Here are the Rhode Island basketball connections to the Final Four
E.C. Matthews is the tie that binds three men in the upcoming Alabama-Connecticut matchup at the Final Four.
The former University of Rhode Island guard is the epicenter between Dan Hurley, Preston Murphy and Nate Oats. They were two Rams staff members and a Michigan high school coach entering the 2012-13 season — a lot has changed in a little over a decade.
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Hurley now guides the defending national champion Huskies. Oats has led the Crimson Tide to its first berth in the national semifinals, and Murphy now serves as one of his lieutenants. It’s part of a juicy set of storylines entering the late tip (8:49 p.m.) on Saturday night at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
“Different level of energy about him,” Hurley said on Thursday. “Just the way he shows up when you meet him. Then just the way he ran his program.”
“Me and Danny talked earlier in the week,” Oats said on Thursday. “We're going to have fun. He's ultracompetitive, as I'm sure you all know.”
Hurley was hired away from Wagner and took over what was a 7-24 team at URI. The Rams were in academic trouble off the court and well behind their top Atlantic 10 peers in terms of budget and program amenities. It was the steepest of uphill climbs.
Murphy stayed on from Jim Baron’s staff, an arranged marriage smartly brokered by athletic director Thorr Bjorn. Murphy came a minute from this stage as a player with URI in 1998, is a Michigan native like Matthews and already had deep recruiting connections within the state. It was Murphy who alerted Hurley to Matthews while playing on the Nike circuit with The Family. Hurley was skeptical at first about whether a rebuilding version of the Rams had the cache to land such a talented prospect.
Matthews ultimately committed to URI and won a state championship as a senior with Romulus High. That proved to be the last season for two particular members of the Eagles, as Oats was tabbed for a move to the college ranks. Bobby Hurley left the Rams staff to become the head coach at Buffalo, and Oats was one of his first hires as an assistant.
“I wasn't just grinding to get to a college job,” Oats said. “Let's do this the best I can because that's the way we should do it. Then I had a pretty good opportunity come up.”
Matthews went on to become one of the premier performers in URI history. He sits third in scoring and played a starring role on teams that captured both conference tournament and regular-season crowns. Matthews took the floor for the last time in an NCAA Tournament loss to Duke in 2018, the end of a dominant two-year run with the Rams.
“This is my guy,” Matthews said that night on the podium in Pittsburgh, referencing Hurley. “I know we're not the same color, but he's definitely my father.
“Just trying to walk off the court the right way. Things didn't go our way, but just what we've done, when we both came here, him coaching me as a player — we picked this program off the ground.”
It was the last game for both of them with URI. Matthews exhausted his eligibility after five years and Hurley was hired away by UConn, restoring them to blueblood status. Oats has been on an ascension of his own — promoted by the Bulls after Bobby Hurley left for Arizona State and a three-time NCAA Tournament qualifier before Alabama came calling ahead of the 2019-20 season.
“It's ironic that my first Final Four that I make, the first one Alabama makes — coaching against Danny Hurley,” Oats said. “And his brother Bobby is the one that got me in this business.”
Purdue-North Carolina State is the opening semifinal matchup (6:09 p.m.), and it has its own layers of intrigue. Big men Zach Edey and DJ Burns meet in what should be a headline showdown in the paint. But in terms of worlds colliding — Hurley, Oats, Murphy after stops at Boston College and Creighton — the second game brings it all back to Kingston.
“If it wasn't for Danny and Bobby, I wouldn't be here,” Oats said. “We're playing each other in Bobby's town down here in Phoenix.
“Kind of funny how it comes full circle.”
On X: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Plenty of Rhode Island connections in this Final Four
