Well… this certainly wasn’t the article I was expecting myself to write to end the season. But here it is. After two seasons at Mason, Kim English has left for a new opportunity at Providence College, taking his abilities to the Big East.
After a season with a lot of promising development, especially towards the end of this past season, how quickly this transpired felt like a kick to the nuts. But as common place in College Basketball, we will have to move on. So this will be a recap who’s moving on currently, a recap of KE’s two seasons at Coach and my final thoughts on his time here.
Who’s Gone
Following KE to Providence will be assistant coach Dennis Felton, who KE said would be joining him in his introductory press conference with Providence media today. The status of the other two assistant coaches, Nate Tomlinson and Duane Simpkins, is still unknown at this point. However, Tomlinson was an English hire and it is expected he moves on, while Simpkins has been considered a top favorite for the open job at American for the past week, so its likely the entire coaching staff will be revamped for next season at this point.
In terms of players, Elvis Nnaji was already in the portal before the English to Providence news broke, while Blake Jones entry into the portal was apparently separate of the move from KE. However, two players entered the portal immediately after the announcement from Kim English, that being Justyn Fernandez and Ronald Polite III. Rumors have it that Fernandez will likely follow English to Providence, while Polite was also an expected move with English out the door.
George Mason G Justyn Fernandez has entered the transfer portal. https://t.co/zF2f1Ehw47
— Verbal Commits (@VerbalCommits) March 23, 2023
Mason Nation also got the expected news that Josh Oduro was leaving after his senior year. Oduro did not announce what he would do after in his instagram post, whether that will be the portal to use his COVID season or go pro, but this was an expected move from Oduro to be totally honest.
As of writing this piece, no other players have yet to enter the portal, nor have we heard anything from the upcoming 2023 class. We expect that to change in the coming days, but we of course hope these guys decide to stay at George Mason.
KE’s Two Seasons
Kim English went 14-16 and 20-13 in his only two seasons with George Mason. His second season was the first 20 win season for the Patriots in five years.
KE’s first season in charge saw the arrival of DeVon Cooper, D’Shawn Schwartz and Ticket Gaines in the portal, along with a late freshman addition in Blake Jones from Australia. The Patriots started hot, with a 4-0 start highlighted by a win on the road at then #20 Maryland. That was immediately followed up by a five game losing streak, including losses to Virginia rivals James Madison and Old Dominion, as well as going 0-3 in the midseason tournament in South Dakota that year. Mason proceeded to go 7-2 in their next nine, with home wins over St Bonaventure and Dayton the highlights, along with a strong loss to future national champions Kansas.
After the end of that run though, Mason would go 3-8 over the rest of the season, that included two losses to VCU, a loss to a bad La Salle team and a loss at home on senior night to UMass. The season was ended with a loss in the second round of the A-10 tournament, with a loss to Fordham where the offense was quiet again.
Going into his second season, English brought in one of the most hyped recruiting classes in Mason history, with four star Justyn Fernandez the highlight of the group. He also managed to keep a hold of DeVon Cooper for his final season, while keeping Oduro as well after the star center was awarded with 1st Team A-10 honors the previous year. English also brought in three more transfers, in Victor Bailey Jr, Saquan Singleton and Ginika Ojiako to fill out the bench, which was an issue in his first season.
However, the season did not start as well. A demolition at the hands of then #15 Auburn, plus once again going 0-3 in the midseason tournament led to a 2-4 start that had a lot of Mason nation grumbling. What followed was a 6-1 stretch to end Non-Con play, with what turned out to be nice wins over Hofstra, Toledo and Tulane. However, that one loss in that stretch was again to Old Dominion, which meant English was now 0-3 against in state rivals, which English did not seem to give much care about.
Conference play also started much worse this time, ending up at 5-7 after a road trip that saw the Patriots lose to bottom team Loy-Chi and then a 23 point loss to Duquesne that led to this rant by yours truly. However, the next six games would save the season. A six game winning streak to end conference play, that included wins over eventual top for finishers Dayton and Fordham, set optimism in the KE era to heights not seen since the win over Maryland the year prior. The win streak turned to seven with a win over Richmond in the first round of the A-10 tournament.
However, the English era ended with a whimper. A 28 point loss to St Louis in the A-10 quarters is what will be the last memories of the English era. Not a great ending.
My Final Thoughts
The English era took place over my junior and senior years of school, and compared to the first two years, I was certainly more excited by both. That’s what KE was good at, selling his players and selling this team. And it worked for me, I did get moments of great joy out of these seasons and it solidified me as a Mason fan for life.
However, past that, from what we were promised, I don’t feel great in the aftermath. Specifically in this past year, considering the talent on paper, I felt Mason should have done much better. I know that Ticket and VBJ both missed considerable time, which hurt, but losing Ticket specifically should not have hurt as much as it did. If it wasn’t for that seven game stretch at the end of the year, first I don’t think Kim English gets the Providence job and second I think this fanbase is much less certain about his ability as a coach.
There’s frustrations to how this ended for me, and I don’t think he lived up to what he promised here. I believe frustration with the Athletic Department and Administration is both understandable and warranted, you also need to win games, and considered the talent KE had in both seasons, he didn’t accomplish that to what he had in my opinion. Too many so so losses, especially away from EBA and too many times were minutes given to players who maybe hadn’t deserved them when they were given. He also didn’t do much in the very end to develop a student fan culture, which he then proceeded to complain about in his Providence intro presser. That was frustrating to me and felt like a slight at the school that was partially on his inability to build that culture. He’s a young coach and there are struggles that come with that, but those frustrations are going to be harder to deal with at a Big East school like Providence then here.
I wish he was staying, of course I do. But I can’t say I am completely despondent over this either. KE getting a upgrade does mean that Mason is now seen as a place coaches can go to to raise their profile and have success with that. We will certainly get someone good in our search, but to be honest there’s only one choice. It’s time to bring Tony Skinn home.
