You never take a team like Rhode Island lightly. Especially in a season opener. Their coach, Jim Baron, is one of the better teaching coaches in the game. His recruiting can vary based on his assistants, but he will get a lot out of his players and they will be sound.
In the last couple seasons, Rhode Island has stormed out in the non-con with impressive wins and wilted in the A-10 to end up in the NIT. You can imagine how the players feel about that.
But talk to any of the seniors, and the response is the same. They are not thinking about what they’ve done. Or their chances of putting themselves in the school record book. They all point to the one goal for this season.
“We want to play in the NCAA Tournament,” Jones says in similar words to those used by each of the seniors.
“The NIT has been nice,” Jones says, “but I’m kind of tired of that. I want to play in the NCAA Tournament.”
As to what kind of team this is, it has several seniors and was expected to be deep.
