It’s that time of the year when the air is getting a little colder, the 24-hour room at the Robert L. Carothers Library & Learning Commons is packed with stressed-out students pounding their fifth rasbull of the day, and teachers are cramming in last-minute lectures.
That’s right! It’s time for the annual Providence College and University of Rhode Island men’s basketball game. The biggest rivalry in the smallest state plays on Saturday at noon at the Thomas M. Ryan Center. Before the 134th matchup of this series tips off, let’s look back at how we got here, how each program grew while keeping this storied rivalry alive, and who has controlled this series in recent years.
The storied rivalry can be traced back to 1920, when the Friars and the Rams played each other in an exhibition game in Kingston. The first regular-season matchup between the Ocean State rivals wasn’t played until Feb. 9, 1935, when the Friars beat the Rams by a score of 53-28 at the Rhode Island Auditorium.
From 1957-1979, PC and URI played each other at least twice a year with the venue switching every matchup. The Friars won the first seven matchups between 1957-1960, with the Rams ending the record winning streak in the rivalry’s history in a 78-76 win at Mullaney Gymnasium. Out of 47 matchups, The Rams came away with 13 wins and only one season series sweep. The Friars, on the other hand, earned 34 wins and 12 season series sweeps in those 22 years.
URI came away with the only non-regular season win in the entire history of the rivalry in the 1977-78 season as they defeated PC on March 4, 1978, in the Independents Conference Tournament, 65-62, at the Providence Civic Center.
In 1980, the teams switched to only playing each other once a year during the regular season. The Rams came away with the 53-44 victory at the Providence Civic Center in the first matchup between the teams under the new matchup frequency.
Following that win, the Friars would rattle off six straight victories over the next six years, including a 49-47 overtime thriller at Keaney Gymnasium on Jan. 20, 1982. During the 1981-1982 season, both teams were struggling as they adjusted to their new conference schedule. PC was in its third year of Big East conference play after spending the previous 53 years as an independent school. URI was in its second year of Eastern Athletic Association conference play, but would switch conferences for the fourth time in seven years to the Atlantic 10 the following season.
The 1980s are often seen as the most influential decade in recent human history in terms of pop culture, music and fashion, as brightly colored clothes covered the streets of America from Los Angeles to Boston. In terms of the Ocean State rivalry, though, it was all black and white as the Friars won seven of the nine matchups between 1980-1989.
In the 1987-88 season, Keaney Blue was able to pierce through the black and white veil and beat the Friars 92-70 at the Providence Civic Center. The Rams went on to make the NCAA tournament as an 11-seed in the Midwest Region, upsetting sixth-seeded University of Missouri and third-seeded Syracuse University before their cinderella run was ended by the fifth-seeded Duke University Blue Devils in the Sweet 16.
Now, let’s fast forward to the new century and look at more recent URI history. From 2003-2009, the teams went seven straight games with the home team winning every time. In the first game of the rivalry played in the newly-constructed Thomas M. Ryan Center in 2003, URI started the home-court advantage streak with an 89-79 win.
The Friars then rattled off seven straight wins – tying the series win record from 1957-1960 – with three games having a margin of victory of three or fewer points. In 2017, led by head coach Dan Hurley, the Rams beat the Friars 75-68 at the Ryan Center to prevent the streak from reaching a record eight-straight wins.
The last win for the Rams in the rivalry was in 2019, which ended 75-61 at the Ryan Center. The win snapped a streak of three-straight Friar wins.
Now, for some final statistics to keep in mind before Saturday’s tipoff: The Friars hold a 77-56 all-time series lead, and since the 1949-50 season, the Rams have averaged 68.6 points per game vs. the Friars compared to PC’s 74 PPG vs. the Rams. Each of the last six URI wins have happened inside the Ryan Center.
In all honesty, while it’s fun to look at all these statistics to try and predict the outcome of the game, they aren’t going to matter. These are two entirely different teams even compared to last year, so there is truly nothing we can use to predict the outcome of the game, but that’s the beauty of college basketball, isn’t it? The unpredictability that comes with every dribble and every second that passes off the clock is what makes college basketball and this rivalry so fun to watch.
You can watch Saturday’s noon tipoff on CBS Sports Network or listen in on WRIU 90.3 FM or The Varsity Network.