SOUTH KINGSTOWN –– A friendship made several years ago at the University of Massachusetts is about to help the University of Rhode Island’s basketball program.

It has resulted in the Rams playing on national television, on ESPN Classic, against Oklahoma State tomorrow night in the O’Reilly All-College Basketball Classic at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. That, in and of itself, makes it a special night for URI. But the benefits could extend into future seasons. It is possible, said Gregg Burke, URI’s deputy director of athletics, that relationships established as part of the visit to Oklahoma could bring even more high-visibility games for the Rams down the road.

“There are a lot of tentacles involved in this that make it a really fun and beneficial event for us all the way around,” Burke said. “It has given us a chance to forge relationships that could go beyond this one game.”

Burke, the man in charge of putting together the men’s basketball schedule each season, along with head coach Jim Baron and assistant coach Pat Clarke, becomes animated when he talks about how tomorrow night’s game could affect the program. It all began, he explains, with discussions between Thor Bjorn, the URI athletic director, and Travis Ford, Oklahoma State’s first-year coach. They have been friends since both were on the staff at UMass.

“Jim [Baron] wanted to get a home-and-home series against a bigtime opponent,” Burke said. “He wanted something that would help us with our schedule in general and something that would help us get ready for possible postseason play.”

Getting a school from one of the power conferences to agree to a home-and-home has become increasingly difficult for the Rams. The power schools often pay opponents to visit them without return games. URI is a dangerous team these days, as it has shown in visits to Syracuse last season and Duke this season. So teams have become more reluctant than ever to agree to visit the Ryan Center.

Bjorn was hoping his friendship with Ford might open a door.

“We spoke,” Burke said, “but it didn’t look like we were going to be able to work anything out.”

However, shortly after those talks were dropped, Ford called back. He told URI officials that ESPN was looking for a team to take part in this year’s O’Reilly Classic. That tournament used to be larger. It now is a one-night event, with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State each playing a game as part of a doubleheader. VCU had agreed to play Oklahoma. Oklahoma State needed an opponent.

“What people don’t realize is that ESPN owns the tournament,” Burke said. “ESPN wants to put on a good show. It wants good teams involved.”

URI officials were thrilled to have the chance to take part. But there was a potential problem. Semester exams finish today. And, as URI fans know, Baron is a coach who emphasizes academics. The tournament has a dinner tonight. Baron was afraid some of his players might end up with exams on the last day. As it turned out, he was correct. Three Rhody players have exams today.

“Our ESPN contact for the event is Chris Turner,” Burke said. “He’s a top-notch, first-class guy. He helped us pull it off.”

When he was told of URI’s problems, he told the school ESPN would help arrange a charter flight to Oklahoma City. And that’s what happened.

“We really wanted to play in an event like this,” Burke said. “It’s been arranged for us to charter down right after exams. We’ll miss the tournament dinner, but that’s OK. We’re happy to be going.” URI will pay part of the cost of the charter, but the cost will be lower than normal airfares to Oklahoma City. There will be no cost for the hotel for the team, and the team will charter back home immediately after the game.

But that’s not all. As part of the arrangement, Oklahoma State has agreed to return the game next year, as long as it is not at the Ryan Center. Burke said URI officials will seek other venues for a game, with two obvious possibilities — the Dunkin’ Donuts Center and the Mohegan Sun Arena.

There could be more, too. The situation has led to the possibility of URI being involved in other ESPN-owned events.

“I can’t talk about what they are, but we are in discussions now about being involved in other exempt tournaments in the future,” Burke said. “Do we wish we could get Duke and Syracuse to visit the Ryan Center? Of course we do. But it’s never going to happen. They simply are never going to do anything like that. Getting involved in events like this, and establishing relationships like we have hopefully will benefit us in the future.”

pkenyon@projo.com