URI Exhibition Preview: Showdown with an old rival in Uncasville
UConn and the University of Rhode Island have met 145 times before on the hardwood. Monday night’s exhibition at Mohegan Sun Arena won’t count towards this record, but the rivalry is cherished by many UConn fans, with memories including the 1970 Slowdown Game, the 1966 and 1967 season finales, and tough battles with the Rams over the years across all sports in the Yankee Conference.
Tonight’s exhibition tips off at 6:00 p.m. on NBC Boston and UConn+ out of market. Storrs Central will have the message board going, live updates on Twitter, plus game coverage and post-game interviews on the site!
“Mohegan is a place that we want to try to play at once a year if we can moving forward,” head coach Dan Hurley said in a Sunday call with the media.
UConn basketball’s trajectory with the Big East and Jim Calhoun put it on a much different path compared to its old rivals at URI. These two teams haven’t met since December 26, 2000, an 87-76 Husky win at the Hartford Civic Center to give them a healthy 77-68 advantage in the all-time series.
In 2018, UConn looked to its little brother in the east for its next head coach and struck gold. Hurley enters his seventh season at the helm in Storrs and 15th season as a Division 1 program leader including six years at URI.
His Husky squad has been a model of success in the NIL and transfer portal era, finishing the last two seasons No. 1 in KenPom overall efficiency in addition to claiming consecutive titles with the largest cumulative margin of victory ever. He’s also done a remarkable job in recruiting and retention.
They enter the 2024-2025 season with questions about who will step up, but plenty of talented and exciting candidates are eager to answer the call. No matter what, it’s going to be an interesting year as UConn certainly has the talent to contend for a three-peat.
For Monday night, Hurley and his staff are not engaging in their normal game-planning process, he shared.
“Really dialing into a personnel gameplan, there’s none of that for closed scrimmages, there’s none of that for us in exhibitions,” he said, adding that his mind is focused inward on the team. He shared that he’s concerned about their rotations, transition defense, and rebounding, among a “list of things” he’s not pleased with.
Still, the public exhibition offers an opportunity to raise money for charity, connect with stakeholders in a different part of the state, build excitement for the upcoming hoops season, and try out some new lineups.
“You want to see different combinations of players,” Hurley said. “We’d like to see some growth in some players, see how players respond in a game-like atmosphere. It’s nice to be able to have an opening night type of feel so you can get that out of the way.”
What’s New? (A lot)
Husky fans are undoubtedly relishing the current two-year stretch that is by far the most successful for the program under any head coach, and it seems like the Huskies’ reign of dominance is just getting started.
Look at the recruiting results after the Huskies clinched back-to-back.
They added a talented big from Michigan, one of the best underclassmen guards in the country, and a five-star de-commit who Hurley was calling “Larry Bird,” when he was watching him on the recruiting trail, according to an assistant coach.
“By the time we start playing, I think he's going to be consistently, really good this year for us,” Hurley said of Liam McNeeley, who’s being projected as an early NBA Draft pick next year.
Speaking of assistant coaches, the staff remains intact — they’re locked in on the recruiting trail and blazing new trails for strategic sophistication in college basketball. UConn recently got its first 2025 commit in Darius Adams, a consensus top-25 prospect.
Today, we’ll get a chance to see what the new additions can bring to the table, what kinds of improvements the returning guys are capable of, and how a reformatted team is going to go about meshing together and finding its best units. We’re also going to see two more exciting freshmen in Ahmad Nowell, a “Philly-tough” guard, and Isaiah Abraham, a wing from the DMV.
It looks like UConn’s rotation and overall approach will be much more varied, as Hurley has indicated that some starting positions are not yet set. He also shared that while he expects to have everybody available to play Monday night, some guys are “nicked up” with minor issues and may be game-time decisions.
The Huskies enter the season overflowing with optimism, and rightfully so, but they also have a lot to figure out after losing four starters to the NBA, including two who were drafted in the lottery.
They’ve got a superstar who Hurley credits with helping lead the ascent of the program in Alex Karaban, two sophomores expected to flourish with more opportunities in Jaylin Stewart and Solo Ball, and veteran leaders in Hassan Diarra and Samson Johnson who were key rotation players last season. That’s the core that they’ve added a lot of new pieces onto.
“We’re not gonna look like we did when we last played. This won’t look like Phoenix,” Hurley said. “We’re a work in progress right now, but I think it’s exciting to get the opportunity to go out and play against somebody else.”
They open the season on Wednesday, November 6th at Gampel Pavilion. The game starts at 7 p.m. and will be televised on FS1.
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