After disappointing season ends, what’s next for Rhode Island basketball?

NEW YORK — Tuesday night sealed a somewhat sobering reality for the University of Rhode Island.

A defeat against Saint Louis in the Atlantic 10 tournament confirmed what’s been known for the better part of four months. The Rams will be left out of the NCAA Tournament for the sixth straight season. They’ve reached just two of the last 25 editions of the event.

That’s an extended period of struggle. And the architect who crafted that pair of runs is about to bid for a second straight national championship. Dan Hurley is currently an outlier on a list of five coaches that dates back to Jim Harrick.

“The season was a disappointment,” URI coach Archie Miller said. “Whether the record speaks to any improvement, it was a disappointment.

“We had enough talent in the room, but we couldn’t overachieve. Very difficult time all year trying to jell. Very difficult time all year long with the inexperience.”

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Previous runs to March Madness in Kingston were sparked by the growth and development of a core group together. How far away is URI from that next successful nucleus? Is it possible for a modern version of the Rams to construct such a thing given the changes across the sport’s landscape?

Those are more troubling – and more nuanced – questions.

URI won three more games overall and one more in league play in Miller’s second season. The Rams sought to improve one of their worst offenses in the KenPom.com era and did so – they climbed nearly 150 spots and almost an adjusted 10 points per 100 possessions compared to 2022-23. That progress didn’t extend to the defensive end, and it was there where URI was exposed culturally.

“We needed to get better players,” Miller said. “We needed to get some shooting. We did that. But we didn’t have an edge about us. We didn’t have a toughness about us. We didn’t have a system down defensively.

“We’ve got to get back to doing that. We need some experience with that.”

That requires continuity and personal investment. The Rams put 10 new players in uniform in 2023-24 – seven of them appeared in this 74-71 defeat at Barclays Center. How well and how quickly could they have been expected to mesh together? How willing were they to sacrifice for a program that was a new home for most of them?

That’s the increasingly difficult calculus for Miller to solve in this era of the transfer portal and of name, image and likeness rights. You could imagine a rotation going forward with leading returning scorers David Green and Jaden House, freshman duo Cam Estevez and David Fuchs, incoming first-year players Ben Hammond and Tyonne Farrell, improvements elsewhere on the roster and strategic additions from the outside. Theoretically, with the right sort of mental steel, that cohesive lineup would be enough to compete most nights.

“Togetherness, toughness – all of those things that go into winning – were very hard for our group,” Miller said. “I think that’s something that’s probably more important going forward than adding more players. We need to get a group to believe in what we do, and we have to work really hard to establish that group.”

All URI would have to do from there is ward off other programs from enticing its talent. Bigger stages, greater immediate financial opportunities and the promises of more – it could prove difficult for a potential newcomer to look at a half-empty Ryan Center, enjoy a standout season between the lines and avoid thinking he couldn’t do better elsewhere.

“It’s very difficult to go into a season where no one knows the guys on your roster,” Miller said. “We need to bring back a significant portion of this roster that’s about the right things, and we need our fans to start to grow with them a little bit.

“We need our place to start to understand who they are. They’ve seen them play. That’s the first step in really trying to get to that next step – having that continuity. Whatever that number is, it’s important.”

Miller and his staff publicly shouldered their portion of the blame throughout the season. Regardless of how much more freedom players might enjoy in 2023-24, the largest share of the responsibility and financial resources stops with the adults. The Rams enter this critical offseason without the late start that preceded Miller’s first year or the scrambling to fill larger holes that defined the second. It’s time to find some solutions before the problems become even greater.

“That all comes back to me,” Miller said. “As you look at how things are going right now, you do need some returning players. You do need to have some guys who have played together. You won’t have so much teaching to do.

“Hopefully at some point the players can start teaching the new guys – whoever they are.”

bkoch@providencejournal.com

On X: @BillKoch25