There's a new chapter in RI's greatest basketball rivalry: PC vs. URI. What to know.
Wednesday marked a new chapter in the men’s basketball rivalry between Providence College and the University of Rhode Island.
This season’s Dec. 2 matchup at Amica Insurance Pavilion will be the first in an agreement formally announced in a morning statement. The Friars and Rams put pen to paper on a 10-year pact to alternate home dates through the 2032-33 campaign.
The coordinated press release included quotes from the four men at the forefront of the negotiations — Providence athletic director Steve Napolillo and coach Kim English, URI athletic director Thorr Bjorn and coach Archie Miller. It secured the immediate future of a series that was renewed at least once in every season from 1943-44 to 2020-21.
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“Locking in a 10-year series rather than going year-to-year shows the importance of this rivalry to both institutions,” Bjorn said. “I would like to thank Steve Napolillo for working with us on this significant commitment.”
“We look forward to keeping the tradition going for the next 10 years for all the Friar and Ram fans,” Napolillo said. “In addition to the excitement that it brings to the state, we recognize that the game also provides a significant economic impact for businesses in both communities.”
The two schools agreed to make “every effort” to play the game on the first Saturday of December. The specific date of the matchup will be announced by July 1 of every year. The Friars took home the most recent edition, an 88-74 victory over the Rams at the Ryan Center on Dec. 3.
“Rivalry games are what college basketball — and sports in general — are all about,” Miller said. “There is a natural energy and atmosphere that is exciting for players and fans alike, but more importantly these are the types of games that prepare a program for conference play and postseason.”
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“I know that the enthusiasm for the game between the two teams will be very high,” English said. “I look forward to experiencing this when we meet this year.”
Providence is 13-7 in the last 20 meetings, including a 7-1 mark at home. URI’s last win downtown occurred during the 2002-03 season, a 73-71 thriller. The Rams captured the first game in their new Kingston home the following year, an 89-79 surprise over a group of Friars bound for a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The departure of former Providence coach Ed Cooley to Georgetown offered a chance for both schools to start fresh. His stated goal every season was to reach March — deferring to tradition wasn’t his guiding principle. The Friars stopped playing Brown beginning in the 2018-19 season — a series that will resume this year on Dec. 10 — and allowed their series with URI to lapse in the first year following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Outside of a visit from a Power 5 program in a conference challenge — the Big East-Big 12 Battle, the Gavitt Games — the Rams at their maximum represent a local chance for Providence to improve its postseason resumé at home and on the road. URI’s visit in 2016-17 handed the Friars what would have been a top-50 home victory, according to the NCAA’s NET rankings, and Providence eventually secured one of its five consecutive March Madness bids. The Rams again were a top-50 foe when the Friars lost on the road in 2017-18, and it was URI who benefited with a No. 7 seed when the NCAA Tournament field was announced four months later.
Attendance figures — much as Providence fans occasionally resist the notion — suggest the Rams remain one of the primary draws over the nonconference portion of the schedule. The Friars sold out their 2018-19 home meeting with URI, grinding to a 59-50 win in front of an overflow crowd of 12,997 fans. Providence cracked 8,200 for just one of its other seven nonconference home games, and that happened for a loss to Massachusetts.
On Twitter: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence Friars and Rhode Island Rams basketball agree to new deal
