In a joint press release on Monday, University of Rhode Island Athletic Director Thorr Bjorn and Providence College Athletic Director Bob Driscoll announced that the URI and PC men’s basketball teams will not face off in their annual rivalry game.
With COVID-19 shortening the non-conference schedule in the 2020-21 season, Rhody and their cross-state adversaries could not find a day to fit their annual face-off into the calendar, despite the efforts from both sides.
“We understand that the fans throughout Rhode Island enjoy our annual matchup with URI,” Driscoll stated. “Unfortunately, the circumstances this season made it too difficult to schedule the game. We have had discussions with Thorr and the coaches at URI and we are all in agreement that we will resume the series next season.”
Last year, on the back of Fatts Russell’s 24 points and eight assists and Cyril Langevine’s 17 points and 16 rebounds, the Rams came out victorious with a 75-61 win over the Friars.
This season will mark the first time since the 1934-35 season the two in-state rivals will not play, snapping a streak of 86 consecutive seasons with at least one matchup. This year’s tilt was to take place at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence. Now, the state’s most anticipated game of the year will have to wait until next year.
“It is obviously disappointing to not be able to play the game, given its significance to both programs,” Bjorn said in the press conference. “We explored all possibilities of making it work, but the lack of schedule flexibility and challenges created by the pandemic prevented it. We look forward to resuming the rivalry in 2021.”
In a virtual press conference held on Tuesday, URI Head Coach David Cox didn’t dismiss the importance of the game, but seemed to put the cause of cancellation away from Kingston.
“It’s a rivalry game that is huge for both fan bases and huge for both communities,” he said. ”We made every effort to play. I’ll leave it at that.”
The Rams’ non-conference schedule has been updated after this cancellation, with the Rams set to start their season as of now on Nov. 28 against the Marquette Golden Eagles in the Hall of Fame Basketball Tip-Off at Mohegan Sun.
After two games at Mohegan, URI will head back home for a game against Seton Hall of the Big East. They then travel Boston College, who they haven’t faced since 2012 when the Rams won in double overtime.
Currently, their final scheduled non-conference game will be at Western Kentucky, with Rhody planning on scheduling at least two more non-conference games before the season starts. Cox said on Tuesday the Rams will look to replace the PC game with an opponent of a similar caliber.
This comes as bad news for all as the entire state of Rhode Island looks forward to this game every year, but the cancellation of the game in 2020 should serve as a heated subplot heading into next year’s matchup.