SOUTH KINGSTOWN –– Bob Walsh is not sure what is going to happen on the Ryan Center court Tuesday night when his Rhode Island College basketball team takes on URI, but he is pretty certain it is going to be a good night for both schools.

“This is a win-win,” said Walsh, the RIC coach. “It worked out great last year. It certainly means a lot for our school to have this opportunity.”

The two state schools met for the first time last November. URI did what was expected and beat its little brother, 109-69. The score does not tell the story about how successful the event was.

The game drew more than 6,000 fans, the most ever for a URI exhibition game. The crowd included a large portion of RIC fans and alumni, who were provided facilities to gather by URI officials. Both schools used the event as an opportunity to celebrate public school education in the state.

The plan is to have the game become an annual event. The goal is to have it on a weekend so that it will be easier for public school students to attend. That had to be changed this year because of a scheduling conflict. Playing on a Tuesday night will cut back plans somewhat, but hopefully not a lot.

On the court, URI figures to be an even heavier favorite this time around in the contest that will be telecast by Cox Sports Television. While the Rams have another solid team, Rhode Island College faces a massive rebuilding job. Walsh lost five seniors who helped the team win 73 games over the past three seasons.

“We lost almost 5,000 points and 2,000 rebounds,” he pointed out. “That was the group that meant so much to our program.

“I was just watching the tape of the game (against URI) last year,” Walsh said. “You know what? We looked pretty good. We looked like we belonged there. We stayed with them until we kind of ran out of gas.”

Such is the condition of his program that even with the huge graduation losses, Walsh expects the Anchormen to be strong again this winter.

“I think we’re good enough to win our league,” Walsh said. “That is the goal we set every year.”

Walsh will build around Antone Gray, an all-Little East guard, and Newport’s Mason Choice. His team will be boosted by former St. Raphael and CCRI star Jake Grimes, who played for URI as a walk-on last season, but is now at RIC.

The challenge for the Anchormen will be made all the more difficult because of URI’s pressing, all-out style. Walsh certainly does not expect the Rams to back off because they will be playing a Division III team.

“To be honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons I respect their program so much is because they play so hard for 40 minutes. That’s exactly what we try and do.

“Playing a game like this helps us,” Walsh went on. “It gives us an opportunity to see where we stand and it kind of exposes any weaknesses a lot quicker. It definitely helps us in the long run.”

RIC also will be helping URI prepare for the regular season. The Rams plan on using fullcourt pressure as much as possible to take advantage of their quickest team yet. Last year, URI backed off that plan a bit when its press struggled at times and gave up numerous easy baskets.

In its exhibition opener against Concordia, URI forced 23 turnovers and turned those turnovers into 37 points. Those numbers would be great all season. The problem was that when Concordia was able to beat the press, it scored a number of easy hoops, a situation URI cannot allow if it is to have a successful season.

With a small, quick team, RIC should give the Rhody press a good test to get ready for the regular-season opener Nov. 18 at Brown.