URI Basketball Picked 4th in A-10 Preseason Poll

URI Basketball Picked 4th in A-10 Preseason Poll

The URI men’s basketball team was picked to finish fourth in the Atlantic-10 Preseason Poll released on Thursday at the conference’s media day.

The Rams are coming off a 2018-19 campaign in which they finished eighth in the regular season before advancing tot he semifinals of the A-10 Tournament.

En route to the semifinals, the Rams knocked off top-seeded VCU in the quarterfinals.

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In 2019-20, URI returns senior guard Jeff Dowtin and junior guard Fatts Russell.

The Rams also welcome freshmen Gregory Hammond, Jacob Toppin and Mekhi Long.

The Poll

VCU finished first in the poll, receiving 19 first-place votes and 381 points.

Davidson followed with 359 points and eight first-place votes, while Dayton was third with 341 points and one first-place vote.

URI was fourth just three points ahead of St. Bonaventure, who were picked fifth.

Richmond, Saint Louis, Duquesne, and George Mason were picked sixth through ninth, while La Salle, UMass, George Washington, Saint Joseph’s and Fordham round out the bottom of the poll.

All-Conference Honors

URI seniors Cyril Langevine and Dowtin were joined by Russell on the 2019-20 Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Preseason All-Conference Team.

URI and VCU were the only schools to have three players among the 18 named to the preseason team.

Langevine earned first-team honors following a junior season in which he averaged 14.7 points and 9.9 rebounds per game en route to Atlantic 10 Second-Team All-Conference honors in 2018-19.

Dowtin scored the 1,000th point of his career in the A-10 semifinal game against St. Bonaventure and was in double figures 31 times in 33 games.

Russell started all 32 games in which he played for Rhode Island last season. He averaged 14.2 points and 2.7 rebounds per game, while also finishing the year with 117 assists.