Projo College Hoops

BY PAUL KENYON
Journal Sports Writer

The Atlantic 10 today announced its scheduling pattern for men's basketball for next season and it contains some surprises for the University of Rhode Island.

The Rams will play several of the top contenders at home. Dayton, Xavier and Massachusetts, all of whom figure to be among the conference's best, all will visit the Ryan Center. That is something of a surprise, at least in Xavier's case, since URI also hosted the Musketeers last season.

"This is an exciting and challenging home A-10 schedule," said Rhody head coach Jim Baron. "Our fans will be able to enjoy some of the best that the conference has to offer this season at the Ryan Center."

Obviously, the schedule is not merely a reversal of last season. The conference went to a new scheduling pattern last year and some, including this corner, assumed the schedule would merely be flipped in the second season. That is not the case. The Xavier situation stands out. The Rams will get to host the league's best program two years in a row without having to visit the Cintas Center.

Among other changes, URI has new "partners," that is, teams it will meet twice. Like last season, the Rams will play UMass home and home. That is part of the conference's effort to have natural rivals meet twice.

Last season, URI met George Washington and Dayton twice. The new partners this year, along with UMass, are Fordham and Temple.

It all makes it difficult to figure out where conference officials expect URI to finish. The new scheduling pattern makes an effort to group teams and have schools play within those groups, strong against strong, weak against weak. It is tough to decide how the conference sees URI since Temple is the reigning A-10 tournament champion, UMass was strong last season and figures to be strong again, while Fordham struggled last season and loses much of its team.

Dates will be announced later. Here is URI's slate for A-10 play:

HOME: Dayton, Fordham, La Salle, Massachusetts, St. Bonaventure, Saint Louis, Temple, Xavier.

AWAY: Charlotte, Duquesne, Fordham, George Washington, Massachusetts, Richmond, Saint Joseph's, Temple.

 Tags  Jim Baron URI

---