Stefan Vaaks announced his intention to enter transfer portal
By KEVIN McNAMARA
The NCAA’s transfer portal won’t officially open until April 7 but that’s not stopping dozens of men’s hoop players from announcing their intention to become free agents. That includes a few Providence College Friars.
In what can only be termed an unexpected development, PC freshman Stefan Vaaks announced Tuesday he’s entering the portal via his Instagram account. Vaaks enjoyed a superb freshman season with the Friars as he averaged 15.8 points on 40 percent shooting and 35 percent shooting from the 3-point line. He led the Friars with 91 three-point shots and 68 percent of his attempts came from downtown. Vaaks, a native of Estonia, eclipsed 20 points in 10 games and was named to the Big East All-Rookie team.
Vaaks did struggle defensively on a Friar team that allowed a whopping 85.3 points per game and finished 176th in the country in defensive efficiency.
Vaaks was a little-known recruit and excellent find by Kim English and his staff. English credited assistant coach Matt Palumbo with finding Vaaks via scouting the European pro leagues. He arrived in Providence last summer and was recovering from knee surgery but once he regained his health it was clear that the 20-year old could be one of the team’s top offensive threats.
After scoring 28 and 23 points with 13 threes in Big East Tournament games against Butler and St. John’s last week, Vaaks was asked about the Friars’ inconsistent season and said, “I think it’s been a lot of ups and downs and I think we had the talent, but we couldn’t, like, put it together.”
English said that he never planned on Vaaks and fellow freshman Jamier Jones to be instant starters and team leaders in their first collegiate season. The same for sophomores Oswin Erhunmwunse and Ryan Mela, but injuries and some disappointing production from veteran players (most transfer recruits) sped up that timeline.
“I would say we ended up being a younger team than we anticipated,” English said. “We didn’t know the role Stefan Vaaks would play. We knew he would be a rotational player. We knew Jamier Jones would be a rotational player. Oswin, even back to his freshman year, we didn’t think he would be a starting center in the Big East as a freshman. Ryan Mela is a sophomore. We ended up younger than we thought we would be, and that’s youth. That’s youth. These guys will grow older and become really good players.”
It’s certainly possible that Vaaks could remain at Providence once the school hires a new head coach. However if Vaaks truly weighs his value on the open market he’s certainly going to attract a lot of attention.
Vaaks wasn’t the only Friar to announce that he’s headed to the portal. Sophomore guard Daquan Davis made the same decision, according to Joe Tipton of On3Sports. Davis was a transfer point guard from Florida State who came to PC with an existing knee injury, appeared to recover, but then shut his season down after just three games. Davis would be eligible for a medical redshirt and retain three years of eligibility (and three more years of NIL/Revenue share checks).
It would be no surprise if most of the Friars’ top underclassmen choose to enter the transfer portal and do not return to Providence, even after meeting the new coach and getting their NIL/Rev Share offers for the 2026-27 year. Vaaks, Jones, Mela and Erhunmwunse all would have significant market value as transfers, and would potentially own a similar value to PC’s next coaching staff. That point was emphasized by athletic director Steve Napolillo in a press briefing he held at PC on Monday.
“I expect in this (new) reality that all, many, kids will go in the portal just to see what their value is,” Napolillo said. “That’s the reality of the industry, I think it’s a sad part of it, but you have to remember that every single student-athlete has an agent now and every single student-athlete wants to see what their value is on the free market. That’s not solely at Providence College . Every school is going through the same thing.”
