by Andrew Vines ’29 on January 22, 2026
Men's Basketball
The Friars’ men’s basketball team tipped off Big East play on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025 at Butler University. Coming into conference play with a record of 7–4 and only one major win over Penn State, a below average Big Ten team, Kim English and his team needed to start conference play hot. At the historic Hinkle Fieldhouse the Friars had a halftime lead of four points and things looked promising. At the end of regulation, the score was all tied up at 89–89. After the first overtime, it remained tied. The Bulldogs would win the game in double overtime with a score of 113–110. Jason Edwards ’26G had a huge game in the defeat where he scored 32 points off of the bench, shooting 6–13 from beyond the arc to go along with six assists.
The Friars conference home opener was against Seton Hall University. Shaheem Halloway and his squad came into the game 10–1 after a strong non-conference campaign. The Friars looked to bounce back in front of a home crowd that was without students. The game was close the whole way through, but the Pirates pulled through in the end, winning 72–67. Once again English and his squad could not pull out a win in a close game. With the fanbase upset after a rough start to conference play English needed a win.
After a 15-day break English and his team were headed to Madison Square Garden to face Rick Pitino, Bryce Hopkins, and the St. John’s Johnnies. Despite the team being 7–6, the fans showed up for this big game. St. John’s took a 13–0 lead and things did not look good. The Friars took their first lead of 25–24 with 4:44 to go in the first half. By the end of the half this lead was gone and would not return until Stefan Vaaks ’29 hit a three to take a 72– 70 lead with less than two minutes to go. The Friars held the lead the rest of the game, with the final score being 77–71. Vaaks had 16 points shooting 4–6 from the three-point line and Jamier Jones ’29 had 15 points and led the team in rebounds, leading the way to a Friar victory. The belief was back in the fanbase after this huge win.
This belief and momentum were heard at the Amica Mutual Pavilion when No. 4 University of Connecticut came to town. This game was controlled by the Friars who had the lead from about five minutes left in the first half up to 13 seconds left in the game. This lead peaked at 13 points. The Huskies ended up winning 103–98 in overtime. Ryan Mela ’28 had a very impressive game off of the bench with 19 points, which included some big buckets late in the game. The fanbase was crushed after this loss. Things only got worse as the Friars would then drop their next two games. These included a road loss to Xavier University, which was never close, and ended in a 97–84 Musketeers victory. The next loss came at home to a strong Villanova University team. Jaylin Sellers ’26G had an impressive 24 points in the loss.
The Friars hosted Creighton University on a Friday night with the fanbase very upset with English. The team put up a great performance against a bubble team. Oswin Erhunmwunse ’28 played a great game where he grabbed 13 rebounds, which had been a struggle for the team all season. Vaaks once again put up a great performance with 24 points and seven assists in a 93–88 victory.
Overall, the team has looked talented in conference play, but the results have been disappointing. The team has been in most of these games yet has not been able to pull out wins. The rest of conference play and the Big East tournament will be very important for the future of this team.