SOUTH KINGSTOWN –– University of Rhode Island basketball fans will not have to leave the state to see most of the teams expected to contend for the Atlantic 10 basketball title next season.

Xavier, the defending regular-season champion; Temple, the reigning tournament champion, and Dayton and Massachusetts all will visit the Ryan Center, according to the schedule released yesterday by the conference.

The schedule has other surprises, too. They include URI’s three “partners” for next season. With the 14-team conference, every team plays every other team once. But each school also has three “partners” it plays twice to get to the 16-game conference schedule.

Like last season, the Rams will play UMass home and home. That is part of the conference’s effort to have natural rivals meet twice. The Rams and Minutemen have played some great games in recent seasons, and will get to go at it twice again next year.

The two other partners change. Last season, URI met George Washington and Dayton twice. The new partners for next season are Fordham and Temple.

The pairings make it difficult to figure out where conference officials expect URI to finish. The schedule groups teams according to the expected strengths of each club. It then partners teams using those rankings, strong against strong, weak against weak.

It is difficult, using the partners, to see how the conference views URI. Temple is the reigning A-10 Tournament champion and returns all except two players. UMass was strong last season and, even with key losses, figures to be strong again this year. But Fordham struggled last season, lost much of its team, and would appear to be in for tough sledding next winter.

Rhody’s home games in conference play will be Dayton, Fordham, La Salle, Massachusetts, St. Bonaventure, Saint Louis, Temple and Xavier. The Rams will go to Charlotte, Duquesne, Fordham, George Washington, Massachusetts, Richmond, Saint Joseph’s and Temple. What sticks out is that the Rams will not have to go to Ohio. Xavier and Dayton are expected to be two of the conference’s powers again, but both will visit the Ryan Center for their only game against URI. That is something of a surprise since it will be the second year in a row URI has avoided having to go to the Cintas Center to meet Xavier. The Muskies beat URI in the Ryan Center last season.

“This is an exciting and challenging home A-10 schedule,” Rhody head coach Jim Baron said. “Our fans will be able to enjoy some of the best that the conference has to offer this season at the Ryan Center.”

Four of the eight conference visitors — Xavier, Dayton, UMass and Temple — were playoff teams this year, as was URI, which went 21-12 and played in the NIT.

The road schedule includes five opponents that played in the postseason this year — Saint Joseph’s and Temple both qualified for the NCAAs; Charlotte (NIT), Massachusetts (NIT) and Richmond (CBI).

The Saint Joseph’s game will be played at the Palestra because of renovations to the Hawks’ Alumni Hall. URI also will play in a tournament, the Philly Classic, which could include two games at The Palestra during Thanksgiving week.

Dates and times for all games, including the nonconference contests, will be announced later.

pkenyon@projo.com