SOUTH KINGSTOWN –– Pat Clarke understands the reaction some URI basketball fans had when this season’s schedule was released. He just does not agree with it.

More than a few Rhody fans have expressed disappointment with this winter’s slate. The sense is that it is not as appealing as those of the past two seasons. Clarke, the assistant coach who put together the schedule along with Gregg Burke, the school’s deputy director of athletics, feels he knows why some have had that reaction.

“There’s not a lot of glamour to it,” Clarke said. “You don’t look at it and say, ‘Oh, Duke.’ Or, ‘Oh, Syracuse.’ There isn’t something that jumps out at you.”

The Rams have visited –– and played well at –– both Duke and Syracuse in the last two years. This year, the highlight game is Oklahoma State. The Rams, who played the Cowboys in Oklahoma last year, will meet them Jan 2 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut.

There also is no tournament to take part in, as the Rams have done in each of the last two seasons, allowing them to play three games that count only as one toward the limit. That means URI will play only 13 nonleague games, as opposed to 15 each of the last two years.

Clarke said he can understand the reaction fans have had, in part because he received the same feeling from some of the Rhody players.

“When the schedule came out as we were starting school, I had to talk to some of the kids,” Clarke said. “I think they might have felt that because Will (Daniels) and Parfait (Bitee) weren’t here, because Jimmy (Baron) and Kahiem (Seawright) weren’t here anymore, that we were taking a step back. That’s not it at all.”

Clarke argues that the slate, while it might not have the appeal of previous schedules, actually is a step up. And he has the numbers to back it up.

“This schedule,” Clarke insists, “give us the best chance to do what we want to do: get to the NCAA Tournament.”

Despite the lack of glamour, it is the most difficult schedule the team has had in the last three years, at least according to the RPI numbers, the figures the NCAA selection committee uses to help pick the field each year.

Clarke has compiled the numbers from each of the last three schedules. Two years ago, when URI began 14-1 and reached the Top 25, the average RPI of the 15 nonconference opponents was 179. Six of the wins came over teams with an RPI above 225. Only three of the victories came in road games. Last year, when the Rams went 11-4 out of conference, the opponents’ RPI average was 160, including seven over 200.

And this year? The number drops to 122, with only two teams, Brown and Quinnipiac, who finished over 200 in the RPI. No fewer than eight opponents were in the top 100: Oklahoma State at 19, VCU 50, Boston College 60, Davidson 69, Providence College 72, Northeastern 90, Fairfield 94 and Akron 99. What’s more, the Rams have six games on the road, plus the one against Oklahoma State at a neutral site.

“We’re playing at VCU, which is a very good team. We’re playing at Akron. We beat them last year, but they won their conference and made the NCAA Tournament and they’re supposed to be even better this year,” Clarke points out. “Drexel, Davidson –– those are good games. Boston College, Providence College. We have a lot of good games. People just might not know them as much.”

“If we can get to 10-3 with this schedule, we’ll be in the best position we’ve been in to make the tournament,” Clarke argues.

pkenyon@projo.com / 401-277-7340