Meet the New Rams, Not Last Year’s URI Men’s Basketball Team - James Malachowski

Meet the New Rams, Not Last Year’s URI Men’s Basketball Team - James Malachowski

The URI basketball team added nine new scholarship players for this season. After the campaign ended, seven of these players left, and one graduated. Coach Archie Miller was tasked with bringing in eight new scholarship players for the 2024-25 season. Miller brought in three freshmen and five upperclassmen from the transfer portal. Two of the freshmen will be redshirted. How the other six new players perform will have much to do with how successful this year’s Ram basketball team will be.

The Rams were 12-20 last season.

 

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Influx of players

The influx of players coming in and out is the new reality of college basketball. With unrestricted transfer ability, the player market is called the portal, and decisions are based on how much NIL money a player gets. Coaches must navigate a new and complex environment of roster management.

 

The portal is like a supermarket for basketball players. There is an aisle for centers. There are aisles for power forwards, scoring forwards, point guards, shooting guards, combo guards, and a whole section for players who excel on defense. Having one of the worst defenses in the country last year, it is likely Miller spent a lot of time pushing his shopping cart through the defensive player aisles.

 

Miller on recruiting

While discussing building his roster, Miller said, “Of all the things we tried to accomplish for this season is to get our group and bring the character level to a much higher level.” Miller continued, “When you are recruiting and transferring, yes, it’s about talent, players, age, and it all sounds good, but the first step in this off-season in getting our team was who is he?” Miller concluded, “Let’s figure out what we are getting as a player, as a student, what kind of guy is he?”

 

With so many new players, will this team gel?

With nine new scholarship players last year, the team never really gelled, leading to a disappointing 12-win, 20-loss season. Despite only having five returning scholarship players, Miller is optimistic that this year’s team will mesh and work together effectively. He believes the returning players are a solid core he can build around, stating, “There are building blocks in place: Cam Estevez, David Fuchs, David Green, Jaden House, Always Wright.” Miller believes these returning players can speed up the learning process for the new players.

 

The team has already played four games. In early August, they played three games in a pre-season international tournament in the Bahamas. On October 14th, they played an exhibition game in front of a packed house against the defending national champion UCONN Huskies.

 

The 2024-25 roster includes 13 scholarship players and three non-scholarship walk-ons.  Three players will redshirt this season.

 

Here are the new players:

Javonte Brown, 7’0”, 255-pound Junior center from Toronto, Ontario, who transferred from Western Michigan. Out of high school, Brown initially committed to UCONN. He is a rim protector and shot blocker who had 16 points with 10 rebounds in 24 minutes in the exhibition game against UCONN.

 

Jamarques Lawrence, a 6’3”, 183-pound junior guard from Plainfield, NJ, who transferred from Nebraska. Lawrence is an excellent shooter who, as point guard, led Nebraska to the NCAA Tournament in 2024.

 

Sebastian Thomas, a 6’1”, 175-pound senior guard from Providence, RI, who played for two years at URI, transferred to Albany University and has now returned to Rhode Island. At Albany, Thomas blossomed, scoring 20 points and 5 assists a game. He was the American East scoring champion and was an all-conference selection.

 

Quentin Diboundie, a 6’5”, 221-proud senior guard from Montpellier, France. Diboundie started his college career at Tennessee and then transferred to East Carolina. He is coming off a severe ankle injury, which sidelined him for six months. Miller has said, “Quentin is by far our best defender on the point, our best athlete, and has a tremendous motor.”

 

Drissa Traore a 6’8”, 220-pound junior forward from Harlem, New York, who transferred from St. John’s. Traore is a physical player whose strength is defense.

 

Tyonne Farrell a 6’6”, 208-pound freshman forward from Baltimore, MD. Farrell is athletic, versatile, and a good defender. In the exhibition against UCONN, he scored seven points with five rebounds, and five assists in 27 minutes.

 

Moek Icke a 7’0”, 223-pound freshman center from Purmerend, Netherlands. Icke is 19 years old and played in the Netherlands national youth development program. In the FIBA U18 European Championships he averaged 5.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game. Icke will redshirt this season.

 

Damone King, a 6’2”, 175-pound freshman guard from Louisville, Ky. King was considering attending prep school but decided to continue his development as a redshirt at URI. In his senior year at DeSales High School, he averaged 20 points per game, 5.6 rebounds, a 50.6% field goal percentage, 40.9% on 3-pointers, and 87% from the foul line.

 

The new non-scholarship players are freshmen Arsenil Kolobov, a 6’4” point guard from Altea, Spain, and Jaymien Aponte, a 6’3” guard from Cranston, RI, having played at Cranston West High School.

 

These new players will join guards Jaden House, Cam Estevez, and non-scholarship player Jimmy Ball, returning forwards David Green and David Fuchs.

 

Always Wright, who is recovering from a shoulder injury, will redshirt this season.

 

The Rams open their regular season at home on Monday, November 4th, against Fairfield University.