It’s not always easy for mid-major college basketball programs to achieve sustained success. For many years, cheap Rhode Island basketball tickets were plentiful because the Rams struggled to gain traction. But the Rams have also had plenty of moments in the spotlight while producing over a dozen NBA players. In recent years, the program has started to come alive again, making last-minute Rhode Island basketball tickets a hot commodity for hoops fans throughout New England.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

URI has played basketball since the 1903-04 season. The Rams started to show promise as an independent in the 1930s, eventually earning an invitation to the Yankee Conference and immediately becoming the league’s dominant program. When they joined the league, Rhode Island immediately won the conference championship six years in a row. Rhode Island continued to be one of the top teams in the Yankee Conference through the 1960s and 70s.

New Heights

The Rams saw a boost in their success during the 1990s under head coach Al Skinner. They reached the NCAA Tournament in 1997 under Skinner, who handed the reins to Jim Harrick the following season. Under Harrick, future NBA players Tyson Wheeler and Cuttino Mobley led Rhode Island on an improbable run to the Elite Eight as a no. 8 seed, falling three points shy of a spot in the Final Four.

Rhode Island experienced another surge under Dan Hurley, who rebuilt the program almost from scratch. In just six seasons, he transformed the Rams from an 8-21 team to champions of the Atlantic-10 and a team that reached the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons for the first time in nearly 20 years. While Hurley left Rhode Island in 2018, longtime assistant David Cox took over, inheriting a program with the potential to be one of the top mid-major programs in the country for many years to come.