Rhode Island has progressed from nine wins to 12 and then to 18 over coach Archie Miller’s first three seasons. Along the way, the Rams have added to their Atlantic 10 victory total each year, too.
And while there will be an almost entirely new cast on the court in Kingston, Miller sees more improvement on the way for Rhode Island this winter.
“I love our group. From the minute we assembled our [team and our] new guys, our young players and our returners have all gotten together, it became really apparent the quality of kid we have,” Miller said. “The work ethic of the group has been as impressive as any I’ve ever had anywhere.”
Fitting for the current moment in college basketball is a roster filled with contributors who played elsewhere last season. That includes guards Myles Corey (South Alabama), Jonah Hinton (St. Bonaventure) and R.J. Johnson (Charleston Southern), as well as wings Tyler Cochran (Minnesota) and Jahmere Tripp (Fordham). The Rams also picked up forwards Alex Crawford (Fresno State), Keeyan Itejere (Northern Kentucky) and Mouhamed Sow (Saint Peter’s).
Crawford, Corey and Johnson each averaged double figures last season. Cochran did so two years ago at Toledo, where he was the Mid-American Conference’s defensive player of the year.
Fortifying that end of the court was a priority for Miller, whose Rhode Island teams have struggled to get stops in conference play. Another aim was to get a grasp of just what the refurbished roster can do, and that set the course of the Rams’ offseason.
“We took a different approach way earlier in May, June and July with our group this year,” Miller said. “We had to treat our summer way more intense, way more time-consuming and way more playing basketball together than ever before.”
That process is far from finished as Rhode Island closes in on its Nov. 3 opener at home against Stetson, and it’s one likely to continue throughout nonconference play. Nonetheless, Miller is optimistic about what could be a breakout season for his program.
“Putting together and becoming the team we want is going to take some time, but I’m excited about our group,” Miller said.
A look at the Rams
Coach: Archie Miller, fourth season at Rhode Island, 39-55 with the Rams and 245-176 in 13 seasons overall.
Last year: The Rams looked like they would be the Atlantic 10’s surprise team when they opened with nine consecutive victories and entered league play at 11-1 overall. But they could never get traction after New Year’s Day, winning consecutive conference games just once on the way to an 18-13 finish that included a 7-11 A-10 record and a first-round exit in the league tournament.
They’ll miss: The reason it’s another reboot for the Rams is that nearly everyone who contributed last season is no longer in the program. The biggest departure is guard Sebastian Thomas, who averaged 17.2 points and six assists to land on the Atlantic 10’s Third Team All-Conference Team.
Impact returners: Graduate student Drissa Traore played in all 31 games last season and started two. The forward averaged 2.8 points and 2.5 rebounds and is the lone rotation regular back from a year ago.
Newcomers of note: There’s a good chance the most important of the many new faces will be the two veteran guards Miller acquired through the portal.
Myles Corey has scored more than 2,000 points in his college career, which started at NAIA school William Jessup and continued last season when he averaged 13.8 points and 4.3 rebounds at South Alabama.
RJ Johnson enters his sixth season in Division I, having played his first two campaigns at Holy Cross before starting for much of the last three years at Charleston Southern. He has 1,184 career points, and last season averaged 13.8 points and 4.5 assists, and Miller views him as “a true quarterback.”
“They’re both really sturdy,” Miller said. “As older guards in our league, they’re both going to really be able to get started on the defensive side of things to get us started.”
Reasons to be optimistic: No one wins a game walking through an airport or getting off a bus, but a team can certainly look the part. Rhode Island definitely checks that box.
The Rams ranked 38
th in KenPom.com’s adjusted tempo metric last season, and there’s a chance they play with even greater pace this season.
“We don’t have a player on our team this year that I would put in any category that can’t move,” Miller said. “We can really move as a group, top to bottom. Our frontcourt is faster than our guards at times. We have a very athletic group, so we’re going to have to play to that.”
X factor: Redshirt junior Jonah Hinton is another veteran guard who could make an impact, and he has the benefit of Atlantic 10 experience.
The Rams recruited the 6-foot-3 Hinton out of the junior college ranks, though he chose St. Bonaventure. He averaged 8.4 points while starting much of the season for the Bonnies and is optimistic he can have an even larger role in Rhode Island’s wide-open scheme.
“Having the coaches behind you gives you a different sense of confidence,” Hinton said. “Having the ball in my hands a lot more, being able to make decisions, facilitate for the team, whatever the team needs that night. I’m going to be a lot more comfortable in that role with the ball in my hands.”
Circle the date: Rhode Island becomes the latest Atlantic 10 team to participate in the Veterans Classic when it meets Tulsa in Annapolis, Md., on Nov. 7. The Rams also have their annual rivalry matchup with Providence on Dec. 6 on the road.
Bottom line: There is little continuity and a lot of new contributors, so it’s hard to draw too much from even last year’s experiences. Yet given how that season unfolded --- a fast start followed by a sub-.500 showing in conference play --- these Rams will be judged based on how they fare against Atlantic 10 competition. If the veterans guard mesh well, that evaluation will probably be a good one.
Patrick Stevens is a veteran college basketball writer that has worked for The Washington Post, Syracuse Media Group and The Washington Times. He has written selected pieces for the Atlantic 10 since 2013.