New PC hoop coach Keno Davis shouts instructions to his players in Saturday’s season-opener against Northeastern.

The Providence Journal / Ruben W. Perez

Monday-morning quarterbacking, while thinking that if this weekend was any indication, it’s going to be a wild, wacky, wonderful year in local college basketball…

How can it be that URI trailed Brown most of the game Friday night in their season-opener at the Ryan Center before pulling out a victory, and then, as 24-point underdogs yesterday afternoon against fifth-ranked Duke in the raucous craziness of Cameron Indoor Stadium, led virtually all the way until fading in the final minute?

The Rams deserved to lose to Brown. But they deserved to beat the Blue Devils, who lose at home to non-ranked teams about as often as a Republican is elected to the Rhode Island legislature.

What a performance by Jimmy Baron, who, before missing a desperation shot at the buzzer, sank eight of nine shots from 3-point range — some from what should qualify as 4-point range, and most of them were with a defender’s hand in his face — on his way to scoring 21 second-half points. Spectacular. Just spectacular.

Watching the Rams and Blue Devils, I had a flashback to 1978, when I was covering the ACC for a paper in Richmond, Va., and saw a URI team led by Sly Williams and Jimmy Wright lose a heartbreaker to Duke, 63-62, in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in Charlotte, N.C. That Duke team, which featured Jim Spanarkel, Gene Banks and Mike Gminski, went on to win the East Regional, which was played in Providence, and reached the championship game in St. Louis before losing to Kentucky.

•Not exactly a dazzling debut for new PC hoops coach Keno Davis, losing to Northeastern at home — especially when compared with that of new Brown coach Jesse Agel, whose Bears, despite losing leading scorers Mark McAndrew and Damon Huffman, nearly upset Rhody.

•If people cared about PC hockey the way they do about PC basketball, coach Tim Army would be feeling some serious heat.

After losing twice to Maine in Schneider Arena over the weekend, the Friars’ icers are 0-6-1 in Hockey East in what is Army’s fourth season since taking over from Paul Pooley.

Granted, Army did lose his top goalie to injury, but Tim Welsh wasn’t cut any slack last year when he was without injured point guard Sharaud Curry and, if Davis were to start his fourth season in the Big East 0-6, what do you think the fan reaction would be?

Army isn’t in any trouble, though, because AD Bob Driscoll, clearly in an overly generous mood, extended the coach’s contract over the summer. It’s worth noting that Army was originally hired by Driscoll, while Welsh was not.

•Fans love to pore over the NFL schedule when it’s announced in the spring and project what their favorite team’s record will be in the fall. It’s a harmless exercise, and if it makes you feel you good, then by all means do it. Just remember it is a total, complete, utter waste of time.

Did anybody out there other than certified Miami maniacs pencil in even one win for the Dolphins (1-15 in 2007) over the Patriots (16-0 in 2007) in 2008?

But Miami, 6-4 after rallying yesterday to beat the Raiders, is in position to post its first sweep of the Pats since 2000. The Dolphins routed the Patriots in Foxboro in September, 38-13, and have beaten them in Miami twice in the last four years, and in four of their last eight games, overall.

•Memo to my colleague in columns, Bunky Reynolds: Your lead item Saturday about Pats QB Matt Cassel said, “They could ‘franchise’ him, but that is potentially expensive, too.”

“Potentially” expensive?

No, it would be really, truly, honest-to-goodness expensive. To do that, the Patriots would have to pay Cassel a salary equivalent to an average of the five highest-paid players at his position. That’s why the Pats would never do it.

Unless, of course, Tom Brady’s surgically repaired knee hasn’t healed come February.

•Brown’s football Bears (5-1 in league play after trouncing Dartmouth in Hanover) can win the Ivy title outright if they beat Columbia (2-4) this Saturday at Brown Stadium and Yale (4-2) beats Harvard (5-1) in “The Game,” as it has long been known, at Harvard Stadium. Even if the Crimson beat the Bulldogs, Brown will still share the title with a win over the Lions.

It would be the third Ivy crown in 10 years for Bears coach Phil Estes — a significant achievement, especially at Brown. That said, you have to wonder about the strength of the Ivies, considering that Brown lost to Rhode Island, 37-13, and the Rams are 0-7 in the Colonial Athletic Association.

•Speaking of Bunky, he noted recently that La Salle Academy grad Liam Coen, now a senior at UMass, may be the best quarterback to come out of Rhode Island in the last 50 years. That very well may be the case. But if it is, what does it say about high school football in the state that the best QB in the last half-century isn’t playing for a Division I team?

jdonalds@projo.com