URI Basketball Enters A-10 Tournament as 10th Seed

URI Basketball Enters A-10 Tournament as 10th Seed

For the first time in four years, the URI men’s basketball team is getting a bye in the first round of the A-10 Men’s Basketball Championship.

 

Although they staggered through the end of the season, losing six of their last eight games, the Rams finished 10th in the 14-team conference. Rhode Island will play #7 seed, Duquesne, at 5:00 PM on Thursday, March 12th.

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A-10 Tournament takes place in Pittsburgh

The postseason conference tournament is taking place at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA. All 14 teams in the Conference qualify for the tournament, with the bottom 4 teams playing in the first round on Wednesday. The tournament continues every day through Sunday. To win the tournament, teams in the first round must play 5 games over 5 days. It is considered an impossible task, and no team has ever done it.

 

URI has played in the opening round in each of the last three years and lost its first game. As the head coach at URI, Archie Miller has not won a game in the A-10 Tournament.

 

St. Louis #1 seed

St. Louis, which was upset and lost their last regular-season game, and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) both finished conference play at 16-3 and share the regular-season title. St. Louis, ranked #27 in the country, will be the #1 seed by virtue of its head-to-head win over VCU, which will be the #2 seed.

 

URI has split its two games with Duquesne this season. On February 1st, the Rams lost at Duquesne by 15 points – 76-61. On March 4th, the Rams beat the Dukes at the Ryan Center by 12 points – 64-52.

 

URI and Duquesne stats

In conference play, URI is ranked 12th in scoring at 66.6 PPG and 4th in defense, allowing 68.9 PPG. The ranking numbers are inverted for Duquesne: they are 5th in scoring at 73.8 PPG and 11th in defense, allowing 75.4 PPG.

 

In other conference play stats, Duquesne is slightly better, with the greatest differences being in shooting percentage (Dukes 43%, URI 41%), rebounding (Dukes 33.6, URI 31.6), assists (Dukes 13.4, URI 11.3), and turnovers (Dukes 11.7, URI 12.6).  

 

Notable players

Notable players for Duquesne are 6’2” senior guard Tarence Guinyard, who is 2nd in the A-10 in scoring at 17.8 PPG, and 4th in assists at 4.4 APG, and 6’9” senior forward David Dixon, who is 3rd in the A-10 in field goal percentage at 59%, and 5th in rebounding at 6.8 RPG.

 

URI’s 6’9” senior Keeyan Itejere is 2nd in the A-10 in field goal percentage at 61% and 11th in rebounding at 5.9 RPG. URI’s Tyler Cochran is 4th in the A-10 in scoring at 16.7 PPG, 1st in steals at 2.5 SPG, and 6th in rebounding at 6.8 RPG.

 

The winner of the Duquesne-URI game will play VCU on Friday, March 13th at 5:00 PM.

 

Lack of momentum

URI has struggled down the stretch during the last four years under Miller. Going into the A-10 Tournament, they have lost 6 of their last 8 games this year, 4 of their last 5 games in 2024-25, 7 of their last 8 in 2023-24, and 8 of their last 9 in 2022-23. These poor finishes and lack of a win in the A-10 Tournament have resulted in disappointing seasons.

 

National rankings

URI is currently ranked #144 in the country, and Duquesne is ranked #140. The A-10 currently has 5 teams ranked in the top 100.

 

St. Louis #27

VCU #44

Dayton #74

George Mason #88

George Washington #89

 

A-10 Tournament favors top teams

The A-10 Championship is structured to protect its top teams. The top four finishers from the regular season get two byes. These teams don’t play in the tournament until the quarter finals and only have to play three games to win it all. Other schools have to win 4 or 5 games.

 

The A-10 is not part of the cabal that controls college basketball and selection into the March Madness Tournament.  The conference struggles to get more than one team into the NCAA Tournament. The last thing the A-10 wants is for its top teams to get upset by a lower-seeded school. For example, this year, if VCU at #44 gets beaten in an early round, they risk dropping out of the top 50 and not getting invited to the NCAAs.

 

In 17 of the last 23 years, the A-10 Conference Tournament winner was one of the top four seeds. The last time URI won the A-10 Tournament and received the automatic bid to the NCAAs was in 2017. They were the #4 seed and beat the #2 seed VCU in the championship game, 70-63.