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.

Well, the depth has gone the other way since the summer.

The team already has had more issues, both on and off the court, than it had for the entire season each of the last two years. And that does not even include a tumultuous offseason in which five players expected to be on the team left for one reason or another.

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The smooth sailing has allowed the Rams to come out of the gate flying. The team has had outstanding success in the non-conference portion of its schedule. That figures to be a difficult streak to extend this time because the team has had only eight scholarship players for the past two weeks.

Two of the guys who were support players for the last two years, but who were expected to step into key roles as juniors, forward Orion Outerbridge and guard Jamal Wilson, will not be back until mid- or late December. The team has had to do all kinds of maneuvering, already far more than it has had to do over the last three years.

Point guard Jones will shift to the off guard whenever he is on the court with newcomer Daniel West. James, the team leader, has had to shift around at both forward spots. Ryan Brooks, who was in a battle for playing time, will get plenty of time early. But while he has played well in the two exhibitions, he has had to play the five spot, not his natural power forward position.

Sophomore Nikola Malesevic showed in the two pre-season games that he is ready to help. But where does he fit in? Is the 6-foot-7 wing a big guard, a small forward or a power forward?

Their starting center Will Martell, has a sprained knee is essentially day-to-day. Their junior PG transferred over the summer. Lots of players playing out of position.

They still had no problem routing a D-III team on Thursday, but it wasn’t easy at first.

With only eight scholarship players available, Baron tried a small lineup against the small, quick RIC team that has been ranked 11th nationally in the Division III. URI started guards Jones, Akeem Richmond and newcomer Daniel West, along with forwards James and Ryan Brooks.

The Anchormen more than held their own early on against that group, leading 14-13 eight minutes in. URI’s superior size eventually took control of the game as the Rams forced 27 turnovers and had a 26-7 advantage in points off turnovers.

The Rams had 32-27 lead with 3:30 left in the first half. They scored the last 10 points of the half for a 42-27 advantage and were in control the rest of the way in what was a fast-paced but sloppy contest throughout. It included 44 turnovers (27 by RIC) and 9-for-50 3-point shooting (3-for-23 by the Rams).

URI eventually won the game 88-55, so it was never truly in doubt.

Pitt can’t take Rhode Island lightly. At the same time, Pitt’s size, strength and depth should be able to carry them.