Eliminated on day one again, this time letting a 15 seed get a victory for the first time in an Atlantic 10 tournament.
Rhode Island are in a sticky situation, with head coach Archie Miller struggling with results on the court while the fans bash him off of it. Miller is 18-36 within conference play since joining URI, with those 18 wins tied for last over the last three seasons. The Rams are also 0-3 in the Atlantic 10 tournament, 0-2 in Brooklyn and 0-1 in Washington, D.C. after this week’s loss to Fordham. The number that stuck out to fans this year though, the road losses. URI was 1-9 in true road games in 2024-25 and are 5-26 over the last three seasons
URI’s Athletic Director Thorr Bjorn has made multiple good hires in his time at Rhody, including Dan Hurley and Tammi Reiss. In my personal opinion Miller was the correct hire at the time, a proven A-10 winner that could recruit good players. Three seasons later the fans are at the floodgates, begging Bjorn to leave Miller in Washington, D.C. with a hashtag of “#TheBuyout.”
This refers to Miller’s contract, one that increases his base salary year over year. The issue for the fans that use this hashtag? Rhode Island’s athletic department does not have unlimited funds to fire Miller, and a big buyout would set both men’s basketball and other programs back for years. Miller is the highest paid coach in URI history, while also being the second highest paid public employee in the state of Rhode Island.
So where do Rhode Island go from here? Most likely, Miller stays at least one more season with a large chance of staying the next year after that and finishing out the five year contract. Rhody just does not have the resources to move on from Miller, while Miller has improved each year during his deal. Rhody had 18 wins in 2024-25 after having 21 in the first two seasons combined. The program is continuously improving under Miller, the metrics prove that. It is believed that Bjorn and Miller have a strong relationship and that there is not a high chance of Bjorn looking to get rid of a recent hire.
Now if a big donor steps in then anything can happen. If Tom Ryan (CVS Founder), Michael Fascitelli (Milwaukee Bucks co-owner), Stefan Soloviev (real estate business) or someone else with large sums of money step forward and offer to pay the buyout then Miller could see the door. This is unlikely though with Ryan and his wife giving URI $15M in 2023 while also teaming up with Fascitelli to hire Miller in 2021. Soloviev donated $3M to the program to build a brand new $8M practice facility that opened in 2023.
All in all Miller is safe for the time being, but if his seat starts to get red hot keep an eye on Alan Huss (High Point), Takayo Siddle (University of North Carolina Wilmington) or one of Hurley’s assistants at the UConn.
