URI coach Jim Baron, above, along with assistant coach Pat Clarke and deputy athletic director Gregg Burke, will concentrate on next year’s schedule after this season is over.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

OMAHA, Neb. — It began with a trip to Daytona Beach, Fla., and jumped into high gear with a visit to Corpus Christi, Texas. Last night, there was the bonus of a trip to Nebraska for an NIT game.

It was an eventful season for the URI basketball team, both on and off the court. Which leads to the question, what will next season be like?

Rhody officials say they cannot answer that question yet. That’s because a good part of next year’s schedule has yet to be compiled. School officials say they are behind where they usually are at this point. Compiling a schedule for the 2008-09 team is not going to be easy.

Because URI has a solid group of returning players, many feel the Rams will be a dangerous team again next season. URI officials say that some potential opponents have been less than enthusiastic about setting up a game. At the same time, URI, with the school’s and the state’s budget crunch, cannot exactly open its checkbook and buy games as some schools can.

One big boost apparently is close to being set. The Rams hope to play in another early season tournament next season, one very much like the Glenn Wilkes event they won in Daytona Beach in November. No contracts have yet been signed, so Rhody officials did not want to talk about the specifics of the event. But they did say it would allow them to play four games that would count as one toward the maximum allowed.

In this one, there would be one home game, one road game and then two games at the headquarters site for the event, where they possibly could play a Big East and a Big Ten team. Pat Clarke, the assistant coach who works with head coach Jim Baron and deputy athletic director Gregg Burke in putting together the schedule, would only say that if the event does come to fruition, URI fans would not need directions to get to the tournament. It is in a city Rhody fans know well, he said.

Beyond that, the Rams would like to arrange a home-and-home series with at least two teams and, as much as is possible financially, set up one or two buy games for the home schedule.

Normally much of the schedule is completed by March. This time around, it is wide open.

Hoop hotbed

The people in Omaha are not looking ahead toward next season. Last night’s visit by URI for the NIT game against Creighton began what one newspaper columnist here called the biggest week ever for college basketball in the city.

The URI-Creighton game was a bonus.

The Qwest Center also will host eight teams for first- and second-round games in the NCAA Tournament Thursday and Saturday. Omaha officials are thrilled with the teams that will be here. They include Kansas and Kansas State, which are both about a three-hour drive from Omaha.

The two teams from Kansas are creating for a huge demand for tickets, a situation that will benefit many Creighton fans. Creighton is the host team for the tournament. As host, it gave its season-ticket holders a chance to purchase tickets. And the Bluejays fans gobbled up many of the tickets not set aside for the participating schools.

It is expected that anyone looking to sell tickets to the Kansas and Kansas State fans, in particular, could come away with a nice profit.

Familiar faces

Omaha also turned out to be the place for many people connected with URI basketball this week.

Not only did URI play its first game ever at Creighton, but two others with Rhody connections will be at the Qwest Center for the NCAA Tournament games tomorrow.

Forward J.R. Moore, who spent three years at URI before transferring to Portland State — Moore is from Portland, Ore., and wanted to go back home to be nearer his mother, who has been battling serious illness — will join his 16th-seeded Vikings when they go against top-seeded Kansas in the first round. Moore is a back-up forward for the Vikings.

Also, Jim Christian, the URI grad who has had outstanding success as Kent State coach, will take his ninth-seeded team into a first-round game against eighth-seeded UNLV.

pkenyon@projo.com