“Don’t rush to the exits … there’s confetti.”
That’s what I texted my Dad around 9 p.m. on February 23, 2018.
The 2017-18 University of Rhode Island Men’s Basketball season was the crown jewel of my four years as an undergraduate student at the University of Rhode Island. It was my junior year and I had a front row seat to a nationally ranked program as the sports editor of the Good Five Cent Cigar.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. That entire season for the Rams I practiced with the utmost journalistic integrity; but in my core, underneath the polo and khakis I sported on press row and behind the stern demeanor of a reporter, was a college junior who was rooting for his school.
Game days in Kingston were just different. The buzz was noticeable. People were talking about the team on campus, constantly checking who was going to the game. Campus, the community, the state and to a certain degree the nation cared about little ole URI.
Rightfully so, because this team was a wagon.
Rhode Island beat Providence that year behind 20 points from a freshman named Fatts Russell. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. Another freshman at Oklahoma University named Trey Young had taken the nation by storm during the regular season but fell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to the smallest state in the union’s state university. We all remember where we were during that sequence.
The season had its downs, too. A senior-night loss to St. Joe’s. An Atlantic 10 Championship game loss to Davidson. Duke ended the season for the Rams in the round of 32. Marvin Bagley’s Blue Devils beat Rhody by 25. Yuck.
But through the highs and lows, between media scrums around Danny Hurley, road trips to the Atlantic 10 tournament in Washington, D.C. and the NCAA Tournament in Pittsburgh, a 16-game winning streak and more columns, game recaps and profiles than I could count, I was completely immersed in sports journalism.
I learned the ropes of journalism, rubbed elbows with Kevin Harlan, developed a relationship with Dan Hurley, met deadlines, assigned stories and laid out my section. I credit my growth as a broadcaster and reporter to the lessons I learned covering the 2017-18 URI Rams. I had the perfect job.
But that’s not what initially comes to mind when I think back to my junior year. I think about the friendships and memories I made. I got to travel with my best friends and Dad to see my favorite team play on the biggest of stages. It was the perfect storm of developing in my career and developing as a human being. But for my money … developing as a human was the most important part.
Like most great things in life, as humans move through them, they miss just how special they are. Both the 2016-17 and 2017-18 Rhode Island Men’s Basketball teams were legendary in every sense of the word. Those teams were so great that in the moment I think we missed it. Sports are often a metaphor for life and the 2017-18 season was just that for me.
While covering the Rams and doing my “job,” I missed just how close I had gotten with the newsroom of The Cigar. The truth is we aren’t Syracuse University, Maryland or any other big-name journalism school or student-run paper. Nor would I want to be that. Work ethic, journalistic ethics, passion, commitment and a chip on your shoulder to always prove you belong with the big dogs makes The Cigar exactly what it is: one of the best representations of the University of Rhode Island.
As for that cold February evening in 2018. The Rams clinched the A-10 regular season title for the first time in program history, beating Dayton 81-56 in front of a sold-out Ryan Center crowd. As the final minutes began to chip away I did what I always did when something good happens. I texted my Dad.
Moments later the confetti fell from the rafters. E.C. Matthews, Jared Terrell, Jeff Dowtin and a plethora of all-time greats climbed a ladder and cut down the net. Kingston was the capital of the A-10. Hurley was its king. I was a student reporter for The Good Five Cent Cigar with an iPhone and a notepad, shaping who I am today.