The Greatest Rivalry In All Of Sport...That You've Never Heard Of!

 

It’s that time of year when college football takes a hiatus prior to bowl season revving up; the Browns are clearly the disappointment that no one wanted to believe, but deep down knew they would be; and the NBA is still in that funk where apparently the games count but, they don’t. That leaves the sports fan gasping like a fish out of water for any minute breath of meaningful competition. That’s where college basketball comes into play.

The Cornercube has strayed away from writing about college basketball for the most part. This was because The Cornercube believes, and our readers may vehemently disagree, that it is imperative to write “what you know” and, we don’t really know college basketball. Sure, The Cornercube IT personnel help and assist with penetrating their facilities’ firewalls and in turn, stream NCAA March Madness, but only for the first two rounds. Frankly, with blue chips schools churning out new rosters every year, due to the NBA’s lax entry rules, it becomes difficult to grasp any continuity between the years. Further, there are so many teams, it becomes difficult to know who is worth watching. Finally, since the college basketball season is so long, like the NBA, it becomes difficult to know if a regular season game really matters.

This conundrum was set aside as your correspondent watched, from his treadmill (yes … back at the gym), The Ocean State Rivalry. For the unaware the “Ocean State” is the nickname for the state of Rhode Island. The rivalry is between the Providence College Friars and the University of Rhode Island Rams. There were several reasons for why this rivalry was entertaining to watch.

First, it was the only live sport on as I wheezed myself to the finish line. Live sports are the easiest show to watch while exercising because there isn’t a need for sound or deep concentration. Think about it – I am watching this game while “running” but there is probably some other dude in a dive bar outside of Pawtucket, four boilermakers deep, and he still knows what’s going on. The second reason is that the game was entertaining and both teams were playing well. Although the final score was Rhode Island 75-61, the game was close throughout. Thirdly, the game meant something. Unlike the famous “Tobacco Road Rivalry” which is played twice each season between Duke University and North Carolina University, the Ocean State Rivalry is only played once during the season. Therefore, this one game will likely decide who holds the bragging rights for the remainder of the year.

The most important reason this game was so entertaining was because it caused the viewer, me, to get engaged and pick a side.  That side was the Rhode Island Rams because, in your correspondence’s view, the Rams seemed like the ugly step-sister to their “glorious” parochial school rival.

Both teams have pedigrees for sending players to the NBA. University of Rhode Island has seen sixteen players in the NBA with the most notable being Lamar Odom (1999), Cuttino Mobley (1998), and Sly Williams (1979). Providence College, which has the much richer basketball history, has sent 28 players to the NBA, with one currently playing in the NBA – Kris Dunn (2016). Providence also has a 74-56 edge in the all-time series and has won 11 of the last 17. The Cornercube also underwent a scientific study in which it reviewed each team’s Wikipedia page. The University of Rhode Island’s had a total of four sections, whereas Providence College’s had a total of 7 sections, including an extremely lengthy section dedicated to its history (University of Rhode Island has no such section).

Although Providence College has the more robust basketball pedigree, it also seems Providence, the place, is more important than the state of Rhode Island. For instance, the Ryan Center which is the arena in which the University of Rhode Island Rams play holds a total of 7,657 people. On the other hand, Dunkin’ Donuts Center, the home of the Friars, holds nearly twice that amount – 12,500. Logically it would be assumed that Providence has a larger student body population compared to Rhode Island, but that isn’t true. Rhode Island has a total student population of 17,064 and Providence College has a total student population of roughly 4,550. Providence is just a quarter of the size of the University of Rhode Island and yet has an arena that holds nearly twice as many people than the University of Rhode Island. The disproportion in arenas may be because Providence College holds an endowment twice as large as Rhode Island’s at $238.5 million.

The County of Providence makes up more than half of the electorate in Rhode Island. In the 2016 election Clinton was able to win the state’s popular vote almost entirely because she won Providence County (although in all fairness every other major Rhode Island county went for Clinton except for Kent). Believe it or not, the state of Rhode Island’s name isn’t just “Rhode Island” but rather the, State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Rhode Island seems to be pieced together similarly to how Czechoslovakia was glued together and that didn’t last! So, until Rhode Island, the state, and Rhode Island the university receive their very much deserved respect from Providence - the city and the college, The Cornercube will always raise a toast saying the University of Rhode Island’s motto, Think Big. We Do.