Maryland basketball to host Rhode Island as part of nonconference schedule, per report

Maryland basketball is finalizing a home contest against Rhode Island as part of its nonconference schedule next season, Jon Rothstein reported Tuesday.

This is the first nonconference game in College Park slated for next season, and fills the sixth of 11 slots on Maryland’s nonconference schedule.

The Terps will also participate in the Advocare Invitational Tournament in Orlando, which is an eight team pool. Among Maryland, the field consists of Marquette, USC, Harvard, Temple, Texas A&M, Davidson and Fairfield. Maryland, Marquette and Temple are the only teams from that group to make the 2019 NCAA Tournament.

Maryland is slated to visit Seton Hall as part of the home-and-home series that began last year at Xfinity Center. The Pirates defeated the Terps 78-74 on Dec. 22 and lost to Wofford in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The rest of the nonconference schedule is currently headlined by the unannounced opponent in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge game.

The Rams finished 18-15 overall and 9-9 in the Atlantic 10 under first-year head coach David Cox this season. Rhode Island’s leading scorer Jeff Dowtin was Anthony Cowan Jr.’s teammate at St. John’s. Rhode Island made the NCAA Tournament in 2017 and 2018, but fell in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament last season. The Rams are losing one member of their rotation and are bringing in Georgetown transfer Antwann Walker. A10Talk.com projected Rhode Island to finish sixth in its way-too-early A-10 rankings last month.