CBS Sports Projects URI as a #5 Seed in NCAA Tournament

On Sunday, CBS announced on the special “NCAA March Madness Bracket Preview” show that the University of Rhode Island is predicted to be #5 seed and would play a #12 seed Loyola (Chicago) in the Midwest Region. 

Clark Kellogg, CBS analyst, says Rhode Island could be as high a #4 seed. 

The Rams are on a 15-game winning streak and are undefeated in the Atlantic 10. 

URI is ranked 5 in the RPI -- ranking only behind Virginia (#1), Xavier #2, Villanova #3, and Clemson #4.  Providence has dropped to 44th ranked.  Brown is ranked 254 and Bryant 338 in the RPI. 

Villanova, Purdue, Xavier, and Virginia are the predicted picks for #1 seeds for the tournament. 

Related Slideshow: The Best Athlete From Every RI Community - 2016

North Providence

Ernie DiGregorio

The former North Providence High School and Providence College star was drafted 3rd overall by the Buffalo Braves in the 1973 NBA Draft and played 5 seasons in the league before suffering a knee injury. 

DiGregorio played for the Braves, the LA Lakers and the Boston Celtics and averaged 9.6 points per game and 5.1 assists per game. 

He still holds the NBA rookie record for assists in a single game with 25. 

At Providence College, he helped lead the 1973 team to th NCAA Final Four where the Friars lost to Memphis State. 

He was named East Regional MVP and is the only Friar ever to be namd to the NCAA Final Four All-Tournament team. 

DiGregorio still leads the program in assists and remains one of the top scorers in PC history. 

In high school, he was part of the 1968 North Providence High School Class B championship team. 

Providence

Marvin Barnes was drafted 2nd overall in the 1974 draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. 

However, he was also drafted 2nd overall by the Spirits of St. Louis in the 1974 ABA Draft which is what he opted for. 

Barnes did end up playing in the NBA from 1976-1980 where he averaged 9.2 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per game.  Barnes played for the Pistons, the Buffalo Braves, Boston Celtics and San Diego Clippers in the NBA. 

At Providence College, Barnes along with Kevin Stacom and Ernie DiGregorio led the Friars to the NCAA Final Four in 1973. 

Warwick

Sara DeCosta

Born in Warwick, DeCosta won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics and a silver at the 2002 Winter Games.  A graduate of Toll Gate High School and Providence College, DeCosta posted impressive statistics in the ’98 Olympics recording a 1.59 goals against average and a .875 save percentage as goaltender. 

Decosta was named the USA Hockey Women’s Player of the Year in 2000 and 2002.  In 2002, she was named a Sports Ethics Fellow by the Institute for International Sport.  DeCosta currently lives in Warwick with her husband and three children. 

Cranston

He won the IBF World Lightweight Championship.  His overall record was 50 and 10, and he fought in one of the golden ages of boxing.  He fought Roberto Duran, Roy Jones, Jr., and Joe Frazier, Jr..

Far from perfect, he has been arrested a number of times on a range of charges.  His colorful life story is the subject of a feature movie, "Bleed for This," developed by Executive Producer Martin Scorcese. 

Bristol

Billy Andrade

Billy Andrade and Brad Faxon will once again be co-hosting the tournament.  Together, the two have helped raise over $19 million for local charities in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts since the tournament started in 1999. 

Andrade has four career wins on the PGA Tour and three career wins on the Champions Tour. 

In 2016, Andrade has a second place finish (lost in a playoff), four top 10 finishes and five top 25 finishes. 

Central Falls

Bobby Doyle is a 7-time Ocean State Marathon Champion while finishing the 1979 Boston Marathon in 2:14:04, good enough for 7th place before finishing 5th in 1985. 

Doyle represented the United States as part of the 1979 Pan American Games in Puerto Rico and competed in the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Marathon trials. 

Prior to that, he attended the University of Texas at El Paso on a scholarship and earned All-American honors as a sophomore, helping the program win the 1969 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championship. 

Charlestown

Ellison “Tarzan” Brown

Brown, known as “Deerfoot” among his native Narragansett tribe, was a popular and highly-accomplished distance runner during the 1930’s and 1940’s. 

Brown competed in the marathon in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and would have competed in the 1940 Olympics in Helsinki were it not canceled due to World War II.  But his greatest exploits were during the Boston Marathon.  In the 1936 marathon, Brown took off so fast that the press chose instead to follow the number two runner, John Kelley.  Eventually the two ended up neck-in-neck, but Brown “broke Kelley’s heart” to take the final lead on the last hill in Newton, inspiring reporter Jerry Nason to coin the term “heartbreak hill.” 

Brown was raised in poverty on a Narragansett reservation in Charlestown.  He worked as a stonemason and shell fisherman until he was run over and killed by a van in 1975.  There is a road race named after him in Mystic, Connecticut. 

Pawtucket

Janet Moreau

Born in Pawtucket, Moreau competed for the U.S. team in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, where she won the gold medal in the 4x100-meter relay with a world record team time of 45.9 seconds.  She was also a national champion in the 50-yard dash, the 220-yard dash, the standing long jump, and the 4x100-meter relay. 

A consummate athlete, Moreau even excelled at swimming.  In 1948 she became the junior national swimming champion in the 100-yard freestyle.  She was inducted into the Boston University Hall of Fame in 1978. 

Johnston

Joe Mazzulla

The Johnston native was a prep star at Bishop Hendricken High School, leading the Hawks to three straight state championships from 2004-06. 

He averaged 24 points per game in his career at Hendricken, and put up 12 rebounds, five assists, and three steals as a senior to help lead the Hawks to a perfect 21-0 record.  Mazzulla dropped 39 points in the state championship game that season, and was named the Rhode Island Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior and senior. 

He then went on to play for coach Bob Huggins at West Virginia University, helping lead the Mountaineers to the 2010 Final Four.  Mazzulla had a memorable career in Morgantown, first as a key reserve off the bench and then as the starting point guard as a junior and senior. 

As a senior, he averaged 7.7 points, 4.2 assists, and 3.8 rebounds as a senior.  If not for a shoulder injury that derailed him for the entire 2008-09 season and much of 2009-10, Mazzulla might have had a much more storied career at West Virginia. 

He played the entire 2009-10 season despite being unable to shoot free throws right-handed, and having, as his coach Bob Huggins put it to the New York Times, "no chance to shoot a jump shot." 

East Providence

Davey Lopes

Lopes played in the MLB for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros and is currently the first base coach for the Washington Nationals. 

Lopes was drafted in the second round by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1968 MLB January Draft after playing high school ball at LaSalle Academy and then going to Iowa Wesleyan College and Washburn University. 

In his MLB career, Lopes hit 155 home runs, had 614 RBIs and stole 557 bases. 

Portsmouth

Billy Gonsalves

Gonsalves is described as being the "Babe Ruth of American Soccer" as he spent more than 25 years playing in different American professional leagues and was a member of the 1930 and 1934 USA teams that competed in the FIFA World Cup. 

He joined the Fall River Marksmen in 1929 and played 75 games for them, scoring 49 goals in the process while also leading the team in assists. 

Gonsalves was part of the inaugural induction class into the United States National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1950. 

Glocester

Mckenzie Meehan

McKenzie Meehan is in her redshirt senior season at Boston College where she is the women’s soccer program’s all-time leading scorer with 46 career goals and is just one goal short of tying the program record for game winning goals. 

In 2013, she was selected as a member of the U-20 National Team in the CONCACAF Championship and was a Co-Golden Boot winner, honoring the top scorer of the tournament with 6 goals. 

Prior to that, she played at LaSalle Academy and led the team to 4 straight State Championships and never lost a game in her high school career, 76-0-7.  As a senior at LaSalle, she scored 80 goals which led the entire country. 

Foster

Girard is currently the Director of Basketball Operations for the University of Rhode Island women's basketball team, where she has been on the staff since 2014, starting as a video coordinator. 

Prior to her coaching career, Girard played college basketball at Rhode Island College where she led the team to the semifinals of the conference tournament in her first season after transferring from CCRI. 

The following season, Girard led RIC to their first Little East Conference championship and a second round appearance in the D III NCAA Tournament. 

Smithfield

Matt Kuhar

Matt Kuhar is coming off an injury in his sophomore year at Bryant University but in his freshman season he put together one of the best seasons in program history.  Kuhar finished the season 18-9 overall and a 9-6 mark in the number one spot. 

He won three matches at ITA Regionals and was named the Northeast Conference Rookie of the Year. 

Prior to that, Kuhar, attended Smithfield High School where he posted a career 62-1 record during his first three seasons and won two Rhode Island Singles Championships, and helping Smithfield win the 2013 Division I title. 

Scituate

Kaitlyn Birrell

Kaitlyn Birrell led Scituate girls soccer to a State Championship win over LaSalle where she scored the game winner on penalty kicks.  She also played basketball and led the Spartans to success on the court. 

After graduating high school in 2009, Birrell went on to play soccer and basketball at Salve Regina. 

In 2012, Birrell scored 21 goals for Salve Regina and earned the Commonwealth Coast Conference Offensive Player of the Year for the second straight season.  She holds the programs top four records for goals in a season. 

On the basketball court, she held Salve Regina win their second straight conference championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance.  She was named the conference's Defensive Player of the Year.  She owns the school's all-time record for steals and assists. 

Richmond

Hank Soar

After spending time as an running back in the NFL, Soar went on to have a long career as an umpire in Major League Baseball. 

In baseball, Soar was the first base umpire when Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitched a perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series and then was at first base again in 1975 when Nolan Ryan of the California Angels threw his 4th no-hitter. 

He also officiated four all-star games in his career, being behind the plate for the 1963 game. 

Soar was born in Richmond before moving to Pawtucket where he went to Tolman High School and then Providence College.