The Rhode Island Rams gave the Atlantic 10 one of its great March runs in 1998. Under Jim Harrick, with Cuttino Mobley and freshman phenom Lamar Odom, the Rams stormed to the Elite Eight — pushing Stanford to overtime before falling one game short of the Final Four. It remains the program's deepest tournament run and one of the most beloved teams in school history.
The Ryan Center in Kingston is one of the A-10's great home courts: modern, loud, and full of fans who remember 1998 like it was yesterday. Rhode Island basketball has always been a sleeping giant — a flagship state university with the resources and fan base to be a consistent winner.
The Rams have danced in the modern era too, with back-to-back tournament trips in 2017 and 2018 behind E.C. Matthews and Hassan Martin. The 2017 team gave Final Four-bound Oregon everything it could handle in the second round, falling 75-72, proving the program's March DNA endured.
Rhode Island's identity is New England toughness: physical, defensive, and unafraid. In the A-10's nightly wars, the Rams have always been the team nobody wants to face in March.
What defines the Rams is the 1998 run and the Kingston pride. An Elite Eight, two modern Dances, and a program that knows what the second weekend feels like. In Kingston, Rhody basketball is always one hot March from glory.
Jim Harrick's 1998 Elite Eight run was the program's finest hour: Cuttino Mobley, Lamar Odom — the freshman phenom — pushing Stanford to overtime in the regional final. One game from the Final Four, and the heartbreak still stings in Kingston.
Lamar Odom's single Rhody season launched a 14-year NBA career: the versatile forward's brilliance made the 1998-99 Rams must-watch. His Kingston legacy is secure.
The 2017 and 2018 Dances proved the DNA endures: back-to-back tournament trips — E.C. Matthews' brilliance — the Rams' return to March after nearly two decades. The Ryan Center believed again.
In the Atlantic 10's wars, Rhody plays the sleeping giant: the flagship university, the resources, the fans — and the 1998 tape as the standard. The second weekend is the mission.
In Kingston, the 1998 Elite Eight tape plays on loop: Mobley, Odom, and one game from the Final Four. The Ryan Center believes the second weekend is coming back.
Archie Miller’s Rams head into 2026–27 with a schedule that respects them — five nationally televised games and an Atlantic 10 slate carrying real expectations. The league run opens December 30 at Saint Joseph’s, a building where URI has dropped three straight trips, then the home opener January 2 against George Mason on USA Sports. Single road dates at Saint Louis (January 26, CBS Sports Network) and VCU (February 10, CBS Sports Network) send the Rams into the lairs of the league’s last two heavyweights — the Billikens and the defending A-10 tournament champions. The season closes with a February 27 home date against Dayton — Miller facing the program he led to four NCAA Tournaments in the 2010s — and St. Bonaventure on March 6.
The reason for the optimism: last season proved the ceiling. On February 17, URI stunned Saint Louis 81-76 — the program’s first win over a top-25 opponent in more than eight years, powered by Jonah Hinton’s three-point barrage against a Billiken team that had started 24-1. A month earlier, Jahmere Tripp and Tyler Cochran combined for 43 points to beat George Mason 74-65 in Kingston. Those were statement wins, the kind that fill the Ryan Center with belief.
The portal brought a prize: Matas Deniusas, the 6-foot-9 Lithuanian forward who was the Ohio Valley Conference Rookie of the Year at Tennessee Martin. Deniusas averaged 12.5 points and 5.2 rebounds last season, hit double figures 24 times, and chose URI over A-10 rival Richmond and Minnesota after starring for Lithuania at the FIBA EuroBasket last summer. He played professionally with BC Rytas Vilnius II before college ball — a grown-man addition to a frontcourt that needed one.
The league around them is loaded. VCU, under Phil Martelli Jr., won the A-10 tournament in his first season and authored a first-round NCAA upset of North Carolina before falling to Illinois, closing 28-8. Saint Louis started 24-1 and claimed the regular-season crown. Saint Joseph’s won 24 games in Steve Donahue’s first year. In that company, URI is the sleeping giant with a 1998 Elite Eight tape and a Kingston crowd that remembers what March feels like. The second weekend is the mission — and this season, the schedule says the Rams are ready to chase it.
There's a deeper current here, too: Rhode Island basketball has always been a sleeping giant in a league full of programs that spend like giants. The flagship state university, a modern arena, a New England recruiting footprint that produces toughness as reliably as anything in the country — the ingredients have never been in question. What Miller is building is the belief that the second weekend is a destination, not a memory. The 1998 tape, the back-to-back Dances of 2017 and 2018, the Saint Louis stunner last February — they're all chapters of the same story: Rhody belongs in March. This season, with a national-television slate and a roster built around a proven portal star, the Rams get their chance to write the next one.