The Archie Miller era of the University of Rhode Island men’s basketball program has left Rhody fans dissatisfied, and his fourth season as head coach brought a mixed bag of highs and lows that ended with a 16-16 overall record.
A step down from last season’s 18-13 record, Miller’s only winning season at Rhode Island, the Rams also didn’t get any closer to achieving a record above .500 in Atlantic 10 Conference play, finishing 7-11.
Miller’s newly designed roster was hit with the injury bug down the stretch, with sixth-year guard RJ Johnson’s concussion, seventh-year guard Tyler Cochran’s foot injury and third-year guard Jahmere Tripp, who missed four games.
But that does not excuse his fourth straight year without a win in the A-10 Tournament. This time, Miller and the Rams avoided the play-in round of the tournament, heading into their second-round matchup against No. 7 Duquesne University as a No. 10 seed.
Especially considering the Rams had just taken down the Dukes 64-52 at the Ryan Center eight days prior, the 67-61 postseason loss was all the more disappointing.
The highest of highs on the season was URI’s takedown of No. 18-ranked Saint Louis University. Led by fourth-year guard Jonah Hinton’s nine three-pointers, which matched a program record, Rhody’s packed crowd helped propel them to an 81-76 victory.
It was perhaps the biggest win in Miller’s tenure with the Rams, as the Billikens had been on an 18-game winning streak and later went on to take down the University of Georgia in a convincing 102-77 first-round win of the NCAA Tournament.
At the time, this win was revolutionary. Imagine what the Rams could do with such high momentum coming their way! However, Rhody followed up this win with a three-game losing streak, and two of the defeats were at the hands of bottom-three teams in the conference.
Before the Saint Louis win, the only other signs of hope came within Rhody’s three-game winning streak after having a 1-4 start to conference play.
Taking down George Mason University at home and following it up with a road win over the University of Dayton was promising, but the Rams could not stay consistent throughout the rest of the regular season.
Before conference play even began, a plan to earn their second consecutive win over in-state rival Providence College was squandered at the Amica Mutual Pavilion on Dec. 6, 2025, falling to the Friars 90-71.
Rhody’s offense struggled with inconsistencies throughout their season, finishing 11th of the 14 A-10 teams, averaging 69.9 points per game. On paper, URI’s top-five conference defense should’ve made up for this fact, but they only outscored opponents by an average of 1.7 points per game, putting them at 12th in the conference in margin of victory.
The Rams also sat dead last in assist-to-turnover ratio with 0.89, the only team under 1.0, and had a conference-low 363 assists.
Cochran, the A-10 Co-Defensive Player of the Year, was the main bright spot for the Rams. He led the conference with 85 steals and finished seventh in points per game with an average of 15.4. Cochran’s 34-point postseason performance was a poetic way to end his season and collegiate career.
Heading into next season, Miller enters the final year of his five-year, $8.5 million contract with Rhode Island. As of now, Miller remains a Ram, as options moving forward look like a miracle contract buyout or an extension for the purpose of appearing as a school that players want to commit or transfer to.
What lies ahead is uncertainty, with a program that has accomplished nothing of great substance in its past seven seasons.
