Rhode Island has been rising in recent years. With returning guards and solid coaching, this is the year that the Rams get back on top of the Atlantic 10.
Rhode Island basketball joined the Atlantic 10 before the 1982-83 season. Despite years of competition in the conference, the Rams have never won a regular season conference title. There have been several second-place finishes but the program is still desperately searching for that first title in the conference.
Last season, the team had high expectations but did not reach their potential until late in the season, when the team won the conference tournament to receive the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Once there, the No. 11 seed Rams knocked off Creighton before falling to Oregon (who reached the Final Four).
After finishing third in the conference a year ago, head coach Dan Hurley brings back enough talent to be the preseason frontrunner to take the conference title home to Rhode Island. Led by senior E.C. Matthews and an elite group of guards, this team has what it takes to make a big run.
Last season, Matthews averaged a team-high 14.9 points per game while shooting pretty efficiently. When Rhode Island needed him most last season, Matthews stepped up at the No. 1 reason that the team won the automatic bid for the conference. In the Atlantic 10 conference tournament, Matthews averaged 19.3 points and 5.7 rebounds per game (over three games) while splashing home 10 of his 15 3-point attempts (66.7%).
Joining Matthews as a key returner this season is Jared Terrell. Also entering his senior season, Terrell has averaged double-figured per game in each of the last two seasons. Terrell averaged 12.6 points per game last season and showed up big in the NCAA Tournament, shooting 52.6% from the field and dropping in 13.5 points per game in two contests.
Rounding out the veteran-laden backcourt of the Rams is the floor general, Jarvis Garrett. Sure, his per game averages (6.0 points, 3.0 assists) do not jump off the page, but he is a great leader for this team. While Terrell and Matthews are the ones supplying the majority of the points for the backcourt, Garrett is the one who gets them the ball. He has an assist-to-turnover ratio that is greater than two, which is indicative both of his ability to find his teammates and take care of the ball.
The depth behind these three is nothing to just gloss over, though. Another senior guard, Stanford Robinson, is returning as a shooter (37.5% from three) and an elite defender. His ability to lockdown top offensive options is incredibly valuable to the team and he also is capable of exploding for scoring outputs like the 21-point performance (10-for-12 shooting) he put up in the season’s final game against Oregon last season.
Joining Robinson as a guard off the bench will be sophomore Jeff Dowtin. Dowtin was named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team last year while starting 19 games. He is a pass-first guard (2.76 assist-to-turnover ratio) who does a great job taking care of the ball. It was just his first season in college basketball last year, but he often times played with veteran-like poise. In his first career NCAA Tournament game against Creighton, he had no trouble with the big moment, dropping home a season-high 23 points. He averaged 5.5 points and 2.2 assists per game on the season.
With these guards expected to be major contributors at the point and on the wings this season, Rhode Island is in great shape. This group is what makes Rhody such a dangerous team in the Atlantic 10 this season and if their relatively young frontcourt is able to develop quickly under Coach Hurley, then this could be a team poised to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
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Losing players like Hassan Martin and Kuran Iverson is tough, but this team has the talent to make up for it. Last season, one of their biggest problems was consistency from 3-point land and hopefully that can be improved upon this season. With this backcourt talent in the lineup and off the bench, Rhody could easily win their first regular-season Atlantic 10 title.