to recruit our players,” English said. “Leave them and their families alone. Call me. I’ll see if they want to play for your programs.”
Type shii… To all the tampering Head Coaches and Assistant coaches and flunkies… just call me and lmk if you want to recruit our players. Leave them and their families alone. Call me. I’ll see if they want to play for your programs. Yall have my number.
English didn’t mention a specific name of any rival coach who might have made contact. He also didn’t reveal which Providence returners or newcomers might have been targeted. Whether or not he eventually goes public with that information isn’t the point here.
This process is begging for meaningful reform. The NCAA obstructed and deflected and denied for years until getting bounced out of state and federal court in a series of embarrassing defeats. What’s become obvious over time — whatever version of amateurism they hoped to enforce while profiting exponentially has been shattered.
What remains? Anarchy, in part. Administrators and coaches are standing on the rulebook equivalent of quicksand and it can shift at any moment. Think about all that’s changed in the recruiting landscape over the past five years — the next five could lead us to an equally unrecognizable place.
Let’s start with what we’ve always known to be fact and work from there. That involves bringing the truth into the open and adjusting to it.
Stop pretending this was ever fair.
Legacy brands have always attracted the most talent one way or another. Surreptitious spending to bring in recruits has been rumored longer than cable television has existed — we’re verging on a second generation of internet streaming. Now it’s just closer to the surface through the establishment of name, image and likeness collectives.
Smaller schools hire a game-changing coach? They’ve just about always been whisked away to bigger jobs with more resources on hand. Those personalities and their new homes were the only ones allowed to openly profit — that’s very clearly changed.
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